For years I have been making little girls’ dresses and making bow ties in the back of the dress on pinafores, etc. I always struggled with that little metal “turner thingie” that leaves holes in the fabric when you pull to strongly on it. You know what I mean? Well, I am just about finishing the Farbenmix “Feliz” dress and looked at the instructions for making the string ties in the back of the dress. They recommended to use a “turning ribbon”. You can look at the pictures of how they do this here:
http://www.farbenmix.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=476&Itemid=546
The instructions are in German but I think the pictures speak for themselves. You basically attach a temporary long ribbon that you use as a pull string.
You probably all knew about this trick. Just in case you hadn’t I thought I’d let you in on this little trick. It certainly made that part of the dress a lot easier than I used to do it.
I am 61 yrs old and still learning new tricks. Love learning new things about sewing! 🙂
Now, I need to tell you that I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this Feliz dress. “Feliz” means happy – and that is so true for this dress. I am sure Saarah, who will be getting this dress for her birthday, will be just that. It’s so much fun to make, too. Give it a try. The pattern has just come out in English and remember you can get discounted patterns at the yahoo group posted below. Also, if you have any questions regarding these patterns, the yahoo group is always willing to answer them and I would be happy to help you enjoy these patterns as well. Feel free to post your questions here. This is the direct link to the yahoo group:
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hi oma,
thanks for sharing that tip, can you believe i finally gave in and bought one of those hole-making thingeys just last week?!…darn, and now i find a ribbon would have worked better…oh well…
martha pullen once had the best instructions for making teeny tiny tubes for spaghetti straps or whatever…it utilized the bias stretch for skinnying up the tube by pulling it very tight(but i don’t remember what kept the stitches from breaking when stretched?) then the width of the seams kind of stuffed it…that’s all i can remember except that it made beautiful teeny tiny spaghetti straps…i wish i could find where i saved it…which computer back up disc from however many years ago…it was a great tip, if i could only remember!
when you get our age, it is hard to tell if the new tips are just old forgotten tips that seem new!!! hee hee
btw oma…
could you check the link to the yahoo group…i can’t seem to get anywhere with it…thank you
Thank you for your wonderful tips! However I also have had no response from the FarbStudioTanrumGroup. Are they not accepting new members? I sent in the required “About me and why I want to join”, and a month later followed up when I had not received any answer, but never did hear from them. Are they inactive or just overly picky about who they accept?? Please do let us know.
You know, I left that group about 6 months ago when I realized that I had more patterns than I could ever sew in a life time!! You may want to try again. One other person had difficulties and when she tried to join again finally got through. The patterns are cheaper than other places. http://www.banberryplace.com also has a lot of the Farbenmix patterns but is more expensive. However, you do get them faster from there. The Farbenmix group’s patterns get ordered sometimes directly from Germany and it may take up to 3 months to get your patterns.