SPRING CLEAN episode #1

Exhibit A- Shoddy Black Raggy Cardigan






The Rag and I were painfully avoiding each other for the entire Winter. May I say the rag looked amazing in the shop (I will not give you the name but there are plenty to pick from) and cost me a guilty 139 (gulp) Euros. Yes I know, uneducated sense of luxury.

Moral of story: just because it’s black and basic doesn’t mean it will serve you well.










From a distance, it doesn’t look too bad. I’ve passed by other people wearing it, walking down the street, and I’ve looked twice. But upon closer inspection, you can see where the silver threads fall down like stalagmites, catch in door handles and around the buttons so the whole thing becomes impossible to even take off!!!







However, those buttons are quite tasty. This week I gleefully cut them off and they now look as edible as liquorice toffee’s.

THIS JUST WON'T DO!

Here is a dress I made to go with The Bolero (see March 2010) in indigo satin back crepe, a most snaggable unravelable fabric when working with the satin side faced towards you . There are a few things I learnt from this project, or rather, I have identified areas that need improvement and research.






Firstly, if you look closely at the bodice, you can see it buckling around the bust area. This happened because (a) it was a difficult shape to work with anyway (b) because my iron was too hot (c) I applied too much pressure for too long and (d) my impatience (this is bad for U Seam Nice). Take note my friends, the iron can shrink your cloth and erase all your precise labours in one fell swoop of molded and baked molten aluminum.



Secondly, although I used an invisible stitch for the hem, I might have been better off doing a Hong-Kong edge and using a smaller needle and thinner thread if it exists…



Thirdly, the design is based on a pattern from Burda 3/2010. The straps are 3mm indigo velvet from A Rubanesque Ltd. The dress was supposed to hold itself up especially since there is boning in it but I wasn’t so sure…See http://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Rubanesque-Ltd

INVISIBLE ZIP

I find most instructions of putting on an invisible zip very hard to follow so for what its worth, here's what I did....

1. First of all, I replaced the regular presser foot with a zipper foot.
2. Then I placed the two sides of the skirt, right side facing me, on a flat surface, so the top of the skirt faced away.


3. I opened up the zip and turned the left front side on the left front side of the skirt and pinned it into place.


4. I brought the needle position on the machine to the full left so that when the presser foot was placed down on top of the fabric, the stitch line would be directly beside the teeth of the zip.

5. You can see the first line of stitching here in a pale pink.


6. I then attached the right zip to the right side of the fabric and sewed the zip in place using the same method as previous. (You can see where I have pinned the open seam below).

7. You then sew the seam below and press the zip and the seam flat. The stitching looks a bit crooked on the zip but it’s only because of the bubbling effect of the jacquard. Okay, I was a bit half hearted about this project but do read on please.

8. Finally, I used a zig-zag stitch to finish off the rough edges of the fabric where it met the zip. Its also important not to have too many stray threads hanging around because they’ll get caught in the zip.

CHANGE OF 'ZIPOSITION'!

Last month, I made the safari skirt Burda 3/10 (123), with two inverted pleats in a cheap yellow polyester stripe I had. It looked a bit like translucent upholstery fabric and was a very shoddy piece of cloth indeed. I’d never done a front fly zip, like you see on a man’s pair of trousers, so I decided to experiment with this cloth. It worked, but I thought it was too much effort on a simple pleated skirt and can look a bit bulky.

I wore it once, it started to rip, I cursed myself, I snarled at the lip.
I thought it would be so imperial, but I wasted cash on shoddy material.

So, I got my hands on admittedly, a wintry looking jacquard, and proceeded to make the skirt again, this time, with a simple invisible zip at the side. To do this, I cut the seam allowance off the front pattern piece and cut one piece out on a fold instead of two halves. The fabric was quite stiff and I considered cutting it on the bias (to give better drape) but I hadn’t enough cloth.



Tomorrow I will show you how I put in the invisible zip.

LINING A WAISTCOAT

Most of the work is on the inside of the garment.

FRONT AND BACK LINING PIECES SEWN AT SIDE SEAMS


After adjustments, attach front and back pieces together and stitch, but do not sew the shoulder seam.

OUTER SHELL OF WAISTCOAT

Putting the inner (lining) and outer (wool felt front and satin back crepe back) ‘shells’ together is the most fun part.

INNER SHELL OF WAISTCOAT

Pin the two sections, right sides together. Make sure the armhole and front edge pieces are in line. In this example, I had to let out one of the side lining seams because it was too small. It fit fine after this adjustment.

GAP IN THE BACK

Sew the armholes, neckline, front and lower seams together but do not stitch the shoulder seams yet. Also, make sure you leave a gap of 15cm in the centre lining piece to allow the garment to be turned inside out. Before reversing the waistcoat, I pressed the seams together after they were stitched. I also clipped bulky seam areas and notched the curves. Turn inside out and press.

Try on the waistcoat and pin the shoulder seams together to get the new seam allowance for that area. It should be 1.5cm but is liable to change if you have a different body shape to the pattern standard. Turning in the inner shoulder lining seams by hand is the easiest way to finish this area. Then you must sew an invisible stitch along the centre seam lining (the gap).

And then your waistcoat is finished and all you need to do is put on its fastening!

In the below example, I used one hook and eye to close the waistcoat and sewed cord onto the outer edge for texture and decoration.

DARTS ON BULKY FABRICS

A week ago, after getting D to try on the lining of her waistcoat, I realized that the whole thing was going to be too small and I adjusted the pattern for the outer pieces and cut out sections to sew onto the back and lining pieces.

Anyway…..this entry is all about a big bulky dart I had to deal with today, for the front section of the outer waistcoat (the inner being the lining).

First of all, the piece was increased by a few centimeters at the side so the dart got much bigger. You can see the difference in size here between the lining piece and the new size outer piece.



I folded over the front piece, making sure the tailor tacks lined up evenly at each side.



As you can see, the dart got quite wide.






I made sure that the two front pieces were folded over in opposite ways, mirror images of each other.


I stitched the dart starting from the widest tailor tack, sewing in a diagonal from the inner edge and tapering out to where the bust point will be.




Its important that you do not backstitch the end of a dart and tie a knot where it ends.

DART SEWN IN STRAIGHT LINE AND KNOTTED AT END…DO NOT BACK STITCH!

The front piece will not lye flat where the dart is and must be pressed flat first, and in regular circumstances, in at one side (more about that another time).


CUT DART OPEN TO REDUCE BULK








So, the crux of the issue is, you should cut the dart down the centre and press it open and flat in the middle to reduce bulk.

SMALL HOLE IN THE DART





But whoops, if you cut too far up, you may get a small hole. Its not very clear from the image. It looks like a bit of wide fluff in the middle of the fabric piece.

REPAIRING A HOLE





Luckily, this fabric is quite thick, so I can repair it from the inside using a small whip stitch.

This leads into the topic of suitability of a fabric for a project. So far, my understanding of this has been trial and error. This fabric is a bulky wool felt and it works very well for a waistcoat (I know this because I've already made myself one the same). Below is a paisley dress I made from thai silk last year. It works quite well on the upper half of the dress but the lower half is quite flimsy and didn't hang as heavy as I hoped. But then again, once a light piece of silk, always a light piece of silk!

A double inverted pleat for absolute beginners

Jumping in the deep end?...I'm all for it! The double inverted pleat demonstrated here is the same as the red skirt from previous blog. Here's how....





1. Lay pattern front piece on folded over fabric (Burda December 09). Pin and mark in tailor tacks. N.B. As well as following the straight of grain arrow on pattern piece, be especially carefully the tweed weave runs in a straight line parallel to skirt edges. In student example (crooked fabric picture) here, she has folded fabric in a slight diagonal and so the weave is not straight with the edges.

2. Cut off tailor tacks in the middle at the surface then carefully open up fabric and cut tailor tacks in the middle (see photo)



3. Remove pattern piece carefully so the tacks stay in place.



4. Open up fabric and cut tacks so that a piece remains at each side.

5. Fold the piece back in half and pin horizontally where sewing will take place. Make sure tailor tacks line up on each side.



6. It’s okay to sew over pins if they are placed horizontally to the sewing line. The needle should hop off the pins. Occasionally it doesn’t work, especially on delicate fabrics…experimentation is always advised!



7. Sew along tailor tacks (or chalk if using) where the first pleat is marked. This is the inside pleat. Finish with a short backstitch and cut thread. By the way, I presume you've tested your stitch length...general rule of thumb is that the thicker the fabric, the longer the stitch. Here it is stitch length 3. Use scraps of fabric to test the stitch length after you've cut out the skirt. Keep all the bits of fabric leftover until you are wearing the skirt...you never know what will happen and sometimes the smallest piece can rescue a huge mistake.



8. In the illustration, Amy has sewn a crooked line and I’m telling you, it is worth ripping this out as many times as it takes until you get it right. It will never sit straight if you choose to move on.

9. Press sewing line and turn right way over. Centre the back of the pleat and make sure folded in top area corresponds in size and area to the unstitched pleat at the bottom of the skirt. Press in place using steam.
10. Refold skirt together again as fabric was cut and stitch shorter outside pleat, which will be the second inverted pleat. Fortunately, we got so engrossed at this point that I forgot to take a photograph of this stage and it was too late as the second pleat was already sewn.



While you are working with the rest of the skirt, tack down where you have pressed the pleats so they remain in place until you wear the skirt.

Right Side/Wrong Side

What do you mean by 'right side'? Which is the 'wrong side'? This is fundamental to understand when you are cutting out fabrics. The right side is the side of the fabric you will see when wearing the garment. The wrong side will be the inside. When you have to cut something out twice, you don't have to cut the pattern piece out twice separately. You simply fold the fabric over, place the pattern piece on, pin and cut. You will get a mirror image, i.e. the left and right, opposite facing sides of the piece you want. This might seem fundamental to most of you but believe me, it is a very confusing area for the beginner.



This is a liberty fabric I bought in Murphy Sheehy's. Its 150 cm wide. It shows the 'wrong' side on the left and the 'right' side on the right hand side of the picture.

What's this all about?

I suppose this needs some explanation. I'm a musician but my roots (actually, I don't know which one came first) are in something more tangible- threads! I teach home economics and write songs in my spare time.  I reason to myself that if one is working with an abstract medium a lot, then one needs to balance that out with something they can physically touch and feel.  It's probably why home ec and music go well with each other (sometimes).  So, here's the blurb;

I originally set up U Seam Nice to help people make their own clothes and to evaluate the quality of the clothes we buy.  I love tailored cuts, working with my hands and expensive, luxurious fabrics. I dislike and will not waste my money on shoddy clothes produced in 3rd world sweat shops.  I love to upcycle worn and loved items.  I expect this outlook will evolve as I learn more and share what I learn here. 



By the way, if you want to start sewing, I recommend you make a cushion cover. No illustration required I hope? Next, you should make a skirt. If you are an absolute beginner, I recommend you have only one or two processes, i.e., a pocket, a waistband, a zip, a pleat or simple darts. Try and avoid lining to begin with. However, my star pupil, Georgina Cunningham, didn't have a clue what to do three months ago when we started. She plunged into a mauve pink wool tweed skirt, exactly like the one shown here. More about that when she's finished her hem and I'll post it up for you to look at.

U Seam Nice mission statement & philosophy

Why am I doing this?

I also want to share my sewing projects with you.

Where does U SEAM NICE want to go?

A resource for sewing enthusiasts

What kind of comments do we want?

We want to know what you are making. We want to see it.

What's the philosophy of U Seam Nice?

U Seam Nice is a technical, self-confessed fashion fanatic online resource set up to help people make their own clothes. U Seam Nice love tailored cuts, working with our hands and expensive, luxurious fabrics. We promote quality, resourcefulness and recycling. We customize. We embellish. We’re sewing for dummies. We look sharp. We work in 3D.

Adjusting a waistcoat for the fuller figure.

Well, I thought I was smart, filling up on Boeuf Guinness in Fallon & Byrne last night, but didn’t realize it would take me about ten hours to digest. So, in another creative burst of energy, I drafted D’s waistcoat and cut out the lining, stitched in the darts and the side and back seams. Since the lining and outer shell are to be identical, I thought I’d do the fitting from the lining and then make any necessary changes to the main garment.

Overall, the width turned out to be 6cm small, the back pieces needed extra seam allowances added in of 1.5 cm each and the darts weren’t sitting over the full of her bosom as much as I’d have liked.



To adjust the waistcoat for the fuller figure, I added on 3 cm to each inner front piece.

This was more straight forward for the outer piece because I had yet to draft it (see diagram with outer piece still attached to the lining).



However, I’ll have to rip out the polka dot lining and add on a 6cm piece (3cm for the increase, and 1.5 x 2 for the seam allowances) to the front and 6cm piece for the back (see diagram 2). Hopefully, the patches will look like design features in themselves.

I'm going to take a break from this job now because I'm working on improvising over slow blues in G...and I've got the guts of a new song to go with it too. Untill the next time....

The Bolero

My mother who we call DD, stuffed a little bit of money into my pocket today and told me to buy something nice for myself. I was gob-smacked. “Why are you doing that? You’re a pensioner now for crying out loud”.
“Because, you’re nice” she said. Coming from DD, “nice” isn’t an insult meaning; doormat. Nice means you’re a good egg and pocket-money is a reward for listening, smiling and making the best BLT money can’t buy. I thanked her and tipped into town on the Dublin Bike. Murphy Sheehy’s have a lovely supply of Liberty fabrics at the moment but I ended up buying indigo satin back crepe and navy & white polka dot lining to make DD a waistcoat.

Before I go on, I must tell you about the bolero I made last week. Its handwoven silk from India. I bought it as a remnant in London for £50 last November. It’s a regal swirling pattern in red, royal blue and gold.



Fact
A Bolero is also a Spanish dance in ¾ and a Cuban dance in 2/4.
It is also a woman’s short jacket that stops above the waist and has no fastenings.

I made it in a burst of energy last Sunday afternoon and it gave me the idea to start a blog about dressmaking and tailoring. I’ve been making clothes all my life but I’ve still got a lot to learn.