Coverstitching Fun

I’ve tried not to fall into the trap of thinking that I can’t sew without having lots of fancy machines and gadgets. (You can argue amongst yourselves if I’ve succeeded or not.) For decades, seamstresses made beautiful, complex garments using nothing more than straight-stitch machines. Sergers weren’t widely available for home sewists until about the 1970s (and the first ones were pretty basic). Did I need a coverstitch machine? No. I didn’t need a serger, either, for that matter (although now I have three). It’s possible to sew almost everything—including knits—on a sewing machine, preferably one with some stretch stitch options. And fancy machines won’t make you a professional sewist overnight any more than buying a baby grand piano will make you a concert pianist. If you’ve progressed beyond a certain point with your sewing, though, those machines will make your life a whole lot easier. As Caroline and Helen like to say on the Love to Sew podcast, these tools can “level up” your sewing.

[I’ll often put the PBS Create channel on in the afternoon while I am cooking dinner. It comes in over the antenna and has all sorts of maker-themed shows. The husband came home yesterday while it was on and got sucked into watching a program profiling a guy who makes reproduction medieval armor. At one point, he said to me, “Look, he has a list on the wall that says ‘TOOLS I NEED.’” I asked the husband if he had a list like that on the wall of his workshop. He said that no, he carries it around in his head.]

A coverstitch machine is something of a specialized serger, but instead of cutting and finishing the edge of a piece of fabric, it allows you to sew in the middle of a fabric in order to make a hem or add topstitching. It has one looper that moves back and forth between 2-3 needles. The result is something that looks like twin needle sewing on the public side of the garment:

And like this on the private side:

That looper thread both secures the hem and—if you feed the fabric carefully—covers the raw edge. Look at your ready-to-wear knit garments and you’ll see something similar.

As with the serger, I had to spend a bit of time fiddling around and sewing test swatches on the coverstitch machine to find the best settings for this fabric. And after all that fooling around, which took about an hour, I decided to leave it threaded with the gray thread you see in the pictures above. Again, this first Nancy Raglan was a test garment for me to make sure I have a handle on the pattern and on using my machines. It gets expensive to buy cones of thread, even small cones, in all the colors and types of thread that one might possibly need. I think a few neutrals are essential, but beyond that, if I’m not entering something into the fair, I’m not going to be neurotic about matching thread on garments I’m making for myself.

The hem guide was a game changer, as was the clear plastic presser foot. (I still think that clear presser foot should come standard on that machine and not be an optional accessory.) I also ironed the hem and held it in place with fusible hem tape. One thing I would do differently next time—now that I know that a 1” hem on the cuffs is the perfect depth—would be to coverstitch the sleeve hems before serging the side seams. It is not impossible to coverstitch in the round, but it takes some practice. There is no reverse, so if you don’t end the stitching properly and secure the threads, the whole thing will promptly unravel. The bottom hem went smoothly, but the sleeve hems took a bit of maneuvering even with the free arm. It would be faster and easier to coverstitch them while the sleeve is still flat and secure the ends in the side seams.

I may also switch back to plain polyester thread instead of Maxi-Lock Stretch in the needles. More testing is in order. And I have found a few fabric suppliers selling lovely hot pink, turquoise, and bright green French terry fabrics. I’ll have a custom wardrobe before you know it.

I’ve ordered myself the definitive guide to coverstitching from Amazon—it’s the definitive guide because it was, literally, the only book I could find on coverstitching—and I am going to try some new, specialized needles from Schmetz that come recommended by the book’s author on her website. I’ll try anything once. We’ll see if those needles make a difference or if it’s just a lot of hype.

I don’t have anything pressing on the schedule today. I am down to the Ms in adding patterns to the BSKD store and I’ll just keep plugging away at that, but I might also pull more knit fabric from the stash and run up another top.

*****************************************************

I canned 18 pints of red beans yesterday (the replacement gauge for my pressure canner arrived in the mail the other day). These beans came from my friend Cathy. Someone she knew was cleaning out his mother’s estate after her death. Apparently, this woman had done a whole lot of food prep for Y2K. The family had to figure out what to do with hundreds of pounds of dried beans, and Cathy was the lucky recipient. She gave me about 25 pounds (at least) of various beans in plastic vacuum bags and some Bob’s Red Mill soup mixes in the original packaging. She cooked up some beans a few weeks ago for soup and said they were fine. I took out two bags of red beans Sunday afternoon and put them to soak. I soak beans for 48 hours with two changes of water before I can them. These started plumping up right away. I’m not sure how they taste yet, but they looked fine going into the jars. Not bad for 20-year-old beans.

Cathy and I have been trying to get together for weeks so we could have lunch. I also want to give her some ham hocks in exchange for the beans. She took a job at a local clinic a few months ago. It was supposed to be a part-time position, but shortly after she started, one of the other doctors retired. Since then, she’s been working eight or nine days on with two days off, and I always seem to be out of town when she is free. We’re going to try again next week.