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Most patterns these days are multi-sized. This can cause a question to come to your mind: should you just cut out your size or should you make a copy of your size?
Here is how I decide whether or not to invest the time in copying the pattern onto other paper (either tissue paper or plotter paper - I have a huge roll of 30" wide plotter paper that will take me decades to use up).
One side of the argument is that patterns are (or can be) relatively inexpensive - it may be better to spend the money and buy another pattern than to spend the time copying the pattern.
Generally, patterns that are intended for my personal use will have a lot of fitting alterations. Since I'm going to be really cutting up the original pattern, and because I might actually make a mistake in these alterations, I prefer to work with a copy.
One question is how many times you might make the garment - and how your body might change shape in the interim.
Another question is whether you plan to make different sizes of the same pattern. This applies especially to baby clothes. Babies grow so fast, and the little garments are so quick to make. When I was sewing for my new grandson, I made at least one of each size of romper and bunting. I copied those patterns to the plotter paper, because it was sturdier, and I knew I would be reusing the patterns a lot.
Here are some photos of the baby patterns, and one zippered baby bag made from the pattern before I knew I would have a grandson. I only made the newborn size of the zippered baby bag. But the romper and sleeper in the pattern on the right was made in all available sizes - there is one little pile of paper for each garment and size.
Note: I'm talking about copying for personal use only, not for commercial use, not to share with friends, or other infringements of copyright.
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When I was making a lot of wear-to-the-office jackets, I would mark the placement of the pockets with a couple of tailors chalk marks at the two upper corners of the pocket. I figured that there was no point in marking the full outline of the pocket onto the fronts - I found that my pockets usually ended up not matching those markings anyway. By marking the two upper corners, at least I knew that the pocket top would be horizontal.
When I teach the Beginners Apron Workshop, I use a different approach.
- Before the paper pattern is removed from the apron, just mark the lower edge of the pocket somewhere near the center of the apron, on the RIGHT side of the fabric.
- When the main part of the apron is finished (hemmed all around), fold the apron exactly in half lengthwise, with WRONG sides together, and lightly press along the fold - just press enough that you can see the press mark when you open the apron out.
- When the pocket is ready for application, do the same: press it in half along the center, also with WRONG sides together.
- Lay the apron on a table, right side up, so that the press mark forms a little mountain down the center.
- Lay the pocket on the apron, right side up, so that the pocket's mountain lies right on the apron's mountain, and the pocket just covers the bottom-of-the-pocket mark done in the first step.
- Pin the pocket on the apron at both ends of the pocket mountain.
- Eyeball or measure to confirm that the top of the pocket is parallel to the bottom hem or top hem or the underarms.
Mountain matching is an easy concept to understand. Try it.
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Definition: Staystitching is a line of straight stitches that prevents curved or bias edges, such as necklines, shoulders and waistlines, from stretching out of shape as they are handled during sewing and pressing.
When I am teaching beginners to sew, I use an apron pattern designed for teaching. One of the things that it emphasizes is stay stitching. In fact, once the students are comfortable with the machine, I give them a miniature bodice piece of fabric to work with (about 5" square), and tell them to stay stitch around the neckline and armhole edges. I tell them to position the cut edge of the fabric even with the edge of the presser foot as a seam allowance - that's roughly 3/8". And I use that same seam allowance when they are stay stitching the armhole of the apron.
The folks at Simplicity Patterns have written a nice article on stay stitching, which I won't duplicate here! But I will point out that they recommend a 1/2 inch or 1.3 cm seam allowance for the stay stitching.
In my own defence, I will state that I am not prepared to have beginners attempt to deal with too many seam allowances. I use either 5/8 inch (1.5 cm) or "edge of presser foot".
In fact, most students use the 1.5 cm line of the throatplate instead of the 5/8" line, primarily because the metric line is closer to their eyes. So I'm not about to tell them to use a 1.3 cm seam allowance for the stay stitching! I want them to be able to follow a line on the throatplate.
Anyway, one of the things that I have observed is something that relates to one line in the Simplicity article: "Remember...you don't have to staystitch every seam — just where it is indicated."
If a pattern calls for stay stitching on the bodice pieces, I rarely see it call for stay stitching on the corresponding pieces - especially neck or armhole facings.
Stay stitching's big benefit is that it keeps a bias or curved raw edge from stretching out of shape while you are manipulating other parts of the fabric.
In my experience, there is usually more manipulation of the facing pieces (clean finishing and pressing, for example) than perhaps on the main bodice (darts, usually). So there is at least as much, or even more, opportunity for getting a warped facing than there is for getting a warped bodice.
But most patterns don't tell you to stay stitch the facings.
So my tip is to stay stitch facings as well as the other curved edges on the garment - whether or not the pattern tells you to do so. That way, the fabric will match the paper pattern better.
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Shortening a T-Shirt
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I love buying - and wearing - souvenir T-Shirts. I like the memento of a place that I have visited.
My problem? A pear-shaped body. So to get a shirt that fits me, I have to get it oversized - but those shirts tend to be way too long. So, being the keen seamstress that I am, I just cut off the bottom few inches and re-hem the shirt.
Most commercial T-Shirts are hemmed using a serger cover stitch. My serger does have that capability, but I have found that it is a fairly complicated process to switch to cover stitch, so I don't do it that often - usually just for garments that I am making from scratch.
One of the big benefits of a serger cover stitch over a sewing machine straight stitch is that it flattens the edge of the hem. With just a straight stitch, the hem has a strong tendency to flip up.
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The solution: use one of the funky decorative stitches on your sewing machine. These stitches are wide enough that they flatten the edge of the hem. They're pretty. And putting it on a T-Shirt hem is a fairly harmless, yet useful, method of testing what it would look like on fabric.
The photo shows both the original hem and the new decorative hem. Now, one could think that perhaps I used white thread on the hem to add to the decoration. The reality is that I didn't have any matching thread, and there was white on the T-Shirt picture, so I went with white for the hem sewing.
By the way, one other quick alteration that I make to an oversize T-Shirt is to put tucks in the shoulder seams - that helps to make the sleeves less droopy.
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Keep pattern tissues handy
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Many people, in the interests of neatness, fold up the pattern tissues as soon as possible and put them back into the pattern envelope. (Some of us even try to match the original fold lines - and occasionally succeed!)
Here are some reasons to be less hasty about putting the pattern pieces back into the envelope.
- There is a possibility that you missed a marking on the fabric.
- There is a possibility that you missed cutting the required number of pieces in fabric (a typical example is a collar piece that is cut on the fold - you need to cut 2 collars) (another example is that sometimes four cuff pieces are needed).
- There is a possibility that you forgot to cut out the corresponding interfacing (that happens to me a lot!)
- There is a possibility that the fabric has stretched out of shape due to handling
- There is a possibility that as soon as you are finished sewing this garment, you will want to sew another one because it was so much fun, or you can make the second one fit just a bit better.
If one of those possibilities actually happens, you have to retrieve the pattern pieces from the envelope, try to find the correct one - you usually have to unfold all of them to even see the number of the piece, and then refold everything again to stuff back in the envelope.
In my sewing classroom, I usually leave the tissue pieces out and near the pile of fabric that the students are working on, until they are done. At that point, I double check that all of the tissue pieces are there and are for this student's project (that no tissue pieces have migrated from another student's pile). Finally, the pieces are refolded and stuffed into the envelope.
This hint is especially useful where a single pattern envelope contains patterns for multiple different garments (top, jacket, skirt, pants, and more).
Yes, we are just dealing with possibilities. But this is risk management.
One explanation about risk management is that risk is just probability times impact.
Some people measure impact in terms of dollars, but there are other ways to measure it.
The probability of your house catching fire is really low, but the impact to you if it did occur is phenomenally high. So you get fire insurance on your house.
If you sleep in a bit, the probability that you will miss your usual bus is quite high, but the impact to you is minimal - you can get the next bus.
On the other hand, if you leave work a bit later than usual, the probability that you will miss your usual bus is similarly quite high - but if what you have missed is the last bus, the impact to you will be significant.
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Preventing pucker on the underneath fabric
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One of the big frustrations that occurs when sewing is that sometimes you finish the seam, look at the underside, and realize that there is a pucker - or maybe more than one (see the photo to the right). I find that this occurs a lot with beginners. Here are a few reasons why it happens, and how to prevent it.
When this happens, you have to rip out the stitches around the pucket and re-sew the seam.
In my classes, I always make a point of being the one to do any un-sewing. For starters, I teach a lot of kids to sew, and the seam ripper is a sharp object, with a potential for ripping the fabric as well as the stitches. But the main reason is that un-sewing is a disheartening activity, even for adults - the students are disappointed enough that they made a mistake - why add to their misery? Anyway, that is my teaching philosophy.
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A common occurrence is when the fabric is big and heavy and does not stay on the table well. You can see in this photo that there are folds already starting to form. The answer is to get the fabric onto the table, weighing it down if necessary, so that the fabric is going into the machine flatly.
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Another thing that I see in the classroom is that people want to straighten out curves so that the entire curve aligns with the seam allowance line (in these photos, marked by green masking tape - a tool that is used a lot on my classroom for the kids). When you try to straighten out the curve, the under-layer might get a fold in it at a different place from any top folds, and the result will be a pucker.
The answer is to NOT straighten out the curves. When you sew a curve, keep the fabric flat. Then sew 3-5 stitches (or more, if it is a gentle curve), put the needle in the fabric, adjust the fabric so that the area near the needle is even with the seam allowance line, and sew another 3-5 stitches, and repeat.
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A common opportunity for an unwanted pucker is when setting in a sleeve. Whether I have the sleeve on the top or the bottom, it seems like the probability for such a pucker increases.
The answer is to just sew a couple of inches (or a few centimeters), and then confirm that the underside is still aligned properly: lift the fabric in front of the needle and feel the underneath side, pushing anything that might pucker into a safer spot.
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Not enough fabric
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Here is one solution to the problem of not quite enough fabric to make a garment.
My mother made this one for me. I like to wear jackets like this to work.
She had acquired some fabric that she felt would look gorgeous on me. But when she laid out the pattern pieces, she found that she had enough to make the back and sleeves, but not the fronts. But if she put on her quilter's hat, she could see opportunities (the scraps were large enough to provide opportunities).
So she started to piece the scraps together. She completely ignored the grain - and grain was pretty prominent with this fabric - there is a subtle stripe about an inch wide throughout the fabric.
But this is what made the garment ART instead of MAKE-DO: all of the piecing seams were trimmed with lace.
I was quite pleased with the result.
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Lining a jacket sleeve
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This is a technique I learned from one of the Sewing with Nancy shows on TV many years ago, and have used ever since.
One key point is that you should always line a jacket sleeve. If a sleeve is unlined, and you are wearing a shirt, sometimes the fabric of the shirt can drag as you are putting the sleeve off and on. Lining a sleeve makes it so much easier to put on and take off.
The primary benefit of this particular technique is to make a nice and easy finish where the lining is connected to the sleeve hem.
The technique applies to sleeves that are tubular at the hem, to sleeves that do NOT have an opening at the sleeve hem.
- Cut the sleeves out of the fashion fabric as instructed.
- Fold the sleeve pattern at the hem turn-up point.
- Cut the sleeves out of the lining fabric, but make them shorter, following that fold line.
- If the sleeves are two-piece sleeves, sew the back seams as usual. Do not sew the underarm seam.
- Sew a left sleeve to a left lining, right sides together, along the bottom edge, with a 5/8 inch (1.5 cm) seam allowance. It is all right that the lining is shorter. Press that seam towards the lining.
- Fold the sleeve lengthwise, matching the underarm edges, the hem seam, and any other matching points. Sew this seam to make a really long tube. Press the seam as usual.
- Turn the tube right side out. Reach into the tube from the armhole section of the fashion fabric, and bring the lining up to meet the armhole.
- Baste the two armholes together, and from now on, treat the sleeve pieces as a single entity. This is an appropriate time to run your gathering rows along the sleeve head.
The hem seam is magically an appropriate distance above the hem, and it is neatly done.
If the rest of the jacket is unlined, then just complete the jacket as instructed.
If the rest of the jacket is lined, then just handsew the bodice lining armhole to the sleeve lining at the sleeve seam. The is especially important if you want to insert shoulder pads between the fashion fabric and the lining.
(Personal confession) I like my jackets lined, but I never insert the shoulder pads between the fashion fabric and the lining: I just sew the bodice lining to the bodice, and then serge all 4 layers together at the armhole (so that there is at least a finished seam on the inside). I then sew lining fabric around the shoulder pads, and tack the result to the shoulders. By the time I am doing the tacking, the rest of the jacket is finished, and I can see how the garment will hang on me with the shoulder pads in place.
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Copyright 2009 Judith Obee.
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