Hello Ladies and
Gents…
With such a glorious day it has given me the boost to share with you the next installment about making an 'A' Line skirt. I attended a one day course ran by The Thrifty Stitcher in Stoke Newington, North London and so far I have shared with you my pearls of wisdom on pattern cutting from a beginners perspective. I will now share with you how to prepare your fabric before the big snip-snip...
Now before you cut your fabric, the fabric must be
washed and pressed. The washing of the fabric will decrease the likelihood of
the fabric shrinking once the garment is made – you don’t want all your hard
work to shrink in the wash and come out all teeny and toasty. The pressing of
the fabric will ensure it is smooth again decrease the likelihood of cutting
out the wrong size pieces as after all smooth fabric is a smaller surface than
creased. So, top tip: wash and press.
Now, this part is quite complex for
my little brain to deal with, but I will do my
best to explain. With the
front piece being on the fold, it naturally follows the grain line as you have
smoothed the fabric so that the selvedge edges are aligned. For the back piece
you need to align the pattern with the grain. On the pattern it will highlight
the direction of the grainline – this needs to be straight and follow the
direction of the thread. I measured the distance between the top-edge as the
pattern needs to be the same distance to ensure the fabric grain is correct. A
great blog that also explains this is by Tilly and the Button called Before
You Cut Your Fabric - link below. With my fabric ready I
placed my pattern onto my it and pinned into place... ready to be cut.
Ready for the Snip! |
This phase taught me a great deal
about the fabric itself - about the selvedge, grain, grainlines, etc - all
adding to memory banks for future reference! Next time I will blog about
cutting the fabric and pinning....
Top tips:
- Equipment: Washing machine, iron, fabric, tailors chalk, pins and sewing pattern
- Wash and press
- Once you know which is the ‘right-side’ put strips of tailors chalk on the ‘wrong-side’ – this easily identifies what side is which and will reduce the likelihood of stitching the wrong sides together
Useful websites/ blogs:
- Tilly and the Buttons - http://www.tillyandthebuttons.com/2013/01/before-you-cut-your-fabric.html
Again, I'd would like to say a massive thank you to Claire-Louise and to
all at The Thrifty Stitcher for a wonderful creative day.
Happy Fabric Time x
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