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Submitted by: tk via Submit a Kludge!
Favorite Comment: Fixer Charlottalove says, “That seam looks a hair crooked.”
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Taken from the next Saw movie!
What a dope! Everybody knows that you’re supposed to pin perpendicular to your stitch.
This is what I was going to say!
Don’t needle her about it.
Your point is invalid. The pin goes as pictured, so it can be removed toward you as you sew.
It took me a moment to recognise the kludge. They did a great job on this one!
Well, actually, you pin perpendicular to the seam if you are using a standard seam allowance, whatever that may be for your type of sewing. When I sew clothes, it’s 5/8′s of an inch. When I’m quilting, it’s 1/4 of an inch. However, when I am pin-fitting a garment and I want to sew the seam more or less than the regular allowance, I pin exactly where I want the seam to be, with the pin running lengthwise on that specific seam-line. One of the great advantages to this is making specific changes on either side of a body that is not symmetrical.
Is that a Hair clip?, I almost didn’t notice what was wrong!
It took me a few minutes too…..it almost looks like it belongs there in the first place.
It’s actually called a hem clip. I use them when sewing waterproof fabric like PUL so that I don’t put extraneous holes in something that’s not supposed to leak! I don’t recommend using them as hair clips b/c (speaking from experience) they tend to catch hair in the pointy part.
Now, that is really clever! I’d have never hought of that! (Perv is correct; she’s gong to break a needle with the pins in that way, but maybe there’s a TIFI solution to that, too.)
Wow! Two puns in one title!
Keeping you in stitches, isn’t it?
this thread is thin!
A-hem.
Kludge, or brilliance? You be the judge!
I vote for brilliance – first off, because a sewing machine foot costs an arm and a leg, and secondly because inevitably when you have a sewing emergency, a part goes awry on your machine and the store isn’t open.
Brilliance.
“…a foot costs an arm and a leg”. Was that a knee-jerk response?
I foot costs an arm and a leg? I can buy “fancy” feet for any of my four sewing machines for about $12. Regular presser feet are less expensive.
That’s pretty cheap. I must be dealing with a high-presser salesman.
This is actually a pretty darn good idea. Except for the pins. Someone’s gonna break a needle – and THEN there’ll be epic kludge.
I’m not sure my grade-school Home Ec teacher Miss Murley would approve!
Approve? She’d be thrilled enough to know you remembered her name.
i had to read the comments to figure out what the problem was, but the last time i saw a sewing machine up close was 20 years ago soooo
My first thought was… how great is that…
before I could not sew at all I would use this solution too…
Greeting from Germany
I think there should be more home ec style kludges, like impromptu buttons, creative uses of scotch tape, etc. Submit them, people! I promise to document my next one.
Is the problem the hair clip? I am pretty sure that anyone who uses that type of fabric is out of their mind anyways.
I am with perv — I haven’t seen a sewing machine up close in umm more years then I care to admit and it has been more years than that since I used one and knew that was just a fix only needed due to operator error. Just a real pin up job.
Many things wrong with this picture…
1. As pointed out the pin is improperly placed, and is a major risk for breaking a needle/damaging the machine. Hmmm.. wonder if that’s how the real foot got broken?
2. There is no way to safely secure a hair clip to the sewing machine. One slip of the fabric, and the hair clip and busted needle fragments go flying, possibly taking an eye out with them.
Just because a piece of machinery is relatively small, and common in household use, doesn’t mean common sense safety precautions go out the window.
This is not brilliance, this is a sewing Darwin award waiting to happen.
And no, proper sewing machine fittings do not cost *that* much. At least, to me it’s worth more than taking the risks of losing an eye and ruining the machine permanently.
And…
3. The fabric should be sewn wrong-side out to hide the stitches.
it’s a double-sided thin flannel, so I’ll give her a pass on this one.
@synnamin
That’s two-sided flannel? Oh my goodness! She’s got entirely too much tension on that hair snap clip for flannel.
With a pattern like that, both sides are wrong.
Lose an eye, save an arm and a leg. It is all a matter of opinions on whether this is a good deal or not. One-eyed or double amputee? Plus, with a working sewing machine, if you lose an eye, you can always patch it.
I don’t think there’s enough detail in the photo to determine how the clip is fastened… assuming it is fastened.
Yeah, you’re right… safety first, always! But hey, are you in the right website?
interesting kludge, why do I see this ending badly? And at least in the case of my old machine, the normal feet arn’t expensive. its the special feet that do special things that cost an arm and a leg.
When it absolutely, positively, has to be sewn the night before the wedding.
Sometimes I like to throw inspector 43 a curve ball, keeps him on his toes.
That seam looks a hair crooked.
Is that a dish on top?
The price you can pick up basic machines these days it isn’t worth risking injury by doing a “repair” like the one above. The machine doesn’t look like an expensive so a foot to fit wouldn’t be expensive. If it is an expensive machine, then an expensive part should be bought rather than risk trashing the machine.
I can only hope that this was staged for the photo.
Which way the pins are put in only matters if you don’t take them out before you get there. Do you folks stitch right over pins and then take them out only after you’re done with a seam? I never sew over a pin, regardless of which direction it’s put in the fabric. Never ever. So why the fuss over a pin being perpendicular? The needle’s never gonna come close to my pins. I don’t pin perpendicularly, but who cares if this person does?
Anyhow in the amount of time it took to jerry rig this admittedly brilliant solution, the whole garment could probably have been finished by hand. Hand sewing is not nearly as difficult as people tend to think.
lots of folks sew over pins (not me! After I broke two needles doing that and one of them missed my eye by an inch, never again…), or pull them out just as they get close to the needle. I do the latter, since it keeps the fabric in place before the stitch secures it. Love the idea of perpendicular pinning, with the pin far away from the needle and presser foot, but my temperamental silks won’t have it.
Please tell me you don’t sew without proper eye protection, safety gloves, and other appropriate safety measures (keeping a fire extinguisher nearby, etc.).
The risks people take, sheesh. So many crazy kids these days who think that they’re immortal….
I think it is pretty darn clever! I’ve struggled with broken “feet” before and never would have come up with this simple idea.
I don’t get it? What’s wrong with this picture? Perhaps the sewing is done there and the pin is about to be moved? Sorry, no kludge.
The kludge isn’t the pin, it’s the hair clip being used as a presser foot.
now thats a good one!
it took me about 30 seconds to se whats “wrong” in there!
Umm…is that an ironing board she is sewing on?
You pin perpendicularly so the fabric won’t slide out of alignment.
I’m impressed.
This is cool, but few would appreciate. I take a note on this, just in case.
They actually sell quilting clips that look just like this for holding the layers together. You take them out before they get jammed under the needle.
I wouldn’t try this at home, but I do frequently use hair clips to hold fabric together instead of using pins.
I’m impressed too. It’s effective, simple, and creative. Not to mention: Ms. “I-have-four-sewing-machines” up there has got four standard machines. For some brands you practically have to mail order.
I need to try this O_O
I have the same problem too right now!