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Gerties New Book For Better Sewing Book Review

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Gerties New Book For Better Sewing by Gretchen Hirsch  RRP$35.00 

Gretchen’s “Gertie” as she is known blog was such a success that it turned into a book.  Gretchen started out making outfits from the 1950’s classic book “Vogue’s new book for better sewing” and I am guessing she saw a niche.

This book is filled with 25 patterns (contained in the front of the book). The styles are all rocked out with the tattoo clad Gertie as the model. If you love a retro pattern then this book is the one for you.

 

 

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Comments

  1. This a really beautiful book, with lots of meticulously detailed techniques, and a spiral spine so that it will lay flat as you work.

  2. Gretchen started out to make herself a better seamstress by using the classic 1952 Vogue Sewing Book. She has reintroduced the proper way to sew couture fashion to a generation that didn’t know it existed, much less how to do it. For this, I adore her and can’t wait to own her book!

Have you read?

Make Your Knitting Machine Scarves Better

I feel like it’s been a while since I’ve shared any patterns for our circular knitting machine users. I know these devices aren’t for everyone but even though I much prefer knitting by hand, it is kind of fun to crank things out on these machines.

One of the most common early projects for a circular knitting machine is a scarf. Which makes sense, because it’s just one long tube and you can make it as long as you like.

One problem that comes from knitting scarves on the circular knitting machine, though, is that it can be hard to know how to finish the ends of the tube so that it looks like a finished scarf and not a tube of knitting.

If you’re not a knitter or crocheter, the most basic way to finish a circular knitting machine scarf is just by cinching up the ends and maybe adding a pompom to each end to cover up any hole that might still be visible at the end.

But if you have a little knitting or crochet skill or are willing to learn, there are a lot of different options for closing up the ends of a scarf. And this would also be true if you hand knit a tube scarf!

I recently wrote a post over at Our Daily Craft that includes five different ways to close up the ends of a tube scarf:

  • the simple cinching method mentioned above
  • sewing the stitches together
  • three needle bind off
  • grafting
  • crochet bind off

Grafting is my favorite because I feel like it gives the cleanest, closest to a seamless look. If you’re a knitter you may already know how to do it but even if you don’t it’s not that hard to learn.

Do you knit tube scarves by hand or machine? I’d love to know how you like to finish them!