AG: Aunt Granny's Advice, or How to become an elderly cyclist:

If you want to make a bar tack to reinforce a weak spot or to serve as
the eye in a hook-and-eye closing, you have to learn how to anchor
your thread and acquire a few other skills.

But if all you want is a spot of color so that you can tell front from
back, left from right, or George's from Bill's, all you need to know
is how to thread a needle.

If a thread is thick and fuzzy, you fold it over the needle to make a
tight loop that you can poke through the eye.

For most threads, you cut off the frayed end so that all the fibers
are the same length and you don't have the frustration of some of the
fibers going through the eye and the rest skinning back until they
make a big lump.

Now hold the needle so that you can see the eye. Poke the thread
through it. Magnifying glasses help.

If this doesn't work, pinch the thread so near the end that what
sticks out is quite rigid, and your fingers would block your view of
the needle if you tried to poke it. Point the thread toward your eyes
and bring the eye of the needle down over it.

If the thread bushes out at the end, or if you'd like it a little
stiffer, press the end of the thread firmly against a piece of wax
with the thumb of one hand, and use the other hand to pull it out.
Beeswax is traditional for this purpose, but a candle stub, a piece of
paraffin wax, or any other non-sticky wax will do. One old book says
". . . draw it smartly over a cork." I usually repeat the waxing a
few times before trying to thread the needle again.

One can also buy a "needle threader", a pointed loop of thin wire that
you can poke through the eye of the needle, then poke the thread
through the loop, and pull the loop out of the needle, which pulls the
thread through the eye.

Check that the eye of the needle isn't smaller than the thread.
"Crewel" needles have bigger eyes than sharps of the same size.

Also check that the needle is thicker than the thread, but not so
thick that it makes a huge hole.

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Threaded needle in hand, make a bar tack:

Select two points on the fabric to be marked. They shouldn't be more
than a quarter inch (3 mm) apart, lest the bar tack catch on things
and get pulled out.

You make a bar tack by going down at point A and coming up at point B.
I do this all in one motion, but for the beginner, I'm going to
describe a tedious way:

Push the needle through the fabric at point A. The needle is easiest
to push through by pushing on the eye end with your thumb or the tip
of a finger. (Most people use the middle finger.) A thimble or
thumble is *strongly* recommended! Or if you have some stiff,
non-skid adhesive tape, stick a square of it on the spot that needs
protection.

Pull on the needle until only a few inches of thread are left on this
side of the fabric. If you find that the thread slips out of the
needle during this operation, pull on the thread instead of or in
addition to the needle.

Turn the work over, push the needle through at point B, pull on the
thread until it lies straight and flat on the back. Then change the
angle to slant away from point A and continue pulling until all but
half an inch of the thread you left at the beginning has been drawn
through. (You should leave a couple of inches of waste thread the
first time you try this, so that the thread won't get jerked all the
way through when your hands shake.)

Push the needle through at point A again, exactly where the tag you
left is sticking out. Pull until the thread between A and B is snug
and flat.

Turn the work over and push through at point B, precisely where you
went through before. (Don't angst if it isn't *exactly* in the same
hole -- a *little* inaccuracy only makes the tack wider -- but you can
get "close enough" only by aiming for "spang on".) Pull until the
thread is snug, but not tight.

Continue until the spot is big enough to suit you. This should be at
least three stitches, to keep it from coming undone.

Finish by coming up at point B. Cut the thread close to the fabric,
then trim off the tail at the beginning the same way. Sooner or later
these ends will pull out and wave around as little flags on the wrong
side. Don't worry about it. When washed, the ends will fluff up and
get too fat to pull out again.


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Whoosh! Who would have expected a ten-second job to take so many
*words*! I was planning to cover both bar tacks and cow hitches, but
this is *quite* enough.


--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.