Curved Hems

Pattern - L'il LDT from Love Notions
Fabric - l'oiseau fabrics
Skill - curved hems

People new to sewing are sometimes intimidated by hemming.  They often put bands on in place of hems just to avoid it.  And a curved hem!  Well, that is serious intimidation.  Actually, it's not that hard at all.

There are a number of ways to do a curved hem and I was faced with one this morning.  You can sew a basting stitch around the edge of the fabric and gently gather.  Another strategy is to serge the edge of the fabric upping the differential so that it gathers the fabric.  I'm always on the lookout for an easy way to get things done and my method works just fine on knit fabric.

The L'il LDT has a curved hem and is perfect for this method.  I start by pinning the required 1" hem allowance at the side seams using long quilting pins.

Then I pin in the centre and a couple more times in between pins.  As you can see from the above picture, the fabric bulges up between the pins, so now I take it to the iron.

Now the reason for long pins becomes obvious. I steam press on the inside of the garment, avoiding the plastic pin heads.

If the bulge is a small one, the steam will shrink it, but if the bulge is larger, it will result in a small tuck - which unfortunately doesn't show up all that well in my black fabric!  A small tuck is just fine and the iron will keep it nice and flat.

On to the coverstitch (or perhaps the sewing machine if you don't have a coverstitch).  Since I ironed the hem well with steam, the cotton knit will hold its pressed shape and I can safely remove pins as the hem feeds through.

The finished hem is safely stitched just below the edge of the fabric.  Since this is knit, I don't have to worry about unravelling on the raw edge.  If I stitched half on and half off the edge, the raw end of the fabric would be enclosed, but it could also result in tunnelling.

The finished garment looks perfect from the right side.  Quick, easy - what more could you want!

Fixing a Mistake

Fixing a Mistake

Pattern – Classic Ringer Tee from Peek-A-Boo Patterns

Fabric – Cotton/spandex from l’oiseau fabrics

Skills – bands for sleeves, necks

A cute little tee was ruined when I attached the sleeves.  For some reason there was ugly buckling at the front where the sleeves met the body.  Did I cut the sleeves too small?  Was the body too big?  I still don’t know what caused it, but the dinosaur fabric was so cute that I simply couldn’t make myself throw it away.  It sat there accusingly for months while I dithered.  Donate it to a thrift store?  Toss it?  I just couldn’t make myself do it.  Finally one day I’d had enough.  Grabbing it up I advanced on the garbage bag – and suddenly I knew the answer.  Remove the sleeves and make it a muscle tee.

First thing to do – remove the sleeves.  I carefully cut the sleeves off, scissoring right next to the seam.

Next I needed bands – how long?  I measured around the openings (using the curly edge of knit fabric – I always save those!) and got 16”.  

If you multiply that by .8 (80% of the length) you get 12.8.  Add the half inch seam allowance to get 13.8 – then I rounded it to 13.75 for ease of cutting.  My bands were 1.5” wide.

Stitch the bands together at the short ends, press the seam flat and then press again to double the bands over. Now I pinned the bands in quarters.  I always use a distinctive pin to match the centre back or the bottom of the arm and developed this method after putting a neckband on backwards one too many times!

Then I quartered the armhole (or armscye to use the correct term!)  Watch your quarters here, especially when doing neckbands as the shoulder seams are usually not quarter pinning places.  Again, I used a distinctive pin to mark the bottom of the armscye.

Now to pin the band to the armscye matching pins.

Next to the serger.  I used a quarter inch seam and serged with the band on the bottom.  This makes it easier to avoid tucks that are hard to see or feel when you’re serging.  Gently stretch the band as you serge, being careful not to stretch the body.  I always leave a good tail and weave the tail into the seam with a large needle.

Nearly done now!  Over to the coverstitch machine.  I turn my garment inside out to make it easier to do this step.  I generally coverstitch on the body side of the join as it makes for a flatter seam which also makes it more comfortable to wear.  I’ve learned to fix my eye on the front of the presser foot as the band feeds through and not the needles.  I get much better, straighter stitching this way.

 One last step - ironing.  Never skimp on ironing as it gives you the best finish.  And now I have a little muscle tee that any dinosaur lover would be happy to wear!