Some Dressmaking Hints for the Amateur

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 7276, 2 October 1933, Page 2

Some Dressmaking Hints for the Amateur

When sowing a thick seam by machine, rub a piece of wax candle along the lino where the stitching will be, and you need have no fear of the needle breaking or sticking. Obiffon and other flimsy materials can be cut out easily if fitst pinned or tacked to thin paper. Before sowing on hooks and eyes, boil them in strong soda water. This will prevent them from rusting when the garment is washed,

Keep a lump of beeswax iu tho workbox, and rub the thread along it before sewing on buttons. When attaching buttons that will have to stand some strain, put a piece of old kid glove under the material. Use tailors' thread for sowing on eont buttons. It will save many stitches.

When tacking velvet, use the finest cotton; and when removing the threads cut every few inches —do not pull them out in the ordinary way, or marks will bo left on the material. When the machine needle oecomcs blunt, work it, through a piece of fine sandpapor for several inches, then burn it in the flame of a match.

A good knitting silk holder may i>e made by wedging two clothos-peg3 into each other and winding the silk crosswise over them.

To prevent needle and pins from rusting, stick thorn into a piece of flannol which has boon saturated with machine oil. It can bo folded and kept in a tin box.

If celluloid knitting-needles become bent, soften them by pouring hot water over them, straigten them out, and put them into could water for a few minutes to make harden, again.