Hand sewing question

[stellar_muddle]

For those of you who hand sew (there are probably a couple of you reading...), a few questions.*

1. Are you left or right handed and/or don't care?

2. Running stitch - left to right or right to left?

3. Favourite stitch?

3A. Most often used stitches?

4. Favourite seam finishes?

5. Comfortable/average stitch length**?

6. Decorative stitches?

7. Secrets you are willing to pass on/tips you wish someone had told you years ago?

8. Favourite references/recommended reading? and/or horror tales..

9. Prefered thread/needle/fabric combinations?

10. Is it something done for pleasure? Do you find it relaxing or is it a chore to be gotten past as fast as possible?

* Getting my A into G and teaching a class on hand sewing at the local Collegium in August. Be good to know what are things I have just picked up and what is common practice, shortcuts etc. I may also road test references/ideas here or in later posts.

** Let's assume a nice medium weight linen. Of course it is going to vary depending on the fabric used. Ditto on your answer to question 4. Want to track down a bunch of references to get an idea for stitch lengths in different times and places, but will be limited by what is extant and what it is made of, since that will really affect things - the joys of small number statistics in certain areas.


1. Right handed.
2. Right to left. Needle generally goes right to left.
3. Whip stitch on hems where only picking up a thread of the fabric on the outside. Just from an invisibility perspective.
3A. Back stitch. Tend to do most seams that way, though if the fabric is light, I will mainly running stitch with the occasional back stitch to anchor.
4. Currently run and fell, with the finishing stitch basically hemming/whip stitched so it is as invisible on the outside as possible.
5. 2 1/2 to 3 mm, though it varies.
6. Mammen cushion herringbone. The threads going across the join seem to hold things together better than standard herringbone.
7. Good lighting!
8. Sewing Stitches Used in Medieval Clothing (more a catalogue)
Archaeological Sewing by Heather Rose Jones.
Museum of London "Textiles and Clothing"
Woven into the Earth
Patterns of Fashion 1
9. Wool/wool, linen/linen, silk/silk, though I have used silk for sewing wool as the colours matched and it was what I had. Cotton if the others aren't available. Polycotton last resort.
10. Fun and relaxes me - you don't want to see me when pissed off at a sewing machine and they don't travel on buses well.

Comments

[auntyyolly.livejournal.com]

9. I like to use a thread that will give way before the fabric in seams. I can always resew it if it rips out, and will be wearing enough layers underneath there's no chance of embarrassment. For this reason I tend to use Gutterman silk in seams because it comes in a wide range of colours and is readily available. I don't mind their silk at all, but I dislike most of their other threads, especially the linen, which I find chunky and unyielding.

For fine work on linen I like a good linen thread. The best one I have found is Londonderry Linen 100/3 which comes in both a lovely soft white and an ivory. I believe it also comes in black but haven't found it here yet. I buy mine from the Crewel Gobelin in Killara (they are my fave thread shop and do mail order), although I just googled it and it turns out that you can get it cheaper on the internet and there are several other natural shades as well as black.

I have a love-hate relationship with cotton thread. I find it hard to find cotton that lasts as well as a waxed linen and most of the commercially available thread is spun from very short-staple cotton so it breaks and frays and generally pisses me off. I've just started using YLI's Select long-staple cotton and so far I'm loving it. It's described as a 40/2, tex 27, but is really very slightly finer than the standard sewing machine cotton. Vastly smoother and apparently stronger, though. I think this will become my standard machining thread at least. Only in limited colours at my local quilting store (Logans in Leichhardt), but apparently full range on internet.

Silk I just love. The Gutterman is fine for scutwork, and by far the nicest of their threads (I'm told it's reeled, though it seems a little too ready to snap for my liking).

I love Au ver a Soi's Soie Gobelins silk thread, though again, I can only get it in white despite there allegedly being hundreds of colours available in Europe. It is v soft but v strong and has a high sheen that makes it very pleasant on the garment. A little thick, about the same weight as Gutterman. (For embroidery, the same company's Soie d'Alger is far and away my favourite and has the same good qualities, just in a thicker yarn with five strands per 5m. The 60/2 silks from London's Hanweaver's Studio are also very good, but thicker again, so best for covering ground or else for weaving narrow wares.)

My current all-time favourite thread is YLI's silk thread #100, which is filament silk and about 1/4 - 1/3 the width and weight of most silk threads while just as strong and lustrous. I love it to bits and is the only thing I will use now on partlets and so on, where the stitching is fine and apparent. I find it hard to come by over here (Logans and the Crewel Gobelin have both had some in), but it's all over the net. In addition to the standard range (and the black and the white are both excellent), they have the perfect gold for goldwork, colour 078, though it's best in the #50 thread.

I like John James needles the best because they seem to last longest and they have the best beading needles I've ever used (the no.s 20 and 22 can still be threaded without going blind). I like using a short no 10 quilters needle or a smallish fine sharp or embroidery needle on most things. I've sewn with bone and bronze needles and am now happy to leave all that to the early period folk.

10. I love handsewing far more than machine sewing. I feel that I have better control and I also enjoy the physical act of constructing the garment. Additionally I feel that I have much more say in the way the garment will work on the body through the directions I choose to stitch in and the way I construct my seams and finish the item. I'm also assured of having something that lasts longer, and where any repairs will be simliar in nature to the original make-up of the garment. Very soothing, except when I'm on deadline and I've had too much on at work, in which case my shoulders go spac. I take it as a sign to not bother answering emails ... Should probably not also write essays in LJ comments ...