tip Archives - Page 4 of 4 - Handmade by Carolyn

Welcome to the fold

14/10/2012 3:20 am \ 64 Comments \ Carolyn

In a further small step towards overcoming scissor-phobia in the face of precious fabrics; I have made a new tunic top.

This is the top from Vogue 1309, and I have made it in a hand-painted silk dupion from Fabulous Fabrics. The fabric is pretty
fabulous, yes? The strong uninhibited
strokes of dark chocolate and slate grey are so visually powerful and exciting. They bring to my mind an abstract
representation of a windy stormy day; clouds streaking
across the sky, grey boughs bending in the wind, dead leaves whipping from the
ground and through the air. Please note I took advantage of an appropriate weather moment for my photo op in honour…. 🙂

I did not hand paint this fabric myself. I have painted my own fabric in the past, but in this case I bought it all ready to go. It was ostensibly a
Christmas present from my husband, from last Christmas, last year, lol. And ever since I opened my present (surprise!) I’ve been on
the lookout for a worthy pattern … and when I clapped eyes on this Issey
Miyake pattern I instantly knew they would be perfect together, a match made in
heaven. The pattern even
stipulated silk dupion, as if the designer knew that I had a piece of wild silk
dupion just awaiting a wild tunic pattern. The times I actually obey those “recommended fabrics” instructions
printed on the pattern I can count on the fingers of one hand. Hmmm, exaggerating there, I might be up
to a few more hands by now… but those times are still pathetic minorities;
small shining lights in a long rebellious history of sartorial disobedience.

Above: at left; the front and at right; the back. The fabric was er, quaite expensive and I only had one metre so I had to join pieces to get out that huge front/back piece. My fabric was 150cm wide, and I cut the pieces on the cross. The joins can be just seen at just about shoulder blade level, on each side at the back (above right)

Above: side views right and left. At right can be seen a small section I stitched down at the back to remove some of the blousiness across the back waist section. I was fortunate to find a zip exactly the right length… this is a pattern in which if your zip is not the perfect length you DO have to adjust the pattern pieces to exactly accommodate your zip length.

This is a pretty challenging pattern … but I adore a
sewing challenge so I was like a pig-in-mud the day I made this, contentedly humming away to myself; totally in my happy place as I fiddled about, nutting out
those instructions. The
construction of this is like a puzzle; each separate piece of the puzzle is simple and
uncomplicated in itself, but the process as a whole is not clear
or easy and the top does not go together intuitively.

I’ve written a pattern review below, but it’s worth
mentioning separately a couple of little tips I used to make things a tonne easier
for myself…

The markings on the pattern are small circles, large
circles and squares, and these are also marked from A to G inclusively. You will
NOT be able to put this pattern together successfully unless you can identify
all of these on your pattern pieces… so I wrote all the markings (for example) OA, OB, oB, etc, designating large circle A,
large circle B, small circle B, etc, on
small squares of paper and pinned them to the exact spots. Once this idea had occurred to me, it made
the whole seam matching process a heck of a lot easier. A heck of a lot!!

I also attached a safety pin marking the “back” of
the piece… this might sound too trivial to even mention it ….but I found that safety pin to be enormously helpful! since the front and the back
of this top are almost impossible to distinguish for much of the construction.

Finishing tips: the pattern left a few raw edges in obvious places ie, the neckline! which looked a little messy imo, so I hand stitched a narrow hem along these to finish. I also applied a few strategic hidden hand-stitches inside the V-neck to hold those two sides firmly and modestly together.

I hand-stitched lingerie holders to inside the shoulder straps, these were a gift from the lovely Yoshimi, thank you Yoshimi!

Details:

Top; Vogue 1309, hand-painted silk dupion from
Fabulous Fabrics

Jeans; Burda 7863 modified, white stretch denim, details here

Shoes; c/o Misano

Pattern
Description:

Pullover
tunic has front and back cut-in-one, no shoulder and side seams, upper right
section, left panel, square armholes, left side back zip, shaped hemline,
stitched hem, unfinished and continuous bias finished edges.

Pattern
Sizing:

American
sizes 6-14; I cut the size 10

Did
it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you had finished
sewing it?

Yes.

Were
the instructions easy to follow?

Well,
this pattern is not rated Advanced/Plus Difficile for nothing! There may only be three rectangular
pattern pieces, well three once you have pieced three smaller paper pieces to
make the one ginormous front and back piece; and each step in itself is a short and straightforward seam…. but the construction of this top is not an
intuitive process and you really have to keep your wits about you. I really had to stop and carefully check and
double check my markings for each and every step.

The markings are large and small circles and squares, variously marked from A to G
inclusively, and it is imperative to be able to identify them on the pattern
piece.

I
ended up writing on small squares of paper (for example) OA, OB, oB, etc, designating
large circle A, large circle B, small circle B, etc, and pinning these at the
appropriate spots. I highly
recommend other seamsters do the same!
Once I took this step, things were streamlined and it was massively
helpful. I also attached a safety
pin to the “back” during construction and just this simplest of things helped a
bunch when it came to working out which was the front and back and left and
right too.

What
did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?

I
absolutely love the funky avant garde styling, and the challenge of putting
together a few plain and simple shapes to make a remarkably un-plain and
distinctly non-simple shape.

I
didn’t like how one ended up with some raw edges in obvious places, like the
neckline. I hand-stitched a narrow
hem along all the raw exposed edges.
Not a dislike, just an important note to others making up the pattern; your zip does have to be exactly the recommended length, otherwise you must make adjustments to your pattern pieces to suit.

Fabric
Used:

Hand-painted
silk dupion

Pattern
alterations or any design changes you made:

After
completing the top, I hand-stitched a narrow double-folded hem along the raw
exposed edges at the front neckline crossover, the armhole edges and at the
back crossover, and applied a hidden few hand-stitches to hold the V-neck together at the centre front.

I
stitched a small section down at the left back to tame just a little of that
blousiness, this was just a stylistic choice on my part.
I hand-stitched lingerie holders inside the shoulder straps.

Would
you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?

I
think I need just one of these ultra-distinctive tops in my wardrobe, but I
would not rule out sewing this one up again in my lifetime. I recommend this pattern to the
advanced seamster who craves both an avante garde wardrobe and a sewing
challenge.

Conclusion:

Well,
I totes adore a sewing challenge and I sure got one here… 🙂 plus a unique top that is comfortable to wear
as well as interesting to look at.
I call that a big win!

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, pattern review, tip, top, Vogue 1309

Facings; some inner workings

05/10/2012 2:02 am \ 36 Comments \ Carolyn

I took a few photos while constructing the waistband of my new capri pants to illustrate a few of my own finishing methods, but first…
Online sewing tutorials.
Since starting my blog I have penned a few of my own sewing tutorials; snapping photos and writing happily and freely about my methods… but lately hesitation has crept in…
why? because scathing criticisms of online amateur sewing tutorials have popped up in the previously harmonious bloggy sewing world. Some people out there loathe and detest them…. on the other hand, some people find satisfaction in seeing the inner workings of other people’s sewing projects. Personally I do too… when they are done well. I don’t enjoy seeing close-ups of snafu’s or obvious stuff ups. If I have made a glaring mistake I prefer to unpick it, take it apart or do whatever possible to fix it up, not take a photo and show it off!
But I do really enjoy seeing beautiful finishes and inner workings; I strive to make my own the best I can and I like reading about how others achieve the same.
So.
Finishing a facing, on an edge with an invisible zip closure.

The zip is in, and I’ve attached the interfaced waistband facing.
The next step is to trim and clip the seam allowances. My own approach to trimming the seam allowances I have been doing for years, with no concrete memory of where I learnt it: the layers closest to the inside, or closest to your skin are trimmed away the most, graduating from a narrowest layer out to the wider-most layer closest to the outside of the garment, which are trimmed the least. So, the wider allowances are always against the outside of the garment, the narrower ones to the inside.
I rarely trim the stitching of the seam itself away, but trim out to the edge, so as to preserve intact the backwards/forwards securing stitches at the beginning of the seam.

When clipping curves, and especially if the fabric is thick, I sometimes take the precaution of clipping in an offset pattern of clips, like so. This lessens the likelihood of the seam allowances showing up like a little row of “teeth” in embossed shadows around the edge after pressing.

Below is the opening edge, with the facing folded back on itself (wrong sides together), and the zip edge with the garment seam allowance (with overlocked raw edge) folded over it, right sides together; and stitched. I never ever ever (ever ever) diagonally clip away the corner of that fold, but leave it intact, just like this. With care, when you turn it out you should be able to get a nice square point at the corner of facing/waistband just like below right. If the corner does seem a tad too bulky with layers of fabric, turn it back out wrong side out and right on the very corner, just inside the seam allowance at the starting point of that stitching, give it a few good sharp whacks with a heavy wooden spoon to flatten it; then try turning it out again. I promise you, this does work!! Just be super careful not to whack the top of the zip…. This is an old “couture” trick which I read in the Vogue 8333 instructions.

Under-stitching. When I was a younger slapdash thing I sometimes used to lazily skip this step. So foolish! It makes all the difference to a neatly turned faced edge. Do it!

btw, a note on the different coloured threads I have used in this project…

this is not a tip really, but an economical thing; I save my matching coloured thread for any stitching that is going to be visible either inside or outside the garment. I use either black or white whichever is the closest in shade, in this case white, for any stitching that is hidden away inside the folds of fabric. This is because I buy matching colour threads for a project in the smaller and more expensive 100m reels; and I buy black and white thread in the cheaper 1000m reels. I have a black and a white bobbin permanently threaded up, and wind a bobbin in my matching thread before a project, as well as the reels for the top of the machine in white/black and my matching thread: and interchange them depending on whether the thread is going to be visible or not. I know this means extra fiddling about and is not a tip everyone wants to bother with, but it does save money, which can be spent on other things 🙂 This is why you can see some stitching, the visible stitching, is in the matching beige thread, and some stitching is in white. I’m Ok with that because the white stitching is in the hidden spots, and will invisible both inside and outside of the finished garment.

Fold the facing opening edge in smoothly to an even width against the zip tape. I nearly always have to adjust my waistbands, so it is not a given that this will be the same as the allowance dictated by the pattern piece.

It is only at this point that I finish the lower edge of the facing, all in one go. This time I opted to use the overlocker for a flatter finish, but HongKong seams look real nice. I overlock the opening edge fold down in place as they are pinned above, and also the facing seam allowances down to the facing at this point. Neat and tidy!

The facing edge is hand stitched to the zip tape using fell stitches.
The facing at the centre back and the other side seam is stitched to the seam allowances. It can be seen clearly here how the seam allowances of the facing have been overlocked down to the the facing in just one pass of the overlocker.

Finito!

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: seams, tip, tutorial

First aid for thongs

05/10/2012 12:00 am \ 20 Comments \ Carolyn

My sister-in-law S gave me this fabulous quick and easy fix for thongs, to help eke out their oh-so-tragically-short life span for just a little bit longer… if you love wearing thongs as much as I do then this one is a real goodie.
The hole on my old pink pair had enlarged over time, enough for the thong-y bit to start popping out with frequent and very annoying regularity…. In my lifelong scientific observations and road-testing of the humble thong, I have observed that this is the traditional problem spot, the first piece of the apparatus to fail…

S suggested making use of another common and oft-unappreciated little household gadget, the bread-bag closure thing-y
clipping it on over the thong-y bit underneath (please excuse the highly technical terms in use here) and pull it in nice and firm

voila!
There is a tiny bit of a hump underfoot but they will be perfectly good for a spare pair…
and your thongs will live on to walk another beach 🙂

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: shoes, tip

Tips for sewing with PU laminate (leatherette)

15/04/2012 3:20 am \ 20 Comments \ Carolyn

(I should have posted this straight after posting my PU skirt, but I forgot… oops!)

I’m not really an expert on this “fabric” but I thought I would just jot down a few little techniques I used when making my skirt, in the hope that they will help others…
I’ve read that there is a teflon foot that one can use for working with leather and other “hide” like fabrics such as poly-urethane laminated cloth, PVC and other plastics; fabrics that have a “sticky” surface that adheres to the underside of the foot and so do not pass through the machine easily. However, I didn’t want to buy a whole new foot just for the tiny amount of topstitching and stay-stitching needed for one, or even a few, garments; so I decided to try out my usual method for tricky fabrics… I cut tissue paper into strips and hold this in place under the foot of the machine as I am sewing, laying it in place as I go and feeding in new strips as needed.
This worked a treat!

I used a denim needle, and set the machine to a slightly longer than normal stitch (3mm) and after stitching I simply pulled the paper off of each side of my stitching. Easy, and free! since the tissue paper I use is… well, you know when you buy breakables and it gets wrapped up in a few sheets of thin tissue paper at the point of sale? Well I keep that paper just for this purpose; waste not want not, and all that…. and cut it into strips when I need it. Re-using and re-cycling!
Obviously, I didn’t need to use the tissue paper when I was sewing seams, fabric right sides together, since the backing fabric had a regular fabric-y texture that passed through my sewing machine just fine; and I found I didn’t need it for top-stitching the HongKong seaming down either. The tissue strips were only necessary for the very small amount of top-stitching and stay-stitching called for in my pattern, which is great since it can be a kinda fiddly technique. If one was top-stitching leather frequently then sure, it might well be worth investing in that teflon foot.

Incidentally, the tissue strip method is one I do use a lot of the time; any slippery and delicate fabrics such as silk and polyester chiffons, silk charmeuse, also with lightweight wool and rayon knits, and especially and always sewing delicates on the bias to avoid stretching; if I experience any difficulties I turn to the tissue paper treatment. Also, the few times I have cut up and re-fashoned RTW knitted jumpers and cardigans; the tissue paper strips work like a charm enabling me to sew these highly fray-able, and more bulkier knits on my regular machine as well. In fact all knits; from the very fragile to the very heavy hand-knits, will all go through one’s machine with ease using this method.

But getting off track there; back to the PU…
My second tip is for the waistband; sewing the waistband facing down inside. My usual method using regular fabrics is to stitch a virtually invisible fell-stitch, picking up a scant one thread on one side then a scant one thread on the other, hiding the running thread under the fold of the waistband. In this fabric however, I worried that this would not be sturdy enough. Picking up just a scant fold of the PU, my thread ran the risk of not getting through to the backing fabric and just piercing the flimsy layer of laminate which could easily just tear away. I did not want topstitching visible on the outer view of the waistband, and hand-stitching big ugly visible sturdy stitches, even on the inside of a garment, was not an option (years of conditioning cannot be ignored here!)

So I turned in the seam allowance of the waistband facing, and machined a nice even line of topstitching along just inside the fold by a scant 2mm, keeping the interfaced outer waistband free. This provided a firm stitching line along which I could anchor the stitches, securing the waistband facing down to the waistband/skirt seams allowance. It also provides a focal point, a visual foil that draws attention away from those small hand stitches. See how those fell stitches are nearly invisible to the eye?

And no stitching visible on the outer waistband…

My last tip, a kinda obvious one hehe; I realised when I went to hang up my new skirt that the skirt hanger was going to leave permanent big ugly pinch marks on my beautiful pristine waistband. So I hand stitched (fyi; blanket stitches) on some ribbon hanging-loops to the sides … I say no! to big ugly pinch marks!