sewing journal – Page 4 – kelly hogaboom

tutorial: bias-cut bow tie

June 1, 2018

by kellyhogaboom sewing journal

Bow ties never went out of style, but they are enjoying the spotlight again at the moment. My sons and partner all enjoy wearing this type of neckwear and it is not only satisfying to make them, it is the absolute perfect opportunity to add some panache to the wardrobe.

In order to make a bow tie, ideally you’d have a properly fitted one (or a mockup cut out of a piece of woven fabric) to make your pattern. If you are starting without a tie to trace, you will need to draw up your own. The shape of the tie is a long straight stretch for around the neck, ending in the trademark fish-like shape at the ends (there are doubtless many templates online). The bow tie shown here has a straight stretch of 5″ longer than my son’s neckline; that accounts for the knot to tie.

It can be fiddly getting the right length, but remember once you have it down you have the right tie for life. I recommend you purchase a high-quality adjustable tie (like the red swiss dot version shown below), tie it on your intended client, and make the pattern from there.

Shown below next to the tie I’m copying: the fabric I’ll be using – a gorgeous rayon faille – and a very lightweight knit interfacing. You will only need a feather- or lightweight interfacing and make sure it has stretch, or the loveliness of cutting on the bias will be for naught. If your interfacing is too thick the tie will be hard to turn.

You will also need blank paper and pencil, a transparent ruler, and tracing wheel and paper. We will be folding the example tie in half and tracing only 1/4 of the tie, then folding our paper and using our tracing implements to get the symmetrical shape.

Below, I draw a “T” shape a little longer than 1/2 the length of the tie:

Folding the tie in half, I place the short folded end a the base of the “T” with the wide end at the leg of this “T”, bisecting the entire tie. Then, I trace. Beware you don’t make the straight stretch of the tie any thinner than about 3/4″, or you may have trouble turning it.

After tracing add your seam allowance to this 1/4 of the tie (I used a 3/8″). Then fold your paper down that long center line and trace both the stitching line and the seam allowance, using your carbon paper. So when you are finished, you will have half a tie traced, including seam allownaces.

Instead of having a bulky center seam down the middle of the tie, I drafted a bias-seam for the join. This can seem confusing but it is quite simple. The short end of the tie (the top of the “T” I drew above) represents the center line (back of the neck) of the tie. Simply draw a 45 degree angle through the center of the tie, and add your seam allowance to that line.

Now, take your fabric and fuse your stretch interfacing:

And place the tie pattern piece on the fabric; remember, you will want 4 of these pieces in total:

Now, we get to sew. You want a fairly firm stitch – say 2.0 mm or so – as you’ll be trimming these seams pretty closely before turning. Take the tie pieces to the machine and sew the short bias ends together; joining your four pieces into two:

Press these seam allowances open and grade them. You can use this opportunity to tie the tie around the neck of your recipient, to make sure the length is appropriate.

Now, place your long tie pieces right sides together, and stitch, leaving a 2″ or so gap in one of the long straight edges (but not where the bias seams are joined):

Go slowly around the curves; this is going to yield a beautiful result!

Cut the corners of the tie ends, and then trim the entire tie down to about 1/8″. Again, this is where you need to make sure your stitches are tight and firm enough the seams will not unravel later:

Now, we get to turn the tie! This can be tedious, but is best accomplished gently and with a chopstick or similar high-falutin’ turning tool:

Now press, carefully! I was so pleased that my tie is the precise length I was aiming for, even with my fancy little bias-cut seam:

Next, all we have to do is slip-stitch our little gap closed:

+
And – all finished! Provided our finished accessory is the right size, we now have a paper template and can make as many gorgeous ties as we like.

And of course: how to tie it:

tutorial: a perfect sash

May 1, 2018

by kellyhogaboom sewing journal

You know, I rarely do a basic-basic tutorial, but recent events inspired me! I put together four maxi skirts from African wax print cotton (two adult and two matching toddler skirts), and the project was delightful. Besides the kidney-shaped pocket pieces, every aspect of the skirts were rectangles: the body of the skirt, the waistband, the sash, and the sash carriers.

I got to thinking that I can put together a lovely sash in my sleep, but I had troubles earlier on in my sewing career. While no tutorial can cover *every* eventuality, this is a basic tutorial from a sash made of a stable, woven, nonstretch knit. You need your sash strip – the width and length of the finished sash plus a seam allowance per side.

As you can see above, I cut my sash with a rotary cutter. Tearing is also a great way to get the sash right on the grain; not all wovens tear that well. YOu want everything along the crossgrain as much as possible.

Next, I fold the sash right sides together, lengthwise, and give them a light press. In this photo you can tell the strip is right sides together as the gold metallic print is only on the right side of the fabric:

Then right sides together I sew up the long edge, leaving about a 2″ gap in the middle of the long edge. I backstitch firmly at this gap:

Next, I sew the two short edges:

Next, I clip both the folded corner and the sewn corner at a 45 degree angle, right up to the stitching line:

Taking the piece to the ironing board, I iron the seam allowances back toward the main part of the strip – one at a time. I do this for both long edge seam allowances, and all four short edge seam allowances. This is a great time to really use that iron to press the strip into a flat shape:

Tutorial: A Perfect Sash

At the gap, I carefully fold down the seam allowance and press that too:

Now, it’s time to turn the sash right-sides out. Leaving the gap in the center of the strip makes it easier to turn. If the sash is narrow, I use a wooden chopstick to turn:

The ends should turn out nicely – no need to push and prod them. Here are my ends, before pressing:

Close the gap of the sash by a slip-stitch or machine topstitch, give a final press – and voila!

Tutorial: A Perfect Sash

tutorial: converting a menswear-style shirt to clean finish

April 1, 2018

by kellyhogaboom sewing journal

As simple as menswear shirts are for me now, for a long while I struggled to understand their components. Years ago when I started wanting to convert my shirts to an entirely clean finish (meaning no serge, pinked, or zig-zagged internal seams) I really foundered in knowing where and how to do this.

While it’s impractical for me to attempt to detail every kind of menswear button-up shirt out there, and while there are many ways to clean-finish a shirt, I’m going to share my tried and true method with the more common builds of menswear shirts. I generally use french seams for all the block joins, including the curved armscye (which some people tend to flat-fell – not me). The collar, yokes, cuffs, and front plackets generally do not need any changes to cutting and marking, but these block joins do.

By french seaming the interior of the shirt, you get a gorgeous finish on the interior. I also think it is faster than flat-felling and leads to a more agreeable effect:

For french seams, you usually need a minimum of a 5/8″ seam allowance. Can you just ignore this and make the shirt up anyway? Not if it is at all fitted or semi-fitted – your shirt will be too small. So if you have a pattern with a smaller seam allowance – 3/8″, 1 cm, 1/4″, or 1/2″ seam allowances, you are going to need to add some seam allowance to the vertical interior seams (body and sleeve), the shoulder seams, the armscyes, and (possibly) the yoke joins.

Let’s try to understand a menswear shirt a bit first. Disregarding for a moment the collar/collar stand, cuffs and cuff plackets, and front placket, let’s just think about the body and sleeve pieces. Below is a basic example, which includes four body blocks: a front, a back body, a back yoke, and a sleeve:

If you have been following my blog, you may notice I am enjoying the Euro fit pattern (this version by Bootstrap is great). Even though this shirt does not have a back yoke, it is functionally rather similar. There are five body blocks: a front, a side front, a side back, a back, and a sleeve:

In general, the only place you will need to add more of a seam allowance are these basic block seams (including the shoulder and armscye). This is because the collar, front placket (whatever way it is formed), and cuff and cuff placket generally come with the seam allowances required to finish the garment cleanly. There are likely exceptions to this, and if you have any questions please take a few screenshots and ask in the comments.

There are several common variations on collar and front placket, and that can be confusing. I’m going to talk about those a bit.

So for a basic shirt, below are our pattern blocks with seam allowances included (minus the cuff placket piece). We have a collar and collar stand at top left, and a cuff at top right. Below that we have the body back (left), the shirt front with a cut-on front placket (center), and the sleeve (right). My blue lines indicate where you want to add your seam allowance for a total of 5/8″ seam allowance. If your back block is not cut on the fold – if there’s a curved center seam for example – you will also add to your seam allowance there, as it is a vertical body seam. Note you do not have to add any additional seam allowances to the collar pieces, the cuffs, or the cuff placket. Think of these as little mini-blocks that are self-contained.

Also: if you have a back yoke, you don’t have to add a seam allowance to the yoke/body joins if the yoke is lined; most yoked menswear shirt patterns will ask you to cut out two yoke pieces and sandwich the back body between them when you join. You could also ignore adding seam allowance to the shoulder too, in order to finish the front and back shoulder seam using the burrito method.

Below: a lined yoke, inside a plaid shirt I made my partner.

But I mentioned variations – yes? Below are a few more common shirt pattern blocks. On top, we see a collar with cut-on stand (meaning: the collar and stand are one piece). At bottom left, a front with a cut-on front facing. At bottom right, a shirt front with a separate front placket. Again: the collar, neckline, and the front placket pieces have enough seam allowance for a clean finish. So does the front placket. But you will want to add a seam allowance to the shoulder, armscye, and side seams to get your 5/8″ for these french seams:

By the way – if you are curious – of all the styles of shirt placket and collar I like the cut-on straight front placket, and the separate collar and stand. This allows me to colorblock and affords me a great deal of control in hand-finishing.

Below are the blocks for the Euro shirt build I mentioned (which is featured in the photo directly above). Instead of two body pieces for the trunk (a front and a back), the shirt has four body blocks for the trunk that feature princess seams – really great for shaping. Here, we are still only adding seam allowances to the vertical seams, shoulder seam, and armscye. The neckline and front do not need more seam allowances for a clean finish.

So there you have it! When you think about changing any construction of a garment, it becomes so much easier to tackle it when you start to really think about the parts, and that is easier with experience. Now, there are loads of tutorials on making french seams online and I trust you to find them. For the 5/8″ version I am mentioning here I sew a 1/4″ seam (just a hair scant) wrong sides together, press open, and trim (if it seems necessary). I then re-fold right-sides together, press again, and sew. And then – the final press! Pressing several times yields very smooth results, which is especially important for that curved armscye.

For the front placket, I find that sewing from the right side of the shirt secures a gorgeous front finish. For the cuffs, I hand-finish the bottom of the collar stand (shown below – you can’t even see the stitches) and hand-finish the inside of the cuffs.

If you are new or new-ish to sewing menswear style button-up shirts, contemplating all these different shirt patterns can be overwhelming. I advise you make a few of these shirts, and bookmark your favorite tutorials as you do. Soon they will be easy as pie!

tutorial: pintucks in tissue knit

March 1, 2018

by kellyhogaboom sewing journal

Tunic in knit chiffon with pintucks and french seams. This garment weighs next to nothing. xxx ooo #sewing #vegantailor #customclothing #bespokehogaboom #bespoke #cotton #black #vegan

A post shared by Bespoke Hogaboom (@kellyhogaboom) on Feb 18, 2018 at 1:41pm PST

Knit chiffon, or tissue knit: absolutely a gorgeous material to work with. Typically made in 100% cotton and often with a slightly slubbed appearance, this luxe fabric usually has stretch with little if any recovery. I find making a size down, the garment will often stretch with time. In order to shrink it back, you will have to occasionally put the garment in the dryer (remember those tissue tees so popular with the GAP etc, in the late nineties?).

Sheer and semi-sheer fabrics are absolutely wonderful, in that each seamline, dart, and detail is really shown off – like a stained glass window. I tend to make french seams in these garments. And for a bit more interest, here I demonstrate how to create simple 3/16″ pintucks in a black knit chiffon.

You need:

1. prewashed and dried fabric
2. marking chalk
3. cutting mat, rotary cutter, and see-through cutting ruler
4. masking tape

The first thing to note about tissue knits is the grain can often be quite distorted – in other words, not parallel to the selvege. When laying out your yardage you have to determine if you need to cut the pieces on the grainline or no. For the front panel of this tunic, I decided to cut off the grain since I’d be making two rectangular panels abutted together, and could flip the grain (to chevron), making the garment symmetrical. For the sleeves, neckband, sleeve band, and back panel, I cut along the grain in one layer.

Shown below; the yardage arranged with the grain corresponding to the cutting mat; you can see what I mean about the selvege.

Tutorial: Pintucks in Tissue Knit
Now for marking tucks, it is best to cut the fabric and leave it be on the mat – don’t shift it whatsoever – then mark right away. Cut out your panel according to your cutting mat; next you’ll be marking the centerline of your tucks.

When marking, I use a ruler and line it up with the guide lines on the mat; the sheer nature of the fabric makes this easy to do! You want to be very careful and apply firm vertical pressure to your ruler as you mark, or else you will shift your fabric. If you do shift it, just carefully rearrange to the guidelines on the mat.

Here I am applying lines at a 45 degree angle.

Tutorial: Pintucks in Tissue Knit
Be patient; this is the most exacting part of the process. It’s easy from here on out!

Once you have your tuck lines marked, take the piece to the machine.

Using a straight stitch or a very narrow zig zag, start your stitching line on your first tuck, folding right on the chalked line and making sure you are stitching at the width you want. My tucks are 3/16″. After you’ve started your tuck successfully, pause and retrieve your roll of masking tape.

I like to create a little seam guide by layering about six layers of the masking tape very accurately on top of one another, then applying it to my machine bed. This will help you get exact tucks – note you can use this method to create tucks as deep or shallow as you like!

Make sure not to stretch your fabric as you stitch. Just let the machine action guide the fabric through.

Below, I am about 60% of the way through my tucks. They may look a little wavy but don’t fear – we will be pressing them and they will be #legit!

The pressing is the most fun. Taking them to your pressing surface, carefully press each tuck as-sewn and then, if you like, you can press them a particular direction.

Gorgeous!

These tucks can be used to create interest in any project – gowns, tops, robes – what-have-you. They add a bit of drama and set your garment apart from others!

Made for Mermaids (Bridgette & Cheekie Panty); Lingerie Methods

m4m (bridgette & cheekie panty); lingerie methods

February 5, 2018

by kellyhogaboom sewing journal

Since it’s my blog I don’t actually need a particularly catchy title for my posts; today I am banging out a few photos of lingerie sewing methods that have served me well. I’m also posting as much of my butt as I’m comfy posting in public right now.

The background: indie pattern designer Made for Mermaids put forth a great lingerie set – a bralette/nightie along with a cheekie/thong pattern bundle. This is a relatively size-inclusive, adorable lingerie set that is absolutely perfect for the intermediate stitcher to tackle. The garments can be made of knit fabric (trimmed with lace and elastic, or just elastic) or double scallop/galloon lace and elastic. Best of all, M4M has a massive Facebook community with hundreds of women going forth and boldly sewing, and photographing, lingerie! The Facebook community will be the best place right now to catch their sew-along, videos, and results.

For my post, I am not emulating a sew-along but rather focusing on cutting methods, stitching methods, and sewing methods that result in an absolutely impeccable finish. In the examples below, I am using 8 1/2″ galloon lace and 3/8″ plush-backed lingerie elastic, along with the crossback finish.

Specifically, to succeed with the bralette and panty patterns you need to:

1. make a muslin (wearable or otherwise), in. This is especially important for the bralette.
2. fussy-cut for impeccable symmetry in the garment
3. add length to your strap pieces; you can cut them down later
4. match your threads perfectly
5. use a zig-zag stitch for seam construction; take notes on the settings.
6. use stabilizer where appropriate
7. cut elastic as you go, and cut generously (more below)
8. baste-fit side seams and straps before final stitches

OK? Let’s go!

First – fussy-cutting the pieces. First – make sure you keep track of the right side and wrong side (RS/WS of the lace). These can look very similar, but they are usually different:

Every piece should have its mirror image cut symmetrically. Since the repeat on galloon lace is so tight, this is easy to do.Be sure to flip your pieces and cut mirror images. Below you can see me lining up my laces before cutting:

Here are my four strap pieces; the cut edges butt together and both straps will be identical:

I like to keep my patter pieces with the paper piece, so it’s easy to keep them straight:

Made for Mermaids (Bridgette & Cheekie Panty); Lingerie Methods
To pin, use fine or silk pins and dive the pins at least twice through the lace – this makes for a far more secure pin:

Stitch some of your scraps to get the zig zag you like – I cut 1/8″ after zig-zagging. I generally like the look of a zig zag more than a serge:

Installing the elastic on the cups – do not overstretch the elastic. I sewed with the lace side up, and made sure my elastic extended past the raw edges. I finished one side of each cup, before stitching elastic to the other side of each cup.

No need to trim the elastic (yet) after you sew the first cup side. Make sure to backstitch firmly at the end of the elastic stitching:

Now it’s time to sew the second elastic side. It doesn’t matter if you sew from the top of the cup or the bottom. Go ahead and layer your elastic so it extends off the top of the cup, and firmly backstitch so that the top of the cup’s elastic stitching lines are on top of one another:

Go ahead and trim that elastic now! You don’t want it to show from the right side:

Since your threads match the lace so well, this is an almost invisible effect!

Now, for lingerie elastic we have our first stitch, flip, stitch again (as shown on page 6 of the pattern). I sewed with the right (shiny) side against the right side of the lace, a basting stitch right down the center.

Then, I flipped the lace and snugged it up against that seam, sewing from the topside of the garment in a nice even zig-zag:

Gorgeous! This will be the same technique we use for most of the rest of the elastic application of the crossback (upper strap neckline, upper back piece, and side straps):

For the crossback, we now sew the center back seam. This is a great place to use a washaway stabilizer, to make sure we have a firm and even stitch. You can even use paper; but I use washaway stabilizers a lot (as shown in my tutorials, especially for knitwear) and they are inexpensive, versatile, and handy!

Here’s that center seam before trimming to my 1/8″, from front and back:

For the crossback, we now pin the top of the large straps to the upper edge of the upper neckline. I found it best to baste each strap one at a time, to get them even. Just to the upper right of my elastic you can see the center-back seam I just finished:

I then tacked the cross traps from the right side, where they cross over. The pattern has you stitching all the way across but I didn’t like this effect. I tacked, pulled the thread tails to the backside, knotted them, and then hid them in the topstitching channel underside.

(Above you can see my little tack, before I knot it and hide the tails!)

Now is a great time to really cut across the crossback bottom edge, for a nice clean line. We’re about to install these traps to the upper back piece, before topstitching that upper back piece.

Pinned and ready to topstitch:

Straps! The best-looking method I found, was to baste the two raw edges RS-together, Then press them out. Stitch the elastic, RS of the garment and elastic facing up, with the elastic against the machine bed.

Turn over and make sure you caught the center of your elastic, before proceeding:

Now, go ahead and trim this seam allowance so the lace raw edge is hidden under the elastic:

Now it’s time to do some basting – you will be glad you took the time to get that fitting right! I basted the straps, the side seams, the strap/cup, and the the cup crossover for my first fitting:

Even when basting, make sure your straps line up perfectly at the front and back strap – this is a very visible seam at the shoulder:

Here is the upper strap/cup basted seam:

Time to baste that cup to the front strap – again, exact placement is a good idea for when you topstitch later:

Finally, baste-fit the cup crossover according to the pattern.

At this point, you can try the bra on for fitting. It should fit the bust well, but since there is no elastic under the cups or at the back, it will not hold the bust. This is the perfect opportunity to adjust the cup crossover, the sides, and the strap length.

Once you are satisfied, go ahead and zig zag finish your side seams and all your strap seams, including the cup top (as shown below, before trimming):

I added a narrow topstitch (parallel to the bottom edge of the photo below), to close the crossover and give my bust a tiny bit more enclosure. This is going to entirely depend upon preference, bust fullness, and breast spacing:

Time to baste that entire top assembly to the bottom band! After doing so, I trimmed this seam down to 1/4″ exactly with my rotary cutter:

And one of our last seams – the elastic under the bust!

I didn’t use the elastic from the pattern, but pulled the elastic under my bust snugly. I then applied it, RS-down against the WS of the garment, with the elastic facing up (shown below). You can mark the elastic in quarters; I knew form feel how much to stretch to apply. When in doubt – pin evenly, before stretching and sewing!

At the end of this seam I carefully overlapped and backstitched – you can see about a 2″ excess at left, which I then trimmed off:

Bralette – finished!

Time for the panties – the cheekies, in my case. Both the cheekies and the thong are a walk in the park after the bralette!

My stretch elastic is a 8 1/2″, not an 8″, so it is larger than the pattern piece. You can use this excess at the inseam if you like; just keep in mind your liner (if you use one) will not extend all the way to the hem if you do.

Again – it is relatively easy to fussy-cut such that the panties are perfectly symmetrical! Shown below: RS-together:

Let’s cut that liner! I’m uisng an awesome silky bamboo. I fold the crotch liner in half lengthwise and line that fold up with a knit grainline, then unfold and cut:

I keep the paper piece with the liner piece as the front and back look very similar.

Now it’s time to finish both the front crotch and back crotch seams: shown below, how pretty this effect is when the lace has been cut carefully:

This is the top center front of the panty:

And this is the inseam, after being joined:

Absolutely gorgeous!

Now pin that liner in, matching the front side of the liner toward the front side of the panty. There are many ways to sew this in – I used a whisper-thin zig zag:

All finished!

Check out those teeny teeny seams:

So – there we have it! Model your set (in public or private), and enjoy what the good Lord gave you!

Lingerie-sewing is so intimidating for so many, but once you start it is a veritable playground! Enjoy!

tutorial: double-welt pocket w/grosgrain ribbon

January 31, 2018

by kellyhogaboom sewing journal

Pocket pr0n!

There are many ways to create a double-welt pocket, but this is my favorite for a very fast and easy pocket. This method involves no measuring (that’s right!), and no interfacing. Best of all, it’s really easy to memorize. This translates to great-looking welt pockets that come together very quickly.

This method is also ideal for very spongey, thick, or wonky fabrics that don’t respond well to fiddling. I came up with it after dicking around for wayyyyyy too long with this perfectly lovely ponte that was bulky and terribly susceptible to pressing transfer.

For February I’m putting together a tutorial for double welt pockets in difficult fabrics. No interfacing and no steam, no pocket bag measuring or fiddling! A very fast, accurate, low-bulk and good-looking pocket. I came up with this method while working with this lovely but very spongey ponte; the method works well for fiddly grain, thick fabrics, and fabrics like velvet that are risky to press! #vegantailor #sewing #customclothing #tutorial

A post shared by Bespoke Hogaboom (@kellyhogaboom) on Jan 16, 2018 at 5:13pm PST

This method only needs a few supplies!

At left: shell fabric (houndstooth), pocket bag (shot cotton), and welt fabric (typically the same for shell but, for the sake of this tutorial, a dark brown). You also need 7/8″ grosgrain ribbon,basting spray (or gluestick), and marking chalk.

I like to use a fine cotton, as I like to tear (not cut) my pocket bags. Very fast, very accurate. If you use satin or some other foolishness, you will need to cut.

As with any welt pocket treatment and any new technique, please make a sample first!

Cut a piece of ribbon that is at least 2″ longer than your pocket. Lightly spray the grosgrain on one side, and lay the ribbon along the crossgrain of a piece of welt fabric, making sure the welt fabric is about 4″ wide. Pro-tip: I spray by placing the ribbon in my wastebasket, so the trash liner catches any overspray.

Next, sew two channels a generous 1/4″ from the grosgrain edge, using a basting stitch. I like to stitch in the same direction for both channels. You don’t want to stitch any closer to the edge than this 5/16″, or the threads may show in the welt lips.

This is what your stitches will look like on the other side:
Now, flip the assembly with the ribbon side facing up. Fold over one edge, snugging it against that ribbon. Stitch at 3/16″ from the folded edge, using a regular stitch:

Now, cut 1/8″ from that stitching line:
Repeat with the other side, folding and stitching, then trimming from that stitching line:

So for pocket placement, you really only need your vertical end marks! Pin the welt to the right side of the shell fabric, with the trimmed part of the welt facing up. Pin well and, if you’ve already done a sample and are working on the garment, you can use this opportunity make and align the other welt to the corresponding side:

Now, we’re going to stitch the welt to the garment – think two parallel lines (NOT a rectangle). Stitch right on top of those previous 3/8″ stitching lines, making sure to stop and carefully backtack right at the ending marks of the pocket. Unless the fabric is very shifty indeed you can confidently backtack – but if you are worried, leave long tails at these four ends, pull the ends to the welt-side after stitching, knot, and secure the thread tails in the welt.

You really want these stitching lines to be a very scant 3/8″ although this is why you make a sample – because the turn of the cloth will vary a bit depending on what you’re sewing:

Here is the backside of the work – two parallel lines. Make sure to double check before proceeding.

Now cut the welt I (not the shell) right down the middle:

Next, you want to cut from the backside, catching only the shell (not the welt). You want to cut to the stitching lines, and right exactly to those stitching lines. Make sure to make a very long triangle at these ends. I like to start cutting at the triangle point that intersects the center line, and cut right to my stitching lines using a very sharp scissor. Then I cut the center line.

Now flip it! FLIP IT GOOD! From the front side of the work…

Push the welt through the back, being very gentle with those little triangles but giving them a bit of a tug. The ribbon welt will lay SO nice and flat and the little triangle will rest on top:

This is how it looks – no pressing or stitching yet! Very promising:

So go ahead and flip your shell back and, using a zipper foot (or not, but it’s handy), stitch that triangle right to the welt. The ribbon will help the welt lips lie wonderfully close together. Repeat with both sides.

Time for the pocket bag!

Two things, before we proceed.

1. If you want, you can tear or cut a shell facing strip, to put at the top right side of the pocket bag. This is pretty standard, especially for a pocket that may gape. For kidswear or casual wear or a small pocket, I don’t add the facing bit as it is unneccesary and adds bulk, and pocket gap is not an issue.

2. This pocket treatment looks gorgeous enough it does not need a lining to obfuscate it. That said, the only application I would install these without a lining, would be the back of trousers. In that case, make sure your pocket bag strip is very long, so you can bring up the top edge to later snug it into the waistband of the trouser – a really classic look.

OK so – here is our trouser bag, torn at the exact width of the welt, which I have trimmed to about 5/8″ past the pocket width:

Now how long do you make the bag? Well I like to measure such that the torn bottom edge overlaps the bottom raw edge of the welt by 1/4″, and the fold is no deeper than the bottom edge of the garment (obviously). If this is confusing you, don’t worry. If your pocket bag ends up too long, because you can always stitch it shorter. I love the neat look of the fold at the pocket bag bototm, but it’s also standard to stitch a U-shaped curve and cut the fold off. Reminder: that torn edge at right, on the trouser application I described above, will extend much further than the top welt raw edge.

So let’s stitch that top edge! Go ahead and place the assembly right-side up, and flip down the top edge of the shell. Stitch, using that zipper foot, and aligning the pocket bag just a little past the welt raw edge. No need to back-tack here, as we’ll be catching the stitching line with our side seams – but do use a short stitch length:

Here is that gorgeous seam, as it finishes:

Here’s the right side with a finished top welt edge and the pocket hanging all the way down, not yet pinned to the welt’s bottom raw edge:

Now bring that bottom edge up, getting ready to stitch, tucking it under the pocket:

Go ahead and stitch the raw edge of the pocket bottom to that bottom welt, just as you did the top welt:

Now finger-press the pocket down, and prepare to stitch your side seams! Make sure you stitch the side seams down the right way, or you’ll make an upside down pocket (ask me how I know this!). If the pocket is going to be visible in any way – or if like me you just like accuracy – go ahead and trace your stitching lines straight down from your side seams, before stitching:

You can leave these side seams as they are, or pink them. If I was using a trouser application, I’d probably pink, bind or serge them, depending on the weight of my trouser fabric (this houndstooth is too thin for binding).

All done! Good work. 🙂

tutorial: puffed taffeta patch

January 1, 2018

by kellyhogaboom sewing journal

Shown here: patches in taffeta (silver) and satin (red), augmenting a hoodie and jacket, resp. I’ve long loved the look of a bit of posh on casual wear.

It took me a few tries to get the look I wanted – a raised puffy patch, quilted, that retained its shape accurately and really showed off that topstitching. Although the satin (red) is super fun – and will be the version I am showcasing today – I like the taffeta even more. It has a crisp but antiquated look I am just drooling for!

So let’s do this!

You will need (from left to right) your satin or taffeta, some fleece (no-stretch works best), and an interfacing. You also need basting spray, a pattern template (handmade or computer-made), and tracing wheel and paper. For interfacing, think about what color you want to use, as a little may show in the final product. You want a color that matches either the patch or the garment beneath; you can also use white and a bit of Sharpie to help with that (which is what I’m going to show you here).

And of course you need the things you always need for sewing: a machine, thread, scissors, iron – et cetera.

So first, iron your fabric nice and flat:

Next, pin the paper template to the satin/taffeta, and carefully slide the tracing medium underneath, to transfer markings to the right side of the satin/taffeta. Remember that the outer line of the template will not be stitched – it represents the turn of the cloth.

Trace carefully, making sure not to shift the paper template as you trace. You need to make sure you will be able to see the tracing marks while you sew; a red background, by the way, is one of the most difficult to read!

Once you have both your patches traced, lightly – and I mean lightly – spray the rough side of your fleece, with a layer of basting spray. If you spray too liberally, the glue might transfer through the satin/taffeta and leave an icky mark.

By the way – I always lay my fabric in my waste can before spraying, so I don’t get any stickiness anywhere else in my studio. Then I remove the sprayed fabric and proceed.

Press your satin/taffeta wrong side to the glued surface of the fleece, and smooth by hand. Securely pin. Then machine-baste around the motif and move the pins; you won’t want to have them hanging out for all the rows of stitching you’ll be doing.

Begin stitching from the top (satin/taffeta) side, ending in the same location and carefully pulling all threads to the backside. When you’ve finished, you will be knotting those threads securely and clipping about 1/2″ from the knots.

Shown below: the fully-stitched patch. Note the outer line remains unstitched, with the basting line further out from that.

Now, cut 1/4″ to 1/8″ away from that traced, unstitched line. I know I can sew very accurately here so I have only cut 1/8th away.

Cut your interfacing according to the paper pattern, and pin to the right side of the satin/taffeta, with the sticky side of the interfacing either up or down, depending on what you want. If you put the sticky side up here, then when you turn the patch, you will be ironing the interfacing to the patch itself. If you put the sticky-side down, you will be able to use the fusing to apply the patch to the garment. I have used both methods and they both worked great.

Now, stitch around the perimeter! Make sure to firmly catch the satin, fleece and interfacing:

Cut a small slit in the interfacing, and use this to carefully turn the patch right-side out:

Now if you like, you can use a sharpie and color your interfaced edge either the color of the patch or a color that works with the garment:

Now – it’s time to press! If your sticky side is on the outside of the patch, you want to position the patch on the garment (see below). If, like for this patch, the sticky side faces the underside of the patch, this pressing will help anchor the patch into a firm shape.

Pin the patch in place:
If you have two patches in symmetrical locations on the garment, I have a method to use. I like to pin the first, then lay the second patch right-sides together, then lay the respective pattern pieces on top of that. It’s a fast way to end up with symmetrical pockets/patches etc.

Now you can certainly machine-stitch this patch to the garment – but having gone through all this trouble, a fell stitch is a gorgeous touch! Since this garment is lined, I went ahead and pulled the running part of the stitch to the backside of the sleeve; for the blue star hoodie shown in this post, since it was not lined, I enclosed the running part of the fell stitch into the patch itself – thus making for a completely invisible patch installation.

The backside of the installation – halfway through:

And – all done!

[mc4wp_form id=”19978″]

hold up!

December 5, 2017

by kellyhogaboom sewing journal

[Stuart voice]: “Look what I can do!”

The Beyoncé “Hold Up” dress (here’s the original: yes, it’s amazing!) was my biggest project this Halloween. A friend saved up and went big – she not only requisitioned the dress, she acquired the hair, shoes (which were then hand-painted), and jewerly. There is nothing I like more than someone going all-out, and it was wonderful to be a part of that.

Let me get right to the knitty-gritty of how (I think) the dress was originally constructed (it’s from a collection, so there is more than one version out there – which is confusing for a reconstruction effort), and how I duped it.

So, he dress appears to be made with tiered chiffon flounces, and lace appliqué on a mesh and spandex underdress. The flounces were also roughly pleated and lettuce-edged; the bottom two flounces were trimmed with lace. The dress is hardly structured at all, a lot of bare skin shows as well as the actual push-up bra. My client found the black bra herself and hand-stitched an interlining to emulate the double-strap look on the bra. I wish I’d paid more attention to that particular bra detail, as I could have done that job for her by machine; her handstitching failed at the party she was at (bras need to be very sturdy, especially for the large-busted)!

Because the dress is mostly a monochromatic garment, I had to figure out how to get four matching colors in the absolutely gorgeous yellow of the dress, and this affected my choice of fabrics. Notice in the photo at upper left a version of the dress looks warm and poppy-colored, at left – and greenish at right; you will also notice the dress appears several different colors in this post depending on the lighting I am working with. I ended up deciding to buy my 25 yards of chiffon, and dye the other fabrics to match using a local dye artist. Note that dyeing different fabrics (including fabrics with differing fiber content) is a bit of a technical challenge, and will likely involve lots of testing and different types of dye processes.

It took trial and error to get the fabrics dyed the correct color; one nylon lace, for instance, simply didn’t take dye. My dye artist friend (Val from FiberPlay) had to do two washes to get the colors deep enough – but they were lovely and all matched, by the time she was done. Below, you see (from left, clockwise) the chiffon, spandex, mesh, and lace I used.

One other major technical component was the pleating. I believe the flounces on the original garment were cut circular, not straight – which meant the pleats were formed that way as well (I think of this as sunray pleating although I’m sure it has other names). After lots of pleating research and a few phone conversations with the *amazing* Rusty at SF Pleating (415.608.1983), I opted to send Rusty labeled strips, and he pleated them all. The pleats arrived in these fabulous crepe paper bundles. Rusty was beyond amazing and I hope to work with him again!

Now that I had the pleated chiffon and all properly-hued fabrics, it was time to assemble! I build the mesh and spandex underdress, using carbon paper to trace my flounce positions. I then fussy-cut the lace motifs, and applied the lace to locations on the mesh underdress:

The mesh needed a stabilizer to form a nice strong zig-zag stitch.

All of the chiffon flounces had to be finished by serge, as chiffon likes to fray into these teeny tiny fibers. These flounces were then either edged by serge or edged by fishing line. The latter process is so fun! You wrap your fishing line around a form, use heat (boiling water or heat gun) to seal the shape of the circular culry-q’s, let cool, and feed this line into the chiffon while hemming. This process required a lot of trial and error; you have to find the right weight of fishing line – but was super fun. I’ll have to create a tutorial someday!|

After the flounces were hemmed, I applied them to the mesh in the locations I’d traced:

One regret I had was not acquiring a twist-cord blank to dye. Instead I created cord from the spandex fabric, and used it for the dresses’ back-tie, as well as the three straps in the bodice.

Hold Up!
The original dress likely does not fasten by tie, but this is the most adjustable and comfortable way to go for a costume:

So, obviously my friend K. stole the show at her event. It was both an honor and a privilege to get to make her something so special! And I can’t wait for my next pleated project!

bootstrap dress form tutorial: inner support, stuffing, & mounting

August 20, 2017

by kellyhogaboom dailies sewing journal

Today – we finish our Bootstrap Dress form! Yes, you heard right!

The four parts of this tutorial:
Post 1: Preparing your pattern
Post 2: Cutting and marking your fabrics
Post 3: Constructing the shell
Post 4: Inner support, stuffing, and mounting

First, I want to thank all of you who’ve commented and followed – and texted me through Instagram and Facebook. After I hit “publish” on this post, I will make sure I have responded to all comments thus far posted. But remember, if you don’t hear from me – email me! The squeaky wheel, and all that!

A recap: Bootstrap’s dress forms are custom-drafted patterns that you generate, sew, and pack, then mount on a stand. They come with an inner sleeve and support structure, and include cardboard and foam to bolster the base, arm, and neck. Bootstrap offers two versions: a misses size, and a plus size. They are both sewn by an identical process. Both forms correct for posture, shoulder shape, belly protuberance, and buttocks shape. There are also additional measurements you can take to customize the form: neck circumference, shoulder width, bust height, front length, back length, and back width.

As for this tutorial series, there are four posts. In my first post, I covered how to take your measurements and record your body build, generate your pattern, and gather your supplies. In the second post, we prepared our fabrics, cut, and marked out pieces. In my last post, we constructed our shell.

Today, we construct the inner support, stuff the form, and mount it!

If you are just now finding this series, you can find out how to generate the pattern and collect supplies in my first post.

So let’s get started!

We are beginning on the page that is headed with:

Pin the Neck Top to the Neck, matching notches and stitch

Sewing the neck top, to the neckline is a pretty easy stitch. You want to make sure there are no bumps or ripples, then trim and grade well. This seam is highly visible on the form.

Now it’s time to sew the armhole covers to the armhole! We’ll be sewing the outer armhole closed first, and then adding the inner armhole piece and inserting our cardboard support. The armhole covers are such that I find the markings designating “front” and “back” to be very helpful here:

Pinned, checked, and ready for sewing:

After sewing the armhole closed, I like to trim and grade well here. Again, this is a highly visible seam on the finished product:

Now, we get to baste the stabilizer armhole covers to the inside of the form, and slip in the cardboard as we go! I found I could easily shift the cardboard and finish up the stitch by machine.

We are now on the page headed by:

INNER SUPPORT

Above, you can see I made sure to secure and trim the top edge of the sleeve. Your piece may have been cut on the fold as per instructions, but mine was not (to conserve yardage). Either way is fine.

At this point, I like to insert the sleeve and make sure it slides in smoothly and easily, but without a lot of slack:

It’s time to carefully cut the lower, unsewn edge of the pipe sleeve into fringe, 1″ to 3/4″. This fringe will be used to secure to the bottom cardboard structure and help stabilize the form when it’s mounted.

Now it’s time for our inner support pieces! These pieces confused me at first, but they are simply a stabilizing structure to keep the form from twisting and sagging. We’re affixing the straight parts of these support pieces, to the pipe sleeve seam allowances; and affixing the curved edges of these pieces, the seam allowances at front and center back.

Sandwiching the pipe sleeve seam allowance in between the two support pieces for the back pieces, we stitch together right on the seamline.

We then flip those front pieces out away from the sleeve, and repeat the above process for the back support pieces.

Looking good! You can give the assembly a light press, if you like.

Now it’s time to stitch vertical lines through these curved stabilizing pieces – not the sleeve! – to add more structure. Shown below, in a chartreuse thread:

Now as shown in instructions, lay the pattern pieces on the inner structure and make sure your notches correspond (top photo on the page that’s first text reads: “Place the pattern pieces on top of the correlate details…” and yes, that’s a typo on that page).

Now here’s a bit of a tricky part – but only if you’ve topstitched those center front and back seams. We are going to pin those curved front and back raw edges of the inner support, to the corresponding center front, and center back seams. This means I open up those center seams, and means I’ll be sewing four seams in total.

Pin and sew slowly!

Once you’ve determined your support is installed firmly and with all notches met, it’s time to set the shell aside and work on the neck. The neck piece is cut from your 3″ sponge (or stacked sponges secured with a light adhesive). I use an electric carving knife to cut my foam. It doesn’t have to be perfect!

It is oddly satisfying to install the neck here! Push it right up into the finished neck top.

After inspecting your neck top to make sure everything looks good, set aside the assembly and pick up the four base pieces. Pin front base pieces together, and back base pieces together, right-sides together. Stitch along the straight edge and around the pipe opening.

Clip and grade:

Turn and press:

Now, install your zipper. Hand-basting is always a good idea for a zipper installation. This zipper won’t show to the public much, but you do want an accurate install as the base size should match the dress form’s raw edge circumference.

Before installing the zipper, I switched to a zipper foot:

Now, we are in our last bit of stitching!

We are installing the dress form to the base, making sure we do not stitch in any puckers or pulling. I sewed with the base against the feed dogs, but you might find it easier to flip the assembly with the body of the form against the machine. Again – stitch slowly to make sure things go together smoothly.

Can you believe it? We are all finished with our sewing!

Now comes the fun part. “Fun”, she says – the stuffing! This takes a bit of time, but not as much as you might think. Stuff firmly, using small amounts to reduce lumpiness. Have your tape measure close by to make sure you stuff to the right Bust, Waist, and Hip measurements. Make sure to stuff the breasts firmly.

Can you see above, that on the bust of the half-stuffed form, I have a few puckers? This is where I hadn’t fused enough when I interfaced. Fortunately, it is easy to re-fuse here. Have a friend insert their hand and push the stuffing up into the form. Use steam to re-fuse any ripples out, being careful not to steam-burn yourself or your friend!

After your form is stuffed, insert the cardboard base support (as per instructions), and haul out your fringe to glue or tape to the cardboard from. Then use the oval holes to continue to stuff until the form is firm.

Some people will not want to mount the form on a stand; for completeness’ sake, I went ahead and did so. We bought an inexpensive stand on Amazon and cut it to size (an adjustable stand would be ideal, as it’s rather difficult to make sure to get your height perfect, when doing this part!). You notice we cleverly used the PVC pipe flange end, to hold the PVC inner pipe, and we stabilized this flange piece with a few bolts.

Here is my model, standing alongside their form!

So there we have it! BOOM!

I hope you’ve enjoyed putting together your dress form as much as I have!

Thank you for all your participation. And please leave any comments you have – or post links to your form! And enjoy your new studio’s tool!

Late getting started? Pick up your pattern here: MISSES or PLUS

bootstrap dress form tutorial: constructing the shell

August 3, 2017

by kellyhogaboom dailies sewing journal

Can you believe it? After today we will be about halfway done with our dress form construction. For such a complex process, it goes rather quickly!

In my first post, I covered how to take your measurements and record your body build, generate your pattern, and gather your supplies. In the last post, we prepared our fabrics, cut, and marked out pieces.

Today, we get to constructing our shell! Please note: if you want to receive email updates for these tutorials, sign up at the bottom of this post!

If you are just now finding this series, you can find out how to generate the pattern and collect supplies in my first post.

So let’s get started!

We are beginning on the page that is headed with:

SEWING INSTRUCTIONS
DRESS FORM COVER

Before we start, I need to divulge two things. I topstitch along every seam, in this dress form. This is different than the pattern instructions, that suggest only the horizontal seams of the bust, underbust, waist, and hip. I topstitch along all vertical seams as well as the shoulder line. This is for two reasons: I love how this looks, but also more practically: it will help me in garment construction. By being able to see the center back through my muslin fitting, or the shoulder line, I can better make fit adjustments.

If you aren’t absolutely positive you can form perfect seam allowances, or if you are a beginner or an intermediate stitcher, you may not want to topstitch the center front and center back, as those seam allowances are used later to affix to the inner support. Don’t worry too much though – if when you get to the inner support (my next post) you find your topstitching has hindered your ability to affix these supports to the inner seam allowances, you can pick out your topstitching.

Secondly: I go a little out of order on the directions, here, when it comes to staystitching the neck and armholes. Otherwise, as per the last entries, I follow the instructions in the order written.

I was so pleased to find that the notches on the pattern, always line up. Here, we are stitching center back pieces to side back, matching notches. Stitch exactly at the 3/8″ seam allowance (or whatever seam allowance you employed, if you did your own):

After you join these panels, you will find your traced lines line up perfectly, along the horizontal locations of bust, underbust, waist, and hip. Remember I made a faint line for mine:

Clip these allowances about 1 5/8″ apart:

And then press open. We will be pressing open every seam on this form’s shell. It is good advice to have some pressing tools with curves (like a tailors ham and roll), for many of the seams you’ll be pressing.

Now it is time to pin and stitch our cups, as well as our lower side and lower center fronts, and upper side and center fronts. We will be following the same procedure as the first two seams; stitching, clipping 1 5/8″ apart, and pressing open.

The cups are the pieces most easily confused with one another – this is one reason I suggested keeping the paper pieces with the pattern right up until we stitch:

Now after we join these six pieces in three sets, we have our upper and lower fronts, as well as our cup. Clip and press seam allowances:

Now, we will sew the cup to the lower part of the form.

The cup seam is the trickiest in the entire dress form. I clipped the lower side-and-center assembly’s raw seams at 1/4″, before pinning and stitching with the cup side down. This helps the natural gathering motion of the feed dogs to ease this curved seam together.

Shown below: a finished cup, before any pressing:

Now before we press, we can look at this seam. You will see at right, my clipped seam allowance on the lower-side of the seam. At left, the cup’s seam allowance. Like most curved joins, we want to notch out the fullness in that cup seam allowance, and clip the curve in the concave (lower) seam allowance. Note I’d already clipped the lower side before stitching.

Shown below, after careful pressing:

Now this is a fun part – we get to topstitch the cup here! As I’ve mentioned, I topstitched all my seams – horizontal seams first, then vertical seams. I used a golden heavy thread for the horizontal and cup seams, and a scarlet heavy thread for the vertical seams. Stitch slowly, making sure the seam is pressed flat as you travel over it:

Now, we stitch our upper front assembly to the lower assembly, carefully matching the princess seams:

The directions now call for you to hand-sew along the horizontal lines of underbust, waist, and hip. I simply made sure my chalk lines were heavy enough.

Next – missing from the instructions – we need to stitch our side seams. I also notched here at the more severe curve at hip:

I then carefully pressed this seam open on my tailor’s ham:

Then, I stitched the center front seam, clipped, and pressed. This is really coming together!

Time to start stitching those horizontal lines – bust, underbust, waist, and hip. At the underbust join to the cup, I carefully pulled my threads to the backside and knotted them.

Looking good!

Now time for all the horizontal lines (except the center back), seven in all. I used a red thread for these:

Now this is the point where I stay-stitched the armscye. It doesn’t matter when you do it, though, really.

I stitched the shoulder seams and topstitched them, in preparation for installing the neck.

After stay-stitching the neckline on the body (bottom of step 9 on the directions) and the top edge of the neck piece (step 10), I installed the neck. The neck is notched and you will find, an easy fit:

I went ahead and topstitched this seam, after clipping and pressing open:

Stitch the center back seam, clip, and press open.

And now, for the most annoying topstitching seam in the whole experience – the center back seam! You will be stitching from the top side, up from the bottom of the now-closed form assembly. Sew slowly, always adjusting the work to make sure you are not catching the wrong layers. The larger the dress form you are making, the easier this seam is. By the end of this seam you are kind of stitching in a tunnel. But it is not the hardest closed topstitching seam I’ve constructed!

Here is my last bit – finishing up to that neckline!

Voila! We are ready for our next steps – installing the neck top and armholes, and putting together the inner structure!

So there we have it! Great job today!

Next up, we put together our inner structure! If you have any questions, please feel free to comment here!