a little encouragement here please

**The Wizard of BC** · 9th August 09, 08:29 PM

My personal record for ripping out a line of stitches is 35.

I still can't get near to the work of someone like Barb T. So I just keep practicing.

**The F-H.C.A.G.** · 9th August 09, 08:33 PM

So what's your solution to the left handed problem then? I just learned how to sew the pleats right handed myself and went back to my evil habits for the rest of it.

Be well,

**blackbeard** · 9th August 09, 09:17 PM

Originally Posted by The F-H.C.A.G.

So what's your solution to the left handed problem then? I just learned how to sew the pleats right handed myself and went back to my evil habits for the rest of it.

Be well,

After trying to teach my right hand to hold a needle and realizing that I wanted to finish this kilt before Christmas 2010, I knew I had to find some method for working from the waist to the fell. Being a leftie I am used to figuring out how to live in a right handed world. I started working on some type of clamping system to hold the waist taught. I kept rolling around ideas until the quilter section of my brain remembered about the tabs on the sides of quilt frames. The top and bottom of a quilt are held taught on rollers but the sides are held taught with strips of muslin that are basted or pined on. I grabbed some fabric from my stash and ripped a strip about 6” wide and a couple of feet long.
The rise is a pretty simple section to stitch, so after taking a few anchor stitches, I baste on the strip of fabric and using Elise and Barb's method, tuck that strip under my thigh, and voilà! Tension. It is one more step of the pleating process, but only takes a few seconds to baste on and take off.

**blackbeard** · 9th August 09, 09:27 PM

Originally Posted by The Wizard of BC

My personal record for ripping out a line of stitches is 35.

I still can't get near to the work of someone like Barb T. So I just keep practicing.

I feel a little better now.

**The Wizard of BC** · 9th August 09, 09:39 PM

Blackbeard, I'm a leftie too. My solution to the problem is to the follow the directions in Barb's book but imagine myself looking in a mirror.
I've used this trick since I was in first grade as a way to deal with living in a right-handed world.
I simply cross my left leg over my right, tuck the Fell under my left knee and stitch with my left hand just the way Barb does but from the other side of the pleat edge.