SEWINGA blind person can and should continue to do whatever kind of sewing he or she did as a sighted person. A blind person uses most of the same methods a sighted person uses, but here are a few suggestions and gadgets that are often helpful. Many people use needle threaders to thread needles. There are a variety of types available. The simplest of these is available in sewing departments in most cities. It consists of a small piece of metal with a wire loop attached. This delicate wire loop is passed through the needle; the thread is passed through the loop; and the threader is then removed, pulling the thread through the eye of the needle. With a little practice the process can be done quickly and easily. Many people also like to use self-threading needles. For hand sewing, these needles are widely available, but self-threading machine needles are more difficult to find. Either means of threading needles is workable. Most sewing machines come equipped with a seam guide to be screwed onto the machine table to the right of the presser foot. Such a guide is most useful to sew a half-inch or five-eights-inch seam or hem. These guides can generally be purchased separately if desired, and other types of guides are also available. Some blind people like to put tape on their machines as guides. Some people find they can guide the material by keeping one finger on the edge of the material and another finger on the presser foot. For top-stitching or very narrow seams—such as are often recommended for sewing knitted fabrics—the presser foot is the best guide for most people. Regardless of the kind of sewing guide used, the procedure is the same. Just determine where the edge of the fabric should be in relation to the needle and the guide; then keep it there as the needle moves under the presser foot. To make a good-looking garment, one must be a good ripper. To rip, one needs to feel the threads of the seam to be ripped and get the point of a standard ripper under the stitches. If the fabric is lightweight or knitted, this can be delicate work. Again, practice will prove that ripping need not be a problem to a blind person. Then what should be said for patterns and cutting? Picking patterns and fabric depends on getting someone to serve as a reader or adviser and getting that individual to give you the information wanted in shopping. A blind person may need to have a sighted person cut off the extra tissue paper around the pattern pieces. Then the blind person merely needs to cut the fabric around the edge of the pattern. It may be helpful to put masking tape around the edges of the pattern pieces to make the cutting line more tactile, but many blind people are able to cut out their fabric without this added step. An experienced seamstress can identify the different pieces of the pattern by their various shapes. The beginner needs to learn to do this. Then it is possible to pin on the pattern, cut it out, and put it together with no more sighted help than is given at the time of trimming the pattern. Darts and other markings, if needed, can be marked with pins, tape, or by cutting out a pattern for the dart itself from another piece of paper. In guiding the scissors when cutting out the garment, most people have found that one can be more exact by curving the left hand (assuming you are a right-handed cutter) over the top blade of the scissors, thumb and fingers coming together at the edge of the tissue pattern between the blades of the scissors when the scissors are open. It is really a simple means of following the edge of the pattern as you cut. Generally, this method enables the blind person to do a neater job of cutting than can be done with the left hand guiding the scissors from beyond the tip. Sometimes labeling thread for color can be a problem. One unique solution to this problem is to obtain pill bottles with large tops from your local pharmacy and stick Braille labels on them. Braille labels glued to the spool of thread itself will be pushed off by the spindle if the spool is put on the machine. With confidence and a bit of imagination blind people can sew whatever
they wish with very little assistance. We know many blind people who make
their own clothes. As we discussed earlier, you may very well develop
your own methods which will work better for you. Good luck as you proceed
with your sewing. |