To pin or not to pin!

[Pleater]

I was taught to pin at right angles to the line of sewing, as most of the time the sewing machine needle will slide over it rather than hit it if it is not removed. Only once have I hit a pin, and that was because I had not lengthened the stitch sufficiently after doing a buttonhole.

I find that pinning at right angles helps to prevent skewing of the fabric, and being left handed I can have the pins inserted left to right and whisk them out as they reach the presser foot.

I have only used a sewing machine for a few kilts, as I progressed I did less and less with the machine and now tend to sew everything by hand, though that is partly because I take kilts out of the house and sew in the open air quite a bit.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[Barb T]

Absolutely. Even when sewing pleats by hand, you should put the pins in perpendicular to the pleat edge. Otherwise, the fabric can easily slide parallel to the pleat, and you don't want that. This is also an issue with basting, which is done parallel to the edge.

[Friday]

Has anyone had experience with using quilters safety pins instead of straight pins? These safety pins are bent any reportedly do not distort the fabric as much as straight pins.

They would have to be removed if you are using a sewing machine. However, if you are transporting the material in mid-pleat a closed safety pin would be less likely to draw blood if you are not careful.

[Barb T]

No reason you couldn't use them. Me, I find nice thin, long, sharp straight pins simple and easy to use, quick to adjust, and easy and fast to pull out with one hand as I'm stitching a pleat by hand so that I don't have to let go of the whole thing to undo a safety pin.

[J3Piper]

First, any tool (like the curved quilters' safety pins) has advantages and limitations.

Fort those who don't quilt, the newer versions don't rust and are long and extremely sharp. They are designed to go through multiple thicknesses of fabric (the quilt top, a batting of varying thickness, and the quilt backing) over the entire surface of up to a 120" by 120" "quilt sandwich" as it is either hand or machine quilted. Quilts that are machine quilted must be moved through the harp (the open space between the needle and the pillar of the sewing machine) and rolled up as you stitch. So the advantage of using safety pines is you place the quilt's three layers on a flat surface, stretch it smooth with no wrinkles, and pin, pin, pin. The pins (for the most part) stay in place through the machine sewing process unless they are in the way of the presser foot. All the remaining safety pins are removed at one time AFTER the machine quilting is completed. Long-arm quilting machines have the quilt sandwich on large tensioned rollers and do not need to be pinned throughout. The machine head itself is what's moved over the surface of the quilt as it sews. This is free-motion stitching with no feed dog teeth involved. Kind of like machine darning on steroids. <grin>

The alternative is to pinpin pin and then baste by hand like crazy. This means every basting stitch that would be crossed by a line of machine quilting must be removed before it is sewn over, for sanity's sake.

The biggest disadvantage of a safety pin is you can NOT (or at least I can not) remove it one-handed while sewing a seam. I've never tried them in clothing for that reason.... but provided you were careful not to snag them and poked the point between the weave instead of splitting the fibers, they would be a great advantage if you had to stop and start a project repeatedly after putting it away on a daily basis.

Just my tiny two cents worth.

[Friday]

The biggest disadvantage of a safety pin is you can NOT (or at least I can not) remove it one-handed while sewing a seam. I've never tried them in clothing for that reason....

Just my tiny two cents worth.

When I have used them it has been just for an individual pleat and then I do not close the safety pin. This makes it fairly easy to remove.