Fuss-free fusing

Fusing can be troublesome, particularly if you have a lot to do and haven't got the luxury of a pressing table for block fusing.  Here's how I coped with fusing interfacing to the linen of my Vogue 8620 Jacket.

1 Be patient!  It can't be rushed. It took me about 3 hours over 2 days preparing my pieces

2 I use 2 pressing cloths made from an old white cotton sheet which I have marked "this side up" on all pieces.  I lay one over the ironing board (I have a nice wide one) to protect it from any sticky residue and use the other to cover the pieces I'm fusing

3  Press the fabric so it's wrinkle-free being careful not to move it off grain.  Lay the interfacing over your fabric - glue side down (ha, made that mistake once and wrote off a new iron!)  On a piece as big as this I place a few pins right through the fabric and ironing board.

4  Cover with second pressing cloth (this side up) and press.  I use a hot iron without steam as my pressing cloth is 100% cotton and I press from the centre out, leaving the iron in place for about 5 to 8 seconds.   Pressing - no ironing!

5  Remove press cloth once cool and trim away an stray pieces of interfacing.

6  Place your pattern pieces back onto the fused fabric in readiness for tailors tacks / marking

Marking up next and then ready to sew.  In the meantime I'm really looking forward to the Jubilee weekend - lots of lovely traditional afternoon tea, great celebrations at home and in London plus an extra sewing day!

More later.

Hanging a Garment Properly

I was browsing the Threads website this afternoon because I'm missing the June/July issue and came across this great article.

Some of you may already have seen it and one of the techniques I have already discussed here.  I use the hanging loops and tacks on all my strapless garments and am loving the idea of the hooks and eyes / snaps.  Such a simple idea!

Hanging a Garment Properly - Threads

Enjoy!

Spa Slippers, the easiest things in the world to sew

Well, I've been wearing mine for a couple of days and they are SO comfortable.  Great for summer, but not so sure they would keep your feet cosy and toasty in the winter months.....

The hardest thing about making them is finding the gripper stop for the soles.  I managed to find some on ebay earlier this year so bought a full meter - I like making and giving slippers!

You will need:
Outer fabric.  I used Clarke and Clarke 100% curtain weight cotton (ie washable!)
Inner fabric.  Fleece
Sole fabric.  Jiffy Grip.  Please don't try to use anything else.  You'll end up slipping and could seriously hurt yourself
Bias binding.  2cm wide and a full board.  Or if you are making it yourself, approx 2.5meters
Matching Thread
Any decoration you want to add - bows, bling, flowers etc, etc.

I used an old 1960s lingerie book for my pattern, but basically you draw around your foot for the sole and use a shaped rectangle for the top. Don't forget to add 1cm seam allowance

Cut out rectangles of your fabric as follows:  one left foot and one right foot (doh!) from sole fabric, outer fabric and inner fabric. 
Cut out slipper tops from outer fabric twice for each foot and fleece once for each foot.

Layer each piece and you will end up with something like this:

Next you stitch all the layers together within your 1cm seam allowance.  If you have a walking foot use it as the layers can shift - look they did on my top piece.  You can see it is only small (top right) and will be hidden later.

Next you need to add bias binding to the upper and lower edges of the top pieces

Had to include a picture of Betty as she has been such a trooper for these last two projects!

Adding the bias binding

Once the binding pieces are added, turn to the wrong side and stitch in the ditch to secure.

Stitch in the ditch

Once you have done that, pin the upper pieces to the soles.  I don't tack them in place but you can if you want to ensure they don't move once you get to the next step.

The final stage (yes we are there already!) is to pin bias binding around the outer edge.  It's a good idea to start and finish the binding on the inside edge and I fold over a little bit for extra neatness.

Stitch it in place and fold over to the bottom.  You may need to trim back your seam allowances at this stage as you have 6 layers of fabric at the sides.  You can either stitch in the ditch, or hand sew the binding to the bottom edge.  I like to hand sew mine - horses for courses.....

And you're done.  Just add any embellishment.  Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy! 



Butterick 4443. Part 4 and Done!

Phew, this dress is finished.  It took longer than anticipated due to Easter, London, Wedding, BBQs and life in general!
Okay, so where did we get to?  Oh yes, the corselette was finished and so was the dress and the lining.  The three sections just needed to come together.

Here's the dress and lining together, wrong sides together and pinned at the top edge.

Spot the mistake?  Yup, I put the netting on the wrong side of the lining.  It's very soft net so I'm going to leave it as is.  If it causes me a problem I'll re do it at a later date.

 For the hem, I used the 2" strip I removed from the lining at the hem and stitched it to the skirt.  It's a light hankerchief lawn and perfect for a faced hem.  As you can see I finished and pinked the edge as I had black thread in the overlocker and couldn't face re-threading it.....


Corselette now pinned to the top edge



Just another view.  On the Ironing Board waiting for the next step.

The next step is to finish the top edge with a bias strip.  I cut mine 2.5cms longer than the measurement of the dress top edge and 10cms deep.

Just in case you didn't know what a bias piece looks like!!

 I then sew the corselette to the dress, using 1.3cm seam allowance and a small zigzag stitch, stretching the powernet slightly to fit.  Then I stitch the bias strip, and again I use a small zigzag stitch.  I then TRIM as much of the seam allowances as I can as there are a fair few layers at this stage!  Once that's done, give it a good press and then understitch.  Press again and you're done!  Just trim the ends of the bias so they come just past the dress closure and I prick stitch them down

Here's a view looking from the top, down into the dress.



And here it is on Vivienne, the corselette is done up (as far as I can on the stand)
and zip left open so you can see the insides.

 There's no picture of me wearing this dress at the moment, Ian's busy building a wall at the front of the house so I didn't want to disturb him whilst he's in the swing of things!  As soon as I get change I'll get some photos taken, in the meantime here it is on Vivienne. 

I will be making a little belt for this dress too - but I've had enough for today.

Enjoy the rest of your Bank Holiday weekend everyone in the UK!

Butterick B4443 - Part 3 and look Mum, my 5 mins of fame.....

Also entitled, is interfacing and interlining the bodice a tad too much?

Yesterday the dress came together.  If you had the luxury of sewing for one full day you could make this dress as it's so simple.  Sadly I don't so I have the lining to complete and the corselette to attach:

This is the interfaced and interlined bodice section, attached to the skirt.  Remember to trim all excess seam allowances anywhere a seam crosses to reduce bulk (yet to trim the seams in this picture)

 I wanted to show you how to ensure your zip doesn't move when inserting it.  It's one of those simple techniques, but makes a huge difference to the back seam by keeping the horizontal seams in one line! (and an excuse to show off my newly manicured nails....)

 See, by crossing the pins, the zip has no way of shifting as you stitch.  Oh, I forgot to mention I decided to go with a concealed zip because I don't want any more bulk in the back area (remember there will also be the corselette closure too)

Lastly, for this stage, I try the dress on inside out and pin the front to the back down both side seams.  As you can see, there was a little bit of tweaking on the bodice, but I expected this.

And Finally....

My edition of Sew Today arrived yesterday morning so  I made a nice cup of tea and settled down to read it in peace. 

 I nearly spilt my tea when I saw this on the second page....

It's me!!!  I'm deep in conversation with Sara Radford who makes boned bodices and corsets.  She was displaying a tutu, which I'm sure Sara won't mind me saying wasn't really a tutu.  It was her first attempt so to save costs she used dress net and gathered every layer.  If you look carefully the bodice is a pretty underbust corset - not something a ballerina could wear on stage, ha,ha! We were at Sewing For Pleasure at the NEC end of March (where I bought this dress fabric).  I don't remember having my picture taken at all.  Queue quietly for autographs please.......

And just because, here is a picture of Alison Smith - a lovely, lovely lady who runs and owns Fabulous Fabrics and Alison Victoria School of Sewing.  I have taken a few of Alison's courses and always enjoy every moment I spend with her.  Look at that beautiful red corset!

I hope you are having a good day.  It's Good Friday, so fish on the BBQ this evening...

Butterick B4443 Part 2 - inner construction

The powernet corselette is as complete as it can be at this stage.  I'm cross with myself because in my haste I realised I didn't have the poly boning that I wanted to use so have resorted to Rigeline.  It will be fine, just not my preferred type of boning.

Here's the stages following the pinning of the strips

 Press all seams open using your ham for the bust area

Fold the piece in half, wrong sides together and press the bottom edge

Prepare your Rigeline (if using this "lovely" product)  Some people balk at the sight of a flame in the sewing room, but I find this technique works well for me.  Once you have cut your pieces, round off the edges and hold close to the candle flame.  DO NOT put the Rigeline into the flame or else you'll end up with a gooey mess.  The heat will melt the edges and ensures it doesn't unravel, or those horrible spikes don't break through and get you!

Sew the Rigeline down using large a zigzag stitch ensuring you leave a gap of 2cm at the top and approx 1.5cm at the bottom.  Here you can see the wrong side which will be placed against the dress, and the right side which will be closest to the body.

Remember to use a ballpoint or stretch needle when you sew your powernet pieces together.  I also used mine to stitch down the Rigeline so that needle is now in the bin, it won't be any good for a new project.

That's it.  I won't be doing any more to this section until the dress is almost complete.  You can give the corselette its own closure and I prefer to use lingerie hook and eye tape but you can use a light weight open ended bodice zip (good luck with finding one, they aren't easy to get hold of), or you can attach the corselette closure directly to the dress and dress zip - Clear as mud?  I'll show you when I get there.

Enjoy your day, it's another lovely one here, the birds woke me up at 5 this morning.  I'm not complaining, more sewing time!

Butterick B4443 - a work in progress

This is a lovely pattern for summer dresses and doesn't call for much fabric.  I'm making view A and am using one of my NEC purchases from Fabulous Fabrics - I have just 1.4 meters.

When I read the instructions (a good habit I don't want to break no matter how simple the garment I am making!) I was so suprised....  This strapless dress has no inner structure or boning- can you believe it?!  Ok if you're young and have small bossoms under your chin and don't need any support, but not for a 40-something E cupped lady; Oh, perhaps that tells me something about who the pattern is designed for.

Anyway, I plowed on.  The instructions went back in the envelope and the dress will be made my way.  Whenever I make strapless dresses I always make up the front and back, but NEVER stitch the two together until the side seams have been pin-fitted which works very well for me, and I make a powernet corselette for inner structure (Unless it's a special occassion and then I might make a proper corset within the dress).

I'll show you my progress as the days go on, but here's where I am right now:

Skirt looks as though it's hanging strangely, but it is
 okay - I think it's just the heavy calico

Toile cut as a size 12 top, grading to a 14 at the waist and the skirt section is cut as a 14.  I added 1" seam allowances at the back because I'm not sure if  I will be using an invisible zip or a lapped zip - better to have too much fabric and trim it off than the other way around and also at the side seams - another habit I just can't break...

I kept my bra on as I will still wear a strapless bra with the finished dress.  Look mum, bust point is in the right place!



You can clearly see where the front has been sewn together and
how I've pinned the side seams.

 Pin the dress together down one side and to the zip point on the other - you need to be able to get into it!  Pinning yourself in isn't the easiest of tasks but with patience and practice it works out okay.  My zip will be down the back but I never put them into my toiles so the back is just stitched up.

Okay, so with a few tweeks I know it's going to fit just fine and I'm happy with the length too.  Now onto the inner structure.  I'm using flesh coloured powernet.  Ideally I'd like to use white but I didn't have any in my stash and as ever, I'm too impatient to wait for a delivery!


My personal corselette pattern.  This is the right hand side. 
Note the bottom edge of the pattern is on the fold.

Once you have cut out your pieces, you  have long thin shapes:


I've just pinned the right side together so you can see how it will look once stitched and folded:

I'm sure you've grasped the idea.  I will use a lingerie hook and eye closure and it will be boned with nylon boning (not horrid Rigeline) I won't use spirals in this instance.  As it's a summer dress it will need to go in the washing machine and I don't want to remove and re-stitch metal bones.

Just one last thing I will be interfacing the top section as my fabric has a slight crosswise stretch and I will be  interlining the top with white cotton too - just to ensure no one can see through it and to ensure the flesh powernet doesn't change the top section colouring.  The skirt will be lined with white bremsilk.



On a parting shot, I've been sewing "bits" over the last week.  Here's a jumper that went all bobbly after a couple of wears (SO annoying).  I felted it in the washing machine and made it into a cushion!

I hope the weather is as good for you as it has been for us here in Wiltshire.  We are experienceing unusually warm weather, lets pray this isn't our summer - remember the months of rain last year?

Enjoy the rest of your week

How do you hang your skirts and trousers?

During a recent class, one lady asked me how and when to add hanging loops to her skirt so she could hang it up due to the fact that her daughter had "borrowed" all her expandable hangers.

I had one of those moments where you realise you have forgotten more than you can remember!  This is a technique I used to use but had forgotten about it until asked and, oddly enough, until I revisited my new book which I reviewd here 

The technique is so simple and allows your garment to hang without sagging (ie those long hanging loops on RTW clothing).

Here's the finished result.  I applied it to my Susan Skirt

Using lining fabric I cut a (true) bias strip 30cm long and 2.5cm wide. 
Fold it half lengthwise and stitch 6mm from the cut edge.
Use a loop turner/bobby pin/needle to turn the loop
Cut the length in half
Attach to wrong side of waistband,over the side seams, by folding in raw ends approx 5mm and hand stitch in place using a double thread (waxed if you're really going for it!)

Because these loops are horizontal to the garment they can be hung on normal hangers and they won't poke out to the right side whilst wearing.  It's such a simple technique and stops any wrinkling in the wardrobe too!

Grey Pinstripe Skirt and Waspie - Done!

In traditional Pin Queen style, I have NO photo of me actually wearing the garments - I'm still nagging waiting for Ian to take the pictures (it's only a case of pressing a button darling!).

In the meantime here's a couple of views of work in progress:


It looks like a normal side seam...



But there's a surprise!

I used a slotted seam to achieve this look.  The technique is very simple and gives a lovely result (think crepe trousers with satin trim etc...)  Set your sewing machine to a longer stitch length - I used 3.5 on my Janome.  Once the side seam is sewn, meld stitches.  Take a seam ripper and cut every 5th stitch, then press your seam open as usual.  Next, you need to lay your trim over the seam allowances as follows:



Oh look, my nails match!

If you have a walking foot, it's a good idea to use it as the next step is to stitch the trim to just the seam allowances, work from the top down on both sides in case there is any movement - I had a small amount. You can decide how far apart you want the stitches to be, mine were around 1.5cm as I want the trim to be really visible when I walk.

Oops, my trim moved as I sewed it, but at least it's on the inside!

Press the seam/trim and now the fun bit - remove the original seam stitches - the ripping of every 5th stitch makes this process a little easier.

I love putting in concealed zips:

Here's a quick view of the inside - a lovely bright green!

Here are a couple of pictures of the waspie in progress.  I used a soft coutil for the backing as it's one of my favorite fabrics.  I use it all the time for my corsets too.

As you can see, I sewed the side seams wrong sides together so I could put my casings on the outside.  As I don't want this to be tight fitting I used plastic whalebone rather than spirals for support.

I cut my casings so the stripes were horizontal, just so they stood out and I've stitched them down with green thread.  The closing is an open-ended zip (I didn't want to use a busk) and I've trimmed it with the green lace used on the skirt lining.

I'm delighted with the results!  Photo's to follow.  Perhaps I should just have an end of month fashion show?!

Now I'm working on this - and it's nearly finished!

Have a good week!