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Thank you so much to Alviana, Mamafitz, Lisa Laree, Beth, Lindsay T, Claire, Eliana, Summerset, Debbie, Donna Hodgson, Miss Linda, Sarah, Claire S. and Amelia for talking back to my confession last Friday! I confessed that I have never used pattern weights, and asked what others thought of them.
Wow, few people were lukewarm on this one! The tally was 9 "love thems", 4 "no ways" and only 1 "it depends on the situation". (Lindsay mentioned that her ASG instructors also highly recommend using them.)
It turns out - and I would not be surprised if I was the only person in the world who didn't realize this - if you use pattern weights, you use a rotary cutter, not scissors. Here's my real confession - I had been wondering what kept the weights from shifting around when you tried to cut the fabric near them with scissors... Doh!
So, the interesting thing is that the people who said no to pattern weights, seemed to be (for the most part) saying no more to the rotary cutter than to the weights per se. I can certainly understand this - it's embarrasing the number of fabric strips that I had to re-cut for those pencil rolls because my rotary cutter slipped off the mark...
Perhaps one of the coolest things that came out was how many different alternatives there are to buying the "official" pattern weights. The following objects were mentioned:
- rulers
- kitchen knives
- small objects filled with BBs
- cans of food
- small decorative tiles
- flat washers
- piping flanges
I can just imagine the look of surprise and confusion on my husband's face if I said that I was going to the hardware store to pick up some sewing tools! ;)
Amelia pointed out the cutest pattern weights ever - check out this post on Peacock Chic!
One last tidbit - several people who use the pattern weights mentioned that they still pin grain lines.
Thanks again to everyone who took the time to tell me about their sewing practices! As always, I learned a lot and had fun reading your comments! :)
Photo credit: AH Exports
4 comments:
What? You can't use scissors with pattern weights?? That's news to me. I use scissors and weights with no difficulty. Try it, you'll see what I mean.
LOL you can't? I agree with Lindsay, I use mine with weights too.
If it's a fussy pattern then I pin it, but I bought my Gingher's and I expect to get my money out of them :)
Me too, I haven't got the hang of the rotary cutter, unless I'm using it with a ruler. Scissors work just fine with weights as long as the weights are not right at the edge - I also pin the grainlines, just in case.
You are not the only person in the world who didn't use pattern weights. I haven't used them. I've thought about them, but I'm still unsure. I might give them a try.
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