Pattern Weights

[Efemera]

A friend has just bought me some of these for my birthday...they’re lovely!

https://www.foxgloveandfield.co.uk/product-category/pattern-weight-sets/

[Sewingsue]

Those are lovely - thinks 'that's at least one present sorted' 

[Lilian]

They are lovely I have seen them on TV 

[Acorn]

Very nice!  Mr Acorn bought me these for Christmas - the  pictures are painted by a local artist, painting local scenes.  There are lots of others too.

[mums sewing machine]

Those weights are so pretty x

[Nevis5]

They are so pretty!  Hmm, methinks an order might be winging its way to Father Christmas.....

[MitchOfTheNorth]

Hmmm...considering that Mr. Mitch is handy...I think I might ask him to make a set of pattern weights for me.  I'm thinking large steel washers concealed in a sealed wood casing.  One Christmas, he made an embroidery stand for me.  Since he had cut 2 at once, the other went to my sister#3 for her birthday.

[Ploshkin]

Hmmm.  If I asked Mr P to make me some I would need a crane to lift them and they would inevitably leave oily marks on the fabric.  The fabric wouldn't move though 

[b15erk]

I'm a bit of a skinflint, and I use empty glass moisturiser jars, and empty perfume bottles as my weights.

Those are soooo pretty though, they may find their way on to my Christmas list! 

Jessie

[BrendaP]

I use pins 

I'm pretty sure that if I used weights the pattrn pieces would shift around

[SkoutSews]

What do you use to stop the pieces moving before you pin them?  I use weights (steel washers plus a very old lead weight that was my mother's) to position the pattern pieces on the fabric before pinning to secure them in place.

My weights aren't pretty and decorative like Efemera's 

[Ploshkin]

I always pin, never use weights.   I pin one end of the grain arrow, measure the distance from the edge and pin the other end.  Nothing can move then and its bang on the grain.  I only do that with big pieces.

[Greybird]

@Ploshkin that's exactly how I do it.

[Ohsewsimple]

@Ploshkin and @Greybird that’s how I do it too.  I don’t use a lot of pins.  But once you have the grain sorted it’s easy to pin them rest.   My left hand then keeps the pattern and fabric down while I cut. 

[BrendaP]

I agree, get it on-grain add a couple of pins to hold it, then as many more pins as I think necessary.  That depends on the paper/tissue, the fabric and the shape of the pattern piece.  I usually try to get a pin near to each notch - and I cut the notches outwards.  If you cut inwards you are loosing any leeway to let out if necessary, and if you just snip they can disappear - remember the jackets on the last seried of GBSB that had two left sleeves!  That happened because they couldn't find the notches snips and the fabric was more or less the same on both sides.