Safety Pin
The most traditional method for turning a tube of fabric is with a safety pin. The fabric for this video was kindly gifted by Lamazi Fabrics
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SewHayleyJane
- Safety Pin
- Loop Turner
- Turning Tool Set
- Piping Cord
There will be plenty of times where you will want to sew a loop of fabric. Perhaps you are making ties, spaghetti straps, bows, rouleau loops for buttons, loads of examples of sewing a loop of fabric and the way you sew it, the way you turn it will depend first of all on how wide the strip of fabric is that you're going to sew and how it's going to be used. So whether or not both short ends are sewn shut or one is left open.
There are a few different types of tools that we can use to help us turn these fabric loops. So let's look at some of the different types of tools we're going to use for the different widths of strips of fabric.
Perhaps the most common and traditional way of turning a loop of fabric is using the humble safety pin. This works really well if both short ends of the strip of fabric are left open and the width of your loop is wide enough to accommodate the safety pin.
So the first thing we need to do is fold our strip of fabric in half right sides together, and with whatever seam allowance you are using, back stitching at either end, we're going to sew all the way down the long raw edge of the fabric.
Once you've sewn all the way along, we're going to trim down the raw edge. So we want to trim that down fairly close to the stitching line. Take your safety pin and open it up, and we're gonna put the pin through a single layer of the fabric. So I'm just gonna push it in on the edge there. So we're only through a single layer of the fabric, close the safety pin up, and now we're going to insert the safety pin.
So we're going to kind of turn a 180, insert the safety pin inside the tube of fabric and push it down and you're going to keep pushing. Now the first bit is the fiddliest bit. We want to just turn the fabric inside the tube. So it's going to take a little bit of pinching and pulling to get the fabric to pull through. But once you have got that initial bit, that end bit turned in, it's very easy. You're just going to keep pushing the safety pin through the loop, pulling the fabric out behind it all the way along.
Try not to let the turned through bit of fabric bunch up at the end. It can be really tempting to want to just push the safety pin all the way to the end, but you're gonna then end up with too much fabric trying to get pulled through at one go so you need to take it just a little step at a time. Once the safety pin comes out of the other end it's very easy then just to pull that all the way through until the entire strip of fabric is pulled the right way out.
Remove the safety pin, and then the last thing you need to do is just iron your strip nice and flat. As you're ironing it, just use your fingers to gently roll that seam edge to one side of the loop of fabric. Otherwise, it can twist all the way around. So just make sure you keep the seam line on one edge of the fabric And then you have a loop of fabric turned all the way through using the safety pin method.
There are a few different types of tools that we can use to help us turn these fabric loops. So let's look at some of the different types of tools we're going to use for the different widths of strips of fabric.
Perhaps the most common and traditional way of turning a loop of fabric is using the humble safety pin. This works really well if both short ends of the strip of fabric are left open and the width of your loop is wide enough to accommodate the safety pin.
So the first thing we need to do is fold our strip of fabric in half right sides together, and with whatever seam allowance you are using, back stitching at either end, we're going to sew all the way down the long raw edge of the fabric.
Once you've sewn all the way along, we're going to trim down the raw edge. So we want to trim that down fairly close to the stitching line. Take your safety pin and open it up, and we're gonna put the pin through a single layer of the fabric. So I'm just gonna push it in on the edge there. So we're only through a single layer of the fabric, close the safety pin up, and now we're going to insert the safety pin.
So we're going to kind of turn a 180, insert the safety pin inside the tube of fabric and push it down and you're going to keep pushing. Now the first bit is the fiddliest bit. We want to just turn the fabric inside the tube. So it's going to take a little bit of pinching and pulling to get the fabric to pull through. But once you have got that initial bit, that end bit turned in, it's very easy. You're just going to keep pushing the safety pin through the loop, pulling the fabric out behind it all the way along.
Try not to let the turned through bit of fabric bunch up at the end. It can be really tempting to want to just push the safety pin all the way to the end, but you're gonna then end up with too much fabric trying to get pulled through at one go so you need to take it just a little step at a time. Once the safety pin comes out of the other end it's very easy then just to pull that all the way through until the entire strip of fabric is pulled the right way out.
Remove the safety pin, and then the last thing you need to do is just iron your strip nice and flat. As you're ironing it, just use your fingers to gently roll that seam edge to one side of the loop of fabric. Otherwise, it can twist all the way around. So just make sure you keep the seam line on one edge of the fabric And then you have a loop of fabric turned all the way through using the safety pin method.