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Sewing Ideas and Inspiration
I always like to start with what I'm wearing. This is a simple shift dress (Burda 6721) in our beautiful John Kaldor Ursula fabric. It is the most gorgeous fabric, but I'm afraid we've sold out of this particular colour way a few times over. We do have an alternative colour way here which is just as lovely though.
I also wanted to make you aware of a competition we are running this month. We love seeing what you've made using our products so for a chance to win £20 simply share a photo of what you've made on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook using the hashtag #sewessyourmakes. The competition ends on the 31st March.
Next Eleanor Ritchie said: 'I get confused between hemming tape and stay tape - are they different and if so how and when do you use them?'
Firstly hemming web. This is like Bondaweb, is fusible and can be ironed on to fabric for a no stitch hem. For example a non sewer might use this to repair a hem on their child's school trousers.
Ann Grodzicka wanted to know about how to sew with a twin needle. She said she noticed a hem sewn with a twin needle on jersey fabric had 'popped' and wanted advice on how to avoid this.
To overcome this problem try using a very small zig zag stitch instead of a straight stitch when sewing with the twin needle. Try a 0.5mm zig zag stitch and hand wheel it first on scraps of fabric to make sure it will work with the needle size you have chosen. It will be barely noticable, but will give some additional stretch to your stitches.
We received a few request for information on twin needles so I wrote a detailed blog post all about it last week. The link to our blog is here. In a nutshell I covered the types of twin needle, threading for a twin needle, sewing with a twin needle and trouble shooting.
Cheryl Anderson asked where I got my lovely pegboard from.
Well Cheryl I looked a the prices of the ready made pegboards and decided they were far to expensive so i made my own. Correction, I roped my Husband into making it! I went to a local timber merchants/hardware place and bought the pegboard bit. I also bought the wooden framing. Then my Husband kindly cut it to size, I painted it and he assembled it. It was much cheaper than the ready made versions.
Hayleigh also asked how do you finish a neckband in a woven fabric?
Hayleigh I took this to mean how do you finish a neckline in a woven fabric. The options are to use a bias binding or a facing. A bias binding is a narrow strip of fabric cut on the bias. You can buy ready made bias binding or create your own from strips of fabric. You can find a blog post on how to do that here.
To sew the binding in place you line up the raw edge of the binding with the raw edge of the neckline fabric. You then stitch the binding in place. The seam allowance for this will vary depending on how wide the binding is. You usually stitch at the point which is a quarter of the width of the binding. It is important to slightly stretch as you sew so the binding will lie flat.
You then have several options. You could turn the binding completely inside the garment and top stitch it down from the right side. In this case you would need to finish the raw edge of the binding first. Alternatively you could press the loose end of the binding under and top stitch or hand sew in place. This will add bulk so it depends on the fabric which is the best method to use.
Another option is to have the binding visible rather than folding it completely inside the garment. If you do this you can stitch in the ditch from the right side to secure. Alternatively you could fold under and hand sew in place. Again you need to consider how flat you want the binding to lie and the type of fabric you are using.
Many sewing patterns for woven fabrics come with a facing to finish the neckline. However, you can create your own by drawing round the neckline on the pattern piece. It is an additional piece of fabric that you attach at the neckline then turn inside the garment. It isn't visible from the right side of the garment. You usually interface a facing and finish the raw edge with an overlocking or overcasting stitch.
Kathleen Meadows said: 'what I've noticed about your shop in the UK is that you carry top notch quality fabrics - do you ship to Canada?'
Thank you Kathleen, I'm happy to tell you, yes we do!
Lyn Martin asked: 'What should you do when pattern matching? Are there areas that should be matched and others where it does not matter? How can you work out where to place the individual pattern pieces?'
This is quite a big topic, but here are some general tips. Firstly it depends on the fabric. If it is an incredibly busy fabric you probably don't need to bother pattern matching. If it is going to be very obvious if you don't pattern match you might want to consider it.
Also consider the pattern you have chosen. If the pattern has a lot of lines such as princess seams or yolks it will be more challenging to pattern match. It might be easier to choose a pattern with very simple lines.
The priority areas for pattern matching are side seams and centre back/front seams because these are the most obvious. Remember that darts will alter the length of the pattern piece at the side seams. A good tip is to pattern match from the hem up. This is because the bottom half of the garment will be much more visible than the top half where the side seams will be partially hidden under your arms. Another very obvious place to prioritise would be if the garment has pockets.
Some useful tips for cutting out include to consider cutting on a single layer of fabric rather than folding the fabric. Also always remember to take your seam allowances into account. Line the pattern pieces up with an obvious point on the fabric and then repeat for the corresponding pattern piece taking into account the seam allowances. Look at where 5/8" will fall and that will show you where the match needs to take place with the other piece.
Have fun sewing!
Lucy
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