I have been wanting to make some sewing pattern weights for myself for ages and have just got around to it. They are used instead of pins to hold your pattern in place on your fabric so that you can trace or cut around your pattern.
The advantage of using pattern weights over pins are :
- there is less distortion of the fabric and
- they are quicker and easier to use than pins.
I used this tutorial to get started but did tweak it a little. I made some sets at the size suggested in the tutorial, but decided to make some slightly larger and prefer the larger size. However a mix of sizes and weights could be very useful.
You can use rice or dried beans, kitty litter, sand or aquarium gravel to fill them, but I wanted a clean fill with no dust. I ended up using doll stuffing pellets and lead weights (sinkers, lead pellets, etc). You can then adjust the weight to whatever you prefer.
If you are not keen on making your own pattern weights or are looking for a gift for a sewing friend, you can find sets of pattern weights in my shop.
Do you use pattern weights? What do you like about them? Ciao for now kittens!
