Claire Kennedy Design

A delicate seam - part 2

Isn't it amazing how a delicate almost weightless thing can cause so much consternation!  It's always the way.

Holly - thanks for the comment and compliment.  You are exactly right about the weight.  I have yet to get a light enough French seam to hang well, and even a seam with too much edge stitching (either over lock or serger) is too heavy.  This is what works the best on my dresses, skirts and long trains which are long and much heavier seams than blouses our dresses.  I've even been known to sew these by hand - usually when they are lined or faced. This may not be very cost-effective, but the most important thing here is that the finished garment hand and look straight.

Here are a couple of photos

 

This one (above) shows the seam hanging - it's just as straight and unwobbly as a seam like this can get.

This one (above)  is a more detailed photo - click on image and you can see the light stitching.  The stitching is fairly far apart, making it less thread per inch, making it more light-weight.

A lot of folks have told me that this is not being money wise about my time.  I tell them, I have a fabulous reputation today because people know this is the quality of work I turn out.  If it takes me doing it by hand, so be it. 

Here again are my rules (the "not by hand rules!"):

1. The seam, technique or thread (or amount of thread per inch) can't weigh a lot

2. The seam can't buckle, wobble, wrinkle or crinkle at all  - what I call easing in a lot of fabric into a short space.  I lay it on a flat surface to match the seams as closely as possible, and pin about every 6" like this:

   

   When you sew on the edge (or serge on the edge as I do, then the pin does not interfere with the needle or any other mechanism and yet the fabric remains tacked and in place while the sewing occurs.

3. The seam has to sew in just as the machine will feed it.  This means that there's no pulling or stretching or pushing involved, that you might otherwise be able to get away with in another fiber or fabric. 

For me, this comes down to a clean seam.  I don't care how it looks coming out of the machine or after I've pressed it.  What counts is how it hangs on my client.  If the seam is straight on my client, that is what matters.  Even in some of the beautiful designer hand-made garments that I have altered in chiffon, the seams are done very lightly and very delicately - some are just sewn with no over-stitching on the edge at all.

Now, here's the joke.  I remember once I was going through a particularly hard learning curve on a lapel on a jacket once with my mentor teacher.  She had me taking that dang thing in and out about 5 times, I swear.  I had put in the collar backwards, and she wanted me to take the collar out of a notched lapel of a tailored jacket after I had done all that hand work to get the interfacing to roll just so on the collar.  Out came all the pad stitching, the collar, the interfacing and turn the collar going the right way - some how I got confused and put it in backwards again (see, even we advanced students make mistakes), and had to take it all out over again.....grrrrrrr!

 When I finally got it right, and the garment passed her inspection, she said to me, "Now, Claire, had that been me and I was doing this for a client, I wouldn't have spent all that time doing it again, I would have recut it as it would have been more cost effective!!!"  Grrrrrrrr.  I think I went bald for a couple of months while I pulled my hair out - we laughed of course, but I was exasperated.

Then why did she have me do it - to learn the lesson - sometimes you can't redo it, and guess what?  I never made that mistake again.

So here's the deal.  Most of the time you don't have to worry about this on garments like short skirts, blouses and other shorter-seamed garments.  I have to on my long skirts and trains - they are a different animal.  The weight of that much fabric, the weight of the seam all take a toll on the seam.

If you can get a clean seam without this technique - go for it!  It's the clean seam you're after.  If you can't get a clean seam, try this technique.  I think it will work for you.

Doing a difficult seam

One of my favorite techniques I use to solve the problem of a wobbly seam on a sheer or particularly slippery fabric is a little laborious, but once you use this technique, you won't want to do this any other way.

First, you must lay out your pieces and match your seams on a flat surface so that there's no buckling or warping.  Usually skirt seams like this are not exactly on the straight, so laying down the fabric seam on top of seam means that you are making sure that the seam won't buckle or wrinkle.

Next, pin about every 6" which may seem like a lot, but you'll be glad once you're sewing it up.  I almost always pin with the pin perpendicular to the seam edge and with the pin standing out at least 1" or more from the seam edge.  This allows you to keep the pin in and it will appear to that you are sewing over it, although the pin itself and the needle of the serger will not come in contact with the pin.  IOW, you aren't sewing over the pin and running the risk of jamming the pin into the shuttle of the bobbin or other damaging act, but at the same time you're fabric is kept in place by the pin.  I have the video below which helps show this.

Thirdly is to allow the machine or serger to feed in the fabric at it's own speed.  No pulling or keeping the fabric tight or taunt while sewing it through the machine.  This as well ensures that there will be minimum wobbling or buckling in the seam.

Finally after I've finished, I press the garment on the wrong side to "bend" the seam the direction I which with a finish pressing on the right side to make sure that the seam looks as clean as possible.

OK here's the video, and we won't look at the mess of my studio, and me...when I'm in my studio working, I look more like the mad arteest!

One last technique here to make this look really good.  More often than not these skirt seams are not on the straight - not the exact bias either, but they don't have to be on the exact bias to stretch a little.  So it is very good to hang the skirt for at least 24 hours before you hem it to make sure that the hem won't stretch out after you've hemmed it.

Typical fabrics that this technique would be useful for are chiffon (poly and/or silk), charmeuse, crepe de chine, light-weight crepe, rayon, and even some minimum stretch knits. 

This isn't particular a hard technique, but it is a little bit more time-consuming, but it works every time. A seam in a drapey, loose fabric like this that is not buckling, wobbly or crinkled, is really a fabulous look.  It keeps the smooth drapey look of the fabric, yet without that horrible wobble in the seam. It just works, and for my girls' dresses to see this seam on the outside as smooth as glass, it's well worth it.

Enjoy!

Oriental vs Occidental

This is not meant to be a complete reference on the difference between the two cultures, just as it refers to sewing and more particularly fit.

I will often refer my clients to the plethora of Oriental tailors in my city, but with one caveat - be careful of the fit.  This isn't so much a fault or problem, once you understand the Oriental way of fitting.  It is much closer to the body and with out the ease that the Occidental world is used to.

Enter this lovely lady:

While traveling to the East on Singapore Air, imagine my delight in seeing these lovely ladies in their beautiful uniforms - yes these are their work uniforms. 

The first thing I noticed was the fit - very close to the body with hardly any ease.  This is the standard Oriental way of fitting and although you may think this is very limiting, actually it's not - because it fits the girl, and fits her well.  It's not skin tight, nor is it two sizes too small;  it simply fits.

Understanding that in Asia as well as Europe, ladies first thought upon being invited to a special event is to seek out a tailor or dressmaker.  This is the source for all fine garments - not RTW!  Ready-to-wear is an American phenomenon, and even today, ladies throughout the world, except the US, prefer having their special garments made for them.  With this in mind, the fitting on the lovely ladies of Singapore Air, seems totally logical.

But this dress is not only about fit.  It's about the myriad of details in this lovely ensemble.

Not only is there the mitered corner of the applied border, but look at the darted curve of the neckline.  This shows a ton of work in that the collar must be darted just exactly or the curve radius is too small or too large.  But this is not surprising as these uniforms were designed by Pierre Cardin, so the detail is subtle, only noticeable to the experienced eye.

Having done this exact procedure, I know how tenuous that darting can be.

It's not as evident in this photo, however the applied border here ran around the back of the neckline and the only way for this to work was to curve or dart the straight border piece.  It worked beautifully and my client loved it.

But that's not all - the skirt has its own design goodies

The uniform has to be functional and these gals have to reach up and down and stoop and so must have room to work as well as be beautiful.  Toward that end the front has a slit that is pleated into the slit trim, and gathered which adds not only a great shape to the skirt but allows for her to walk and work easily in the ensemble.

What was just as much fun was all the while crossing the Pacific Ocean (well, not the entire crossing), every time they would pass in the beautifully made garments, I would relish in knowing that I had done something almost similar and know the hard work that goes into each one of these garments.

Oh My!

This is absolutely phenomenal.  I should get this out and show this to my clients.  Every time they say "beading" the price goes up astronomically!

Of course the rest of it is fun too....like the first part - nice to know what we're doing is right!  Shared from New York Video.

Enjoy