Garment Quilting - Inner/Under Layers - Kensington Gardens Shirt - Technicos

Last time I posted about how I worked on the quilting for my Kensington Gardens shirt - using both hand basting and machine sewing.

I chose to quilt for structuring/embellishing the front of this shirt because of the very fluid nature of the Liberty of London Tanna Lawn fabric.

For structuring beneath the quilting I first fused a light weight interfacing onto the inner side of the interfacing - that's the purple/blue/green Strawberry thief print.

I then added a light weight fusible batting on the main body of the fabric - the green and cream floral print.

I use a half width of packaged seam binding tape to give a neat finish to my interior edges. I'll do the same thing with the hem. Usually one package - with the full length sliced down the middle - is enough for the entire interior. It goes all the way around the front facing, collar facing and all along the hem. The bias nature of the tape works well around curves. When I get to a point, I can fold a point, and because I've sliced the tape in half, there's not to much fabric. I get a pretty crisp hem that way.

Front Quilting - Kensington Gardens Shirt - Technicos

I'm calling this my Kensington Gardens Shirt, because the fabric came from London. I love visiting Kensington Gardens and always return to see the Peter Pan Statue. The trim is William Morris Strawberry Thief. Unfortunately I didn't note the name the green print.

I love floaty, fluid Tanna Lawn fabric from Liberty of London, but in a weighty shirt,  like my tried and true No. 1 Ladie's Detective Agency pattern, it means that the material drags in the front in the facing and edge of collar band. So I've been quilting the mandarin collar and the front interfacing to give them some structure.

I also edge-stitched the front inner edge with a leaf stitch on top of a blanket stitch. The extra layers of thread are giving it more stability.

Glad I machine basted initially, because I had problems with the fabric pulling funny. So I used my seam ripper to remove those stitches, hand basted and then machine stitched again to get a better lay down of this quilted area. I also stretched a little bit by hand and sewed very slowly. I used a really long machine stitch for the quilting because of all the layers.

Another thing that helped when I tried again was using my teflon sewing machine foot, instead of my Viking 'B' foot (for heavier fabric). The teflon skates over the surface a lot better and doesn't seem to pull. I still have to go slowly and stretch a little as I go.

You'll notice I used masking tape to get straight lines when I hand basted. Originally I used posit tape, but it was not adhesive enough. Also when I tried leaving the masking tape in place and machine stitching along the edge, the stickum on the tape somehow got in there. So I now vote masking tape for hand basting/quilting only.

* * *

Next time I'll show a bit about the under layers 

Kensington Gardens Shirt: Stitching on the Straight and Narrow - Tip for Sewing slippery fabric

Oh,  my sister,

Keep on the Straight, the Straight and Narrow.

Keep on the Straight Side with My Lord!*

Sewing this Liberty Tanna Lawn is a somewhat slippery proposition. In addition to stitching through tissue paper, I find that strips of narrow post-it tape (in addition to pins), help me to guide my machine needle along a straight line.

~ ~ ~

Have you heard my Laurel Loves London audio/podcast, where I shared my visit to Liberty - The Home of Tanna Lawn?

* Though I enjoy singing Gospel style music, I don't actually know any gospel songs that incorporate the straight and narrow theme, so like any good singer, I created my own.