rayon bias facing: the "no swearing necessary" method

okay, you asked so i'll share...

if you've ever tried to use rayon bias tape for a facing, you'll know how tricky it is. it shifts, it frays, it's generally uncooperative. before my portrait blouse, i had done it twice: the first time was a bloody mess, the second time took for-ev-er! and still didn't look that great. so i was searching my pile of scraps for a lightweight cotton or basically anything that would work as bias facing. nothing. okay, fine. [deep breath] i'll use self fabric.

i didn't take pics when i constructed the blouse, but i used scraps to show you my method.

leave the full 5/8" seam allowance on the neckline of the blouse and stay stitch at 1/2" (or just inside the SA) directionally from the shoulder down to center front, then shoulder to center back. make sure you overlap those last few stitches at CF and CB. stay stitching makes a world of difference, trust me!

cut your bias tape to 1 1/4" in width, then serge one edge with 1/4" wide serging. if you are living in a cave and don't have a serger, take your bias tape and press one side in by 1/4".

line up the edge of the blouse with the edge of the non-serged (or pressed) edge of bias tape and sew at 5/8". don't bother pinning the bias tape all the way around first, just go slow and keep adjusting the bias tape as you go around curves. don't stretch the bias tape or you will end up with a puckered seam.

once it is attached, trim the seam allowances down to 1/4".

press the seam flat first in order to shrink back any stretching that may have occurred and to eliminate any wavy-ness at the seam.

now lift the bias tape out flat and press the seam open from both sides. this will give you an good clean edge.

press in the serged edge of the bias tape using the serging as a guide, or re-press the 1/4". seriously though, get a serger.

now turn the bias facing into place and press. pin as little as possible perpendicular to the bias tape. excessive pinning or pinning parallel to the bias tape can distort the seam and if you have adequately pressed along the way, you won't need many pins.

finally, topstitch at a scant 1/4". i find that if i move my needle to the left position i can get 1/4" by lining up the right edge with the edge of the opening on my presser foot. i tried using my 1/4" piecing foot as a guide, but it was just a smidge too wide.

now you have a perfectly bias-faced edge!

this may seem like a lot of little steps that take too long, but in reality it goes very fast. if you half-ass or skip any of the pressing steps, it will take much longer and not look as nice. true story.

—lisa g.

gertie's portrait blouse

many of you no doubt have gertie's new book laying around. i received a copy for my birthday back in november and immediately devoured every bit of information she had to offer. now, as i've mentioned before, i'm not much into wearing the vintage inspired garments (though i do love to oogle at them), nor am i much into the hand sewing when i think a machine can do it better. nevertheless, i love many of the patterns included in her book and still enjoy reading and learning the vintage techniques. i may not use them much, i can certainly appreciate them.

i have a distinct lack of nice tops in my wardrobe so i thought i would try out the portrait blouse with a beautiful piece of rayon challis i picked up (it's from the van gogh collection by free spirit fabrics). now, i have an unwarranted disdain for shirts that require zippers in them. just a personal preference, but there you have it. i decided to eliminate the tucks so i could slip the blouse on and off, but to retain the waist shaping, i added two rows of shirring. i also added 3" in length to the blouse since i will mostly wear it with jeans and not tucked into a high waisted skirt.

before i started i checked out some reviews on the pattern, and there were a few complaints about the difficulty in hemming the sleeve. the instructions have you sew up the sides, then hem the sleeve by turning and stitching. now, the edge of the fabric will be much shorter than the line where you end up stitching. i decided to alter the pattern slightly and add extra fabric to the edge of the sleeve opening, then hem sleeve before sewing the side seam.

that little triangle of fabric makes all the
difference in hemming the sleeve easily!

here's what i did:

i ran a line of hand stitching along the 5/8" mark where the sleeve is to be hemmed, then i pressed along this line.

next i ever so slightly stretched the edge of the fabric around the underarm curve so it would turn in nicely. do be careful that you only stretch at the very edge and not further in! the actual pressed hemline must stay intact.

i serged the edge with 1/4" of stitching, then using the serged edge as a guide, i pressed it in and folded the sleeve hem in place and pinned.

then i was able to easily stitch at 1/4" and remove the line of basting.

when i went to sew up the side seams, i simply tacked the seam allowance back right under the arm.

i managed to bias face the neckline in self fabric without swearing once! if you've ever tried to use rayon challis as bias facing or binding you know what i'm talking about. i turned a 1" hem at the bottom, then added a tiny pocket just for fun.

this turned out to be a great top i can wear layered with cardigans for now while the weather is cold. it works with jeans, but would also be cute with a pencil skirt and belted.

i love the funky fabric i choose. these are my favorite shades of pink, and it works great as a blouse. i haven't seen many reviews of this top yet, but i can see it being a very versatile pattern. i would like to try it out with the tucks next time and maybe a button closure down the front to avoid the whole zipper thing.

as far as sizing, i made a 4 on top then graded out to a 6 at the waist, then added 3" in length. i think i have a slightly elongated torso (but a high waist), so definitely check the length before you make this up. again, if it were always tucked into an at-waist or higher skirt, you'd probably be fine. the bust darts could be moved up 1/2-3/4", but this is a typical alteration for me. overall, this patten is a winner—it's quick to make up and is virtually a blank canvas for whatever your need it to be!

—lisa g.

UPDATE: tutorial HERE for the rayon bias facing

project winter coat: fabric treatment and a few odds and ends

once your muslin is done and you know what pattern changes you have to make, it's time to start thinking about the fabric and what to do with it before cutting. my shell is 100% wool and my lining is 100% silk. egads! we're definitely in "dry-clean-only!-do-not-throw-that-stuff-in-the-wash!" territory. being that i have very little experience with these fabrics, i can't give suggestions based upon my own experimentation. lucky for me the whole internet is at my disposal, so i can turn to the people who can say things like: "when i pretreat wool/silk i usually..." so here goes.

wool

wool will shrink when cleaned (even dry cleaned) so before cutting into it you must preshrink it. the consensus here is that wool requires steam. loooots of steam. so you have basically four options:

• dry clean it and have it professionally steam pressed. i'm not a fan of this option because the more i read about dry cleaning the more i'm convinced it's just a crapshoot. maybe you'll get good results, maybe you won't. for me, it's the expense and smell that keeps me from going that route any more than i have to.
• the "london shrink" is another option and basically involves rolling your fabric up with wet towels or sheets, letting it sit wet for a day, unrolling, air drying then pressing.
• grab the iron, load up the water chamber and (using a press cloth, of course) steam the living daylights out of it. of course if you don't have a large area that you can use for steaming (i don't know about you, buy my ironing board is about 12" wide) this will get old reeeeeeal fast. also, the need for consistency is far higher than my attention span allows. so unless this just sounds really appealing to you, i would read on...
• the third option is basically free and doesn't involve standing over the ironing board for hours on end inside a cloud of steam. yay! throw it in the dryer with a couple very wet towels and let it tumble on the highest heat setting. for time, i've read 10 minutes up to an hour. i would expect 30-45 minutes would be sufficient. if your wool is likely to ravel, serge/zig zag the edges first.

if you still want or need to wash the wool, use a no-rinse detergent (such as this), soak it for 10 minutes (or whatever the directions tell you to do), then dry flat. agitation in a washing machine will cause the wool to felt. if you do chose to wash your wool in any way, test it with a swatch first!


silk

• silk it seems, gets a bad rep also for being difficult to pre treat. it's shrink factor is pretty minimal (or so i read) so basically, you can just hand wash it gently then let it line or flat dry. if you're nervous, do a swatch test first, especially if your silk has a print. i've read horror stories of ruined silks due to the colors running crazy!

rayon

• if you go with a rayon lining, wash on a gentle cycle (or hand wash) then let it air dry. rayon and dryers don't play well together.

fusible

• your fusible interfacing may also need a preshrink. to do this, submerge it in hot water and let it sit for 10-15 minutes then air dry. some fusibles specify that they are preshrunk and some specify that they are not preshrunk. if you don't know... better safe than sorry! you don't want your fabric shrinking up as you fuse it.

other odds and ends before cutting fabric

• are the pockets in a good place?
• do you want to include any interior pockets? (i do!)
• if your coating is on the thin side (as mine is) consider interlining with a cotton flannel. make sure you wash and dry it 2-3 times to eliminate shrinkage. unsure about interlining? i'll address this later.
• does your fabric need extra stability? underlining with a cotton batiste (preshrunk, of course) may do the trick.
• what type of buttonholes you will do? if you are doing bound buttonholes this will be one of your first steps. if you plan to machine your buttonholes, start testing that now. if you're not satisfied with how it looks, you may want to go with bound. hand worked buttonholes are another option (and the route i'm taking) but do your research first. it may be more work than you're willing to put in!

overwhelmed yet? i really hope not. basically you just want to plan out every detail and think it through. nothing is worse than getting far into your project then realizing some small detail isn't functional.

sorry about the picture-less post... i had hoped to have my sleeve tweaks made and sewn on to my muslin but i'm waiting for a shipment of tracing paper (50 yard roll of tracing paper! wooo!) to make it to my front door. i've always used tissue paper, but i'm out and it's really too thin for drafting anyways. i found tracing paper for a steal on amazon so hopefully it'll show up tomorrow. if not, i'll go back to tissue paper so i can get on with it already!

lest you think i just made this stuff up...

...here's some links. add your own in the comments if you've come across other great advice.

• the most referenced wool treatment link from off-the-cuff
• recent post on coletterie about treating coat fabrics
• fabric treatment round-up over on gertie's blog
• bound buttonhole tutorials on pattern-scissors-cloth: here and here
• hand worked buttonhole research by poppykettle (seriously delicious sewing going on over there, by the way!) 

—lisa g.