Claire Kennedy Design

White and such things

Now that summer is in full swing, white is all the rage again.  (Don't you just love it how fashion discovers white all over again every summer!!!!  But it's good no matter what time of year!)

Anyway, there are some things that go along with white that a sewist must remember.  White is transparent.  More than any other color in the spectrum or in your fabric stash.  I had to learn that certain colors on my watercolor palette are transparent - greens, blues, but my reds, yellows and oranges were all opaque - why cause the cadmium in the warmer colors was opaque....why?....I dunno. 

Why is white fabric transparent?....it just is, don't ask - just accept it as law!

Here's why!!!

No matter how well you sew or how great your fabric is (or how thick your white fabric is), the pockets, fly, seam allowances and anything else underneath will show.  And although they are spectacular for summer, white pants must be lined.

Actually, I'm not really a fan of white pants, and only on certain occasions will I wear them - when I do it's usually with a jacket, tunic or other longer top garment over my bum (as the Brits would say!)

Well, this is a big much, but makes my point.

  
Lining your white pants completely solves this problem of seams and "other things" showing through.  If you can't stand lining, but are obsessed with wearing white pants, you can half line the pants - to the knee, after this, the pants are usually loose enough not to show the lining hem.

And in case you are still not persuaded, then view the following - of course at your own risk, and please remove the children from view of the computer screen.  I won't be responsible for blindness or severe emotional damage.

My point made - enough said!

I forgot about this little technique

While I was doing up my latest white shirt, I forgot about this wonderful technique my sewing mentor/teacher taught me. 

This is the collar stand corners, but in a white shirt there are a ton of corners and you can use this method on all of them...first, I don't trim on the square corners, (but on the angled corners...like the collar point and peak lapels, I do trim).  And pardon the fingers...when you work with fabric, your hands/fingers/nails get dry and I need a good manicure!

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Then you fold it over - just a little over the seam line...IOW fold deep so that the seam line is just past the fold.

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Next you hold the fold in place while you put the forefinger just up into the inside corner, and have the thumb holding the fold on the outside.

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Now turn - what makes this so nice is that you are using the strength and thickness of the multi-layered fabric to force a nice corner and fold.  See how nice this turns out.  Sometimes all this takes is a little wiggling and the corner pops out very nicely without any poking (none of that do that right?....OK, enough of the funnies).  But you sure don't run the risk of popping out some of the threads and it sure does make life easier.

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I'm still on the hunt for pictures of my mentor.  She was an excellent lady and actually a splendid teacher, albeit I wanted to soak up everything she knew, but for her to put up with my energy level and excitement was truly a blessing.  There are so many small valuable techniques like this that she passed on to me and I don't do a one that I don't think of her. 

I gotta get a picture of her - somehow!  In the meantime, passing on this stuff is so much fun!

Velvet seams

I'm bogged down with my typical fall schedule - fun, but hectic.  So perusing around I found this from Linda Lee and Sewing Workshop - I just love their stuff.

This is about a great way to put together a velvet seam - great, easy and quick!  Frome the Bernina Blog - click the picture!

 

 

What are the components of a well-made garment

Sometimes it's important to step back and prioritize or at least take a look at the whole picture.

We sewists often get so bogged down with the details that we forget the whole 9 yards!

Here are some of my points that my garments have to meet before my clients get to take them home:

1. Construction - this is a given - not only well-constructed, but put together well - well-inserted sleeve heads/armscyes, good roll on collar (if desired) and other tailoring elements as well as buttonholes, zippers closures and finishing details executed well.
2. Fit - the garment must fit - this is not a "stretch" fit, but a fit with ease (here's a good American ease chart).  Remember this is a personal thing, but still fitting with ease is what I'm looking for.
3. Seated well - this refers to the pitch or angle, also if you have to constantly adjust the garment to have it look right, then it needs to be anchored or repitched better.
4. Proportion - is the length and width and positions of various features of the garment correct proportionally for my client's shape and size.
5. The Look - does this meet the style, persona of my customer....is this what she want...does she feel excellent in the garment.

This may sound like a lot, but again, in small steps this can be accomplished.

There are several elements to each category, but these are the basic guidelines that my garments must pass before I'm finished with them.

As you begin to sew more for yourself and garner your own style, you may even add some more categories as you need.  And as you become accustomed to fulfilling one or more of these categories, you will most likely do this so naturally that you will probably even forget it as a guideline.

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!

Don't Stop Believing

One of the big things I love about Glee is the song: Don't Stop Believing!

I'm in the middle of a pants class right now, and my students are remarkable.  But periodically, I do meet discouragement and disappointment in my students.

The first thing I want to convey is that Don't Stop Believing!  And I know it's hard when either the student is completely lost or she's not understanding where I'm going.  And the lost part is what I'm most concerned about.

I started teaching because I realized how easy it was for me to get dressed or get excited about getting dressed and going through my closet.  If I want a new white blouse/top, I just plop down in my studio and make it. If I want a hot red dress - that shows off the best part of me, I just pull out something from my stash, and make it up.

That's real freedom!  I wanted to pass that freedom on to my students.

So for the bewitched, bothered and bewildered:

• don't be discouraged.
•  remember if you knew how to do all this, you'd be teaching the class and not me.
•  a project should be tackled in parts, particularly if it is overwhelming.  If the idea of doing a jacket is something you really want to do, but you either haven't done one in a while, or you're just plain scared to death - take it on it parts

Along this vein, I was asked something interesting by my students:  How long would I have to take lessons to sew like you?

I wasn't ready for that.  I've been sewing (good sewing, not play or "sewing for my Barbie" sewing) for almost 40 years.  When I was studying under my mentor, in one semester I would sew up 16 shirts, another 6 jackets, another 4 coats, 2 ball gowns - on and on.  Each garment was graded and critiqued - the critiqued part was really helpful.  Not only did I learn how to sew up these garments, but I also learned not to be afraid of it.  The pattern-drafting, fitting, designing all naturally developed from those semesters of just practice, practice, practice.

I "practiced" sewing for almost 10 years, before I started my business.

This sounds like a monotonous drill, but it was anything but.  I do love sewing.  It was just solving one puzzle after another - the kind of puzzles that I adore and can't wait to tackle.....part of that "follow your bliss" stuff that I also love!

For a lot of sewists, this isn't either possible or desirable.  But I also know that a lot of sewists do want to learn key techniques and methods from which a whole lot can be accomplished.

You don't have to know how to do hand pad-stitching to be able to sew in a sleeve.

You don't have to know about a button stance or notched lapel to be able to sew in a zipper.

So here are some things to think about when you're overwhelmed with a project.

1. You don't have to accomplish the project all at once (or even in one day - thank heavens!)
2. If it's a big project, take it in steps - if you have to little baby steps.
3. If you want to be able to do a method or technique well, practice - it's not a secret formula - just practice.  By the way, this also makes you comfy with the process.
4. Don't expect to know everything about sewing, fitting and designing all at once.  You didn't pop out of your mama's womb knowing how to do this stuff automatically - don't have those unrealistic expectations.
5. And DON'T STOP BELIEVING!!!!

Zipper Installation

When I learned how to sew (for real, not just play sewing), I learned to put in a zipper using a couture technique that I loved.  My zippers always went in well, and they looked fabulous. 

My ready-to-wear competition didn't look half as good, and the zipper stayed in and looked wonderful. Eventually invisible zippers have become my mainstay for two reasons.  They are quick to insert and they are very sturdy for very tight-fitting bodices which also seem to be the norm.  Basically these are the zippers my clients like, so that's what I do.

It doesn't mean I don't like my hand picked zippers, and when I recently did a back-zipped silk shell, it screamed, "Do one of your fabulous hand picked zippers".

So here's what I did.

I start out with the top, and sew up the center back and press it, then remove the seam where the zipper is to be inserted.  Lightly pin the zipper into place.

Using pins here is sort of a necessary evil, so I try to keep it to a minimum.

Next simply pick stitch the zipper in, staying online with the seam and when you tick the other side, I like to make the stitches match on both sides.

So that when you finish it looks like this.  I unfortunately couldn't match the print, as there wasn't enough fabric (bummer!), but you can see how beautiful this sort of zipper it.

Take your time and work in the same direction (down one side and down the other, or up one side and up the other), and this is an absolutely beautiful zipper.  Amazingly enough it stays in through most stress, however it does not work in stretch fabrics.  The stress on stretch garments really requires an invisible zipper, but for something like this top, it's perfect.

How to make the line of your clothes work for you

This is an infallible system I've learned through the ages that works time and again.

I first noticed it on my sewing teacher when one day in class, my mind was wondering....I did that a lot in class....and I began to notice her slacks she was wearing.  They fit.  But what made them fit.  She did not have a perfect figure and yet she looked so good.  She had anything but a perfect figure.  She had a tummy, no hips, and she called her posterior "a shelf" it was so big. 

But what made them fit?

I began to dissect her pants, which took me even further from that day's studies.  It turned out that the line of the pants fell flatly, neatly and cleanly from the largest part of the curve below her bust, waist, hips, tummy, and posterior.  That was the secret.

Here's what this means in pictures - which is far better than any words.

For hips, that means fitting below the hip apex point is very tricky...the lower the taper in point, the better the line will look.  The classic straight line is a giveaway for a great fit and a great look.

This is even more of an dramatic example.  If I have a client who wants to look busty, I can fit immediately below the bust apex point, and she will look "va-va-va-voom".  If my client feels busty, then I will, fit with a straight line from the bust to the waist, and not fig below the bust.

The same is true of the stomach and hip apex points....fitting the lower seat of the posterior will automatically make the back look way too large, when it's actually not. 

I can use a variety of techniques to make sure this line falls straight, neat and clean, and darts are the favorite tool to use.  Side darts, bust darts, waist darts, hip darts are all wonderful mechanisms to make this happen.

But the rule is never fit under those apex points, unless you want to accentuate that apex point.

Now for the second part of this proportions tutorial....height.

For all of you shorties out there (and I'm one of them), you can wear the long, short skirts, long & short jackets, but we have to be extra careful because our margin of error is far smaller than those long-legged gals.

 

These are the exact same models, one is shorter than the other and that's the only difference.  See how much longer the calves of the taller gal are than the one on the right....the gal on the left has more area to get the length right, whereas the gal on the right has less space.

This is all you have to remember if you're short - that you just have less space to hit that "sweet spot".

 

This is a longer skirt and again, the gal on the right has less play space to hit the right spot.

 

This is the floor length for both ladies, and again the short gal