Blouse

How about a blouse in one blog entry?

I have made this pattern before but this time, I am using “real” shirt fabric, not that weird ugly stuff I am convinced I may never wear. Never mind.

I have gone back to my stash for fabric. I bought this piece of pale, pale green because I liked the neutral colour and because you could see the weave a little, without it being textured. It was a remnant but I figured I could get a blouse out of it, if I didn’t go for long sleeves. As it turned out, I did get 3/4 length sleeves cut.

Since it had been sitting in the box for a while, it was wrinkled and I know better than to try to lay out and cut out the pattern on wrinkled fabric. So I ironed it first.

When I laid it on the table after ironing, I noticed that it had been cut crookedly so I didn’t line up the cut ends but instead, lined up the selvages, then held it up by the folded edge and let the grain of the fabric flatten out by itself on the table. The ends are therefore WAY out of register but I know the grain will be straight.

I have noticed that when I blog about a thing I am making, I don’t put in ALL the steps because that is what the pattern instructions are for. Rather, I concentrate a little on one aspect or another. This time, interfacing comes under the microscope. But first, a tailor’s tack. The last time I made this pattern, I didn’t use the cuff facings for the bottoms of the 3/4 sleeves. This time, I am. You have to sew a “V” shape and you can use regular chalk marking along the seam line but I decided to put in a tailor’s tack at the point of the V to make it easier to see, especially with the interfacing in the way. You use a long piece of thread in a contrasting colour and you take a single stitch at the point you want to mark. Pull the thread through leaving a tail about 2 inches long. Now take a second stitch in the same spot, making a thread loop about 2 inches long and leaving the second tail of thread, also 2 inches long.

Once you have unpinned the piece, pull the two pieces apart and clip the long threads in the middle. This ensures both mirror image pieces are marked in the same spot. Even after ironing on the interfacing and sewing everything, you can pull the contrasting threads out, using a pair of tweezers if they seem stuck.

On most shirts these days, I like to interface both sides of the collar (and cuffs). I find it makes for a nicer collar - stiffer and more opaque. Most pattern instructions call for interfacing only one side. Here, I am fusing the interfacing to one half of the collar. You can see it is not fused to the second part of the collar yet.

All along, I have emphasized how important pressing is and how the clapper really makes a difference. Here, I have pressed the raw edge of the front facing piece under, in preparation for sewing it down to make a nice, finished edge. (There is also interfacing on the facing.) On the right side, I have used the iron but on the left side (in the photo), I have also used the clapper. You can see the difference!

Choosing the right colour of thread was tricky with this pale fabric. I had bought some matching green thread and it seemed to work but I thought I would sew on a scrap of fabric with some white thread too, to see what it would look like. In the end, I decided to go with the green thread but now that I have finished, I know I should have used the white.

Here is what the underarm looks like with the green thread. Acceptable but it would have been better in white thread.

In the next photo, I have sewed the two pieces of the interfaced collar together. Before I turn it right side out and press it from that side, I press the seam open as far as I can. I know from experience that this little step will give me a much sharper edge when I am done.

After the collar is turned and pressed all over (with liberal use of the clapper), I decided to top stitch it. When you top stitch this close to the edge, it is called edge stitching. Use the zipper foot and be very careful and gentle about guiding the piece under the presser foot and eventually, you will get good at it.

I put in this next picture because it shows all the pieces coming together. I have sewed the collar and the front facings to the shirt body and I am about to sew down the collar facing and tuck all the raw edges inside.

After sewing the sleeves on in the almost usual fashion (if at all possible, I prefer to sew the sleeve on around the armscye first and THEN sew up the underarm and side seam), I press the seam allowances toward the body of the shirt. I use the seam allowance that belonged to the sleeve to fold over and make the flat fell. It is “bigger” and stretches more to cover more than the seam allowance that belonged to the body of the shirt.

After pressing, I trim off the seam allowance that belonged to the shirt body.

Once I start folding over the seam allowance to make the flat fell, it becomes obvious that I have more fabric to work with using this side of the seam allowance. It buckles and folds up in parts. You just have to be patient and re-fold it until it lies fairly flat.

In the next photo, you can see that the folded-over seam allowance wibbles and wobbles a bit but once it is sewed down, it will be fine. It is on the inside after all and its purpose is to encase the raw edge of the seam so it works for me.

I took a photo of the pattern instructions so you can see where I will be sewing when I get to the sleeve facing.

Now that I have a sleeve ironing board, I like to use it when I am doing any work with sleeves. Here I am pinning the facing to the sleeve.

When I started sewing the first cuff, I put it on the narrow sleeve part of the sewing machine, with the machine inside the tube of the sleeve. I forgot that you can’t turn it around sufficiently to sew the “V” part and I had to make allowances for that. So when I sewed the second sleeve, I did it the correct way and took pictures as I went. You sew inside the tube created by the sleeve. In this next photo, I have sewed around the bottom edge of the sleeve and I have just made a right angle turn, sewing UP the sleeve toward the tailor tack mark at the end of the V.

In the next photo, I have sewed up to the end of the V, turned around and am sewing back out to the end of the sleeve, to continue sewing around the circumference of the sleeve. Have another look at the pattern instructions if this is confusing.

Once I trimmed the seams and turned the facing/cuff to the right side, I realized that I had trimmed too close to the point of the V. A tiny bit if the seam had frayed out to the right side.

I had planned to edge stitch the cuffs anyway so I proceeded to do that and gave them another good pressing. Then I took some white thread and took a few tiny stitches, catching in the frayed part of the V. Here is my repair which I think is hardly noticeable.

Here are the “cuffs” which I can turn up or leave down, as the mood suits me.

Finally, I have to choose some buttons. I looked at my button stash and here is what I have. Since I need about 6 buttons (I like them closely spaced), I have to use the plain old shirt buttons on the card, otherwise I have to go shopping for buttons. I have enough shell buttons (on a small card in the picture) but I am not convinced they will work as well as the plastic. Other than that, I am done and on to the next project!

Summer Skirt (again) (and an example of UnderStitching)

A skirt all in one blog entry.

When my Mum was here on the weekend, she drove me to FabricLand where I got the snaps for the jacket I just finished. While we were there, we browsed through the sale tables. Every piece that she remarked that she liked, I asked what she might make with it and she replied, “a dressing gown perhaps.” Every piece I picked up, she asked what I was thinking of making and I said, “a skirt.” It got silly when we were holding up fabric entirely unsuitable for either but we had fun.

I ended up getting a remnant of cotton for a skirt. It has a nice waffle weave finish to it and I think the texture gives it a substance and three dimensionality that works for a skirt where you don’t bother with lining or slips. Yes, it’s for Summer! Maybe I am torturing myself, thinking of Summer all the time but I am enjoying the look of the fabric and imagining when it will be hot enough for bare legs. Here is the fabric on the table. You can see the weave in the third shot below.

I am using the flippy skirt pattern (New Look 6462) I used for the black with bright flowers skirt I made second to last. Again, I had to lay each pattern piece out twice, right side up and wrong side up, to get all four panels cut out of the 1.7 metres I bought. Once you get the hang of it, it’s not hard at all.

I decided to do the modified flat fell on the seams of this skirt. Here I am showing how I curl the edge of the seam allowance over in preparation for ironing it flat before sewing.

The zipper is on the side and the front fold-over or flap is larger than the one on the back side. Here, I have sewn the seam up to the bottom of the zipper and I have pinned the 1/2 inch folded seam allowance to the zipper tape. Note how the fabric has stretched and curved because it is cut on the bias.

Once I have the zipper tape sewed to the 1/2 inch seam allowance, I take the other side (folded to the full 5/8 allowance) and lay it over top of the zipper, overlapping a little on to the other side. Here, I am putting pins in perpendicularly to hold the fold in the correct spot.

Next, I put pins in running down the length of where I will be sewing. The points are facing toward the top and the heads are where I can pull them out as I sew toward them. I am also feeling underneath with my fingers to make sure I am putting the pins in and catching the zipper tape on the wrong side.

I have turned the skirt over to show how the pins are running on the wrong side, catching in the zipper tape.

Here, you can see that I have made sure the raw edge of the seam allowance is contained in the wrong side of the garment. I have sewed the zipper from the right side of the skirt and I folded enough of the seam allowance under to ensure that I ended up sewing through two layers of the fabric and the zipper tape.

Once I was done including finishing the seam, I looked at the whole thing from the inside and saw how crooked everything had become. However, it really doesn’t show on the outside and that’s more of what matters than the inside.

After I finished all the seams, I sewed the facings on the top and then made sure they would lie flat by understitching. You press the facing and the seam allowance up, toward the facing and the top of the skirt. Then you stitch through all the layers (skirt, skirt seam allowance, facing, facing seam allowance) on the side of the facing.

Once the facings are on, pressed and understitched, you fold over the ends at the zipper.

In my case, I had to fold the one side at the bottom of the photo (the right side when the skirt is on) a little more than the other side, to make sure the top edges were even.

With the ends folded and pinned, I folded down the facing at the other seams on the skirt (the other side and the front and back seams) and pinned them down. Then I sewed along the seam lines and the stitching lines for the zipper, pressed the facing one more time and I was done. Except of course, I hemmed the skirt when no one was looking. I just ironed a double folded narrow hem and sewed it down with a zipper foot - too easy. Now it has to get warm so I can wear it. With my new jean jacket!

Finished Jacket

I am really going to enjoy wearing this jacket when it gets warmer - like in a month (or two)! I decided on silver snaps because they would be less contrasty than the gold. In the few photos here, I am showing snap placement. The instructions on snap assembly come with the snap kits. You have to hammer a hole where each half of the snap will go and then hammer on the snap parts. There are 13 snaps so this means you have hammering 13 x 4 times - two each for the holes and two each for the halves of the snaps. That’s a lot of hammering.

The only tricky parts are the pockets because you have to put a small piece of wood into the pocket to hammer on the bottom half of the snap. Here is the pocket flap with the top half of the snap on it.

Now I have pressed the top part of the snap into the pocket to make a mark so I can determine where to put the bottom half of the snap.

Next. you can see I have placed the bottom half of the snap and am about to hammer the pieces together.

Finally, the finished jacket!

Sewing part is finished.

This close to being done! I just have to decide on the colour and then buy some heavy duty snaps for the jacket. I have some gold-brass coloured ones (but not enough - you need 13 for the jacket) but I was wondering about silver coloured snaps or maybe even white, if they have them. My local store doesn’t have a large selection in terms of colour for the heavy duty snaps. I have used black, dark bronze and gold before and was thinking gold for the contrast it would provide this jacket. Any opinions?

In the meantime, I have finished all the sewing as follows.
Starting to topstitch heavy folded fabric is not easy. You need the presser foot to press down on the fabric under it but the foot tends to fall off the edge. Also, the needle has to be hand forced down through the fabric (using the wheel on the sewing machine) and you have to use your other hand to feed the fabric under the presser foot. All the while, you have to be sure you are catching in the folded edge and making sure it covers the existing line of stitching. And you have to anchor the stitching, either by back stitching or by moving the stitch length lever to a very small stitch for about a quarter of an inch. In the next photo, I have put the needle down through the fabric and am wishing I had a third hand to work the wheel.

Here, I have successfully started stitching and am moving along the fold, taking out pins as I go. I am also using my fingers to make sure the fold is covering the seam line, both by pulling the fold to the left and by stuffing the seam up under the fold to the right.

The next photo shows the inside and outside of the bottom band, with one line of topstitching (the first line which holds down the fold to begin with). You are going to have to click on the photo and go to Flickr and then choose the large size photo to get these details, but you can see the topstitching line on the outside, in the corduroy wales. On the inside you can just see the stitching as it shows on the wrong side of the fabric of the body of the jacket. Because you are lapping the folded edge over the seam line enough so that it covers that line if stitching, your topstitching line will be slightly above the band on the inside.

After sewing on the bands, I finished them with two lines of topstitching all the way around. Instead of going around and around because you really can’t do that on the cuff, I started at one end and sewed a long side and a short side. Then I turned the band around, switched the zipper foot to the other side, and sewed the other short and long side of the band and cuff.
Finally, I sewed on the tabs. These are mostly decorative but originally had the function of making the bottom of the jacket smaller. If you had two snaps on the band, you could move the tab to the second snap causing a fold in the band and thus making the circumference of the bottom of the jacket smaller. I have actually done this with two sets of buttons on at least one of my jackets but wit the snaps (at least so far) I have just put the one snap on.
I sew the tabs on as directed in the instructions, so that the raw end will be encased in the line of stitching and so that the tab faces the rear of the jacket. All that’s left now is to decide the colour of the snaps, go get them and hammer them on.

Sleeves and Cuffs

The jacket has really come together in the last day and I am almost done. First, I finished the sleeves. The term for the “arm hole” is the armscye which is hard to find in dictionaries but shows up when Googled but only at sewing sites. I’m going to call it the armscye to be more specific. The first photo shows the sleeve laid on top of the armscye. You can see that they are opposite shapes and so there is going to be a lot of fitting and pinning in order to get the two pieces flat against each other for sewing.

Next, I pin the two pieces together at the dots and notches. This evenly distributes the sleeve fabric around the armscye and starts the shaping process.

When I have the two pieces pinned together at dots and notches, it allows me to work between each set of pins on a smaller area, in order the continue fitting the sleeve into the armscye. As I have mentioned before, I rarely baste sleeves and this jacket will be no exception.

I am illustrating here the thickness of the fabric and how I had to resort to using a thimble to get the pins through it.

I sewed VERY slowly around the armscye (you can’t take pins out as you go because then the fabric will shift and bunch). Often times, I was guiding the fabric under the needle with my left hand while my right hand was manually turning the wheel on my machine that makes the needle go up and down. I know - you’re saying, “wouldn’t it be faster if you basted?” but I still don’t think so. But by all means - if you want to baste, please do!
Once I was finished sewing the sleeve on, I trimmed the jacket side of the seam allowance in order to prepare for the flat fell. I then pressed the seam allowance toward the jacket from the outside, checking after I was done on the inside, to make sure I had ironed properly and not folded over any bit of the seam allowance.

Once I was done pressing, I folded the untrimmed seam allowance (the part that belonged to the sleeve) over the trimmed seam allowance and pinned down the fold. There is more fabric to tuck in between the dots than there is near the underarm and I put the pins in perpendicularly at that section. This time, as I sewed around the armscye with my zipper foot, sewing down the fell, I took the pins out as I went. I was sewing through more layers of fabric and so I had to use more force on the needle, thus risking breakage every time I got near a pin. Plus, because I was sewing down the fell on the inside, it didn’t matter if I ended up with little tucks of fabric because it wouldn’t show.

After sewing on the sleeves, I sewed the underarm seam and then made a modified flat fell, where I press OPEN the seam allowance and tuck under EACH side of the seam allowance. I start sewing at the jacket bottom edge and proceed into the sleeve, turning 180 degrees at the cuff end of the sleeve and sewing my way out again (I showed this on the shirt I made first on this blog). This time, it was tough to do because I was working with thick and stiff fabric.

Next, I put on the bottom band and cuffs. The pattern instructions call for sewing the right side of the band next to the wrong side of the jacket. Then you fold the band up and sew the folded edge to the right side of the jacket. I used to sew waistbands on skirts the opposite way - right sides together and then you have to sew the folded edge to the wrong side or inside BY HAND so it won’t show. Since I learned the method used on this jacket, I haven’t looked back and sew all my cuffs and things on this way.

Once the band is sewed to the inside or wrong side of the jacket, you trim the seams so there is less bulk in the finished band (or cuff, as they are made the same way). I was trimming seams when Peter got this nice photo of Rockwell not really observing my work.

In the next photo, I am sewing the end of a band - in this case, a cuff. You fold over the long edge and trim its seam allowance off. Then you match the ends right sides together and sew across the end, ever so slightly outside the edge of the sleeve vent opening (or jacket fronts, depending on the piece being sewed).

Because you are sewing just slightly outside the edge of the rest of the jacket, it will be easier to turn the band or cuff and get everything tucked in. In the next photo, I have one cuff turned and one not. Of course, I have first ironed the seam allowances toward the band and cuffs.

Because you are going to be sewing the cuff shut and finishing it off with the machine, you have to get all the trimmed ends tucked neatly inside so they won’t ever show when you are done. This next photo shows all those trimmed bits that are going to get sewn inside the cuff.

Now, in the next photo, I show how I am folding the bit of the sleeve vent UP and over the seam allowances on the cuff. This doesn’t always work (and didn’t on the other three ends of the cuff) but it does make for a smoother “catch” of the seam allowances. The alternate way which I didn’t show is folding in the vent and then folding the cuff on top of it. This way just leaves you with the possibility of showing all those seam allowance bits if you don’t sew down the fold really tightly.

In the next photo, having tucked in all the trimmed raw edges, I am pinching the folded, finished edge of the cuff over the sewing or seam line on the outside of the cuff.

In this last photo, I have put my pins in and am showing both side of the cuff in preparation for sewing. The sewing I will be doing is effectively topstitching and I will be sewing from the right side or outside.