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AG: Thread Marking
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. ---------------------------- 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. ---------------------------- 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. |
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