This may be a dumb question but . . . .
01-25-2012, 09:04 AM
#15
Super Member
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Cadillac, MI
Posts: 6,487
A leader is a small scrap of fabric. You sew a seam across it, line up your real seam, sew it and then sew another scrap - the ender. Why bother? It saves thread and it keeps the machine from eating small corners like triangles - some zigzag machines like to eat bigger corners, too. I rarely use them because I can strip piece almost anything. I have my next seam ready before I stop sewing my last one, so my good fabric is my 'leader and ender'.
My 13 year old GD made her first quilt using leaders and enders. She reused the same few scraps over and over . She found it helped her start and finish each seam straighter and she had one less thing to do because she didn't have to remember to hold the threads as she started sewing. I like not having any extra threads to trim when I'm done when I use them.
Bonnie Hunter's idea is great, but it's not the only way to use leaders and enders.
My 13 year old GD made her first quilt using leaders and enders. She reused the same few scraps over and over . She found it helped her start and finish each seam straighter and she had one less thing to do because she didn't have to remember to hold the threads as she started sewing. I like not having any extra threads to trim when I'm done when I use them.
Bonnie Hunter's idea is great, but it's not the only way to use leaders and enders.
01-25-2012, 09:09 AM
#16
Super Member
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Southwest Kansas
Posts: 4,820
Before machines came along that had needle up/down when you stopped sewing the take up lever just stopped where ever. Then when you started sewing again if the take up lever was at the bottom it would unthread your machine. So people used a "thread bunny." A "thread bunny" was just a scrap of fabric that you sewed over at the beginning of a seam and put back on at the end of the seam to keep the machine from coming unthreaded and to keep from getting thread snarls at the beginning of a seam. Thread bunnies evolved into leader enders. Instead of just using the same scrap over and over you use a new pair of cut fabrics at the beginning and end of your stitching.
01-25-2012, 11:05 AM
#18
Super Member
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Chapel Hill
Posts: 1,086
I'm making a pieced border strip for one of my quilts. So I stacked the 2.5 inch squares next to my sewing machine and used them as leaders/enders while strip piecing another project. That border came together must faster than it might have otherwise.
Cheers, K
Cheers, K
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