Jan 29, 2012
Jan 26, 2012
Most Important Terms You Should Know for Sewing
As I've said, this is a blog for people who want to learn how to sew: people who may know literally next to nothing about the act of sewing except that it exists. So here are the very essential terms (courtesy of McCall's Sewing Book) that you could at least get by with without knowing anything else:
Seam: "The line or fold formed by stitching two pieces of fabric together." --Pretty self explanatory right?
Seam Allowance: "The fabric edge that extends beyond the stitching line. The normal seam allowance in all pattern is 5/8" unless it is marked and printed otherwise on the pattern." --On most un-patterned projects, a 1/4" allowance is a pretty generic and easy measurement. Seam allowance is typically gauged when sewing on a machine by following lines that have been engraved by the sewing plate. As long as you keep the edge of the fabric you are stitching along the line you follow, you should have a straight and even seam allowance. The 1/4" is the easiest because you get this by having your sewing needle in the middle of the presser foot (see machine anatomy) and having the fabric follow one of the outer edges of the presser foot.
Seam: "The line or fold formed by stitching two pieces of fabric together." --Pretty self explanatory right?
Seam Allowance: "The fabric edge that extends beyond the stitching line. The normal seam allowance in all pattern is 5/8" unless it is marked and printed otherwise on the pattern." --On most un-patterned projects, a 1/4" allowance is a pretty generic and easy measurement. Seam allowance is typically gauged when sewing on a machine by following lines that have been engraved by the sewing plate. As long as you keep the edge of the fabric you are stitching along the line you follow, you should have a straight and even seam allowance. The 1/4" is the easiest because you get this by having your sewing needle in the middle of the presser foot (see machine anatomy) and having the fabric follow one of the outer edges of the presser foot.
Yardage: "The Amount of fabric needed to make a particular garment. The back of the pattern envelope has a yardage chart. this gives the exact amount of fabric necessary for each view and size for the various widths of fabric." --While this is true, you also keep in mind that fabric is sold at either a 45" or 60" fold, depending on the bail; this means that you order the fabric by the yard, but you are in reality getting twice that. It's basically like buying a square yard. But don't use that as a measuring device. This is just a hint for real beginners who may only need a strict yard, who could instead ask for half a yard in the store. People who know how to buy fabric: disregard this.
Selvage: "The narrow woven border on the lengthwise edges of the fabric." --This is usually stuff you don't want to include on your finished garment. It's basically like the margin of your fabric. It's often used in patterns and directions to orient yourself with where things like pattern pieces and cuts should go.
Reverse-stitch: --The way that a 'reverse-stitch' is useful is at the beginning and end of a seam to keep it from coming undone. Most modern-day machines have some form of a reverse-stitch button (see machine anatomy), so you don't typically have to do it by hand, or worry about it to much except to remember to do it. Without a backstitch, especially on garments for actual use, one fierce tug could pull out the seam little by little. This is also known as a "back tack"
Running stitch: "The simplest form of hand-stitching; small stitches that appear the same on both sides of the fabric, used for gathering." --The kind of stitch you think of when you hear 'sewing' is most likely the 'Running Stitch'. It's a very general kind of stitch, with many variations. It is essentially just a straight line of stitches in any direction.
Basting stitch: "A loose, long, temporary stitch made by hand or machine. Usually made with a contrasting colored thread." --A Basting stitch is essentially just a loose running stitch. Basting is used especially when making garments from patterns when there's much trial and error with fit, and you need a temporary seam just to try something out, or to keep flimsy fabrics from shifting and doing whatever the hell it wants. It's usually easiest to do this by hand to ensure an easy removal, but the way to do this on machine is to run a seam with a longer seam length (see machine anatomy), and forget the back tacking, then just pull the strings when you're done.
Under stitch: "A row of machine-stitching through the facing and seam allowance close to a seamline. This holds the facing to the seam allowances and prevents the facing from rolling to the outside." --If you want more explanation, I describe a little more and there's a video here. This is a pretty common thing to see in pattern directions.
Gathering: "One or two rows of stitching, either hand or machine, that are drawn up to form even fullness." --Ok, I don't think this explains it very well. Gathering can refer to using a running stitch to either give a fabric a rouched texture, or enabling you to make two uneven pieces of fabric become even. Essentially what you do is put a running stitch in the fabric you want to rouche, or the longer of the two pieces you are trying to attach, and leave one end unknotted. You then pull on the unknotted end while pulling the fabric in the opposite direction, and you should get the accordion-like effect that is 'gathering'. For attaching two uneven pieces, you would gather the longer piece until it is the same length as the shorter piece, knot the thread or pin the fabric, and then stitch together.
Dart: "A stitched fold of fabric tapering to a point at one or both ends, used to shape a garment to fit the curves of the body." --Pretty good description, though there are different types of darts. There are straight darts, curved darts (both concave and convex), and something known as a "Fish Dart" that tapers at both ends. But we'll get into that later.
Grain: "The direction of fabric threads. The yarns running parallel to the selvages form the lengthwise grain; the yarns running form selvage to selvage form the crosswise grain." --Basically follow the natural fabric lines of your fabric to find the grain. Some patterns want you to place pattern cut-outs in a particular orientation compared with the grain.
Hem: "An edge finish formed by folding back the raw edge and stitching it by hand or machine. The depth of the hem and the method of stitching depend on the garment and type of fabric." --Every garment you own should possess some form of hem (unless you've cut them to shit). Typically a hem involves double rolling an edge so that the raw edge is tucked away and out of site, but a single roll is adequate.
Trim: "To cut away excess fabric in the seam allowances after the seam has been stitched." --This seems obvious now, but just wait till you get to a pattern that tells you to 'trim after every seam' and you're wondering why they want you to undo everything you've just done. It's just good to know the local jargon.
Jan 24, 2012
Jan 21, 2012
Attempt at Cocktail Dress: lining, under stitch, and edge stitch
They do not make these things with my raptor hips in mind.
That being said, most of the construction went pretty smoothly, though I can almost guarantee I will not use a spandex as a lining ever again. It is the devil's material. It's like trying to wrangle with a really limp snake that's been dunked in a vat of vaseline and then doused with a can of WD-40. Pressing (ironing) edges becomes nigh impossible, and shearing is like my own personal Hell. As a larger raptor, I've come to really dislike satin linings. As classy as satin may be, there is absolutely no stretch, and it usually just ends up balling up or pooching out from the outer fabric. So when picking out a lining material I wanted to go with something soft, but stretchy. I found a really cute floral spandex/lycra/thing (I didn't think to read the bail as I bought the fabric, so it will forever be unknown), and didn't realize that it would become the fabric of my little raptor nightmares. To be honest, I wouldn't have even done a lining, but it occurred to me halfway through the directions (at the exact half when the directions addressed a lining to be precise) that it's possible to ignore the lining directions and just hem edges…but as of yet I couldn't figure out how that would work with the seam allowances I had been given. See, if you use a lining, that means that u can do a 1/4" seam allowance, which is just easier and nicer to work with stitching-wise. Otherwise, you'd have to half your seam allowance, so only fold over 1/8" and try and stitch that with the machine. I, am not that good at stitching. My lines still look like a drunk toddler hijacked the sewing machine and tried to show off to his drunk baby friends. "Look ma, no hands!" So I opted for the lining.
As for the outer fabric, I'm a little upset. I had this really gorgeous pink-backed dark denim that showed a little hint of pink when it stretched, and I was super excited…because it stretched. Nothing is a bloodthirsty dinosaur's best friend like some stretchy fabric. But alas, my ignorance as to 'aligning the grain' (still don't know how the hell to do that) meant that the stretch of my fabric essentially became obsolete, thus the hips. I plan on researching the grain thing pronto.
Something particular that came up during this pattern though was the idea of the 'understitch'. An understitch is a method used to flatten sewn edges. I (being the ignoramus that I am) had no idea what an understitch was, and tried various google searches to find a description that my little raptor brain could actually understand before I gave up and called my mom in defeat. So my mom found a Youtube video. Basically, after you've made a seam, sometimes when you pop the fabric right-side-out it will bubble instead of laying flat. In order to get it to lay flat, you take the extra material that is the result of the seam allowance, lay it to one side (typically the side that would be the lining, or less important fabric), and lay down another line of stitching as close to the initial stitch line as possible. If that explanation makes no sense, here's the video my mom found that I found more helpful than any other description: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRtA6_2QiPE
But the way the pattern works (you can see it for yourself here: http://butterick.mccall.com/b5601-products-13743.php?page_id=155) for the shoulder, you're essentially creating a tube, and while understitching is grand, it is nigh impossible in tube form because towards the middle of the tube, its hard to stitch down the seam allowance fabric without catching the other side of the tube in there too. Thus I learned about a lovely little thing called the 'edgestitch' (aka 'topstitch'). The edgestitch performs the same function as the understitch, but it's just a little more visible because instead of stitching between the layers to tack down the seam allowance, you are pressing down the entire seam from the right side of the fabric, and sewing through all of the layers. Again, if that just made you more confused, here's a good video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtV_oVxh0pA
After trying on the dress right before adding the zipper and the button and closing everything up, and realizing that there was NO way that physics would allow my thighs to remain in the dress, I essentially lost motivation. I'll probably still finish up the dress and just try to sell it on T-Rexbay or something, but I'll work on other projects first. I'll post a photo when I finish
**UPDATE** After having one of my cave-mates try on the dress, it occurred to me that I still have enough material that I could just redo the skirt part, just a little bigger, and stitch the skirt higher up the bodice to hit my actual waist! THERE MAY BE HOPE YET! …though undoing all of that stitching is going to be no picnic.
That being said, most of the construction went pretty smoothly, though I can almost guarantee I will not use a spandex as a lining ever again. It is the devil's material. It's like trying to wrangle with a really limp snake that's been dunked in a vat of vaseline and then doused with a can of WD-40. Pressing (ironing) edges becomes nigh impossible, and shearing is like my own personal Hell. As a larger raptor, I've come to really dislike satin linings. As classy as satin may be, there is absolutely no stretch, and it usually just ends up balling up or pooching out from the outer fabric. So when picking out a lining material I wanted to go with something soft, but stretchy. I found a really cute floral spandex/lycra/thing (I didn't think to read the bail as I bought the fabric, so it will forever be unknown), and didn't realize that it would become the fabric of my little raptor nightmares. To be honest, I wouldn't have even done a lining, but it occurred to me halfway through the directions (at the exact half when the directions addressed a lining to be precise) that it's possible to ignore the lining directions and just hem edges…but as of yet I couldn't figure out how that would work with the seam allowances I had been given. See, if you use a lining, that means that u can do a 1/4" seam allowance, which is just easier and nicer to work with stitching-wise. Otherwise, you'd have to half your seam allowance, so only fold over 1/8" and try and stitch that with the machine. I, am not that good at stitching. My lines still look like a drunk toddler hijacked the sewing machine and tried to show off to his drunk baby friends. "Look ma, no hands!" So I opted for the lining.
As for the outer fabric, I'm a little upset. I had this really gorgeous pink-backed dark denim that showed a little hint of pink when it stretched, and I was super excited…because it stretched. Nothing is a bloodthirsty dinosaur's best friend like some stretchy fabric. But alas, my ignorance as to 'aligning the grain' (still don't know how the hell to do that) meant that the stretch of my fabric essentially became obsolete, thus the hips. I plan on researching the grain thing pronto.
Something particular that came up during this pattern though was the idea of the 'understitch'. An understitch is a method used to flatten sewn edges. I (being the ignoramus that I am) had no idea what an understitch was, and tried various google searches to find a description that my little raptor brain could actually understand before I gave up and called my mom in defeat. So my mom found a Youtube video. Basically, after you've made a seam, sometimes when you pop the fabric right-side-out it will bubble instead of laying flat. In order to get it to lay flat, you take the extra material that is the result of the seam allowance, lay it to one side (typically the side that would be the lining, or less important fabric), and lay down another line of stitching as close to the initial stitch line as possible. If that explanation makes no sense, here's the video my mom found that I found more helpful than any other description: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRtA6_2QiPE
But the way the pattern works (you can see it for yourself here: http://butterick.mccall.com/b5601-products-13743.php?page_id=155) for the shoulder, you're essentially creating a tube, and while understitching is grand, it is nigh impossible in tube form because towards the middle of the tube, its hard to stitch down the seam allowance fabric without catching the other side of the tube in there too. Thus I learned about a lovely little thing called the 'edgestitch' (aka 'topstitch'). The edgestitch performs the same function as the understitch, but it's just a little more visible because instead of stitching between the layers to tack down the seam allowance, you are pressing down the entire seam from the right side of the fabric, and sewing through all of the layers. Again, if that just made you more confused, here's a good video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtV_oVxh0pA
**UPDATE** After having one of my cave-mates try on the dress, it occurred to me that I still have enough material that I could just redo the skirt part, just a little bigger, and stitch the skirt higher up the bodice to hit my actual waist! THERE MAY BE HOPE YET! …though undoing all of that stitching is going to be no picnic.
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