LJ won’t let me add and-I-have-no-photos-’cause-they-are-all-too-dark… I should have listened to <bearshunting> (who spends way too little time on LJ these days…) and left on the big blinding light. So I will offer a tip I learned over my trip home.
I packed up six pair of trousers that needed the hems let out. I may never land a pair with the cuffs still in tact, but that extra fabric also a proper length on my thirty-five inch inseam. I brought them along because my little iron rots in its steam capacity and wouldn’t take out the crease at the original hemline.
My mom is a (mostly retired) drapery-maker. She has a sweet set-up in the basement: a line of various machines run the length of a massive counter top alongside the entire basement of their house; industrial straight-stitcher, bonuser, tacker, pleater, surger and – important for this post – blind-stitcher.
But first, the tip of the post: removing pressed-creases. I remember growing up, when my mom would make all her own clothes to stay on budget. She was a *gasp* stretch-pant mother. I seem to have survived well enough for the trauma of it all. I remember her using something to press in the seam on the double-knit slacks… so I asked her.
White vinegar and water. Yes, Ladies, not only will it keep you fresh down there but it sets in your creases! Fabulous! As it turns out, it also removes them. I used a 3:1 water/vinegar mix and dabbed it on with an old washcloth.
Afterward, my mom was kind enough to hem them at a proper length. Back to the blind-stitcher. I cannot use the blind-stitcher. I have yet to use it correctly. Evar!
*sigh*
Good thing I line jackets with fur and lace and such. I am keeping the card, Betches!
The blind-stitcher: it has two speeds – go and not-go. Go best translates as hyper-speed. I have yet to manage to keep the fabric feeding in at the proper spot. Plus, if the machine is stopped at the wrong point, the thread unravels as it is removed from the presser-foot.
This is why I have a mother…
Yay! Mom.
gryphon's hole 