A Few Tips - Part 2

Knotting Thread – When I was a kid everyone told me that when you hand sew you knot the thread by wrapping it around the needle and taking a stitch.  Bullshit.  Those always pulled loose. 

 

The best way to knot thread is to tie a knot, take one stitch into the fabric and pull the thread to within ½ inch of the knot coming to the fabric surface. Take your needle tip and slide it BETWEEN the threads in front of the knot and pull the first stitch tight. There is now no way that it will get loose on you and you can continue hand sewing. 
 

Sewing A Wad Of Feathers To Something – Occasionally I need a tuft of feathers for the tail of a bird, or for the fluffs on top a falconry hood (I make soft sculptured falcons), or even just to attach to a cat toy (green feathers work great for carrot tops).  You can sew them in easily without using glue to hold everything together. 

 

Just line up the feathers in your fingers till youhave the amount you need (I use 4 or 5), take a threaded needle and hold one end of the thread to the feather clump and start winding tightly around the base.  I go around 8 or 9 times. Then take two stitches THROUGH the threaded area. The bundle is now ready to sew in.  If you want you can trim the very bottom of the feather clump even so nothing sticks down too far but make sure not to cut the thread there.