For No Good Reason

Ok, I do have a reason for this post, but it's not a good one. I'm sewing growth tucks. I want this gown to have growth tucks. I just don't want to sew them. But I'm doing it. But I'm also bored. I have about 1.5 lengths of thread left to do, and I don't want to. So I'm procrastinating here.



My thread is waxed silk thread, from Utica threads. Size A.



I take the skein, as it comes out of the bag, fold it in half, so that there are two loops at one end and it's about 9 inches long (this makes each strand 18 inches) and tie a string around it at the middle. Then I cut the two loops, and divide it all into 3 sections, and braid it, and tie it off. Then, when I need a new strand, I gently separate one from the top of the braid (not the fringy end), and pull it out! No tangles, no cutting, no waxing, just one piece of 18 inch sewing thread! Very efficient, I love this thread!

This is how I sew. I always use a thimble. I didn't use one many years ago, and I wanted to learn to rocker quilt, so I used a trick by Ami Simms' How to Improve Your Quilt Stitch. I wore a thimble all day! I got used to it, used to considering it part of my hand. Now I hold my hand like this to sew:


You can just see the eye of the needle at the thimble.

The bandaid is from the abuse I gave my hands on Friday. I stabbed my thumb repeatedly, burned two fingers making dinner, and scraped a sewing callus off while peeling squash. And I never figured out what I used to shred my thumb. Then on Saturday, for the first time in YEARS, I stabbed myself on a pin closing my bedgown. I haven't done that since I first started wearing straight pins! I figure it was the cold I was just getting over.

I hold the right of the fabric between my pinky and ring finger:


Then I push the needle the rest of the way through with my middle finger.


This is pretty much what my hand usually looks like:

I hold the left side with my left, of course, and my thumb nail presses down right next to the needle tip, and my left and right hands stay tensed, while then rock up and down, building up sts on the needle. The fingers stay pretty still, relative to each other, except for slight pressure on the needle with my middle finger.

There. A totally useless post, and I'm ready to go finish those foolish tucks!