Helpful Hint (Actually 2 of them)

I am finally finishing up the "joining of the seams" on the lace of the wedding gown. I had to wait for my daughter's next fitting. Once the seams are sewn, there's no turning back - no way to undo or redo - an etched in stone kind of thing! I have loved this technique except when stitching on corded lace. Oftentimes, the needle will push the corded edge down below the throatplate. It can create quite a mess and is very FRUSTRATING!
The best solution is to use a "straight-stitch" throat plate, however I do not have one and I was doing a very narrow zigzag so it wouldn't have worked in this situation anyway. So, I took a piece of Sulky's water soluble stabilizer.

It looks like a "dry cleaner" bag and about the same weight and feel.

I cut small strips @ 2-3 inches wide and placed them under the hooped area between the throatplate and the lace. It serves as a buffer between the needle, the lace and the opening in the throat plate. It's not a perfect system but it helps a lot. So if you're sewing on something that keeps getting eaten by the throat plate, try using this along with a hoop - that gives you more control also.

Here is the standard throatplate that comes with most machines - good for both zigzag and straightstitch.

And while the throatplate is off, I thought I would share this machine cleaning/care tip also.

Many times in an attempt to clean the dust/lint buildup in the machine, a brush will push it further into the machine, making it impossible to reach. Using an ordinary Q-tip and your machine oil, oil the end of the Q-tip. So far - easy - right?

Use the oiled end of the Q-tip to gently clean the dust out of your machine. The dust will cling to the oiled surface and any machine oil remaining is good for your machine!

How easy is that!
On another note, my daughter's fitting went fantastic. If you remember reading how worried I was about the top having enough structure - well, it was perfect. It had enough structure for 2 brides - so I'm on Cloud 9 for the moment and that's how I've approached this whole project - from moment to moment.

Have a great weekend!