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Showing posts with label youtube. Show all posts
Showing posts with label youtube. Show all posts

Friday, March 15, 2013

Technicos: Simple doesn't mean Easy (Zippers)

It is a gift to be simple, isn't it? Here's a youtube video I created a couple of years back, singing about that very thing ('Tis a Gift to Be Simple', is an old Amish tune you may have sung yourself).

The thing is that simple and easy aren't really the same thing, though we often assume they are. Maybe that's the meaning behind the song - really understanding that.

These two zippers, center and lapped, are regarded as the most simple zipper techniques. Sewists have been putting them in since zippers first came into vogue, though nowadays you'll see a lot of invisible zippers and fly front as well.

But simple definitely doesn't mean easy. Frankly these two samples took me quite a lot of time and unstitching, and I've sewn this style off and on for a long time. Now I remember why I avoid them.

I used a glue stick to position the centered zipper and, yes, I used the seam-basted approach as well. I also hand basted both zippers into place more than once before I machine-stitched.

A Lapped Zipper

A Centered Zipper

Saturday, March 9, 2013

En Curso/ In Progress: The Placket Faced Monster ( Shirt B5526)

This  YouTube Video by "Fashion Sewing Blog TV" , does a very nice job of showing how to sew a sleeve placket.
I'm glad I had my original muslin to test with
That way, I won't be wasting the remnants of my
jungle print fashion fabric

 I wasn't expecting to need to alter anything about the cuff, since I'm not aware that we changed anything about the bottom of the sleeve, but it seemed to me that the placket strip, was too short for the placket opening. I followed along with the great placket video linked above, so I think I know what I'm doing. As a result of testing this, I'll be adding a little length to my placket strip before I cut one for the jungle print test garment.