Hi. I am making a fox scarf (think 'cute imitation stole'   https://www.prettyprudent.com/diy-fox-scarf-with-free-pattern/  ) for my wife as a Christmas pressie and got her to choose the material. Cream/white for the underside and red/brown for the other. Unfortunately, my wife purchased some cream polyester fleece-type material that has no stretch at all and some weird brown stretchy fleece material that is VERY elastic in one way but less so in the other. Can I stich these two materials together to make one garment or will they 'fight' each other? It isn't a problem if I can't use it as it was a ready made blanket/throw so we can just use it on a bed and I'll purchase some more polyester fleece material but in brown/rust/terracotta.

Thanks/Diolch   

Hi all. As a novice machinist, (curtains, bags, towels, mobile phone holders etc. thus-far but seem to be ok at it) is it feasible for me to try and shorten shirt sleeves on a conventional collared shirt for a male? When attending a festival, I came across a patterned shirt that fitted my name, not my body. Being a somewhat rotund sort-of-a-chap, I had to buy one with the arms were too long to get one that was comfortable around my torso. The sleeves are too long and the wrists are also too large. I seem to remember that male shirts are quite complex garments and I don't want to take it apart and not be able to reassemble it.

Thanks muchly/Diolch Mawr

 

Thanks everyone.

Are you using the word 'vest' in the American way meaning a waistcoat or gilet (sleeveless jacket) or do you want a very warm undergarment as in the English use of the word?

A sort of gillet is what it looks like but with a very high zip up neck. I found it odd to call it a vest. A vest is something your mother used to check you were wearing under your shirt in the winter. As least it was when I was a lad.

If you tell us which pattern it is we could perhaps advise you more.
Otherwise compare the neck edge of both collar pattern pieces, if they match just use the one you want.

This is the one I thought I may make https://simplicity.com/new-look/n6713 and great advice re the neck edge.

Try the pattern pieces against one another.  If the neckline are the same, then you can use the other collar.  If not, then redraw the vest pieces with the jacket neckline.

. Again, great advice.

I just need to buy a zigzag attachment for my Jones CB model D (it has no machine zigzag option as it is too old.) and we'll be off! Thanks again everyone; much appreciated.

The only daft question is the one that remains unasked 

  Very true and an approach I adopt with others. I need to adopt the same attitude towards myself perhaps.

Hwyl!

Thanks everyone. Great suggestions so I'll get the machine out and have another go and follow them. It'll not be anything much I don't think and  yes, I did mean the thread was bunching/bird nesting. Do I need to use spool caps with a vertical spool, or are they more for when the spools are paying out horizontally?

@dafyddcoch   It sounds as though you need a hump-jumper,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U91iJMKJ23g

You can imprivise with a bit of cardboard.

Brilliant thank you and yes, I obviously need a hump-jumper. Mind you, my wife's ears pricked up when I was looking at the video and the woman said in that lovely accent "You need a hump-jumper"; thankfully despite our senior ish years, we're a 'modern couple' lol.

HI everybody, I'm new to machine sewing but love machinery generally and am loving making curtains etc from up-cycled fabric and have made a vest and repaired a few of our towels using an late fifties/early sixties Jones CBD straight-stitch machine. However, I'm trying to finish making a pair of double thick curtains made from an old fancy queen-size duvet cover and when stitching the tape to the top hem, so 4 layers of thin cotton plus the tape, the bottom stitch is often missed with one big bottom stitch and when starting, the bottom cotton is very tangled Also, the material feeds in very jerkily at times. I've not adjusted anything but after looking at the hook timing in the bottom thread it is a smidgen out but equally, it has been working fine and still does so on thinner material. After looking online, I think it may be that I need to adjust the presser foot pressure which is currently set on 3.5, down to 1.00 for the thicker bits and then I need to reset it for the areas with less thickness. Am I wide of the mark? Mad? Deluded?  A danger to sewing machines?

Thanks for reading

I've just purchased a Rubylock R-L5 Type 4 strand overloclock attachment for my Jones CBD electric powered machine that I've fitted to an old Singer treadle table/bench. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264739439789  I'm a novice machine user (towels, curtains and repairs thus-far) and about to start making a kimono jacket for my wife), so it'll be likely ages before I am skilled enough to use it but I got it because it does effectively turn a straight stitch machine into an overlocker. It manages this by incorporating the stitch and cotton of the sewing machine with the thread and action of the overlocker.

Does anyone have any experience of such a contraption? Are they any good? I'll only want to use it now and again so the faff of setting it up isn't a problem and whilst I'm guessing it isn't made to be used all day every day, I'm hoping it'll be invaluable when I do need an overlocker.   

Also, how difficult is it to use an overlocker compared to a machine. I'm usually good with machinery generally, be it agricultural, building, engineering etc. and am happy to play for a while with scrap and learn if possible. Or is it as I suspect and I should store it for now and become more proficient with my machine first?

Thanks/diolch
 cadwch yn ddiogel/stay safe