WAHT? Pinning wrong for three years???
 

Crocee just posted this link for how to pin in another thread on the Board, and I checked it out.

How to pin fabric
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK_79KdJVIg


This instructor pins along the seam of the fabric, at right angles to the seam, just like I do, but she does it backwards to my way:

she lays out the fabric with the seam facing right and the bulk of the fabric on the left (fine!)
but then she sticks the pins in from the right, not the left.

I pin with long thin glass-head pins from the left, and I do so that the 'meat' of the fabric is securely pinned as flatly as possible and the pinpoint comes up about 1/8 " from the edge of the fabric. Then I carefully pull each pin back to the left as I sew; the fabric generally stays pinned and there is less disruption to fabric placement than pulling out the pin entirely.

Is this my left-handedness showing, or do I have a (pin :p) point?

Well, please weigh in with your thoughts. I appreciate and learn every time I read these posts!

Thanks!

I didn't watch the whole video, but from the first picture, I'd say that I do it her way. Probably because to remove the pins, I use my right hand and it's easier for me to grip the pin heads that way. Do what works for YOU! :-)

I don't think it really matters as long as the quality of your work is not affected. People who are left handed do things differently from us right handed people so I wouldn't worry. If it works for you, just stick with your method!!

I don't. I get better accuracy pinning parrallel to the side. Also less chance of sewing over the pin. Everyone has the best way for them. Don't think you are wrong just because someone shows you a different way. It might work for u and it might not.

I pin like the video - maybe you pin the other way because of being a leftie. I don't think it matters on straight seams, but having been a garment maker before becoming a quilter I know that on curved seams, like setting in a sleeve, pinning the other way would make it hard to see the pin in the bulk of the rounded shoulder seam and make it hard to find pins to remove them.

I pin the same as you. I'm a lefty too and it just makes sense to have the pin positioned so that I can remove it before it gets to the needle.

I agree with ManiacQuilter2. As long as you are satisfied with your results, you are good to go. You do need to use fine pins so you don't move the fabric when you pin. Also, from garment construction, we were taught to pin on the table like the video. Don't hold the piece up in your hand. I usually pin with the head to the left, even though I'm right handed. I also occasionally use the Sally Collins method and pin parallel to the seam, like Holice does. I do this with a really complicated block.

That's how I do my pinning, so I think it has to do with you being left handed, I'm right handed and everyone I know, that's right handed, does it the same.

I pin with the head of the pin to my right since I'm right handed and it's easier to remove them as I sew along.

I pin like you do. I'm right handed but still do it from the left.

Hey Suesew, I do it just like you. I do't pull my pins out all the way either until I am done sewing the seam. I place the pin so I can pull it just out of the way of the needle, wow! I find there is less shifting of the two fabrics. We left handers think alike!:D
peace

I pin how I learned in Home Ec class. The head of the pin on the right. I pin at an angle though not straight in.

I pin like you do, and I'm right handed. And I sometimes sew right over the pins:eek:

I pin like you do but I'm a righty. My left hand is certainly coordinated enough to remove pins as I go along, often just sliding them back a bit and not removing them entirely, and that way the right hand doesn't have to move.

I'm a rightie and I pin like a leftie, too. I don't even know why I do it that way. I can't remember being "taught" how to pin.

i do it the way you do. in really fussy places, though, i leave the pin all the way in and very carefully sew over the pin.

I didn't mean to infer anyone was doing anything the wrong way. Heck, I pin however the fabric dictates or my whim and mood at the time. Those videos were only examples of what could be found based on that members question/request. Absolutely anything can be found on youtube if you use specific search terms.

I pin like you do and I'm a rightie. I don't pull my pins out until I'm finished but I pull them back enough to keep me from sewing over them.

I'm left-handed and I pin like in that video...probably because that was how I was taught in home ec in junior high school :)

I pin 180 degrees from the video. That is my pins go from the body of the project toward the sewing line. I stop the point of the pin just before the sewing line so I don't worry about sewing over pins. Works for me. Of course I have a Pfaff with the dual feed.

If I were left-handed, I'd probably do it like you do. I'm right handed, however, and it makes perfect sense for me to put the ball of the pin to the right. I take them out as I come to them, and it makes them much easier to grab this way.

I agree, it is a left handed right handed thing. I'm a lefty and my pins pull from the left.

It's not lefthandedness! It's just what your used to/conditioned to. I am left handed and I do it as she does in the video.

My left hand has the bulk of the fabric and as I come up on the pins its just a flick of the right hand to pull the pin out, easy peasy.

I didn't watch the whole video so she may have mentioned this but its also how I pin to ensure my points don't get cut off. I pin through both fabrics at the spot i want my needle to land, manipulating both fabrics as needed, then when my pin is through both I tip it to the right and push the point part towards the bulk of the fabric and secure. As long as I land where the pin first goes in the fabric my points stay pointy.

I didn't mean to say Crocee had a specific slant on how to pin - just that she bothered to find a u-tube video on it, wanted to give her credit. :)

If Sally Collins pins parallel I guess I will have to go back to her book and pay more attention as everything else she taught me was beneficial to me in getting precision. I thought it would uneven the fabric top to bottom if I pinned that parallel way. It is good enough for basting a garment so you don't stick yourself, but I never used the method for other purposes.

Glad to know I am not alone out there on the left!!! Thanks!

Well I have just discovered that I am pinning wrong!!!!!!

I pin with my pins running up the fabric not across - I can grab the pin heads from the bottom as my needle comes to them. Nothing whatsoever to do with left/right hand.

I often hold my pieces of fabric so it is easier to pin with the pin-head toward the fabric (opposite the video). I have been pinning like that forever. I pull my pin out with my left hand (although I am right-handed). The key is to have the pin PERPENDICULAR to the seam - I don't think it matters where the pin-head is. Now quite a few quilters pin parallel to the seam with great results. So IMO - whatever works best for the individual is the way to go.

I stick my pins from the right to the left. My sis in law pins fromt the left to the right. I don't like sewing hers, she doens't like sewing mine.

Now, however you do yours it's right as long as you can sew comfortably.

I learned to sew my own clothes by the time I was in the 5th grade, which was a pretty long time ago. All the patterns back then showed the pins going from left to right, with the head on the right. Pinning across the seam had several advantages. If you had to ease fabric in, you could keep the fabric you were sewing into from crumpling up. If you had to match darts or seams, you could pin through the points where they had to match and everything was good enough to go through the fashion police... My Mother. On some long straight seams, if the material was moving or showed the pin holes, I would put the pin in straight with the seam and take it out as I reached it. I used to sew over the pins that were pinned across the seam, but no more. These complicated computerized machines don't like it. They'll jump time in a single hit of the pin. My mother taught me to guide the material with my left hand, since that was where the bulk of the fabric was. I should mention that I am right handed, but even if I was a lefty, I would always put my pins in from right to left, so that my left hand could stabilize the fabric as it is being pulled through the presser foot.

If what you are doing works for you, then it's the right way to do it. For me, it's right to left.

ps....The harps on the older sewing machines were pretty small. You had to keep the bulk of the fabric to the left. There weren't any seam guidelines on the left, only on the right on my sewing machine. I still have a lot of trouble when I have to turn a seam, think Y seam, and sew with the seam width to the left. Sometimes, it's very hard to teach an old dog new tricks.

Uh Oh...I must be pin challenged...I do both...sometimes at the same time on the same seam. :eek: I tend to pull my pins from whichever side the head is on as I sew the seam. I try never to sew over a pin, although I have done it a time or two, usually to the demise of my machine needle.

Remember, there are no Quilt Police...pin however is most comfortable for you.

Anita

I do it your way, but I am left handed also.

I'm a leftie too but I've always done it like in the video, just have, didn't know there was a right or a wrong way LOL

I am a "righty" but pin like a "lefty". I actually do many sewing chores as a "lefty". I do sometimes change it up and pin from the other direction, mostly because the pinning situation dictates so. Of course being a rebel, I also sew over pins. Sorry, sewing police can find someone else to arrest.

I pin same as shown in the video....when I pin....

i am a lefty also and I do it your way.

I'm right handed but I pin with the pin head to the left. I seem to have too much going on to the right of the needle to pull pins - usually either a foot with a guide on it ,or a seam guide attached to the bed that makes pulling pins awkward.

Didn't know there was a RIGHT or WRONG way to pin! ! ! I believe whatever works best for each quilter. Long as your seam edges start even, finish even , are stitched straight and are stitched accurately, I would think that should be the RIGHT way.

What does it matter how we pin if the results are good? it's another of the quilt police rules!

LOL!!!! At first I thought you were talking about pinning on 'Pinterest'.

I am a leftie too and I pin from the left also. Never tried to pin from the right.