The Sewing Place

Ways to improve the quality of what you sew

Morgan

Ways to improve the quality of what you sew
« on: January 23, 2018, 12:05:33 PM »
A thread for those gems that can help you step up the quality of your sewing

Morgan

Re: Ways to improve the quality of what you sew
« Reply #1 on: January 23, 2018, 12:15:47 PM »
A couple of really useful ideas to take away from this article by Kathleen Fasanella.
Read it through to the end, it's worth it.

(It doesn't just apply to dressmaking - it can be applied to anything that involves a pattern or template)

- to control how you want your seams and edges to behave, alter and adapt your pattern pieces before cutting out, rather than relying on pressing, easing and stretching to make things work
(the article uses the illustration of working with a collar, but the principle applies to anything where you want to control seams at edges, eg. cuffs, collars, jacket & coat front edges, etc.)

- take a step back, look at the process from beginning to end think about and do the pattern work and organise a sewing plan that will make the sewing and achieving the result more accurate.

Another really useful article is about Accuracy and in this case, cutting out.
https://fashion-incubator.com/marking_cutting/
and
https://fashion-incubator.com/the-7-minute-cutting-test/
https://fashion-incubator.com/the-7-minute-cutting-test-pt-2/
and
https://fashion-incubator.com/tracing_and_marking/

« Last Edit: January 23, 2018, 12:18:25 PM by Morgan »

UttaRetch

Re: Ways to improve the quality of what you sew
« Reply #2 on: January 23, 2018, 13:29:00 PM »
Interesting, but she is talking about sewing that is several magnitudes higher than mine and, I suspect, a lot of us.  I used to trace off my patterns and also took great pains NOT to cut off the traced line. 0_0

Morgan

Re: Ways to improve the quality of what you sew
« Reply #3 on: January 23, 2018, 15:50:59 PM »
a list of 15 tips on how to improve your sewing -

(Nos. 3 and 4 repeats points made by Kathleen Fasanella, cut to the line and cut cleanly/accurately)

I think No. 10 is key - Perform similar operations at the same time and sew flat.
It helps to take a step back, look at all the steps and organise (and write down) your own sewing plan/assembly process so that you can perform similar operations at the same time.
I think this idea of similar operations includes some of the earlier points eg. do the cutting and marking, do all the interfacing and so on.

For Point 12. Learn to sew without pins (or use as few as you can)
See this video by Janet Pray  it includes -  the benefits of a flat surface, how to line up and control fabric for sewing without pins and also techniques for how to stitch around inside and outside curves.  Try it and practise, it really does work even if it may feel a bit strange at first.

About No. 1, Change Seam allowances.
for Dressmaking, I am a great believer in using different seam allowances for different parts of the garment, it makes assembly so much easier.
  Also, depending on what seams will be used where, I adjust the seam allowances accordingly, for example:
- on a shirt where I will use flat fell seams, I use a smaller allowance on the side that will be trapped inside the seam and larger allowance on the side that will provide the folded wrap.  (In effect.  I don't see the point of cutting pieces the same size, sewing the first pass and then trimming away the edge of one layer.  Really I'm just cutting away that excess before stitching.
Different widths of Flatfelled seams need different sized seam allowances.
- on collars, stands, necklines etc. I use 0.5cm as  my standard allowance.

Greybird

Re: Ways to improve the quality of what you sew
« Reply #4 on: January 23, 2018, 16:24:06 PM »
What a lovely thread. I have learned lots already. I hope this is going to "sit" at the top for easy future access?

Morgan

Re: Ways to improve the quality of what you sew
« Reply #5 on: January 23, 2018, 16:29:38 PM »
Machined ease technique, also known as crowding or crimping.

It's a great technique to softly and evenly pull up the ease in a fabric for turning up hems on circle and flared skirts, easing in waists, also for ease shaping sleeve caps and so on.

It's an easing technique not gathering or ruching.

Video tutorial of Machine Ease Stitching (Crowding/Crimping)
Photo tutorial to use crowding to assist with hemming a flared hem
A video demonstrating the technique on a sleeve cap
« Last Edit: May 29, 2023, 11:07:34 AM by Morgan »

HenriettaMaria

Re: Ways to improve the quality of what you sew
« Reply #6 on: August 13, 2018, 19:46:41 PM »
Those Fashion Incubator tutorials are now bookmarked!  I was pleased to see that some of the shirt techniques she lays out, eg, cuffs & plackets, are the same ones I've been using since forever.  The front fastening button marking tip was new to me, though - I've always done it with pins - but her method looks like it would be faster.

Will work my way through the others as time allows.

Greybird

Re: Ways to improve the quality of what you sew
« Reply #7 on: August 14, 2018, 10:44:35 AM »
I've tried this crowding/crimping technique, but it didn't work for me. All it gave me was crinkles in the fabric - otherwise it was completely flat and not gathered at all. I had a similar experience following a tutorial for gathering where the stitch was max length and the tension increased - that didn't work either. Is it me or my machine?

Morgan

Re: Ways to improve the quality of what you sew
« Reply #8 on: August 14, 2018, 12:36:37 PM »
Here's another demo of the crowding/crimping technique.

(Disengage any IDT, even feed system or walking foot)

Use a stitch length of 2.5mm - 3mm or more.  The longer the stitch length, the more the effect of the crowding should be.
Also, it can help to reduce the foot pressure.

Press the barrier tight up against the back of the presser foot.
The way the technique works is to manipulate the effect of the feed dogs on the fabric.
It's a bit like creating your own manual differential feed.

@Greybird I don't know whether the not gathering issue is something to do with your machine or not.
The tightening gather technique  (long stitch length + top tension tightened by 3 - 4 units) works on all my machines, however I prefer to use the technique of 2 rows of long stitch length + slack top tension and manually pull up on the bobbin thread


Ohsewsimple

Re: Ways to improve the quality of what you sew
« Reply #9 on: August 14, 2018, 14:31:53 PM »
I'm a fan of the crowding technique as I get a juicy more even ease going on.
@Greybird you shouldn't get gathering with this technique.  It's just about pulling up the excess ease. 

sewmuchmore

Re: Ways to improve the quality of what you sew
« Reply #10 on: August 14, 2018, 18:14:15 PM »
Never had a problem with ease using the 2 rows of stitching method but I am going to try the method Joy uses next time I put a sleeve as it seems to save the need to pull up the stiches.
Plus I love the way she has her scissors attached to her machines, now that is definitely something I am going to do.
It's not easy being this perfekt

Janet

Greybird

Re: Ways to improve the quality of what you sew
« Reply #11 on: August 14, 2018, 19:46:29 PM »
Thank you @Morgan - I'll give this another try (as soon as the grandchildren have gone home!). It just struck me as odd that both these techniques didn't work for me.

@Ohsewsimple the gathering was something I tried some weeks ago. It looked so easy and as I had miles of tulle to gather I was so disappointed it didn't work. Then when I tried the crimping technique and that didn't work either I couldn't work out whether it was me or the machine.

Esme866

Re: Ways to improve the quality of what you sew
« Reply #12 on: October 11, 2018, 16:22:19 PM »
Kathleen has done a great service to the research of producing garments in a good quality time efficient manner - truly written for professional garment production.

I prefer to focus on the quality of my results and not concern myself with speed. However her opinion on an area causing one some difficulty can be quite helpful. She has a tendency to utilize her own approach to things ( a very sharp mind) and these can sometimes break the issue down into manageable parts for a home sewist.

SewRuthieSews

Re: Ways to improve the quality of what you sew
« Reply #13 on: March 19, 2019, 10:07:05 AM »
test all the machines and stitches you plan to use on scraps before the actual garment, and try to have the scraps mocked up to a similar thickness ie 2 layers or 4 layers etc.
Then you can adjust length, width, tension etc.

(after I've cut out the garment I keep all the teeny scraps in a basket near the machine to do the stitch testing)

Morgan

Re: Ways to improve the quality of what you sew
« Reply #14 on: August 11, 2019, 22:30:57 PM »
What a good one looks like - just look at the accurate sewing and attention to detail on Fiona's Jacket

A great standard to aim for.