Point turning tips

Dissatisfied by the look of my collar and cuff points, I searched for an easy way to achieve pointy points.

My "technique" was inspired by this tutorial from Off The Cuff blog.

I tried a few times, but each time the thread "escaped".

So here is what I'm doing now ; once my collar/cuff is sewn and the angle cut, before turning it, I put a pin just at the angle, between the two layers, then turn it inside out (careful with the fingers), and pull on the pin. The head is caught by the seam, but it's so tiny that it "pushes" well into the corner. And then I remove my pin.

For the photo, I used a "big" pin, for the purposes of demonstration only.

Of course I could buy a point turning tool, if only I could find one here. (and not pay 15$ in shipping costs)

How to justify buying a coverlock - Ch.2 - Easy belt loops

Because fold in three, iron it, and put it in the coverlock.

Let's talk about button placement on shirts

While researching the perfect shirt pattern, I looked at hundred of home made shirts.
While researching for what I liked in a shirt, I looked at dozens shirts in stores.

There's an epidemic. Something serious is happening.

One main reproach toward shirts (from my friends, and people around me), is the gaping in the closure at the bust.

When you look at shirt patterns instructions, the matter of button placement is always quite elusive. "Put 8 buttons, begin at the top, and ending at the bottom, at about 6" from each others", or something like this.

And when you don't have this clever and expensive tool (a Simflex ?), you just have to use your brain. (and we all have one, for free, isn't it great ?)

(look how smug I am, in my wallpaper shirt)

Your shirt is gaping because there should be a button right in front of the bust point.
No need for quantum physics.

I have two solutions. An empirical one, and a lazy and approximate one.

The first one. Put your unfinished shirt on, and close it with pins. When it's comfortable (move a bit in it), go in front of a mirror (or ask for help), and put a pin on the closure on the line between your two bust points.

The second one. On you pattern, or on your unfinished shirt laid flat, put a pin on the closure part at the same height as (/in front of) the point of you bust dart.

Then take you graduated ruler and your calculator, and do the math to place your buttons at equal distance of each other (the important buttons here being the collar and bust ones).

If you prefer nice, clear tutorials, A Fashionable Stitch has a good one. (with a Simflex)

Unorthodox quilt finishing method - Lazy, and machine friendly.

Professional, dedicated, and serious quilters, please go away now.

I hate bias. And I don't like hand stitching much either.
Finishing a quilt with a hand stitched bias ? Nope. No, no. Do not insist, please.

So, if you don't care about traditional quilting, and think that, either way, your quilt will be loved (and warm) all the same, here's how I do it.

Considering your backing and batting have to be about 10cm (4") larger than your top, once your quilting is done, cut your batting at the same size as your top, and cut your backing about 2.5cm (1") larger than your top.
(see where I'm going ?)

Fold twice this edge over your top, and top-stitch. From the top point of view, it seems you have a bias finishing.
With this technique, you have to make sure your backing "suits" your top. No hiding a cheap/ugly backing.

Burda winter skirt (in summer) and easy edge stitch tips

There's not much to say about my Burda skirt, apart from the fact that this mini is a november pattern, and I had to lenghten it to make it seemly.

As a reminder, this is what you get when you google "germany winter" :

And this is the skirt -Burda Magazine 10/2011 #102- (in summer) :

The denim was quite pricey (16€/metre) and I had a "stingy moment", so I had to make do with just 0.80m (0.7y). (I couldn't fit everything, so the pockets are in a plain cotton).

So all this to talk a bit about what I do to make clean edge stitches -used a lot in jeans sewing-, while being lazy, stingy, and glamorous (always).

Most machines have an option to move the needle lateraly (yes, even the cheap ones). You can make the most of it in this situation. If you have a premium machine, you surely have the kind of foot shown at the bottom and don't need the tips.

Press your seam, move your needle to the far right (or left if you prefer), or to 1mm from the inside of your foot (if you can). Put your seam against the inside of your foot. Sew.

To make the additional seam, move your needle 5mm from the first seam (if your machine permit it). Repeat.

At school, I was taught to do the exact same thing on an industrial machine, with this type of foot (see below) -without moving the needle, as it's impossible-. Which is why RTW edge stitches are so narrow and precise. (to make the additional 5mm stitches, you just put the edge of your seam on/under the external side of the foot, half a foot being 5mm)

Or you can buy an edge stitching foot...

Finishing technique : facing with bias tape

I first used this technique for some armhole finishings on a sleeveless shirt a while back during training in a garment factory.

It's really easy and quick to do (hence used in the RTW process).

What it looks like, on a garment. (you can see it on the left, on the peplums' edges)

I used a retail 4cm bias tape folded in 4. Ideally a self-fabric bias tape is better, because this kind of finishing requires to fold in 3, whereas retail bias is folded in 4.

As the folds of my bias are 1cm, I let a 1cm seam allowance. I put my bias on the edge on the right side and sew in the middle of the tape. Then I cut the external fold of my bias (you don't have to do this if you use self-fabric bias).

Turn your bias on the wrong side, press, and stitch at 1mm.

I choose to use this technique on this blouse because the fabric is a bit too light for large facings, as the pattern was initially designed, and also because it has rounded edges, and I didn't see myself hemstitching them. (nervously, I couldn't)

I also used it on a knit fabric, for a garment that didn't need stretch on the edges. (but I could have used a stretch bias tape)

Knit collar : Tips for lazy people

Lazy people ? Yep, that's me.

When I began sewing knit and jersey fabrics, I mostly wanted to do t-shirts, being tired of the tote-bag-like fitting and the dull colors I found in stores. Searching for the right ribbing for the collarband proved too complicated impossible. So I opted for self-fabric collar. (lazy #I)

I searched on the internet for the formula that would magically give me a perfect collarband. (lazy #II)
I found anything between 50% and 90%. I was not satisfied. I bought patterns. (lazy #III)

Looking at the patterns, I found that, often, the right proportion was around 90%.

Here's a demonstration on a modified Renfrew with a V collar. (I used only half of the garment) I want my collarband to be 1,5cm (3/8") large. The collar on the main piece is 36cm (14"1/16), and the edge of the collarband is 32cm (12"3/8), so the ratio is 89%. Logically, the larger the collarband, the smaller the ratio.
Depending on the fabric, I'll use a slightly smaller percentage if I want my collarband to stay flat (lightweight, or very stretchy fabrics for examples).

As you may have noticed on the first photo, I sew knits with my serger. So I had problems sewing the central part of the V neck collarband, as it's a zigzag. (btw, Kwik Sew tells me to sew a rectangle, and then, when I've attached the collarband to the bodice, to sew by hand the center part to make it flat... I love Kwik Sew, but no, just no).

So This is what I do : right side on right side, I then fold neetly in two and sew straight. (lazy #IV)



Then I "open" my collarband, and cut the small part standing out.

But I would not advise this for heavyweight fabric, as all the seam allowances end up on the same side.

For the same reason as above, I begin sewing my V neck at the center of the V ; this way I don't have to take any turn, and my V doesn't end up as a U. (lazy #V)