Free How to Sew a Button: And Other Nifty Things Your Grandmother Knew by Erin Bried Page B

between your nose and fingertips. (If you’ve got unusually short arms, turn your head to the left while measuring out to the right for added distance. If you’ve also got an unusually large nose, you may end up with extra thread, but that’s okay.) Thread your needle by passing the end you snipped from the spool through the eye and pulling it down, until it’s about twice as long as the straggling end. (Doing it this way will help avoid tangles.) You’re going to sew with a single strand of thread, so rather than knotting both strands of thread together, just make a little knot at the end of the single, long strand, while allowing the short strand to continue dangling.
    Step 9:
Hooray! It’s actually time to sew. Place your needle underneath the very edge of your new hem and press it up through thefabric. (Your thread’s knot will be hidden beneath your hem.) Move along the hem about a pinky’s width, and make your first real stitch by passing your needle through just a few threads of the cloth of your pant leg (just above the fold) and then up through the fold of your hem. Move down ½ inch, and repeat. Make sure you’re putting your needle through only the tiniest bit of fabric on the leg of your pants; this will make the stitches nearly invisible.
    Step 10:
After every third completed stitch, lock your work by passing your needle and thread once more through the fold only before continuing on. (This little trick will help prevent the entire hem from unraveling, if you ever get your heel caught in it.)
    Step 11:
Once you stitch all the way around your pant leg, press your needle up through the fold only, as you’ve done on every third stitch, and pass it underneath the resulting loop before you pull it taut to form a knot. Repeat twice, and trim any excess thread.
    Step 12:
Turn your pants right side out, iron the hem once more for added crispness, and strut your stuff.

More Nifty Tips
Don’t pull your thread too tight, or your pants will pucker up, and not in a good way.
If you can’t find matching thread, always use a shade darker, not lighter. It’ll be less noticeable.

Smooth Things Over

    “When I tell you we ironed, we ironed every last thing that came out of the wash, including our sheets and underwear!”
    —G RACE F ORTUNATO

H OW TO I RON A S HIRT
    Step 1:
Set up your ironing board in a clean, uncluttered spot next to an outlet. Fill your iron with water and plug it in. Crank it to the appropriate temperature, as recommended on the label of your shirt. If your iron is too hot, you’ll torch your top. Too cold, and you’ll lose the war on wrinkles.
    Step 2:
Pop the collar as if it were 1983. Lay your unbuttoned shirt, faceup, on the board and spread the collar flat. Using small circular motions, iron the collar from the center toward each point. Flip it and repeat.
    Step 3:
Do the yoke. Pull the shoulder of your shirt over the pointy end of the board, and iron the piece of material that connects the collar to the body. Switch shoulders and repeat.
    Step 4:
Smooth the sleeves. Grab the right one and, aligning the seam along the underarm, from pit to cuff, spread it flat on the board. Work your iron in tiny circles from shoulder to (but not over) cuff.
    Step 5:
Cock the cuffs. Spread them flat and iron from the sleeve’s seam to the edge. Flip it, and repeat. If you have folded cuffs, fold now and iron just the crease.
    Step 6:
Iron the front and back. If you’re right-handed, drape the right panel of your shirt’s front over the board, collar toward the pointy end, allowing the rest of the shirt to hang in front of you. (If you’re a lefty, start with the left front panel.) Work your iron in small circular motions from the top to the tail. Rotate the shirt over the board to iron the back. Rotate again to iron the front left panel.
    Step 7:
Wear immediately or hang on a hanger, preferably a wooden one.

More Nifty Tips
Iron only clean shirts. If you try to press a dirty one, you could set in