The Clapper

Here's what a clapper looks like. It's a nice hardwood of some kind and very smooth. It doesn't weigh that much - less than an iron anyway. I have seen other conformations in photos but never used any one other than this one.

The only "trick" to a clapper is in when you use it. First you press the area that you want to be really flat. I am using the blue jacket I currently still have not finished as the demo. Make sure your iron is warm enough for the fabric and preferably using steam. There could be some delicate fabrics that won't take much heat or any steam but I'm not sure you'd want to use a clapper on them anyway.

As soon as you remove the iron from the pressed fabric, place the clapper on the hot fabric and press. You can rub the clapper along the fabric or pat it, or, if the fabric is heavy cotton, pound it. The idea is to get the clapper to absorb the heat and steam and sort of force it back into the fabric. I'm not sure exactly how it works, but you do end up with really flat fabric after using the clapper.

This demo uses the jean jacket because of all the bands and things on it. On the bottom band, I sew the patterned fabric (the inside of the band) to the WRONG side of the jacket. Then I fold it up and attach the folded edge to the OUTSIDE or right side of the jacket. In order to make the seams flat, I first press them open, regardless of whether they will stay open. In this photo, I am pressing both seam allowances into the band area, after I have pressed them open.

Then I turn the garment over and press the seam on the finished side (which in this spot is the WRONG side of the jacket body). This is effectively the third time I have pressed this seam. Since it will be the final press in this spot before I do the top stitching, I also use the clapper.

As I go along pressing a seam, I make a little train out of the iron and the clapper, first pressing with heat and steam and following with the clapper to make it good and flat. With this twill fabric, I just run the clapper along the seam. But if I get to areas that won't stay flat, I won't hesitate to pound on them with the clapper.

Then I make the bottom band ends by sewing right sides together, folding the band along the seam where I have joined the print to the plain fabric.

Once I turn the corner right side out and poke the point of the corner out with a point turner, I can iron the end flat too. In this photo, I have not ironed it yet.

Finally, I have to see how much seam allowance I have to turn under, when I get ready to sew the folded edge of the band to the jacket with topstitching, on the RIGHT side of the jacket body.

First I fold the seam allowance under so it just covers the stitching line where I first attached the band. Then I pull it away to see that I DO have about 5/8ths of an inch and so I will trim about half of that away before I pin the fold down and topstitch it.

A Sleeve

June 12
I've got hung up with a job interview (full time teaching instead of just part time - the interview went well as far as I am concerned but you never know with these things) and gearing up to work at the Habitat for Humanity "Women Build" here near Ottawa. I had to take a safety course in preventing falls last night but it was fun and I learned a lot. Tomorrow I have to show up at the site at 7 in the morning, complete with steel-toed-full-steel-shank boots and a tool belt. I'm ready! Too bad I have to take two buses to get there. In the meanwhile, my sewing languishes.

I promised a reader a clapper tutorial and will write it up tomorrow (after working construction for the day!) but in the meantime, here is a photo of how I set the sleeves in on most garments. I rarely baste and prefer instead to use as many pins as I can possibly stick in the fabric.

In the other meantime, we are ordering a tandem to celebrate out 25th anniversary and while not occupying actual minutes of sewing time, does preoccupy me. Where shall we go first!?

Working on the patterned skirt

I decided to get the other skirt finished before I continued on the blue jacket, partly because I wanted to be able to wear a new skirt and partly because someone made a comment on an old Flickr photo about under-stitching and I thought I could show a little of that this time.

Here is the skirt facing, sewed on, trimmed and ironed with the seam allowance pressed toward the facing.

Here I am, sewing the trimmed seam allowance to the facing by under-stitching. There's a bit of confusion in this photo because I folded back the first part that I sewed, so you could see the underside and the tops side all in one photo. Unfortunately, it looks like I've sewed the two parts together because I put them so close together in the photo.

However, here is an extreme close-up of the finished facing, inside and out, with the under-stitching showing.

After that, I needed to fold under the ends of the facing and then fold the whole facing to the inside of the skirt and tack it down, near the zipper and at each of the other three seams. A good press and...

... the skirt is done! I hung it on top of the blue skirt I finished yesterday and now it's back to the jacket.

The Blue Jacket and Skirt

Forging ahead with the blue fabric, I have finished the incredibly easy four panel skirt.

It will go with everything, including of course, the green jacket.

Except for the bands (cuffs and bottom) here are the contrast pieces. I tried doing the topstitching in blue on both top and bobbin threads to see how it would look. I used the tabs as test pieces because they are small and you never really see the undersides of them. I didn't like the way it looked (as I suspected) and so I did the rest of the contrast topstitching with blue on the top and white on the bobbin.

I also did the buttonholes on the flaps and tabs before sewing them to the jacket. I often do this because it's just easier to put them under the buttonholer but couldn't do it with the green jacket because I had not got the buttons yet. In this photo, you can also see the way the topstitching looks on both sides.

I am including this photo of the inside of the back yoke because of how I like to press things really flat. Even though the seam allowances get pressed up, I first press them open and then press them up. One more step but I think it makes the finish worthwhile. I tried taking a photo of the right side with one half only pressed up and the other double pressed but you couldn't see the difference in the photo. Of course, I can tell the difference in real life! Truly. :)

Here is the blue jacket on Rose, about half done, with one pocket flap artfully pinned up to show the contrast.

The green jacket is done

So I finished the green jacket last week and have even worn it twice and am started on the blue one but haven't blogged in ages. Sorry about it.

It has been so long, I had to go back to the last entry to see where I left off. Here is a shot of the bottom band, about half on. I sew the blue or inside to the wrong side of the jacket body, then sew up the ends. When it is turned right-side-out, the green side of the band gets sewn to the outside or right side of the jacket using topstitching.

Here's what it looks like when all finished. The topstitching on the outside is all done in green of course. On the inside, I used blue bobbin thread except for the first line of stitching that attaches the folded edge of the band in the first place. That line of stitching never (or rarely) falls on the blue band but instead, falls onto the body of the jacket which in this case, is green. If you go to Flickr and look closely, you will see a line of green thread and only one line of blue stitching where the band meets the body.

I made the tabs with the underside in blue too, so you get a little hint of it at times. Having worn the jacket now, I know that the casual observer might not notice any blue at all unless I had the cuffs rolled up. But I still really like the subtlety of it.

I had decided that I would use buttons and not snaps for this and the blue jacket but I wasn't sure what I would find when I got to the store. I lucked into these shiny slightly yellowish green buttons that work perfectly with the look. I also used blue bobbin thread wherever it was necessary and forgot to change it once when making a buttonhole on the jacket front and so had to rip out a little bit of that one.

Here I am with the finished jacket. I look a little tired because I was in the grip of a nasty cold that wore me out but it's gone now and I'm on to the next jacket! And skirts!

Up to the cuffs

I now know to turn off the strong incandescent light over my ironing board, before I take a photo. Then the flash on the camera goes off and I get the right colour reproduction. So now my pix are really GREEN.

Here, I have started to pin down the flat fell for the shoulder seam finish. I really can't iron down the flat fell around the shoulder, so I pin it, sew it and then give it a final press. Of course, I did first press the seam allowance as flat as I could toward the body of the jacket.

I usually do a modified flat fell on the underarm seam but since I made the tiny baby clothes recently and flat felled everything there in miniature, I thought I would do a proper, trim-only-one-side flat fell and it worked well. I also did it that way to save thread, because I would only have to sew down the one side, but I think I am going to end up with lots of thread left, I have been so parsimonious.

Now it was time for the contrasting cuffs. I first sewed the blue band to the INside of the sleeve. I used green thread for the top (I think) and blue for the bottom. In any event, I did have the two colours of thread on the machine at the same time.

Then I sewed the ends of the cuffs together, making sure to fold precisely along the seam between the green and blue bands. At this point, I realized it was better to sew with the blue side up, so I could see where to start and end the seam and I didn't change the threads around. As I suspected, it didn't show when I was done anyway, so it didn't matter.

I trimmed the seam allowances fairly closely and turned the cuff to the right side out. Then I pressed along the seam between the blue and green bands, trying to make sure the blue was every so slightly angled toward the inside of the cuff. I wasn't entirely successful along the ends of the cuffs and a tiny line of blue does show there, now that I've finished the topstitching. But really, I don't think it's a big deal.

Finally, I did the topstitching. The way these cuffs are constructed, you fold the seam allowance under and sew the folded edge of the band over the seam line on the OUTside of the sleeve. In this case, it was the green side of the band that got stitched to the outside of the sleeve. Since I have done this manoeuver many times before, I know that in the first, outermost line of topstitching, the line that actually stitches the cuff closed and to the sleeve, the INside line of stitching (the bobbin thread line) actually ends up more on the sleeve part than on the cuff part. Therefore, I used green thread for the top AND bobbin for that line of stitching. You might have to go to the extreme close-up in Flickr to see it, but you can see that on the INside, there is green thread in that one spot. Then I switched to blue bobbin thread and stitched all around the cuff in the two rows required for the top stitching. I'll be doing the same for the bottom band.

Jacket about half done

Just a little update, as I won't get back to this until tomorrow. I am forging ahead with the regular sewing of pieces together and thought I would show the pockets. I can't believe how bad the colour reproduction turned out on this one. Yuck.

In this photo, you can see how I stitched around the pocket "bag" before attaching it to the jacket front. I do that so I can get the proper shape on the top stitching.

This photo shows the true colours and how the jacket is about half done. Unless I turn the collar up this way, you won't see the blue but I will know it is there and that makes me smile. Next step is to put the sleeves on.

Starting to sew the Jacket

This morning, I sewed all the main vertical seams on the fronts and back, trimmed the seams, ironed them and then topstitched them in a flat fell. Probably more ironing than sewing but still, a fair bit of both.

The light in this photo makes the green look unfortunate and not at all like the bright, cheerful colour it is, but that shows up later. You can see the back, two fronts and the bottoms of the two sleeves, plus tabs and pocket flaps. I can see (close up) that I have used slightly different shades of green for the main seam stitching but I did make an effort to use the matching green thread for the top stitching. Then I filled a bobbin with the blue and did the top stitching of the contrast pieces.

First however, I pressed the heck out of the seams on the contrast pieces. I pressed the seam open on the wrong side.

Then I made sure it was really flat on the right side. Then I pressed the edge together so that the blue was on one side and the green on the other. If I hadn't done all that initial pressing, I might have had bits of the fabric rolling into the seam ditch and it could have been a mess. This way, it's neater and frankly, easier even if it does seem to take extra long in the pressing department.

This is an extreme close-up of the edge of the collar. You can see that on the underside (the blue side), you can just see a bit of the green. However, on the up side (the green side), you can't see the blue. I won't be wearing my collar turned up like they did in the 80s (or was that the 70s?) so I made sure the blue wouldn't be seen at the edge of the collar when it was lying flat. I suppose it doesn't matter but I had to decide one way or the other and this is the way I went.

Here is a close-up of the topstitching. I used blue for the bobbin thread and green for the top. In this photo, you can also see the difference between the right and wrong sides of the fabric itself as shown on the sleeve to the right of the pocket flaps.

Continuing the jacket prep work

I was wrong - my mother noticed the weave. It was a pleasure to have my parents here for the Mother's Day weekend, especially after all the health problems Mum had in the winter. Dad had something he had to do on Friday after they got here, so Mum came upstairs with me and sat in my sewing room, reading, while I cut the fabric out. She would find amusing passages from her book and read them aloud to me while I hunched over the cutting table. It was most companionable.

As I was cutting, I asked Mum about which side of the twill she thought was the "right" side and she thought the more visible weave with the diagonal markings was the right side and after we talked about it, I agreed.

After I had cut out all the green pieces, I sorted out which pieces I needed to cut the underside in blue and pinned them to the blue twill and cut them out, leaving a half inch seam allowance on the collar, cuffs and bottom bands. Then I cut out the corresponding pieces in interfacing and arranged them all so I could make sure I hadn't missed anything.

Finally, I sewed together the blue and green pieces, using an old leftover green thread for the bobbin and the blue thread for the top.

Another jean jacket and some other things

This is a jacket that I have had on my mind for quite some time now. I have also had the twill fabrics sitting in my stash boxes for a while. In fact, it has been so long that I thought the green twill was much more like a Kelly green than the brighter, more acid green that emerged when I went digging. I am glad it's not as Kelly green as I had imagined. I like the brighter green with a touch more yellow than blue in it. But it does go nicely with the mid blue twill I got at a separate time.

In this photo, I have also dug out of my boxes some rayon that I bought in three complimentary prints. I have already made a matching pants and big shirt in the large print and a dress with the medium print (using a little of the small print for contrast). I realized that it goes well with the plain blue twill so I unearthed it in anticipation for later.

In further anticipation of what is to come, I went to get matching thread (no photo - really!) and to see if there was some twill in a blue print. I found some! As far as the thread is concerned, I discovered only today that Fabricland is phasing OUT Mettler thread which was the only one that really matched the green. AND they only had one small spool of it. Argh. So I am going to have to be clever in my use of green thread. I say this because normally, a fully-flat-felled jean jacket uses up two 100m spools of thread. Anyway.

Again with the Vogue 7610 pattern - I love this pattern and it SO works for me. But this time (drum roll please) I am going to make the undersides of the bands, pocket flaps, collar and tabs in a contrasting fabric. The green jacket will have little touches of the blue twill. And the blue jacket will have touches of the blue print twill. Oh hold me back, I'm so excited. :) Now, you'll hardly see them because they are just the undersides of things, but I'm telling you, it's pretty exciting.

These are the pattern pieces that I will use in the contrast. However, the bands and the collar are both normally folded over to make the two sides so I am going to be adding a seam allowance so I can get the contrasting sides this time. I'm going to go ahead and cut two collar pieces too, because it is just easier than fiddling around trying to get only one layer for that piece. And what could I do with the other bit anyway, except save it to use for crafts? So I'll stash it away and one year, I'll make yet another jean jacket that will use the green as contrast. Or something.

I have enough of the plain blue and the print blue twill to make summer skirts so I'm happy about that too. As far as which is the right and wrong side of twill, your guess is as good as mine. Of course, you can't tell from looking at this photo but I think the right side is on the right side of the photo. The "wrong" side looks very diagonal and the "right" side looks more like the weave is at right angles to itself. I am sure no one in the world but me will notice.

The Dress is Done

I measured between the dart locations and decided to use a piece of elastic 6 inches long and stretch it over 8 inches of waistline at the back.

I pinned one end of the elastic to where the dart was supposed be on one side, and ran the elastic along the untrimmed seam allowance to the location of the other dart. Then I pinned the elastic along the seam allowance and went to sew it down.

I sewed the elastic to the seam allowance using a long, wide zigzag stitch, stretching it as I went.

When I was done, the elastic was hidden behind the seam allowance, as it was pressed up toward the bodice.

I took a photo of the dress on my dummy, who I have decided to call "Rose". I was lying awake a few nights ago, trying to get back to sleep. I decided to go slowly through the alphabet, looking for a name for the dummy that resonated with me. I often use the alphabet technique to go back to sleep, instead of counting sheep. Anyway, I got to the letter R and the name Rose just seemed to work. Plus she is a nice rosy colour so there you go. I was just going to put this up as the final photo for this dress but then it got just warm enough to put it on so I got Peter to take a picture (or two) of me wearing it outside.


I like the one with the jacket because the jacket covers a multitude of sins. And I made that jacket too and wear it all the time, along with the dozen other I made from the same pattern. Hey, when a pattern works, I take advantage of it. As you will see in the next entry or so.