To pin or not to pin!

[Dixiecat]

When Elsie stitches a pleat, she pins once at the waist, uses the needle as a pin to hold the bottom of the fell, and then puts some tension on the pleat and stitches without any more pins and with no basting. She's quite adamant about this being the right way and will rap your knuckles if you try to add pins. The rationale is that time is money, and a professional kiltmaker needs to be speedy.

Indeed, time is money! For all industries. I learned to sew exactly the same way using my sewing machine. Factory sewing methods were introduced into the home sewing market about 15yrs ago. Sewing most seams you would anchor the top end at the presser foot, match the very end and hold in your right hand, then fold up the seam into your right hand, then keeping tension on the seam using your right hand, start sewing, using your left hand underneath the top layer helping the seams to match as it goes under the presser foot. I've seen people set in sleeves using this method. I'm not there unless I'm working with wool. The cotton velvet of the dance jackets? Ick.

[Barb T]

Indeed, time is money! For all industries. I learned to sew exactly the same way using my sewing machine. Factory sewing methods were introduced into the home sewing market about 15yrs ago. Sewing most seams you would anchor the top end at the presser foot, match the very end and hold in your right hand, then fold up the seam into your right hand, then keeping tension on the seam using your right hand, start sewing, using your left hand underneath the top layer helping the seams to match as it goes under the presser foot. I've seen people set in sleeves using this method. I'm not there unless I'm working with wool. The cotton velvet of the dance jackets? Ick.

True, but for most of the people on this forum, it really doesn't matter if it takes an extra half hour to make a kilt. Even for me, it doesn't matter. If I don't pin, I might be able to make 41 kilts in the time it takes me to make 40 (although, chances are pretty good that I'd jack it up at some point and kill off any savings I made when I had to take out pleats and re-do them. In this particular case, I don't find the "time is money" argument very compelling.

Your comment that "I'm not there unless I'm working with wool" implies that it is inevitably worth it to "get there". For any specific case, I think it's worth doing the actual analysis. If you can make a blouse at home in half the time by using industrial methods, that's great and definitely worth doing. If I saved 15 minutes over the course of the project, it wouldn't be worth it to me and I wouldn't waste time feeling bad about myself up because I wasn't using industrial methods.

[Jon Lilley]

Hi Barb!,

Thank you very much for the 'permission' to use pins! I'm pretty sure I'll continue to use them, because I, too, get a superior looking pleat. Pins have saved me from having to rip out a lot of work!!! When you're as particular as I am, they really do pay off.

Also, a jig (thank you very much Patti S! I owe you big time for that!) with top and bottom pleat measurements cut out of a small piece of card stock, and the pleat center measurements marked in each end is another great tool! They've saved me literally hours of fumbling around with the measuring tape. I'm not quite as fast as you yet, Barb, but watch out! I'm gaining ground! LOL!

In Elsie's defense, . . . she's teaching the way she learned and is dutifully passing on the tradition. If I made kilts all day long, I'd probably be working toward no pins as well. Till then, . . . please pass the pins.

[Pleater]

I was taught to pin at right angles to the line of sewing, as most of the time the sewing machine needle will slide over it rather than hit it if it is not removed. Only once have I hit a pin, and that was because I had not lengthened the stitch sufficiently after doing a buttonhole.

I find that pinning at right angles helps to prevent skewing of the fabric, and being left handed I can have the pins inserted left to right and whisk them out as they reach the presser foot.

I have only used a sewing machine for a few kilts, as I progressed I did less and less with the machine and now tend to sew everything by hand, though that is partly because I take kilts out of the house and sew in the open air quite a bit.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[Barb T]

Absolutely. Even when sewing pleats by hand, you should put the pins in perpendicular to the pleat edge. Otherwise, the fabric can easily slide parallel to the pleat, and you don't want that. This is also an issue with basting, which is done parallel to the edge.

[Friday]

Has anyone had experience with using quilters safety pins instead of straight pins? These safety pins are bent any reportedly do not distort the fabric as much as straight pins.

They would have to be removed if you are using a sewing machine. However, if you are transporting the material in mid-pleat a closed safety pin would be less likely to draw blood if you are not careful.

[Barb T]

No reason you couldn't use them. Me, I find nice thin, long, sharp straight pins simple and easy to use, quick to adjust, and easy and fast to pull out with one hand as I'm stitching a pleat by hand so that I don't have to let go of the whole thing to undo a safety pin.

[J3Piper]

First, any tool (like the curved quilters' safety pins) has advantages and limitations.

Fort those who don't quilt, the newer versions don't rust and are long and extremely sharp. They are designed to go through multiple thicknesses of fabric (the quilt top, a batting of varying thickness, and the quilt backing) over the entire surface of up to a 120" by 120" "quilt sandwich" as it is either hand or machine quilted. Quilts that are machine quilted must be moved through the harp (the open space between the needle and the pillar of the sewing machine) and rolled up as you stitch. So the advantage of using safety pines is you place the quilt's three layers on a flat surface, stretch it smooth with no wrinkles, and pin, pin, pin. The pins (for the most part) stay in place through the machine sewing process unless they are in the way of the presser foot. All the remaining safety pins are removed at one time AFTER the machine quilting is completed. Long-arm quilting machines have the quilt sandwich on large tensioned rollers and do not need to be pinned throughout. The machine head itself is what's moved over the surface of the quilt as it sews. This is free-motion stitching with no feed dog teeth involved. Kind of like machine darning on steroids. <grin>

The alternative is to pinpin pin and then baste by hand like crazy. This means every basting stitch that would be crossed by a line of machine quilting must be removed before it is sewn over, for sanity's sake.

The biggest disadvantage of a safety pin is you can NOT (or at least I can not) remove it one-handed while sewing a seam. I've never tried them in clothing for that reason.... but provided you were careful not to snag them and poked the point between the weave instead of splitting the fibers, they would be a great advantage if you had to stop and start a project repeatedly after putting it away on a daily basis.

Just my tiny two cents worth.

[Dixiecat]

True, but for most of the people on this forum, it really doesn't matter if it takes an extra half hour to make a kilt. Even for me, it doesn't matter. If I don't pin, I might be able to make 41 kilts in the time it takes me to make 40 (although, chances are pretty good that I'd jack it up at some point and kill off any savings I made when I had to take out pleats and re-do them. In this particular case, I don't find the "time is money" argument very compelling.

Your comment that "I'm not there unless I'm working with wool" implies that it is inevitably worth it to "get there". For any specific case, I think it's worth doing the actual analysis. If you can make a blouse at home in half the time by using industrial methods, that's great and definitely worth doing. If I saved 15 minutes over the course of the project, it wouldn't be worth it to me and I wouldn't waste time feeling bad about myself up because I wasn't using industrial methods.

Very true. I was not saying that using pins is bad or a time waster in any way. In fact, I used pins making my kilts and I imagine would go home from taking a course with Elsie with my hands bruised from being slapped for not doing things as she likes. Doing things right the first time is never a time wasting attitude and I just know my limitations when handsewing!

I was agreeing with Elsie's 'time is money' when the time you save can get you a kilt out the door quicker, not that you can make more kilts over the same period. I once chatted with a kiltmaker that the Scottish Lion employed some time ago. He was an ex-army kiltmaker who was expected to turn around kilts within 24hrs! That 1/2 saved by not pinning would be to his benefit. However, you're not turning out fast food kilts, but works of art, so whichever techniques you employ that satisfy your high standard of quality is part of what makes your kilts #1.

My comment about 'not being there yet' is more directed at the technique not it's time saving qualities. Sewing with pins can be aggravating at times especially with set in sleeves and a sewing machine. Stopping to take the pins out as you sew, pins getting caught in the foot, etc. Wool is just so easy to work with and eases in like a charm. If I could master the technique with cotton velvet I would be very happy.

[J3Piper]

Oh my.... I am very new to the forum and to attempt kilt making, so please excuse me for jumping in here. I use a particular brand of "flat head flower pins" made by a company called Clover. They are extra long, very slender, and designed for quilters so the pin head is absolutely flat on the fabric with no distortion as with the round heads. I will add a link to them if anyone is interested, I have not learned how to post photos yet, sorry. The only caveat is do not try and iron too close to them.

As far as pin placement in relation to seams, I was always taught (and have learned the hard way, ouch) to place a pin parallel to the fabric edge, with the point in the direction the fabric is being fed. Aside for the mechanics of holding the fabric, this assures that the operator will not sew over a pin at speed. Sooner or later the law of averages (and looming sewing deadlines) guarantees the sewing machine needle will whack dead center onto the offending pin.

When that happens, you will:

a. have a machine that is out of commission till it can be retimed by a knowledgeable person, or
b. be picking bits of broken needle shrapnel out of your face and being very happy you had on glasses, or
c. both of the above

Thanks for all the knowledge you share,

Valerie