A Few Tips - Part 1

Any crafter knows that sometimes things don't go right - when you're living in a house with pets and other people you can have mini-disasters as you're trying to work.  This could be anything from someone picking up a box of just cut pattern pieces and spilling the entire thing, mismatching EVERYTHING to the cat taking a NOT midnight rip around the room and bouncing off the sofa which scatters over 600 beads in every direction before you can slam a hand down on top the container. 

 

A Bead Fix -- If, gawd forbid, beads go flying everywhere into the carpet or rolling all over the wood floor, don't panic. There is one very easy way to get them all back without doing an individual pickup on your knees with your fingers. Even if the beads are really tiny seed beads.  Go get your vacuum cleaner. Get a pair of nylons or a nylon knee high or a piece of gauze or anything very lightweight and put it over the end of your vacuum hose. Hold it in place with one hand (or rubber bands, STRONG rubber bands or you'll have another issue to deal with) and just 'vacuum' them up. The beads will be right there on the end of the hose and you can get them all corralled without much time and effort.

 

Fuzzies -- If you're cutting fuzzy material like fake fur, the loose fur on the ends of your pieces can be cleaned off by hand.  However if you're cutting horribly fuzzy material like velvet, textured stretchy material with that wavy fur that's on the market now, or even that ultra soft terry cloth type fuzzy fabric that sheds like there's no tomorrow - well there's an easier way than struggling with the 'fallout' as you stack your pattern pieces.  Don't even attempt to do it indoors. Especially in winter when static electricity can roll the loose stuff up your arms and out of the garbage.  Take the cut pieces outside and shake. SHAKE them hard, ship them against your hand, run them along the side of a chain link fence.  That'll remove nearly all the fuzzies and make handling the pieces a lot easier as you sew them on the machine. Sure it'll let your driveway look like someone murdered a Muppet, but better outside than in.

 

Whiskers -- If you make stuffed toys and want whiskers on them that actually LOOK like whiskers and not sadly drooping thread, the perfect produce for that is fishing line.  Don't get the ultra thin fishing line, it will break when you double knot it. Get the medium size thickness.  A reel of line costs less than $2 at WalMart, it comes in clear, bluish and greenish. Sometimes even grayish.  I use the 8 pound test.  You get a good 700 yards so it'll last you a long time.  It's frugal, and you can be as generous as you want to be with it.  The end fits through the eye of a needle and you sew it through, knot it twice, and rethread the needle to move the end out through the fabric a little further from the first stitch - giving yourself two whiskers for each strand. Where the needle holds it will put a kink in the line so only thread the end, you cut off the kinked part when you're done, leaving beautiful whiskers (I do 4 per side of the head) fanning out nicely.