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| My office - seriously. |
For those who didn't make it that far in my 2012 recap post or just plum forgot, I now work as a geo at a fly-in mine here in Yukon. I work a 2 week rotation, so please forgive me if I disappear for half a month at a time. I've already pulled one rotation, and will be leaving on my second one tomorrow morning!
Despite this, I sort of signed up for Cake Pattern's
Tiramisu 30 Minutes a Day Sew-Along! StephC is doing a fantastic job of organizing it and guiding us along. Wish I could follow along each day for the entire thing, but oh well, the posts will still be there when I get back.
Day 1 had us gathering up our supplies into a box or bag or basket, and then tracing the pattern. I forgot to snap a picture, but I'm using one of the many wicker baskets I have laying around. I liked this step especially because I'm in the middle of moving and my sewing supplies are scatted to the wind. This lets me keep it all in one spot and ready to go for when I come back to the project. Steph is a smart woman.
Day 2 had us cutting out the pattern from our fabric. You can see my pile above. I'm using a lovely
denim-like knit that I surprising found in our severly lacking local fabric shop. My cutting was fairly simple as I don't have stripes to match. Since this fabric has a diagonal texture to it, it's really hard to match up on the seams, so I've opted to rotate the skirt piece and cut on the fold to eliminate the centre front and centre back seams. I know this will effect the drap of the fabric, but Steph did the same thing on her
polkadot Tiramisu, and it looks just fine.
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| Sorry about the dark crummy picture. The lighting in my sewing room sucks right now. |
Day 3 (today) has us pressing our neck and sleeve bands in half and ironing on strips of fusable interfacing to the shoulder seams and pocket openings. I should be packing up today so that I can cuddle with my boyfriend tonight without worry; instead, I did the day 3 chores PLUS then played with stitch options.
See, since I'm using a demin-like fabric, I want to use some denim-like seam finishes, and that includes possibly a flat-felled seam along the side seams. It worked out decently on my test scraps (although I got distracted part way through and my needle wandered off), but I'm not sure if it'll work well as a side-seam on a knit dress.
I also tested out using a double needle with the thicker gold topstitching thread. I'm going to have to really crank up the tension to make it work, since the stitches pull through to the underside of the fabric.
I don't know, what do you guys think? Ever use a flat-felled seam on a knit before? This knit has some weight to it, but I had to steam the crud out of it to get it to fall flat again after stitching the seam. (But then, I had to do the same with the double needle seam too.)
ETA: The reason I want to do this is two-fold. I want to carry on the look of denim jeans in the dress, and since jeans have the flat-felled seams on the sides, I thought it'd be perfect. But more importantly, the diagonal texture on the front and back skirts will be meeting at nearly perpendicular angles (much like the picture above). Having the flat-felled seam there would obscure this more than I suspect a regular seam would. But a lot of you have mentioned the weight of the seam, so I think a bit more investigation is needed before I attempt it. Thanks everyone.
I've used flat fell seams with ponte, but not with a lighter knit.
ReplyDeleteThis is a relatively thick knit. I've never worked with ponte, so I'm not sure how it compares, but it's definitely heavier than most t-shirt material. I really don't know knits very well; they only make up about 10-15% of my fabric stash. :P But at least I know that someone has done flat-felled seams on knits before!
DeleteI've never done flat felled seams- yes, superlame. I do love that knit though and how it looks with the jeans effect. :-)
ReplyDeleteI'll be honest: the picture above is the very first time I've done them too. They're kind of annoying to make. :P
DeleteGreat fabric, it looks really cool! I've used flat fell, and faux flat fell seams before, but usually with a mid to heavy weight fabric. It will stiffen the long vertical side seams, and I'm not sure how that would look/feel with a flowy swinging style of the Tira skirt.
ReplyDeleteHmm, that's a good point. I think I'll have to try it out on a bigger piece of scrap fabric before I attempt the skirt. See how well it drapes. It was pretty heavy when I played with the test piece. Granted, this knit is a bit heavier itself...
DeleteI would do golf top stitching on the hem, neck, etc, maybe midriff, but maybe not the side seams. I'd probably just do double top stitching rather than a real flat fell, but I'm a wimp. Can't wait---have a great rotation!
ReplyDeleteEr... Gold topstitching. >_<
ReplyDeleteHaha, I was going to ask what 'golf topstitching' was. :D I'm not sure if I want topstitching on the midriff yet, I'll probably decide after I do it on the neckline. I was drawn to the flat-felled seam because I'd like to continue with the denim jeans look on my dress, but StephA had a good point about the stiffness of the seam. We'll see. Thanks for the input!
DeleteI'd agree not to do the flat fell on the side seams, especially for the bodice--you'll probably need that little bit of flexibility. But it could look really cool in other places of the dress! Now that I think about it, I actually have a swimsuit bottom that's made from a denim-looking knit, and I think they did the detailing more in other places, like the front center/mock fly/mock pockets, and left the side seams as normal serger stitching. Do you want me to take a picture or anything?
ReplyDeleteNah it's alright. I've seen that sort of thing before. I just loved the idea of doing the sides as flat-felled seams because that's where they're done on jeans. I'm not sure if there's really anywhere else that I can incorporate them except maybe the midriff seams. We'll see, I'll have 2 weeks to ponder this question. :) Thanks for your input.
DeleteGreat fabric, especially with the gold topstitching. What is it that you have used to trace the pattern? It like clear plastic. I'm doing the sewalong too and need to get tracing - first time at this - so am looking for a suitable material. Yes, rather behind as my fabric took ages to arrive.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I'm using some vinyl that I found at walmart, a roll of 3 m for about $3 (Canadian). I've also used the poly that you put on walls between insulation and drywall. Both have been good stuff that holds a sharpie mark really well.
DeleteGood luck on the sewalong! It's been a lot of fun so far, and I'm sad to have to interrupt it for the next two weeks. Looking forward to following along, and of course seeing your dress!