A customer told me my headbands looked sloppy, and she was right

I had this woman in my shop last month who runs a small press in Ohio. She picked up a rebind I did of an old poetry collection and said, 'You tied off your headbands where the endpapers will hide it, but I can feel the bump.' I was defensive at first but she was spot on. Now I take the extra time to bury my threads under the spine lining, and the finish is way cleaner. Anybody else had a critique that stung but actually improved your work?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_elizabeth2d ago

Hated it when a quilter told me my stitches were too loose. Had to redo half a project after she showed me how to fix the tension. Embarrassing at the time but now my work actually stays together.

ryan_hart382d ago

Hold up, she made you rip out half of your project? That's brutal, I would have been crushed if someone made me undo that much work. But damn, at least you can sleep soundly knowing your seams are rock solid now.

grantc802d ago

Part of me wonders if the tension issue is actually a generational thing with quilting though. @the_elizabeth your older quilter might have been used to hand quilting where loose stitches mean the whole thing falls apart, but modern machine quilting can get away with a different tension sometimes. Still, better to learn it right the first time than have a quilt unravel after a few washes. At least now you know exactly what to look for when you start a new project.