Hand Sewing Necessities by Dori Troutman
I can hardly remember a time in my life that I didn’t enjoy having a needle and thread in my hand! So you can imagine how happy I was to do some hand sewing with these amazing Clover supplies. When I sit down to do some quilting or appliqué work there are usually just a few things I need: a fabric marking pen, needles, thread, scissors and my favorite thimble. I’m excited to share these with you today.
I was raised by a mother that was a hand quilter. This was in the day when hand quilting was done with the tiniest of needles called the Quilting Between. It was a challenge to see how many stitches you could get on one of those teeny, tiny little needles! I remember when I was able to jump from two stitches to four!
I’ve gotten really interested in the style of Big Stitch Quilting in recent years and so it was a definite challenge for me to go back to using the Quilting Between needles! I used the Clover Black Gold Needles and these are amazing. They pierce through the three quilt layers so perfectly and glide as smooth as you can imagine. I found myself stepping back in time and counting my stitches each time I fed them on the needle! (And no… I never could get more than four stitches on my needle!)
The other thing I found these Between needles so wonderful for was appliqué. I also used the Clover Silk Thread. This was a game changer for me. The thread is so smooth and silky that paired with the tiny needles I literally had invisible appliqué stitches. A perfect combination of needle and thread.
I’m so in love with the Sashico Needles. I’ve been fascinated with the Japanese style of mending, called Sashiko, and I’ve done a little experimenting with it. Sashiko hand sewing requires a thicker thread and therefore requires a needle with a large eye and these needles have it!
I think what I love about Sashiko is that you don’t need to worry about the different lengths of your stitches or having them be perfect. It makes sitting down to mend a pair of blue jeans with a colorful scrap of fabric so much fun. The Clover Sashico Needles work fantastic for this and threading the needles with my thick thread was done with ease!
I enjoyed making a little coaster with some fun decorative Sashiko stitching. I found this so relaxing and the end result so fun that I think I’ll be making some for gifts. (If you’re not familiar with this form of hand stitching, just search “Sashiko” on Pinterest and you’ll see the most amazing mending and stitching.)
Since the Clover Sashico Needles are long and have a very large eye I found them wonderful to use for my Big Stitch Quilting. I don’t know that they are actually intended for quilting, but they glide through three layers of fabric and batting without any effort at all. I think that Big Stitch Quilting is probably one of my favorite hand sewing things and needles can be such a problem. I found that I loved using the Clover Sashico Needles and I’m thrilled to have them in my hand sewing kit! The needles are very long so you can really put a lot of quilting stitches on one needle length!
I’ve learned that everyone has their favorite thimble! This was a big topic of conversation when I was at a sewing retreat this year and we were sitting in a circle hand quilting. We all had our favorite thimbles and our reasons for why they were our favorites! Mine is the Clover Protect and Grip Thimble. I like how it fits on my finger and doesn’t ever slide off. I like how the silicone works to grip the needle. I like how I have the great tip for pushing my needle. (As a side note, my 11 year old grand-daughter uses the small Protect and Grip Thimble for her hand sewing and it works great for her small fingers!) This thimble fits on my finger so well, I’ve been known to get up from hand sewing and cook dinner with a thimble on my finger!
Fabric Marking Pens are a hot topic for me, as I’ve used some different ones in the past that ended up being a nightmare to remove the ink. I’m not one of those people that has the ability to eyeball and sew straight lines so I mark everything. I’ve been using the Clover Air Erasable Marker and the Water Erasable Marker for years now and I will never use anything else. The Air Erasable Marker is exactly that; you mark your lines and you’ve got a perfect purple line to follow for about 30 minutes or so. Then it just magically disappears. The Water Erasable Marker gives you a nice bright blue line and will stay put until you spray it with water. Don’t panic if it doesn’t remove immediately… sometimes you need to spray it a couple times before it completely disappears. But it will!
I can’t finish this blog post without talking about these amazing little scissors. They are the Clover Mini Patchwork Scissors. At only 4.5 inches long they fit perfectly in my hand sewing kit. These blades are sharp and cut through several layers of fabric and batting with ease. And the tiniest snip cuts the thread! These scissors come in four sizes and I think I need them all… and so do you!
I enjoyed a final fun project that included appliqué, tiny hand quilting stitches, as well as some Sashiko style (big stitch) quilting. This is called a Japanese Rice Bag and it was so much fun to make. Every minute of the hand work was a joy to me and it all worked together beautifully!
Using the Clover Needles and other supplies made the hand sewing on this project absolute perfection!
Happy Holidays… and remember that these Clover products make the very best stocking stuffers!
~ Dori ~
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