Happiness Through Sewing
Look what I found; two holes in my cotton skirt. Holes too big to ignore or stitch up with a little thread. And this skirt, a Boden skirt, is too dear to me to throw away or use for parts. I wasn’t sure how to patch it in a subtle manner without having any matching […] Read more…
Does this drive anybody else crazy? The welts on a double welt pocket should lay flat against the garment. Welt pockets that gap open permanently in a twisted way look sloppy. Having two twisted, gaping, horizontal lines across one’s backside isn’t stylish or flattering. What really drives me crazy though is that more and more […] Read more…
Why underline a garment? While lining is sewn as a separate garment and then attached to the fashion garment underlining is basted to the fashion fabric before construction. This method adds body and durability to the garment when the style demands more structure or the fabric needs support due to a loose weave. Underlining can […] Read more…
The Hong Kong finish is a classic seam allowance finish used on garments which have underlining instead of lining. The seam allowance edges are encased in bias tape strips made from the underlining or any lining fabric. You could add a designer touch by using strips in a contrasting color to the garment or […] Read more…
A favorite pair of jeans is hard to get rid of even when they are ripped or frayed. My daughter had such a dilemma and asked if I could patch her jeans. Much of the area where her book bag rubbed against her left hip was threadbare. I knew the fraying would spread if left […] Read more…
Button placement is very important on a garment. When a garment is closed with an ill placed button it can show puckers, leave gaps, and will never let a garment hang as it was meant to. And here is where I use my Mary Poppins’ voice, “Taking time to place a button in the correct […] Read more…
My daughter needed a skirt but it’s never that simple, is it? She needed a skirt that covered her knees, was lightweight enough for humid summer weather and, of course, it had to be a style she would wear. I thought if I took her to the mall that finding the skirt would just […] Read more…
The princess seam is perhaps ubiquitous and therefore not as appreciated as it should be. Or maybe it’s the name that turns us off. This is a great seam for fit and fitting. It runs over the bust in the front, separating the center of the garment from the sides. It allows for a […] Read more…
When a zipper is too long it’s nothing to run a few stitches over the teeth to form a new bottom zipper stop which automatically shortens the length of your zipper. However this doesn’t work for metal zippers and certainly not for exposed metal zippers. To shorten a metal zipper you need a few supplies and […] Read more…
Drawing curves freehand, as with sewing curves with out a pattern, turn out, more than not, to be lop sided. I don’t know why the human hand cannot draw or sew a perfect curve over and over again and I do not have an answer how to do such a feat but I have a […] Read more…