SilPoly Rolled Hem Epiphany/Zen Moment

[Crazytown3]

I had a minor breakthrough with my sewing skills last night. Long, overly dramatic story to follow:

So I have been working on my first tarp, the pre-cut Winter12 kit from RSBTTR. The 1.1 Silpoly has been challenging to say the least. I practiced and practiced on scraps, watched JellyFish's great videos (thank you!!). I even got to the point where using the rolled hem foot was working pretty well.

Sewing the rolled hem on the cat-cuts was just making me crazy though. Like REALLY crazy. I expressed to my dear wife that I didn't know if I was able to finish the sewing on this tarp. I put things aside for about a week, and then decided to approach it again last night. Things started off a little rough again, so I took a break.

As a little background on me, 'back in the day' I played guitar in a punk band, "toured" mostly the Western U.S., and got into more trouble than I care to admit. I lost a few really good friends to the rough lifestyle. I was browsing through Spotify, and happened to come across some of the music from one of my departed friends. He and I shared a love of the outdoors, and took a couple motorcycle trips together. He and I also shared similar views on 'hippy spiritualism stuff'. While listening to his music, that same feeling came back to me, and I just felt like 'I got this'.

I went back to my sewing, and didn't I finish up the hems on that tarp; and I FREESTYLED that thing without benefit of pins, clips, or rolled hem foot (or tissue paper Jellyfish!!). I sewed the best rolled hems I've ever done, and I think I could even do it again.

Thanks for all the brilliant tips and encouragement from all aspects of this site. Seriously.

I will get the tarp hung up later this week to seam seal, and will take pictures of the finished project. For now, here are my hems from last night. Master sewers look away, the stitch length is uneven.
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[rweb82]

Very nice! I will be purchasing the pre-cut standard tarp kit next month. My sewing skills are quite limited- though I have confidence (perhaps misguided) that I can pull this off. Can you tell me how wide of a stitch you use for the rolled hem? Thanks!

[jellyfish]

Great story. I love that you found a way that works for you.
Not giving up and sticking with it is very punk rock.

[Crazytown3]

Very nice! I will be purchasing the pre-cut standard tarp kit next month. My sewing skills are quite limited- though I have confidence (perhaps misguided) that I can pull this off. Can you tell me how wide of a stitch you use for the rolled hem? Thanks!

You can pull it off! I think you might be asking about my stitch length instead of width. Width was 0 on my machine, straight stiches. My stitch length was set to 4 on my machine, which is the maximum. Jellyfish has an AWESOME set of videos on youtube with her building a winter tarp, and she has recommendations for stitch length and such. I HIGHLY recommend watching her videos (and subscribing).

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...Y8vqloZivnP0IX

[Crazytown3]

Great story. I love that you found a way that works for you.
Not giving up and sticking with it is very punk rock.

Thank you! That really means a lot to me. Punk rock YAAAAAA!!!! In retrospect, it all sounds kinda goofy, and my dear wife thinks I'm nuts.

BTW I'm going back to my rolled hem foot and tissue paper. Freestyle didn't work when making the stuff sacks.

[underserviced]

I tried all sorts of techniques. I freestyle my way through it too! If I pin, it's only to keep excess fabric out of my way.

[rweb82]

You can pull it off! I think you might be asking about my stitch length instead of width. Width was 0 on my machine, straight stiches. My stitch length was set to 4 on my machine, which is the maximum. Jellyfish has an AWESOME set of videos on youtube with her building a winter tarp, and she has recommendations for stitch length and such. I HIGHLY recommend watching her videos (and subscribing).

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...Y8vqloZivnP0IX

Thank you for the info! I will check out her video.

[Crazytown3]

I tried all sorts of techniques. I freestyle my way through it too! If I pin, it's only to keep excess fabric out of my way.

+1 on that good buddy. I'm still going to keep practicing with the rolled hem foot though, because I Jellyfish told me to (in her videos), and she has orders of magnitude better sewing skills that I do.

[catastrophedude]

I've gotten to the exact same point you were at on a few projects. Sometimes you have to just step away for a bit. Let the frustration fade and come back to it with a new set of eyes. It's amazing how much better things work when you've had a chance to relax and come back to them fresh.

[barracuda]

My wife thinks it's funny grown men sit around talking about sewing but today she asked me to load a new bobbin and thread for her You're right. There's an element of zen to a rolled hem.