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Category Archives: Sewing

Gathers

Posted on May 11, 2013 by Naomi

Gathers might be my favorite sort of shaping. They’re easy to get right – much more forgiving than darts – and they add an interesting little detail. Someone recently asked for more detail on how I make the gathers in my picnic dress, so here it is: a step by step tutorial on gathering.

1. Decide where your gathers go. Mark each end of the gather. For bust gathers, start by subtracting your front underbust/ribcage measurement from your front bust measurement – this is how much you will gather up. Then measure how much ungathered space you want in front, and how much. For example, my front bust measurement is 19″ and underbust/ribcage is 14″, so I need to gather in 2.5″ on each side. If I wanted the final gathers to be 3″ I would need to start with 5.5″, so I might mark my fabric to be gathered between 2.5″ and 8″. This leaves 3″ of ungathered fabric in the middle, which works well for me. You might want to hold a measuring tape up to yourself and make sure you’re happy with where the gathers are going to side and how long they will be.

2. Stitch between the marks, using a slightly longer stitch than usual. The longer the stitch you use, the bigger the gathers will be and the more fabric you can gather in. If you’re using a heavier weight fabric or trying to gather very tightly, you’ll need a very long stich length. If your fabric is lighter weight or you’d like the gathers to be less obvious, use a shorter stitch length. I typically use a stitch that is one step longer than the one I sew seams with.

3. Make the gathers. Pull both threads to the back on each side of the seam. Tie the ends of the thread together in a double knot on one side. On the other side, pull gently on one thread (it’s easier with the back thread, but either will work), pushing the fabric along. When your gathers are the length you want, tie the two threads together.

4. Sew the gathers into a seam. When you sew a gathered piece of fabric to a smooth piece, put the gathers on top. Make sure the tiny ruffled edge is all pulled out so no fabric gets caught poking through. Sew right over your gathering line.

I’m you’re still confused about step three, I made a little video!

Posted in Sewing, Techniques, Tutorials | 1 Comment

How to draft a bow collar

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Naomi

My favorite part of my winter coat is the bow collar. This variation on a shawl collar is cozy and warm, since it comes right up to your neck, making it perfect for a winter coat. It works best with an asymmetric closure, but I’m sure you could adapt it to work in the center.

First off: a bit about collars. A collar is usually made of two pieces: a stand, which is a rectangular or slightly curved strip of fabric an inch or two high and as long as the neckline, which is hidden under the collar and raises it up to an appropriate height, and the collar its self, which sits on top of the stand.

These are the pieces of the pattern. You only need one measurement for the collar: the circumference of your neck. Add an inch and a half to two inches to this measurement, since you don’t want your collar to be chokingly tight – this is a coat, it should have breathing room and space for clothes underneath. On your coat, cut down the neck opening until it is as wide as this measurement. If it is already larger, use the neck opening as your neck measurement.

First trace the stand: a rectangle 1 1/2 inches high and as long as your neck measurement.

Next the left side of the collar itself: draw a curve (a half circle, or a slightly flattened half circle) as long as 1/2 your neck measurement. Draw a straight line 5″ up from the top of the circle. This will be the center back seam. Holding the measuring tape perpendicular to the curve, measure 5″ out at several points along the curve. Draw an outer curve connecting these points. About 4″ from the end, start bringing this curve in, so that it meets the end of the inner curve.

For the right side of the collar, flip over the left side. Copy the inner curve, center seam, and outer curve until it begins curving in. Add a straight line extending 4″ beyond the bottom of the inner curve. Draw a straight line up 5″ from the end. Finish the outer curve, keeping it 5″ from the inner curve until it meets this new line.

For the “knot”, trace a 5″ by 5″ square (it says 8″ on the diagram, because that’s what I started with, but I ended up cutting it down to 5, because the knot looked better that way).

Cut out all your pieces from the main fabric. Cut out all pieces except the knot from lining fabric.

Sew the two collar pieces together along the center seam. Sew the inner curve of the collar to the long edge of the stand for both the main fabric and the lining, beginning from the left side of the collar. There should be 4 inches of collar left over. Sew the main fabric to the lining along the outer edge of the collar, along the extra 4″, and down the short sides of the stand. Turn right side out and top stitch. Gather the collar fabric at the end of the stand, just before the 4″ flap (this is optional: I didn’t do this, but I wish I had). Sew the stand to the neck opening of your coat.

So far this has been more or less how you’d sew in any collar. Now for the bow! Fold the knot fabric in half and stitch the long sides together. Turn right side out. Sew one end down along the seam between the stand and the collar, where you just gathered. Fold the “knot” strip up and wrap it around the collar. Iron over the other end and sew it down in the same place at the back. I did this part by hand, because the collar is quite thick at this point, and I didn’t want it to show from the front. Your collar is done!

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Winter coat

Posted on March 19, 2013 by Naomi

It took me ages to get pictures of this coat. I made it back in November, and I’ve worn it almost every day since. But somehow it took until now to take a photo.

The coat is fitted with princess seams on top, with overlapping center panels like in a double breasted coat. But I only put buttons on one side, leaving it asymmetric. There’s a wide waistband cut in one piece connecting the front and back of the coat, leading into a pleated skirt with welt pockets. It has a shawl collar, which I made a bit longer than the neck opening/collar stand and gathered up with a strip of fabric to make a sort of bow. I’ll put up a tutorial for how to make this sort of collar if anyone’s interested.

This was my original sketch of the coat, which ended up pretty accurate. The biggest change I made was to put in welt pockets, because side seam pockets made the skirt lumpy. I also ended up adding a snap to hold the floppy end of the collar bow in place.

Posted in Outfit Post, Sewing | 7 Comments

Lace trim

Posted on February 7, 2013 by Naomi

This camisole has an unusual construction. The front is made of two pieces – a sort of horseshoe shaped top and sides which gathers into the center panel. The lace came from my godmother Neva, who was clearing out her lace drawer when I made it. I should probably patch up the lace a bit, but it’s fragile and wouldn’t take it well, and there’s something beautiful in the way old lace falls apart.

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Monday morning

Posted on January 21, 2013 by Naomi

Buying fabric in New York kind of scares me. It’s the time when it’s clearest to me that I’m not a real New Yorker. The fabric stores here are crammed to the ceiling with rolls of fabric, beautiful mixed in with really quite ugly, and populated by serious designers on a mission to find a particular fabric. I wish I were one of them, but I’m not. I’m a lost hobbyist, missing the stripes of beautiful fabrics all lined up along the organized shelves of Stone Mountain and Daughter. I love just being around all the pretty fabric, wandering around until the right fabric suggests an unexpected project. There’s no good reason one couldn’t browse until inspired in a New York fabric store, but as soon as someone comes up and asks me when I’m looking for, I panic and pretend I have a plan.

But yesterday I braved the garment district and found this lovely stripy knit, which clearly wanted to be the same shirt I always make. I did make one small change – since this fabric doesn’t curl in on itself, I cut an extra flap of about three inches along the neckline (both front and back) which folds in and forms a facing. I didn’t tack it down or anything, I just shake it into place when I put the shirt on and the fabric clings to itself a bit so it stays put.

This rendition of the only shirt worth sewing is wider than it is long – about 24″ long and almost the full width of the 60″ fabric. There’s a 6″ difference between the front and back to form the cowl, but the fairly wide neck opening means it pulls down lower than 6″ otherwise might.

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Remnants

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Naomi

Making underwear is my favorite way to use up scraps of knit fabric that are too big to throw away, but too small to really make anything out of. You can piece together undies from scraps of different colors or patterns to use up any fragment, however small.

The pattern I use is more or less the same as my swimsuit pattern, with a couple of inches taken off the top. Since I didn’t use elastic, I don’t need a seam allowance for these and I also took off a bit around the leg opening. I recommend just trying them on after you’ve sewn up all the seams but before you finish the edges and trimming off a bit at a time until they look right. I add seams here and there to fit the shape of the fabric – I often divide the front in thirds and use a different fabric for the center from the sides, or divide either piece in half and use the same fabric for both.

I finished these on the serger, but you can also use elastic as in the swimsuit tutorial. Or you can use decorative lingerie elastic. To do so, sew the elastic to the fabric with the right sides facing each other (as if you were making an ordinary seam) using a slight zig zag stitch. Then, fold the elastic under, and top stitch using a wider zig zag.

Posted in Sewing | 3 Comments

My wedding dress!

Posted on October 8, 2012 by Naomi

My wedding dress is by far the most complicated thing I’ve ever sewn. I don’t know how long it took, since I carried it around with me and basted while I was talking to people or watching tv or waiting for the bus. I’m not going to talk you through how to sew your own, because there’s just too much to it, but if you’re curious how it’s put together, these are the pieces of the pattern:

The lace at the back came from Lacis, a wonderful lace store and museum in Berkeley. I finished the rest of the dress before I put it in, and it’s not structurally important, just tacked into the back.

I had planned on putting in an invisible side zip, but I was afraid it would be too heavy and make the dress hang asymmetrically. I kept putting it off, knowing it wouldn’t look right, telling myself it would only take half an hour and I could do it whenever. The day morning of the wedding I realized I wasn’t finishing my dress because I knew the zip just wouldn’t look good, and had Rosalie and Prima sew me in. It was slower than putting in a zipper, since it was a weird angle to sew at, but I’m so happy with the way it ended up looking. Thank you Rosie and Prima!

I couldn’t get quite enough of the matte silk I used for most of the dress, so I used a shinier silk charmeuse for the under layer of the skirt and some of the lining. As so often happens when I run out of fabric, I love the way the two fabrics work together, and I’m glad I had to do things this way.

Both fabrics were very fragile and slippery – I couldn’t use pins, because they would leave permanent holes in the fabric, but it moved around too much to sew directly on the machine. I’m not a big fan of basting in general, since it is so very slow, but it’s absolutely necessary for this sort lightweight silk. And it was worth all the time it took to end up with this dress.

Posted in Sewing, Wedding | 2 Comments

Isabel’s bridesmaid dress

Posted on October 3, 2012 by Naomi

Isabel’s bridesmaid dress was a design we’d been talking about making for her for a while. The full skirt, low back, and high neckline are elements we both always love. In fact, you’ll see all of those same things in my dress, although the styles are completely different. The pattern pieces for this dress are:

Most of the measurements are very forgiving. As long as the waistband fits well, it will look fine. The dress closes with an invisible zip on the side.

The trickiest part of this dress was figuring out how to finish all the edges. The front is fully lined, which takes care of the edges, but for the back I wanted a very crisp edge, whereas a lining gives a softer edge. I finished the armholes and the bottom edge of the back by folding and sewing them down, but for the long straight sides of the back I used iron in seam tape. It makes for a slightly stiff edge that isn’t suited to most things, but was perfect for a place where I wanted to emphasize a straight line and make sure everything stayed put when she was dancing.

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Flower Girl Dresses

Posted on September 23, 2012 by Naomi

I don’t sew a lot of kids clothes, what with not having any kids, so I had a lot of fun making these flower girl dresses. They’re just so much simpler and smaller and faster to sew!

To make your own, simply trace out the shapes above, matching the measurements listed. To make the skirt even, hold one end of your measuring tape fixed, and swing the other end along the edge of the skirt like a giant protractor, marking as you go. Wash your fabric and cut out your pattern pieces.

First, sew the two front pieces together along the neckline and armholes, then do the same for each of the back pieces. Turn the back pieces inside out and line up each strap so that the back piece is around the front piece. Sew along the top of the strap and turn right side out. Do the same for the sides, sewing the outside to the outside and the lining to the lining.

Add pockets and sew together the skirt. Then sew the top of the dress to the waistband and the waistband to the skirt, beginning and ending at the zipper opening.

To add the ruffle, create a long 5″ wide strip of fabric by sewing together several strips the length of your fabric. The amount you need will vary a lot depending on how long the skirt is and how much you gather the ruffle, but it’s easy to add another strip of fabric if you start gathering the ruffle and realize it’s not going to be long enough. Fold the strip lengthwise to form a 2 1/2″ strip with the right sides facing out. Using a long straight stitch, sew along the rough edge of the strip in 1 yard increments. At the end of each yard, tie the two threads together at one end and pull gently on the other end of one thread to gather the strip into a ruffle. When your ruffle is long enough to go all the way around the edge of the skirt, pin the rough edge of the ruffle to the edge of the skirt, and sew along the gather line.

Finally, put in a zipper, being careful to line up the waistband. You have a twirly flower girl dress!

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Rosalie’s bridesmaid dress

Posted on September 16, 2012 by Naomi

Do you see that cake? That is the best cake. Rosalie baked it (and many others like it) for my wedding. Because she is wonderful. And so is her cake.

But this isn’t a blog about cake, it’s a blog about sewing and dresses, and look, there’s also a dress in that photo! Rosalie and I designed it together, I made a pattern and cut out the pieces, and Rosalie sewed it together and printed the waistband. I love how she looks in it, and I love that we made it together.

The pieces of the pattern are above. This is a pretty straightforward dress (a good thing if your seamstress is also baking wedding cake for 100). The only tricky parts are planning out the bust darts and making the gathers.

Side darts pull in the dress bellow the bust and allow extra fabric vertically, which is helpful for larger bust sizes. For smaller sizes, the gathers add enough shaping (depending on how tightly you gather, the waistband can be up to two inches smaller than the bodice) and the rest can be pulled in at the side seams. Side darts are cut straight at the top, and curved at the bottom. Measure carefully along the curve to make sure it is the same length as the straight line, or ever so slightly shorter – since the curve is on the bias it will be easy to stretch it slightly to ease it in. Making the curve too short will lead to puckers along the dart, so keep it light (I usually do 1/2 an inch of easing in a 4 inch dart).

Gather the main fabric and the lining separately. To form the gathers, sew a long straight stitch down the center of the top. Tie the ends of the thread together at one end, then pull gently on one thread at the other end to form the gathers. Place a small scrap of fabric behind the gathers, and sew the bodice to this scrap, carefully following the gather line. This will stop your gathers from popping undone when you run around after the flower girls.