When I Sew Slow and When I Sew Fast

When I turn on the sewing machine, I adjust several settings before I sew. 

1. The speed at which I sew is set to medium (half way between fast and slow). 
2. The needle position goes too down.
3. The tie off is shut off. 

These are personal preferences that may not suit you. 

Sew Fast

I don't sew as fast as other people, but I can sew faster than I normally do. When I do sew faster (not all of it is the machine sewing at high speed)? 

• Test sewing a pattern.
• We have a time frame to sew an item in. It means lots of focusing and sewing quickly while reading a pattern and finding any errors. I think it is more stressful than other sewing I do. But, I do enjoy it. 
• An easy pattern that I've sewn 2-3 times before. 
• These are patterns that have simple lines. You could assembly line sew them to get ahead if you were sewing for a craft sale and wanted something that didn't cost a lot to make or sell. I love these patterns if you can do simple hacks to make them look different. 
• Straight sewing. 
• I do speed up on straight edges unless I am top stitching or stitching in the ditch. 
• Great instructions.
• Combine that with easy patterns and I can sew up a pattern quite quickly. 
• Fully prepped.
• Fabric, notions, and trim are ready to begin the project. I usually have it all in a basket and am ready to start. If I have to look for items along the way, it slows me down. 

Sew Slow

I have several reason when I sew slow. Not only is the machine sewing slowly, it means I am working slowly. 

• The pattern is intermediate to advanced in skill level. 
• I slow down and read every step, look at every picture and may do some research. Many of these patterns have a lot of steps in them. Other patterns call for lots of lining.
• I'm changing the pattern up.
• Lots of times I do things differently than the instructions state. I love to hide the waist seam of a dress between the outer and lining fabric. I sew the bodice in a different order than most patterns call for. 
• There is a lot of detail and trim being used.
• When this happens, I often do a lot of hand basting. This helps keep things in place. 
• Hand sewing parts of the outfit.
• This takes time and is slow sewing. I do hand sew the bodice lining to the skirt. There are times I will hand sew lace or trim onto the skirt. Other times, I will hand sew the hem in place.
• I'm not prepared or change things up. 
• There are times I'm missing notions and need to find them. Other times, I change up what fabric or trims I want to use. Show casing along the way slows down the sewing process. 

I like to sew both ways. I choose when I want to sew fast or slow when I am looking at patterns. The choice is mine and I'm happy with the choices I make. 

Happy Doll Sewing.......................................

Adapting A Pattern

The girls would like you to know I am not missing. I'm still here but not doing a lot of doll sewing. October became a month of sewing for family in the west. 

I tested this dress pattern for a lady who needed this pattern published. I was the only tester. I had the cotton but not the lace she called for. The question was:

How do I substitute to get a similar look?

The pattern called for a lace not an organza trim. If the lace was gathered, you removed the top piece and pressed out the gathers. You sewed two pieces together to get a wider lace. Then you gathered it. You don't take the gathers out of organza trim in my opinion. You are asking for a disaster. So, I sewed two pieces of gathered trim together and with no further gathering, laid it where it belonged and stitched it down. Worked like a charm. The skirt was to have a wide flat lace on it so I sewed two rows of organza trim onto the skirt to get a bit of a different look. I made it work. 
When I did this process, I took a full 3-4 hours to try it out and work through the process and finally sewing the trim on. It was worth the time as the dress is quite cute. 

I am getting ready to tackle the doll's drawers this month. 
Happy Doll Sewing....................................