Tip of the Week: Develop These Positive Sewing Habits
1. Use a pincushion (or the handy magnetic Zirkle shown here) instead of putting pins in your mouth. The latter is dangerous. Accidentally swallowing a pin or inhaling one into a lung is a sure-fire way to ruin a good day of sewing.
2. Have the right scissors for the task at hand: snips near your machine, good fabric scissors at the cutting table, and paper scissors so that your good scissors don't dull before their time.
3. Practice good posture at the sewing machine and ironing board. Invest in a comfortable, ergonomically correct chair for your sewing station.
4. Clean and oil your machine regularly. Change your machine needle as needed and use the right needle for the job. Have your machine serviced annually.
5. Channel your inner carpenter. Measure twice, cut once.
6. Snip threads as you go.
7. Resist the urge to sew on borders without measuring your quilt and cutting your borders to fit the quilt (rather than just sewing on a long strip and lopping off the excess). More here how to ensure a square quilt top.
8. Read your pattern from beginning to end before launching into a project. You'll save yourself a lot of frustration and headaches if you get into this habit.
9. Set you seams. This is such an easy step to skip when piecing, but setting seams really does give you a better end result.
10. Don't stress. This is supposed to be fun. If a project starts to feel like work, put it away and begin again another day.
