[In the fall, Jonathan Vatner, Hue staff writer, took an introductory menswear sewing class. He has been blogging about his experiences on Hue, Too.]
The class before Thanksgiving, Professor Blackman got out the ham and showed us how to put “marrow” in our shirts, then passed around lemon bars. But I still left hungry.
A ham is a pillow with the shape and solidity of a pig thigh, useful for ironing curved seams, like the ones in the shoulder. Just drape the shirt over the ham and iron a few inches at a time.
Professor Blackman's vintage ham
Merrowing (not marrowing, as I laterdiscovered) is a hassle-free stitch of three interwoven threads done on a specialized machine. It finishes off raw edges so that they don’t fray, and it can be a useful shortcut instead of laboriously felling a seam (which involves turning under the raw edge and stitching two rows).
The lemon bars were actual lemon bars, brought in by Professor Blackman, a talented and generous baker. Scrumptious.
