Couture Sewing Techniques, Revised & Updated

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I can't see the point in taking weeks to make a simple dress with pointless sewing techniques, when what you teach is far more reliable and realistic.

I think we need to define home-sewing as a totally different thing from both high-street clothing and super-fancy couture designer wear. It was 62 years ago today that this beautiful gown was worn by my wonderful Mum as she married my fabulous Dad.Or do we take the view that the money we pay for it is a donation to a charity in need of the cash, especially if it’s going to end up in landfill otherwise? Sew the binding on very close to the raw edge, this was a Simple Sew Lizzie dress Here I made my own binding which is first sewn on with a 5mm seam allowance and then understitched which is what you see here. I felt that the length of the dress would probably be too long for me so I took some of the length out of the skirt pieces before I cut them out in fabric. I would cut everything for each garment as required and then make a ‘bundle’ including all trims (covered buttons, zip, piping cord etc) and labels. If you have fine fabric why not consider using your overlocker if you have one on the rolled hem setting?

One garment that offered massive chances to use up multiple fabrics was the ubiquitous tiered and ruffled dress-a buffet dress in current parlance! Then I sewed the actual seam of the 2 pattern pieces, which brought the 2 edges of the leather together, but not overlapping, reducing the potential bulk at the seam. I think efficiency is a relevant point – the more I think about it the more I think a couture technique doesn't take time/cost into account at all. It was part of my job to get everything out of the fabric as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible so I always spent time working this out like pattern Tetris before going near it with the scissors! Another thing I did decide at this point was that the sleeve needed ’something’ else so I mocked up some small pleats and pinned the sleeve into the armhole to try out the effect.I prefer to tack the tape to the seam allowance at this point but you could use Wonder Tape if you have it. Whilst the challenge is intended to encourage us to get creative and inventive for the pleasure of it alone there were also prizes to be awarded so the post on August 8 th shared the generous sponsors for these.

Just because the pattern instructions tell you to finish the hem a certain way doesn’t necessarily mean you have to do it that way…although think it through carefully just in case the really is a reason! I created this collage of a few of my projects made using thrifted, salvaged, reused, donated or repurposed fabrics at the start of August but I never posted it. Using strips of iron-on interfacing to stabilise the area where the cuffs fold up This is felted-type woollen fabric where hand stitching is unlikely to show through but if you have a finer fabric I would make the interfacing strip wider so that I then caught the inter with my stitches and not the fabric itself. It is stitched on very close to the edge being careful not to stretch the crin as I sew, it’s important it lies flat. If you have more cloth than will fit on the table in one go you could try having the excess rolled on a cardboard tube if you have one to keep it under control rather than sliding off the table all the time.We made one-off garments that were custom fit to each client… as in each client has their own pattern.