Seams to Fit Part 3: More Power to Interlining! (Technicos)

Using  stitching marks on my interlining pieces to define the stitching lines on the fashion fabric it's backing.              

Previously

Seams To Fit Part 1: A Little Less Laxity 

Seams To Fit Part 2: Making My Mark 

I figured out how to take advantage of my interlining, to help match the seams on my bustier project.

What is interlining?
Interlining is like a piece of backing for a garment's fashion fabric. In this bustier project, my fashion fabric is denim. My interlining is a piece of plaid 100% cotton flannel. You will never see the interlining once the garment is done, even on the inside. That's because this garment will have a second shell that includes lining. The interlining will be sandwiched in between the lining and the garment fabric.

I cut the interlining just like I cut the fashion fabric.

The interlining is just sewn on underneath the piece it backs.  I treat the two pieces of material as though they are just one piece of fabric. The back/wrong side of the interlining is sewn to the back of the fashion fabric.

Why did I used interlining in this garment?
Typically interlining is used to make a fashion fabric more stable and give a little less. For example you might use interlining with linen to make it crisper. (In which case you might cut the interlining just a little more narrow - a good trick, eh?)

In this case, I used interlining as a layer of extra protection because of the bones/stays that are in the next layer below it. It helps avoid the chance that these bones will slip out and poke into the outer/fashion fabric layer.

How I took advantage of my interlining, to help match the seams on my bustier project.

Because this bustier has really small pieces, and is really fitted, I marked, then sewed through, the stitching lines all the way around on my interlining pieces. I just sewed through that one layer, to make the seam/stitching lines really clear. 

I also marked all the stitching lines on the inside of my fashion fabric. I could have basted those lines, then matched up the stitched lines to ensure that my seams are precise.

But I really don't like having to take all those basting threads out of the fashion fabric. Also, sometimes they're hard to remove, especially if I sew over them.

Since I have the stitched lines on the interlining and the marked lines on the fashion fabric, I was able to slip pins through from the interlining into the marked line and pin the interlining layer to the fashion fabric layer all the way around the piece. I could easily check on the fashion fabric layer to see that the stitched line above was marrying up right with the marks all the way around.

I repeated this process with the adjoining piece - both on the fashion fabric and the interlining fabric - then joined the seams of the two pieces together, slipping the pins from one seam line marking into the one below. I was able to constantly check my pinned stitching lines, to make sure that the seam line below was matching up properly with the seam line on the top.

Figuring out how to sew narrow garment pieces together precisely, and save time removing basting stitches later on, is the kind of technique that keeps me....

Enchanted by Sewing.

~ ~ ~

Web Resources

Boning Up On Bustiers: http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2014/03/ench-by-sew-018-boning-up-on-bustiers.html

My Pinterest  Bustiers Board 

Kit 1: Progresso en Curso - Shirt Sewing (B5586)

Pleased to have finished one of my kit projects, the Canada basic tee shirt, I'm now mitad

The midway bits on a shirt
are what really take the time for me

del camino/midway down the road - with sewing kit 1 (*). This shirt project is a good bit more work than the tee. It's B5586,  the same pattern as my No. 1 Lady's Detective Agency shirt. This time I'm sewin' her up in a 1/8 inch lilac Robert Kaufaman gingham check, using a half meter of Liberty of London Tana Lawn fabric for the accents. The Liberty material is a dark purple and sage green. I sure wish I knew the name of that particular print. I talked a about my visit to buy fabric at Liberty of London, along with other activities beloved of a traveling sewist's heart,  in my June Podcast, Laurel Love's London.

Note added on September 3. I recently found the name of this Liberty of London tana lawn print! It's called "Mauverina". Here's a link to another version of it at fabric.com. The colors combination is different, and very pretty too. https://www.fabric.com/buy/0295796/liberty-of-london-tana-lawn-mauverina-pink-light-green-light-turquoise

I tend to forget how much work the midway bits take , when sewing this kind of project. I got the body going pretty quickly - french seamed the shoulder and side seams  y Hola! I've just about got a shirt, no?

Pero espera, there's all the middle of the road bits and pieces to do next. I'm not even close to buttoning this chiquita up yet. 

Primero

I interfaced the
placket-faced-monster with
silk organza

First I sewed the bottom of the sleeve tuck, and then proceeded to do battle with the placket faced monster that opens up the fitted part of the sleeve edges. I'm still not-one - with sleeve plackets. I remember how to sew the strip on (it's so odd the way one piece curves and the other doesn't, but I've accepted that now) It's that part where you sew down the little triangle just above the head of the opening that just doesn't seem to lie right. I think maybe I'm cutting my placket strips to wide. For now, I'm going to fold that bit another way, to keep the outside nice and the inside attractively finished.

This is a good time to tell you that my experiment with my new version of this shirt is to use silk organza as the interfacing element. Actually in some parts I'm using it more like interlining (sewing it all the way on or around a particular piece) and in others like interfacing. In the placket opening photo, you can just see the silk organza as interfacing.

BTW a very pleasant woman at Fashion Sewing TV does a good job of talking a sewist through the process of a sleeve placket of this type at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWBTTNtoSas. 

I finished the sleeve placket (except for final hand stitching) and moved on to...

Próximo
Next I began on all the bits and pieces associated with the neck and front opening. 
There's the front facing - the long curved Liberty print strips where the buttons and buttonholes will go. They make turning back the front of the shirt a real occasion. (The original pattern doesn't use them in this view.) Because I only had a half of a meter of fabric for all the accent bits, and the print is directional, I had to piece those (you'll never see that seam part way down the inside front of the shirt). Then I interlined them with silk organza. After the front facing, I prepped the back facing - more silk organza- basted the seams, checked fit on me, then sewed them all together with a regular stitch length. I basted more than usual because the silk organza interlining added another level of dimension that had possibilities when it came to something just not hanging in there right. A tiny bit of work with Auntie Seama Rippa, but not bad at all.

Oh and pressing. There was lots and lots of pressing after every bit of sewing. And yes, it helped that gingham lie down and play nicely with the Liberty fabric. Though they're both all cotton, the gingham has a slightly hefty, rough, thready hand. The Liberty Tana Lawn, on the other hand, is nearly as smooth and thin as a silky silk. Ahora, you'd almost think the two very differently textured materials are sisters.

The back facing has
silk organza interlining too

Entonces

Next, I began working on the collar bits and also returned to the cuffs. I re-muslined the collar, as I thought the way it had turned out in the No. 1 Lady's version and the Pink Mille-Fleur version of this shirt was just too long. So I... retraced the pattern - both collar band and collar that I had last made (and had to spend some time puzzling over why  I'd altered them to be so much wider - oh right I do a wide decorative front the original pattern doesn't call for), then I had to compare the new collar arrangement with existing shirts, fold length back, compare, with other shirts I like, pin pattern to the new shirt, study in mirror, cut a one layer muslin from the two pieces, baste that on, study in mirror, ok that, return and - oh wait, note this is a directional print, mark the pattern to ensure that collar will be right way up (oh and the collar band goes one way but the collar piece folds down so the print goes the other way! So double check that against an actual shirt! ) cut out the actual collar pieces (one side in gingham, the other in the LIberty) . Whew!

y tambien 

After interlining  silk organza to my newly cut collar and collar band, I also interlined my cuff pieces, which oh by the way, I was just cutting out of Liberty and gingham - taking into account a seam allowance where it doesn't normally occur, and cutting the Liberty part longer (so when I turn my cuff back, you don't see the underside of the fabric - this has been happening on the pink Mille-fleur shirt) and also taking into account the directionality of the Liberty print.

Dulces sueños

Time for bed. Let's see what kind of sweet dreams my enchantment with sewing will bring me.

* I blogged about 5 kits I cut out recently to have several garments in the ready-to-pickup-and-sew stage . Here's that posting http://www.meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2013/07/squeezing-in-sewing-personal-project.html

Good Night My Someone: Red Plaid Nightgown

The chicken illustrations are something I created for my
art journal a few years back.
This chicken lives with my neighbor Jen, and is named for me.
I'm proud to say that she (Laurel Chicken) and I appeared in Sunset Magazine's
The West's 100 Best Pets Contest:-)

Sunday morning, I finished the last of the night wear projects I talked about in my December Enchanted by Sewing podcast. 

I've been continuing to look for the missing pattern for this many-times used, Tried and True nightgown, while doing major cleaning and reorganizing holiday-time domestic projects -so far no luck.

Wonder how long this latest flannel addition will last..... I'd guess at least two years but would be surprised if it holds up for four. This was budget, on-sale flannel. I made my husband's nightshirt out of what could be higher quality, but maybe I was simply swayed by the description and the feel of the material. I wonder if better quality flannel fabric has a higher life expectancy, or merely feels better? Perhaps when I get to the textiles class in the fashion program at Cañada, I'll find out more about that.

I noticed while sewing this gown how very loose the weave can be in flannel. The plaid lines moved around no matter how many pins I put in. To give the bodice more oomph, I interlined/underlined the bodice with some blue flowered cotton, a remainder from another long-ago sewn spring nightgown. You can see it peaking out from the back bodice. The interlining was in addition to the interfacing I used down the front to support the buttons and buttonholes. I also used black decorative stitching to further support the button area. 

I did the machine embroidery on this bodice last winter. I think if I were embroidering similarly shaped bodice I'd probably do twice as much. My embroidery machine is older and I think this is the largest size motif I can create.

Working with flannel on this nightie is making me think about what I'll be doing with the flannel vest I'll be sewing soon. I'm wondering if interfacing the entire thing would be overdoing it?