Make Yourself A Press Cloth

Do you own a press cloth? Would you like to?

For ages, I didn’t bother, only to learn the hard way when I scorched some wool. Fair enough. Personally, I think the best lessons are learned through experience. But if you prefer not to ruin your fashion fabric, you can follow this little guide to making your own press cloth.

The word on the sewing street is that you should save an offcut of silk organza to use as a press cloth. Silk organza is extremely strong but fluid, which means it can stand high temperatures and drape nicely over whatever your pressing. Its opaqueness also means you can just about still see what it is your pressing.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t tend to have offcuts of silk organza floating around the house. Eventually, I went to Goldhawk Road and bought a metre from the cheapest source I could find. True confession time: I’ve since learned how coarse and poor quality that silk organza was, having handled other samples. It’s the eternal dilemma of the Novice Sewist, isn’t it? You don’t know what you don’t know!

Since then, I’ve had chance to handle much better quality silk organza and during my work on the V4934, I had … ooh, an offcut! (If you’re UK based and want your own high quality silk organza and sundry other dressmaking supplies such as quality interfacings, I strongly recommend English Couture.)

So here’s what I did.

I cut myself a square approximately 16 x 16 inches (40 x 40 cm). I used the selvedge for one side, knowing it wouldn’t fray, and pinked the three other edges. Please note – experience has taught me that pinking alone isn’t enough. I intend to go back and sew a line of thread close to each edge.

Why are we using a press cloth? Because pressing the right side of a make can leave shiny marks or scorches that can be impossible to remove. But when making lots of darts with ends that you don’t want to bubble, you’ll be doing a lot of pressing. A lot. Using lots of steam. So that’s why you use a press cloth.

What’s that cute little cat button, Karen?

Well may you ask! It’s a good idea to have a right side and a wrong side for your press cloth. One side that always goes face down. This is because you may also use your press cloth when sealing fusible interfacings to your fabric, and there are always those odd bits of glue that want to stick to your iron. To save your iron, use a press cloth. And to ensure that all that cumulative ickiness stays on one side of your press cloth, have a wrong side. Mark your right side. I marked mine with this cute little button bought from Ray Stitch!

I also decided to add a velvet ribbon hanging loop to my press cloth. This means I can hang the press cloth up when I’m not using it, so that it doesn’t become crumpled at the back of a drawer. Also, it means I can hang the press cloth loosely from my wrist when using it, yet the ribbon is long enough to pull the cloth over the next detail that needs pressing. In my experience, a Sewist is constantly whipping a press cloth into place and away again. This prevents you having to scramble on the floor, iron in hand, when you next need it. I love my hanging loop!

Threads has a guide to press cloths here. Brace yourself – they recommend six different versions! I keep wondering if I should subscribe to Threads. Thoughts, anyone? And any other press cloth tips out there?

Thanks to Beth, yet again, for inspiring my press cloth!

Significant Seams And A Significant Date

International readers may or may not be aware that it’s a Diamond Jubilee Weekend in the UK right now. Yep, Queenie has been on the throne for 60 years. Celebrations peak today with a pageant down the River Thames, although the weather man predicts rain storms of Biblical proportions. That’s Britain for you!

I am happy to admit to a fair amount of grumpiness surrounding the jubilee. I ventured out onto the streets of London earlier in the week only to be overwhelmed by bunting. Wherever I looked there was a Union Jack fluttering. So much enthusiasm! It just wasn’t cricket, people.

I’ve since got over my Victor Meldrew moment, cured by a visit to my local market: the covered indoor market I blogged about here, rather than the fabric-selling Walthamstow street market I bang on about incessantly.

Anyway, everyone was in high spirits and soon so was I when I spotted this:

Only this week, I’d been sorting through my sewing drawers, muttering, I’m running out of room. So I snapped this up. I’m still forcing myself not to think about the vintage sewing machines I saw for sale further into the market.

I do not need, I do not want, I do not need, I do not want…

 

Every event needs a man spinning discs.

My favourite moment was meeting Catherine of Significant Seams, a community-focused sewing and knitting social enterprise. Doesn’t she look lovely? And she is! I asked her to tell me a little bit about Significant Seams and I was blown away. They have a lending library of sewing books and patterns for locals:

They have supplies for local crafters to buy, a community quilting programme (including an awesome quilted map of Walthamstow), sponsored courses and some really lovely-sounding sessions for children and their parents. Coming from a children’s books background myself, I was delighted to hear how they had recently made some fun ‘knicker bunting’ in a session based around the new children’s book, The Queen’s Knickers.

Overall, I was really, really impressed with Catherine and her enterprise. I have everything crossed that she receives the grants she’s recently applied for.

I still struggle to believe that this market is right on my doorstep. Like, two minutes away. Yay, Walthamstow! Yay, creating! And Happy Jubilee, ma’am. I’d give a deep curtsey, but I fear poking myself in the eye with a knitting needle.

Baby Steps, Baby Steps

For any of you who hadn’t picked up on this, my recent make of the Cambie Dress was what’s known as a diversionary tactic. I was scared of continuing with my make of the V4934 without Sunny Gal by my side.

Like all good teachers, Beth knows when to give a gentle prod. ‘How’s the dress coming along?’ she emailed. And like the good student that I am, I snapped to attention. There was no avoiding it – progress alone was the next step.

So today I began, taking on board all the lessons that I learnt in San Francisco along with a few extra encouraging words from Beth.

For the first time in my sewing career, I am using tailor’s tacks.

I am marking the wrong side of my fabric with a nice big fat cross in chalk, so that I don’t forget which is the wrong side.

This is very special chalk, gifted to me by Beth. It’s White Wax Tailor’s Chalk that melts away when an iron is applied. UPDATE: This chalk won’t work on all fabrics. In particular, be wary of using it on silk, satin or polyester.

It’s so, so clever. I’d share a snap of the fabric with a disappeared chalk mark, but that picture is up there with ‘Most Boring Sewing Blog Photo Ever’. This stuff is truly wonderful and clever, though. If you’re interested in buying some of your own, I found an Ebay link here.

I’ve traced wax dots onto silk organza for the placement of the SIX darts involved in this skirt. And did I mention the supplementary gathers? Yet, the final result will be a fairly simple pencil silhouette – intriguing.

And, finally, I’m hand basting silk organza underlining to the fashion fabric.

I was tempted to complete this step on my lap in front of the TV last evening, but then I heard Beth’s voice ringing in my ears: ‘Work on the flat, Karen!’ And to be honest, you really need good light for this type of work. By good light, I mean daylight.

I’m not going to rush this make. If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.

Baby steps, baby steps.

Collaboration – The Way Forward?

image: www.freeimages.co.uk

Whilst making the St Clements Cambie dress, my mind was buzzing – not only with thoughts about the process and tips to share, but musings about pattern production in 2012 and moving forwards.

The sewing online community is fabulously healthy, supportive and engaged. It’s a power to be reckoned with. At the same time, new, independent pattern makers (often bloggers themselves – certainly no coincidence) seem to be thriving and are enthusiastically supported by Creatives eager for fresh material to engage with.

One of the first things bloggers do after working from a new pattern is share FREE information. In the blink of an eye a pattern gains word-of-mouth traction, we know its pros and cons, see myriad variations in real life makes (no unrealistic line drawings or staged photo shoots here) and enjoy the privilege of gratis tips, tutorials, short cuts and warnings. Except we don’t see this as our privilege any more – we expect it.

At some point the line between producer and consumer became really blurred.

So, here’s my question. If you were to produce a line of sewing patterns, would you factor the online community into your business plan? (This isn’t a loaded question – hell freezes over before I go down that particular path.) But as someone with a career in publishing, I’m absolutely intrigued by this wind of change.

I’ve seen some bloggers comment on the brevity of Sewaholic‘s printed pattern instructions. For myself, I’ve never had a problem with the printed material and I am certainly in awe of Tasia’s exhaustive sewalongs to date. (I know she’s stepping back from that particular rich vein of workaholism, and I don’t blame her!) But if you were faced with the harsh overheads of producing paper patterns, would you keep your printed instructions brief, knowing that bloggers would undoubtedly fill in the gaps – and then some? Or that you could produce supplementary material yourself in a blog post for free? If 50 extra printed words could explode a business model, should the canny pattern producer leave those words out and work collaboratively with her readership and blogger fan base? If that was my money and my future and I had faith in my fan base? Hell, yeah!

Of course, you need said fan base in the first place to pursue this strategy, and it’s a potentially risky one – if the word on the online street becomes that your pattern is unreliable, there’s no reprint that can erase that! But I think all of this throws up some really interesting questions about publishing, production, collaboration and engagement. The faceless corporation and the meekly-led shopper don’t seem to be the picture any more – the old way is being replaced by something much more exciting.

I don’t know. Muddled thoughts. What do you think?

Get Knotted!

I promised that I would share with you Beth‘s wonderful technique for quick and easy knotting of thread! I shall share this with you on two conditions:

• You promise not to gasp at the heinous state of my manicure.
• You promise not to laugh like a hyena if you already knew all about this technique and I’m just late to the knotting party.

STEP ONE

Thread a needle. Alright, alright, don’t break out in a sweat yet! You can do this, people. Concentrate.

Bring the tail of the thread around to the back of your needle and keep it there with the pad of your finger.

STEP TWO

Twist your thread twice around the needle, above the tail of thread, which is still kept pressed against the needle.

STEP THREE

With your free hand, take hold of the twists of thread and pull them down the needle, off the needle and down the length of thread. This action will drag the tail of the thread along too, until your thread pulls taut and you have … a knot at the end!

It’s that quick. That simple. Do let me know if this technique is new to you. It saves so much squinting and cursing.

The St Clements Cambie Dress

Oranges and lemons

Say the bells of St Clements

You owe me five farthings

Say the bells of St Martins

Summer arrives in England, and so the UK blogger pulls out her seasonal cotton. My goodness, there had better be more than a few days of sunshine left to us for making lemonade!

I arrived home from the US to find that I’d brought the sunshine with me. As I waited for my wool outfit to decompress from the suitcase, it felt only right and proper to delve into the new package that had arrived from Sewaholic. The Cambie Dress, as blogged about by Scruffy Badger and Dolly Clackett.

Unlike both of my beloved blogging friends, I was not able to sew this up straight out of the packet! By now in my sewing career, I know my own body well enough to understand that bodice fitting doesn’t just fall out of a jiffy bag for me. I cut a size 12, but the waist line needed expanding and the upper chest needed significant shrinking. Go, figure! My boobs are smaller than my waist. Hmmm…

That’s an over simplification, obviously, but it was nevertheless reassuring recently to hear my new sewing teacher, Beth, confirm that my upper chest is weirdly narrow. Oh, and I have one shoulder lower than the other. All of which confirms the genius of the Cambie dress. See those shoulder straps? Adjust as you see fit to the weirdneositoy of YOUR body!

I bought this fabric last year from a seller on Etsy. At the time, I wanted to chase the trend of Stella McCartney’s Spring 2011 citrus-themed line of clothes. The only problem was that I totally lost any energy for making dresses in 2011. I just wasn’t interested, and so this cotton stayed in the stash box. Until now. Another blogger commented recently that the right fabric will find the right pattern … eventually. Amen, sister!

So what should I tell you about the Cambie dress?

If you have concerns about fitting, I would urge a full toile. Why? The construction of this dress makes it very difficult to try it on in stages during the make. You have to cross your fingers and toes. If you’re not confident about your digits’ abilities to bring you luck, make a toile.

There’s a clever, new technique for sewing the lining down to the inside of the zip.

As if you didn’t already know, this pattern confirms Tasia’s deep understanding and empathy with the female form. It’s flattering – feminine yet modest, a dress that straddles the decades to be wearable at any age. For that, I am deeply grateful. The modesty of Sewaholic’s blogging, combined with the genius of her pattern drafting make her someone I want to thank again and again.

Thoughts moving forwards? There are some tweaks I’d make on future makes, yet even as I type this I know on some deep level that my favourite Cambie will be my first make, even with its little fitting flaws. A parent loves all their babies, non?

On which note…

I just finished reading a novel. It’s aimed at the Young Adult market, but if Harry Potter taught us anything, it’s never to age bracket a work of fiction and dismiss it. The book’s called ‘Wonder’ by the author RJ Palacio. It lives up to its name – it’s truly wonderful. Heartwarming, funny, humbling, true. And it has an awesome quote:

Shall we make a new rule of life? Always to try to be a little kinder than is necessary.

Kinder than is necessary… Not a bad rule to live life by.

Leaving, Arriving, Deciding

A few days ago life was this:

Death Valley

And now it’s this:

But at least I came home to this:

And I feel very happy to be back! The first things I did?

• Water the plant pots in the garden. (Please god my plants have survived my absence. Tomorrow morning will tell me.)
• Put the first of many loads in the washing machine.
• Sit cross legged on the floor with my new fabric purchases, pulling out my patterns.

The fabric that’s really putting me in a dither is the cotton in a dark batik print I bought in San Francisco. I love it, but I think usage needs carefully thinking about. This isn’t a dress or a top. I keep thinking about a long skirt with some clever draping – but I have no idea what. I have 2.5 yards, 44 inch wide.

Let me know if you have pattern suggestions. You’d really help me out!