i bought the coolest vintage hem marker on ebay awhile back. it belonged to a lady's grandmother who was a professional seamstress.
this one didn't look like any of the others i'd seen in my searches. it had no rubber tubing or pump. my mom & i were a little puzzled about how it worked, but the seller was able to explain the basic details. i finally got a chance to test it out on the shirtwaist dress.
there are 2 wooden rulers attached to a cast iron base-
there's a little screw top lid on the bottom of this cup where you put the chalk in. (SOOZ- the pill crusher was perfect for grinding up the chalk!) the spout in front is where the chalk comes out-
the cup is attached to the rulers with a clamp. you adjust the height of the cup to where you want your hem-
one of the rulers is set into the cup. you pump this ruler up & down & it shoots the chalk out of the spout & marks a thin line on your garment.
it's really hard to properly mark a hem while taking a picture of yourself properly marking a hem, but here's the initial attempt-
these vintage skirts tend to be 10 yards longer than necessary & my first guess was off, so i had to adjust the height & go around again. & what with all the leaning to & fro to try to get a decent picture of the process it now looks like birds have made a mess on my skirt-
but you get the picture.
obviously, i need to tighten up my technique but the marker works great!
See cross-post here.
0 comments:
Post a Comment