Comments on: To pin or not to pin

By: kate setzer kamphausen

kate setzer kamphausen — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 04:57:57 +0000

For weights, I use antique/vintage irons. They have a handle, are well-balanced, are perfectly smooth on the one side, and cost me $11 for three irons! Got the idea from my patternmaking teacher, who uses irons for weights in her own studio, and kept an eye peeled forever after in vintage/junk shops. I highly recommend them!

By: Oxanna

Oxanna — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 03:50:09 +0000

I pop in again and there’s a wealth of posts.
All of this is very interesting. When I first started sewing, I used pins by the dozen. Now, I use them far less, and I’ve changed my method of pinning. Obviously, pinning along the length of the pattern (in-and-out) was too time-consuming and it shifted the fabric. So I just stuck the pins in straight through the pattern, fabric, and cardboard mat. This works far better, but not as well as pattern weights. Which I should go buy, actually, instead of grabbing half-full lotion bottles and rolls of heavy tape. (Anwen: I’ve discovered that shears make *excellent* pattern weights! ;D)

By: Nancy W

Nancy W — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 22:49:56 +0000

Very interesting. When I used to sew in a previous life, I pinned incessantly. Now, I rarely use pins, although I have them in all weights and lengths. I use them sparingly, but often use them to mark “match points” Thanks for the visual on the length differences. For cutting, I use weights and a rotary cutter most of the time; however, lately I’m becoming reacquainted with my shears.

By: Alesia

Alesia — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 01:42:10 +0000

This is interesting and timely; I’m making an evening dress from a late 19teens/early 1920’s Butterick pattern and it illustrates where to place weights for cutting!! So what did I do- I went out and bought weights to use and a rotary cutter. Great article.

By: Anwen

Anwen — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:03:26 +0000

This is fascinating! I do use pins, but very sparingly (a couple on the grainline when I have made sure the stupid damn pattern is on the stinking grainline, one in each corner) and I am always somewhat obsessive about making sure that the pattern and fabric still lie flat - if the fabric is inconsistent with that aim (e.g. very bulky) then I remove all but the damn grainline pins* and go for weights only. Well, I say weights, I mostly mean random bits of flotsam and jetsam grabbed from nearby shelves, such as 10p pieces, my mobile phone and (if I’m really not thinking straight) my, er, rotary cutter…

*yes, this may perhaps be a sign of addictive behaviour, or something… just, you know, once I have managed to get the pattern straight, I daren’t risk it escaping!

By: ioanna

ioanna — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 10:21:59 +0000

In my one and only sewing class I was also instructed to pin everything like crazy among other annoying things. As I progressed with my patternmaking and following the advice and awesome tutorials on this site -and The Book- the need for pins just disappeared to my delight. I really don’t understand why some people repeatedly do things the long and difficult way. In that ‘class’ there was pinning, followed by basting, followed -finally- by the actual sewing of things. Needless to say this took forever, you couldn’t tell if pattern pieces really fit etc etc. I think this WAS the home-ec way of doing things. Maybe it was devised in the old days in order to keep women incredibly busy so that they wouldn’t find time to possibly form an original thought! He he.
Being challenged does often induce that little denial feeling in most people but I wouldn’t have this site any other way. Go on, take something else apart! Marc Twain quotes welcome but optional

By: Liana

Liana — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 08:28:37 +0000

Anyone remember a program on educational TV called “Sewing Without Pins”? (Looks like it was on for only one season in 1988.) A little English guy named Alfie sat there and showed you how to do things, and he was totally anti-pin. It was a different experience than the usual sewing program.

By: ayomide

ayomide — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:27:46 +0000

I am in graduate school and I have never heard any of my teachers say that or in undergraduate school yet I have experienced the shrinkage and didn’t know where it came from. I have also had the thought that the pattern isn’t flat but when I cut at home I don’t have weights but at school I do. I will try w/o pins next semester and see what happens. great insight.

By: Eric H

Eric H — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 17:00:47 +0000

My college roommate and I wondered if it was possible for some alien civilization to retrieve the Golden Disk on the Voyager spacecraft — complete with whale song, a greeting from Jimmy Carter, Chuck Berry’s Johnny B. Goode, etc. — and find some alternative means of interpreting those such that they got, “We’re from earth and we’re coming to kill you! Prepare for war, alien!”

There’s always room for such misinterpretation, but I think CLF must have squinted very hard to interpret this post or this site in a way that made him/her “feel inadequate”. Perhaps everyone who is committed to their preconceptions should send Kathleen a list so she can avoid challenging those. That way, their repeat visits to this site won’t be such a burden to their self image.

With that policy in mind, I’m looking forward to a series on how to hand baste zippers for fun and profit!

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:09:38 +0000

It never cease to amaze me that every time I tune in to this site, I manage to feel inadequate.

I regret you feel inadequate. That’s not a problem I can solve. I think most people come here because they’ve realized the information propagated via popular means doesn’t work for them anymore, if it ever did. My purpose has never been to reinforce existing instruction. Were said instruction sufficient, there’d be no need for this. If you can’t make your way work for you, I certainly can’t do it either. It was Albert Einstein who said that the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

I’m well aware that people resent having their most cherished *beliefs* criticized but perhaps rather than abdicating through flippancy and sarcasm, you expend the intellectual and physical rigor of trying it. Flippancy and sarcasm is no substitution for exertion. Unsubstantiated criticism is the easy way out.

I suppose with great effort I could make this a safe place for you, stepping lightly to be certain of never killing any of your sacred cows but then you’d have to provide me a list of your beliefs. Never having taken home ec, I have no point of comparison. Perhaps my perspective is due to having had only one sewing lesson in my life so I had less to resent or unlearn. Unfortunately, if I made this a safe homogeneous place for you where you’d never be offended, I’d probably lose the vast majority of my readers.

Some people prefer to read only those things that reinforce their existing beliefs. While priding themselves on being open-minded for reading, the tendency becomes one of reinforcing their boundaries rather than challenging them. As unpalatable as I find it, I read things I *don’t* agree with. In such cases as is possible, I stubbornly persist in expending the effort toward creating proofs or doing the research to form a rebuttal consisting of contrary evidence rather than responding with emotional verbal protests.

Aronson (1996 p.184-8) says it best:

…when people are confronted with opposing beliefs or ones incompatible with their own, they are likely to ignore or negate that belief. They do this in order to convince themselves that they have not behaved foolishly by committing to false beliefs. To assure themselves that they have been wise in supporting their position, they often convince themselves that those who oppose that position are foolish and truly objects for contempt and derision .