Preventing Fraying

If only I had thought of this years ago I might have been more adventurous in my choice of fabrics when dressmaking.

This is a dupion silk skirt in its early stages.  I know from nerve-wracking experience that silk will fray as soon as you have cut it, and I didn't want to lose great chunks of the seam allowance every time I breathed in its general direction.

The solution was to lay, rather than pin, the pattern onto the fabric, and then draw the outline of the pattern with tailor's chalk.  I used a ruler and a tailor's curves to keep the lines neat.

Then I cut a little over half an inch beyond the chalk line and ironed on a strip of fusible interfacing.  I put the inner edge of the interfacing directly alongside the chalk line.

I made sure that I marked the notches...

...and the tops of darts.

The inevitable fraying will be stopped short once it reaches the interfacing, so I can now get on and sew the darts and insert the zip at my leisure.

When the time comes to sew the side seams, waistband and hem, then I shall cut along the chalk lines immediately before sewing.

Suddenly the whole project has become a lot less stressy.

Linking up to Connie's blog Freemotion by the River for Linky Tuesday

Pattern Hacking

Hacking is the only way I shall ever get a jacket to suit me and fit properly. 

Much as I love this gorgeous jacket in my Lutterloh book, which is where I found the pattern for my 1940s blouse, I know it isn't quite what I'm looking for...

...even if the fur trim is the stuff of tweedy fantasies.

Somehow my brain wasn't sufficiently in gear last week to tackle the pattern drafting required for Lutterloh creations...

...so I delved into the pattern box and pulled out this not quite so retro number.  The pattern had never been used, and I had enough calico to run up a toile.  Then the fun really started.  The amendments so far are as follows:-


The armholes are too shallow, so the sleeves cut into the armpits.  I have dropped the bottom of the armhole about an inch and a half down the side seam.

The back is too narrow, so I have added an inch down the centre back.

The upper sleeves needed more width, so I have added an extra inch at the top, tapering down to nothing at the elbow.

The little stand up collar doesn't suit me, so I have had a very educational time roaming around YouTube learning how to draft a pattern with a shawl collar. 


Even though the second toile I have run up still isn't quite right, I think I have managed to keep frustration at bay and let fascination take its place.  Strangest of all, once I had made all the changes, somehow the mock up jacket sat on me differently and magically transformed itself into a rather natty double-breasted number.  I must get my husband to take some pictures of me modelling it, if not for the blog at least for family entertainment. 

Zip Tips Please...

Fear of zips, the dreaded zipphobia, is yet to be conquered.  Earlier this month I put the zip in to the fitted dress that I am making for my daughter.  It was not a happy experience.  I have never been keen on zips would rather have buttons and buttonholes any day, but I thought I should make the effort.

So here it is.  Mrs Perfectionist isn't altogether satisfied, but greatly consoled in the knowledge that daughter couldn't care less.

As you can see, the invisible zip is visible and will probably gape when the dress is on.

Also, the stitch holes are visible on the folded edges of the opening.  That is because I machine sewed the centre back seams first, of both the outer layer and the lining, with a large stitch, and sandwiched the zip between them before sewing it to the seam allowances on the inside.  The whole thing was a total faff that took hours, not helped by the fact that I needed to hand stitch the top and bottom where the sewing machine couldn't get into the fiddly corners.

I know that there are dressmakers out there who can insert invisible zips into lined dresses at the drop of a hat.  I searched the internet for a tutorial, and found a couple that helped, but really didn't tell the whole story. 

So does anyone know where I can find the Ultimate Invisible Zip With Linings Tutorial, the one that gives all the detail and doesn't leave you cussing?  Links please.

And by way of return, here is the Pin A Rip In A Teabag Tip. 

Remember, you saw it here first.


Update

Many thanks to Maga, who has emailed me within hours of this post with links to two blogs:-


Lilacs and Lace by Laura Mae, who shows how she inserts an invisible zip;


and two posts at Sewaholic by Tasia, who shows how she inserts a standard zip in a lined dress by using hand stitching.

A Dress Half Made

Unfinished but definitely taking shape.  After all the preliminary fitting and pattern drawing, followed by a mere 28 darts, shape is the operative word.  Even at this stage I can tell it could only be for my daughter.

For the lining I have used a light polyester and cotton mixture.  It is firmer than the usual 100% synthetic lining material, which I hate because it frays like blazes, slips around when you are sewing it, and has a nasty habit of ripping at the seams after a certain amount of wear.  Let's hope I have made the right decision, because I have a niggling fear that the skirt lining might ride up.  I can depend on my daughter to complain if it does.

The dress and lining are joined so far only at the neck.  When I was pressing the seam with a bit of water to get a firm edge the thread did the dirty on me.  The red dye bled from the thread (admittedly it was fairly ancient) and I think I might have fixed it with the heat.  I am slightly miffed, but my daughter won't care a hoot because she isn't a devil for detail.  The photo here is by way of a moral tale for all the cheapskate dressmakers out there who think they can get away with using 30 year old red thread without testing it first.  This dress will definitely have its first wash with a dye catcher.

This is the kick pleat at the back.  To save myself from having to neaten the centre back seam, I cut the two back pieces along the selvedge, which, fortunately, was straight and not distorted..  The back seam is therefore a simple seam which is pressed flat.  For the kick pleat I had to cut a separate rectangle of material and insert it, using topstitched seams on each side.  The seams haven't settled down particularly well yet because I daren't give them a decent pressing until after the first wash. 

Perhaps I should steer clear of the old thread from now on, which will be difficult because it defies my sense of economy.

The next stage is putting in the zip down the back.  I can't say I am looking forward to it.  We shall see. 

Linking up to Connie's blog Freemotion by the River for Linky Tuesday 

A Dress for Next Summer

Nice and cheerful for a summer dress, which probably won't be worn until next year.  It is a cotton poplin, chosen by my daughter, who has a weakness for tropical designs.  She wants a fitted, straight-skirted dress.  Easier said than done, especially when she tells me "I want a zip."  If she knew how much psychological damage those four words have caused me, especially when thinking up a dress with lining.  I am a zipphobic and have decided to conquer the many-toothed demon.

Work so far has consisted of making a rough cut dress from an old duvet cover to get the size and position of the darts, then making a toile from calico to get a good fit.  I only stuck pins in my daughter twice.  No blood.  She accused me of direct voodoo, with no doll.  Then I unpicked the toile, ironed the pieces and laid them on tissue paper to draw the paper pattern.

The whole process has taken days, but the aim is to have a perfectly fitting dress for her so I can make another when she isn't here.  Had I used a commercial pattern I would have had to spend an age making adjustments, so I decided to draft my own.

Will I have the dress made before she goes back to university for the autumn term?  Probably not.

My Daughter's New Dress

For information about the July Free Motion Give Away click here

She looks pleased with the latest creation from Salon Muv, a copy of her favourite green dress which we bought in Bath a while ago.

I decided it was time to get over my lining phobia.  The dress is lined throughout, so it shouldn't be one of those annoying cotton skirts that rides up or flies away in the wind.

The key to getting the fit was the bodice.  I drew the neckline and armholes by laying the green dress flat on the table, jotting down the measurements, and then drawing directly onto the old duvet cover that I used for the toile.

The fiddliest part of the bodice was making and attaching the bias binding around the armholes.

The joy of this dress is that there are no darts, zips, buttons, buttonholes - no real shaping or openings, just elastic around the waist.

We are both pleased with how it has turned out.  My daughter likes it so much she has already chosen the material for the next one.

Linking up with Connie's blog Freemotion by the River for Linky Tuesday
and Amanda Jean's blog Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday.

Copying a Dress for my Daughter

This is one of my daughter's favourite dresses.  We shelled out a few quid on it on a trip to Bath a couple of years ago.  Before we actually bought it I had given it a quick inspection and told her "Easy peasy.  I could make you one of those.  Falling off a log."  Fighting talk.

There is nothing complicated about it.  A plain bodice, elasticated at the waist, and the skirt, conveniently enough, is approximately 36 inches wide.  No fastening at all, she just pulls it over her head like a jumper.

Now, with ten days to go before we nip off on a quick trip together, I am finally getting round to making her the promised dress.

She chose this pretty cotton about four years ago when she wanted a dress, but wanted a completely different style.  I kept telling her that the style she wanted wouldn't work with this weight of cotton unless it was fully lined, and I wasn't keen on putting in loads of effort on a fitted dress before she had stopped growing.  The material was stashed and the project shelved - until now.

I got off to a flying start a few days ago by nicking an idea from the inimitable and thrifty HoffiCoffi, who has a knack for using up old duvet covers and buying up several miles of bargain material for making toiles.  Instead of wasting perfectly good calico on a mock up bodice, I used an old duvet cover. 

Thank you Hoffi! 

Rather than draw out the pattern on paper, I drew directly onto the duvet fabric, cut out the front and back, and made the mock-up bodice.  Once I was sure my daughter could get in and out of it without bursting the side seams, I undid the stitching and used the duvet pieces as the pattern for cutting out the real bodice, managing to miss out the paper pattern stage altogether. 

Yesterday I cut out the bodice in the floral fabric and the lining and started sewing.

I managed to assemble the bodice, finish the neck edge...

...and tack the armhole edges together ready to bind them.

Now I have the job I love to hate - making my own bias binding from the dress fabric.

Linking up with Connie's blog Freemotion by the River for Linky Tuesday

A Dress for Meg - 9 - Positioning the Buttons and Buttonholes

Finally, the last instalment showing the steps in making Meg's dress.  Here it is, finished, before I delivered it to her and she proudly tried it on for size.

The last thing to do before the hem was the buttons and buttonholes.  On this photo you can see how the gathers of the skirt are kept clear of the overlap.

To stiffen and strengthen the overlap I use a strip of calico, which fits snugly into the fold down the front edges.  The edge of the dress fabric is then folded about a quarter of an inch over the calico and machine stitched into place.

The seam attaching the skirt to the bodice has been constructed so that the raw edges are enclosed.  This gives a certain amount of bulk, which needs to be trimmed , as shown here. There are a few tacking stitches to hold the raw seam allowances together.

When the overlap is folded down and ironed the raw edges are hidden. 

The next step is to mark where the buttons are buttonholes are to be placed.  Because the buttons are five eighths of an inch wide, I have done a line of machine stitching, with the longest stitch length, five eighths of an inch from the folded edge.  This needs to be done down both sides of the dress so that both the buttons and the buttonholes are the same distance from the folded edge.

I started with the top buttonhole, placed at right angles to the edge.  To plot the position of the buttonhole, I pinned a button through one its holes so that the pin went through the line of stitching. This gave me the reference point for the buttonhole, the pin marking where the end of the inside of the buttonhole needed to be.

Then it was time to get busy with the buttonholer.

Here is the completed buttonhole on the finished dress.  The threads going through the right hand hole of the button correspond with the position of the pin in the previous photo.  

All the other buttonholes were stitched parallel to the edge.  Here is one of the buttonholes, shown before I had neatened the tail ends of thread.  The white machine stitching runs down the middle of the buttonhole. 

And here is the same buttonhole, with the white machine stitching removed and now all nicely fastened up, once the dress is completed.

Just to keep the overlap in place, after the buttonholes and buttons had all been done, I put in a few stitches by hand through the seam allowance at the bottom of the bodice.

Finally, I did the hem, gave the dress a good thorough ironing, and it was ready for Meg!

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Linking up with Connie's blog Freemotion by the River for Linky Tuesday

A Dress for Meg - 8 - Attaching the Skirt

It is ages since Meg received her dress, and I have not done any posts showing the making of it since the post showing the collar being attached.

The next stage was attaching the skirt.  The skirt is made up of three rectangles, with French seams down the sides.  The width of the back of the skirt is approximately double the size of the back of the bodice, to allow for gathering.  The two front panels of the skirt both overlap for the buttons and buttonholes, in exactly the same way as on the bodice.  The gathers for the front of the skirt start just clear of the overlap.

Before putting in the initial gathers, with bit of red cotton I marked the central, quarter and three quarters points on the back panel of the skirt to match up with the corresponding points on the bodice.

Then I set in the first line of gathers, shown above, using the ruffler.

Perhaps somewhere there are mathematical geniuses who can regulate the size of the ruffle to give the correct amount of gather.  I am not one of them, so I do a second line of gathers alongside the ruffling.  The seam guide is there to keep the stitching straight.

The second line of stitching is done with the maximum stitch length and with the top tension loosened so that the bobbin thread is easy to pull to ease the gathers.

Before pinning the skirt to the bodice I put two tucks at the lower edge to give a bit of fullness across the back, and kept the fold secure with a few stitches.

Next, I pinned the skirt to the bodice, matching the side seams and the red thread markers, then eased the fullness by pulling the second line of gathers...

... and tacked the seam by hand.  There is a much wider seam allowance on the bodice, approximately an inch and a quarter.

Now the machine stitching could be done to finally attach the skirt to the bodice.  I made the stitching run about an eighth of an inch below the gathers and tacking.

Before neatening the seam I removed the tacking thread and machine gathering stitches, but I always find that it is better to leave in the machine stitching done with the ruffler because it keeps the gathered seam allowance reasonably flat.

To neaten the raw edges, the edge of the bodice is folded over.  Hair grips keep the fold down in place much more firmly than pins...

... and are easy to remove as the fold is stitched down.

Here is the finished seam, guaranteed to withstand the rigours of the washing machine!

I love this technique - I first came across it in an old pattern.

Linking up with Sarah's blog Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday.

Spot the Pocket

This week I have done a bit more work on the summer top that I am making from the pattern drawn from my old gardening shirt.  The two pockets took me absolutely ages, rounding off the lower corners, and lining them up on both sides so the tops of the two pockets are level and an equal distance from the centre.  There has to be a quick way of doing it, but I haven't worked it out yet.

Welcome to Nicole McRaney, the latest follower - thank you for joining!

Linking up to Barbara's blog Cat Patches for the July NewFO, and here is Flooded Fields 2014, the completed February NewFO

Making Another Summer Top

My old gardening shirt  has been transformed into a pattern, and this pretty cotton print was the best choice of all the lengths I had stashed away in my cupboard.

For the decorative double rows of stitching I am using a variegated quilting thread which goes perfectly with the colours of the design.  I don't know why I have never used a variegated thread before.

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A Dress for Meg - 7 - Attaching the Collar

Having prepared the collar, it is time to attach it to the bodice.  This isn't a half hour job.

Before putting the collar on, the fold of the front overlap for the buttons and buttonholes has to be folded over inside out.  The overlap needs to be double the width of the buttons.  The buttons are half an inch wide, so the overlap is an inch.  To add a layer of thickness I have inserted a strip of calico. The raw cut edge of the dress fabric is machine tacked in place down the side of the calico - I shall replace the machine tacking with machine stitching in a matching colour later.

The end of the collar needs to be placed an inch from the corner between the folded layers. 
The pin is holding the collar in position. 

Now the collar is pinned all the way round, to the outside of the bodice.

The pins need to be replaced with hand stitched tacking...

...and then the collar machine stitched round the neckline.

The raw edges have to be enclosed, so I have cut a bias strip from the dress fabric.  It is one inch wide, with one edge folded under by a quarter of an inch.  This crease has been ironed down, keeping the strip straight.

However, this strip is going to be sewn around a curve, so I make sure it is curved to fit.  To do this, I dampen the folded edge with a few drops of water, pull that edge only, stretching it, and then iron the stretched edge while damp.  

I do this a couple of inches at a time, working along the strip, until the whole strip holds a curve.

The strip of binding is now pinned and hand tacked along the neck edge.

The pins go in to show where the first line of machining is, so when I do the second line of machining it should end up directly next to the first line which attaches the collar.

The seam now has four layers of fabric, so to reduce bulk I have done some graded trimming.

I have used the tip of the iron to iron the seam towards the inside of the bodice, so that the binding can be pinned down ready for hand stitched tacking.

The last line of machining will be fairly easy to do if the binding has been ironed again once it has been tacked down by hand.

Now the two ends, which have been folded inside out, can be folded the right way round and pressed, and the two ends of the collar are an inch apart where the two sides of the bodice overlap.

The collar looks a bit untidy for the moment.  It needs a good pressing.

Welcome to Pacobini, the latest follower - thank you for joining!

Linking up with Connie's blog Freemotion by the River for Linky Tuesday