Seamwork on YouTube

https://youtu.be/mkA4cX9vdx4

I am pretty sure this was the OH YASS, fist-pump moment.

I give Seamwork/Collette Patterns endless crap, but this is a great video. It's clear (they used two very different fabrics to illustrate) and concise. You do this in two passes, one for each armhole.

Bring your own popcorn.

And then I kept watching their channel.
We have a less than clear video on bias layouts
I can stop you right here and say: hey, go read this post next week:
(the one that isn't there yet but it will be)

https://erniekdesigns.blogspot.com/2019/07/bias-theory-would-look-better-with.html

However, let's say hello to the instigator of the next several blog posts

The problem starts here:
https://youtu.be/cjqqxM0H0iA?t=199

Each fabric has two biases.
She does not explain this.
But it's true. If you don't match the seams properly, the item will twist as it hangs out/gets worn

this is wrong

this is also wrong

It's important to get this right when you're laying out your pattern pieces.
And we are finally going to get to that next week.
I've been working on that post for about a year.

On the other hand, if you are up for a different approach to the subject, 
Paukshte Fashion Workshop is worth a look.

https://youtu.be/MuTCjRyDHpQ

I have to admit that I love this woman's slash pattern altering, as well as how she cuts out the pattern piece by folding the fabric. It's probably distorted, she didn't line up the selvage and the cut edge evenly,   she's using that fabric so inefficiently,  but DAMN she just gets to it. She eyeballs it and goes for it.

It's kind of the action film version of sewing. 

Gawd I'm looking forward to this movie

But the thing is: because it's on the bias, those little squiggles and snips will hang right out. It's an amazingly forgiving construction.

If it only stayed still.

And then I remembered I was going to watch the Charles Kleibacker videos.

But let's go to the tape with Charles Kleibacker

The next several blog posts continue this thinking. 

Stay tuned.

It's not just my Bernina

this image from Colette Patterns snippets service 

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And I thought it was just me, grunting as my Bernina sucks up the top thread and anything in it's needle hole area. Becky the Kenmore doesn't (front load bobbin). That crummy Brother I had didn't do it (top load bobbin), although it liked to unthread it's bobbin, which is a bigger pain.

see, Kenneth King is holding his damn threads back too on his Bernina (Craftsy Jeanius class, my screenshot, his hands)

This screen shot of Betz White's handbag class from Creative Live has her trying to trap those threads under her right ring finger

And in the second pass, it nests up before she can get to the threads

Does this happen with your machine? 

Burrito Roll Facing Trick

I am all about making shells to wear when it gets hot. And I weary of cutting and sewing facings. I like an all - in - one facing, and I like it cleanly done.

I also love a sewing trick.

This week I stumbled on a cool facing technique on the Colette Patterns 'Rooibos' sewalong.

I did not invent this, but I did want to illustrate it with more distinction between the inside/outside, facing/fashion fabric sides. 

I used a black fabric and a red fabric; it seems clearer which face is which, as if they were four distinct prints.

I've used it on a couple of things, but the fabrics have no real photographical right and wrong sides. The photos made no sense.

So I made a little model version.

This is photo heavy, and I repeat the technique on the second side, in case the first was not clear enough.

  You would first sew the front and the back pieces to each other at the shoulder seams, and then press them open. I skipped the shoulder seam part.  And any interfacing. Sorry.

Right sides together, sew the neck seam.

Grade and clip that seam.

This is where you'd understitch the neckline seam to the lining.

If you do that sort of thing.  I'd topstitch later.

Turn right side out

Roll up one side of the item towards the opposite armsceye

Rollin'

Flip one side of the shoulder piece....?  over your rolled part

Roll the other over, to make a tube

I flipped it over, matching up the seam edge

Make sure when you pin that seam that you aren't catching any of the rolled up part

Pin for the win!

Okay, my side seam on the left looks odd. It will match up later. Really. The point is to get the armsceye seam edge to match up right now.

Stitched down

Grade and clip the seam

And here is the act of faith: open it up at one end and pull it through.

The clips show where I'd put my pullin' fingers if I weren't taking this photo right now

Looks weird....

And it works. Dang!

Halfway there; we continue with the other side

Roll up

Flip rolled part to center

Fold over and line up, stitch, grade and clip the curves!

Open up an end

Commence pulling

Don't rip it

Just work it out

I left the clips where they started, to give you an idea of how confusing this could be. There used to be a section of the ACTs that used to test this mental skill. 

Now what I SHOULD have done was make the facing part a 1/8" smaller, so that when it was all lined up and turned out, the front fabric would be favored over the facing. This is something I never remember to do ahead of time, so I fake it with the ironing.

Sewing up the side seams; open up the armsceye seam so it's flattened to sew across, front to back in one seam.

Iron the side seam open

From here it's up to you. Topstitching or not.  I didn't make one part the facing and one part the front fabric (a bit of stunt sewing on my part), but clearly that works.

This wouldwork with a heavier fabric and a light lining.  It would not work with something stiff, or with a really narrow shoulder.  It is similar to the vest lining technique I used back in Plaidness, and the Yoke Burrito technique, as demonstrated by the lovely Peter Lappin on his blog Male Pattern Boldness. If you can turn a tube inside out, you can understand and do this, too.

Buttonhole Theory

Recently in Colette Pattern's Snippets Department, there was a whole lotta nonlove for the stuff that trips you up in sewing. From the things that are just hard to remember (which was to turn for french seams) to the the hard to avoid (staring at the moving needle when topstitching), there's always something that messes a body up.

I have several (shirt/pants open wrong way, kaff kaff) but one I have learned to work around is

The Failed Buttonhole.

The Bernina, the Damned One, can make an automatic buttonhole. It's never the same size from hole to hole in the same piece, so I just don't use it anymore.

I draw a box on the fabric, or sewing lines, and I do four turns with the zig zag set reasonably dense. Not super dense, but something that gived adequate coverage. And I do four turns, and sink the needle at the corners.

This is not to scale. I would never make a button hole with a hole that big, unless I was using the Bernina, the Damned One. Your Bernina may vary.  Do not say "Bernina" three times on a moonless night. Okay, maybe it just needs more tuning up than I have money for. Do not say I need a new machine three times on a moonless night.

The zig zag will not entirely match up. Perfect is the enemy of good. I should point out that this will look better than if I use the automatic button hole feature. 

I poke a hole in the opening with my seam ripper, and use cuticle scissors to trim to the ends. Then I grab the thing, pull the sides to open it up, and clean up the whiskers that linger.

If I can't draw on the fabric because there is too much texture, I will make a bound buttonhole, using iron on woven facing pulled through to the back. But that's another day.

Colleterie' Snippets on what trips you up in sewing

Online Linky Love on a hot Friday evening

Dammit, I am just too warm to edit and rewrite notes. My sewing machine is going back to the shop, because it did not get fixed, so nothing to see there.

So it's linky love Friday, with fitting fun from Threads and SewNews

First, there is pattern news.

The big news is McCalls is looking for vintage reprint ideas. Really.  Go to LauraMae's page on that link and start reading. I'll be here all week, but do that now.

Colette Patterns has a new dress pattern coming soon. I will have much to say about it when the veil is lifted next week.

Grainline has a new dress pattern out now, the Alder. It's a shirtwaist with gathers and without.

Neither one has sleeves. Which is good for summer. 

I will have a new pattern coming out in August. It's for culottes. Without sleeves.

Yes, I know how to make other things besides culottes, but this is more interesting to me than dresses.

I have this annoying tick. I'm staring out the window, sitting in a coffee shop, doing tech drawings and pattern piece breakdown of the hep jacket the woman over there is wearing. It's a fun mental exercise, but taking it further is....uh....stealing.

I want to do something NEW...

 http://moldesedicasmoda.blogspot.com/ does something like this (more of 'what do you do with a sloper/block?'). It's kind of a guilty pleasure for me; I also really enjoy http://pokroyka.ru/ which will take you to http://issuu.com

Which is my new "oh, is it time to get up to go to work in the morning now?" clickhole.

Just don't. It's really a bad idea. Intellectual property is not a bad idea (except if you take it past the life of the creator). It's almost all japanese crochet books anyway. And I don't even crochet.

Sew News has a PDF extra with Sarah Veblen on five patternmaker skills to master. Mostly about using rulers and smoothing out lines, but she does the usual great job with photography illustrating what she's talking about. A decent explanation of walking the pattern. 

My mother always said it was tacky to wear high heels with pants. I'm not a truly judgmental person, but this photo just makes me think that hemming these pants was not done on these models.

http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/4244/everyone-can-have-jeans-that-fit

Well, yes. It's not exhaustive, but it gives a good overview of how it works. I'd go find  Sarah Veblen's Complete Photo Guide to Fitting if you really want to dial down on the matter. Her photographs are really good; clear, concise, cogent. I think it's a keeper.

http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/25087/how-to-enlarge-a-pattern

I have my issues with how Threads approaches grading patterns, but I always find scaling up explanations deeply deeply funny. By the time you are done drawing all those lines, you will have a total webby mess on your hands. May I suggest using a grid?

A search on the internet that begins with "how to enlarge" is always entertaining, but this site, Art is Fun, gets to the point about halfway through. Forget the exact proportions of your framing grid; the source and the target just need to have squares. And it's a lot easier to do with a pattern piece to draw, vs a cartoon character or a bowl of fruit. When it gets less hot, I promise I'll put up a decent tutorial on this.

Let's end with a suggested alternation from the pants article:

adding width for my enormous calves?