How to use a side cutter (cut and hem) sewing machine foot

Sewing Bee Fabrics Tutorial

How To Use A Side Cutter (Cut and Hem) Sewing Machine Foot

The cut and hem sewing machine foot is a brilliant little gadget. It converts your standard sewing machine into a basic overlocker for a fraction of the price and storage space. You can buy one of these HERE

To use the side cutter, first you need to unscrew your standard sewing machine foot.

Line the prong part up to cradle your needle screw so the cut and hem is able to move as your needle does. It is easiest to line it up if you sneak up on your sewing machine from behind!

Now pivot the foot so that the claw looking part lines up with the screw hole, and screw into place.

Pull your thread into the gap in the centre of the side cutter then out behind.

You need to make a snip of a couple of centimetres in the fabric to get started. This is because the material needs to pass through far enough inside the foot for the needle to pierce the fabric next to a raw edge to begin an overlocking action.

To feed your fabric into the side cutter, pass your material over the plate closest to you, but under the part that looks like a standard foot. The bumped out black section in the centre is the blade, so be careful not to get your fingers too close to this as you sew. Push the cut edge of the fabric gently up to the the edge of the blade.

Most sewing machines come with a couple of stitches designed to be sewn over the edge, so either select one of these, or a wide zigzag. Double check that the stitch you picked avoids the centre bar by manually moving the needle up and down first.


Now your ready to start sewing like you own an overlocker! I would however recommend that you have a practice on some scraps before you attack your favourite expensive material, as once fabric is cut off, it is very difficult to undo any mistakes. For that same reason, I would also suggest that marking a line on the wrong side of the fabric and sewing this way up will limit your chance of errors too.


As you sew, you will notice that the blade cuts at the same speed as your stitches are sewn, and the stitches wrap around the centre bar. It does this to maintain the perfect tension before sliding them off and around the edge of your fabric. This stops the edge getting pulled out of place.

Once you are finished, you need to slide any remaining stitches off the centre bar, so gently pull the fabric backwards before pulling away.

You can leave your edge like this, but for most projects, you will want to turn the edge up out of sight, so I rolled up the bottom, pinned in place, and with a quarter inch quilting foot that has a handy little guide for lining the fabric edge up against (also available from our SHOP), I quickly can stitch a perfect line 1/4 inch from the bottom.

The finished result looks neat and professional and took me all of 5 minutes!

We hope you enjoy our tutorials and love hearing what you think so please leave us a comment or send me an email to linda@sewingbeefabrics.co.uk

Draft your own strappy top

Sewing Bee Fabrics Tutorial

How To Draft Your Own Strappy Top

 

What you will need:

Approx 1 metre of cotton and some thread
(Don't forget to browse our SHOP, for your supplies!)

How to make it:

First, you need to take a few measurements so you can draft your own pattern. You want to know your hip or bust measurement - measurement 'A' (use the largest of the 2). The distance between your bra straps at the front - measurement 'B', the distance between the highest point on your bra and the under bust band going over the cup - measurement 'C' , and the length of your bra strap.

Your dart size will depend on your bust size. I would recommend somewhere between about 2-5cm with a 'C' cup about 3cm, so scale up or down as required. Dart height should be approx. under bust to just under nipple. Plot your measurements on some wrapping paper or parcel paper or similar to draft your own pattern like so (back piece on the left side on, and front pieces on the right):

You will be using your left over material for your straps and bias binding later.


How to sew it together:
First you need to transfer your markings for your darts on to the wrong side of your fabric. To sew the darts on your front top section, simply fold the fabric right sides together down the center of your dart markings. Place a pin or 2 diagonally to mark your line to sew from your bottom mark to your top mark. Sew with a running stitch then press your seams as you go. Depending on the size you made your dart you may want to leave the extra fabric and just press it to the outside, or trim and sew an over-edge stitch (a zigzag stitch very near to the edge will work too). Your top section should now be the same with as your middle front section. 

Sew the bottom of your top front section to the top of the front middle section by putting them right side together. Sew together with a 1/4 inch seam allowance and over stitch the edge.

This piece should now be the same length as your back piece (If it isn't quite then just trim them so they are level - a good tip here is to place one on top of the other so you will get the edges to exactly to same height. There is nothing worse here than trimming it only to find you took too much off).

Leaving them right side together, sew only 1 side seam to join your front and back pieces.

Next you want your long strip to make a slightly ruffled base. To give a neat finish to the bottom hem of the top, I folded the hem up, then folded again to conceal the raw edges inside the hem and pressed in to place before sewing.

On the raw edge, you want to make a slight ruffle. I passed mine through a ruffler foot quickly on the sewing machine with it set to ruffle every 6th stitch at a depth of 2.5 and a stitch length of 2.5.

I then joined it to the base of the top with right sides together, quarter inch allowance running stitch just below the line created by adding ruffles, followed by an overlock stitch. If your brave, you can pass the top under the ruffler as you ruffle to stitch them together, but I prefer to do them separately for more control as it is such a large piece. Without a ruffler foot for your sewing machine, you could always pin your seam, creating the ruffles as you go by bunching and folding small segments of fabric evenly along the length.

 

I like a bias binding finish to the top edge, so with your remaining fabric, cut strips 5cm wide on a 45 degree angle to the grain on the fabric. For a smooth attachment, join your pieces so they sit with 1 horizontal and 1 vertical, and your stich at a 45 degree angle so that the join lies across the fabric. For more details on how to make bias binding, check out the tutorial link HERE

I like to attach bias binding quickly and easily with a bias binding foot (available in our SHOP). If you are attaching it by hand I would recommend pressing a centre fold in it to help make sure you are keeping it perfectly central as you sew. Simply push your fabric up inside the edges. I like to reinforce mine with a zigzag stitch over the edge.

To make you straps, decide how wide you want them, double it and add enough to allow for a tuck under of the edges. The length will be the same as you bra strap length plus 2cm. Press the raw edges in, then fold in half. Press again then sew down both sides of the strap with a zigzag stitch. I like to do this over the edge to make sure it is fully enclosed. Do the open edge first to make sure it doesn't slip out of place. Overlap slightly and sew over the base of the strap as well as level with the top edge of the top. If you want your stitches not to show, you can always sew this part by hand.

To make the back sit close, you either need to add a small length of elastic or pleats. I added 3 pleats after my bias binding in the centre to make a more decorative look but if you'd like it to look more subtle, just do it before adding your bias binding.

Sew up the second side seam in a straight line down the body part but flare out a little at the ruffle to hold it's shape. Then try it on inside out. You will find it probably gapes a little bit around the armpits. To sort that, simply pin diagonally at the top to your desired fit on both sides. Sew then trim the excess before fixing with your over edge stitch.

Turn it the right way around. Press any seams you haven't already done, then go enjoy showing it off!

We hope you enjoy our tutorials and love hearing what you think so please leave us a comment or send me an email to linda@sewingbeefabrics.co.uk. Don't forget to visit our SHOP for all your project supplies.
Happy Sewing!