Was disastrous. I'm feeling so down. I pickedup a pattern from Hancock's. It's one of the easy ones (New Look 6352nl dress A) supposedly would take only an hour to stitch. It's a simple dress with sleeves. No pleats. As I said, this is my first time even looking at the contents of a pattern envelope. I bought a medium weight cotton cloth just as the pattern suggested. I stitched the shell (the gown without sleeves or neck attached.) It's all downhill from there. I used fusible interfacing. May I just say I hate interfacing? It was horrible and so bulky.I gave up after I sewed one sleeve ( I didn't attach it). The more I look at it, I feel it's a waste of time.
I made little nightgowns without pattern for the kids and they came out fine. I made a dress for myself with a remnant piece from Walmart. It wasn't pretty but much better than this one from the pattern. I don't know what the heck I'm doing wrong.
Do I have to use the interfacing? It's so complicated. Do cotton dresses need interfacing at all? May be I should just stick to curtains and pillowcases and forget about dresses :((
I was so looking forward to making this dress. I bought all the stuff on Friday wanting to work on it this weekend. How can I salvage this dress?
Unless the fabric is a very open weave, I don't think you need interfacing if you have a regular facing of some kind. I don't like those iron-on interfacings - they never seem to lay right and are too stiff. For a light cotton garment, which you want for the coolness and comfort of wearing, interfacing is counter-productive. Save interfacing for coats and jackets.
Don't despair - we've all had similar experiences. Worse, even. We have horror stories to tell. ;-) See if it will work after you toss the interfacing, and let us know. Remember, you don't need to enter this into a contest or show it to anyone but yourself, so try to relax and that might help, too.
Have you had a look at the stuff about understitching facings on my web site? It shows you how to face and understitch an arm or neck hole so that it lies flat and doesn't show on the outside.
Take a look at that lesson and see where you might have gone astray.
Good! Always helps to have sympathetic ears at the other end of the line! :)
Hit the URL below and look in The Learning Zone for Understitching.
Oh, darlin', things will get better, I promise. Finding this newsgroup was like finding a whole fleet of personal sewing teachers!
On the facings, did you clip the curves, like it usually says to do in the pattern instructions? That could be one reason why it is so awful. You need to clip the seam allowance (on the wrong side, inside the stitching line) just almost to the seamline, and often enough that the fabric will turn smoothly. This should make a huge difference, whether you use interfacing or not.
Nobody mentioned about books on sewing. I don't know if you have any or not. I've been sewing for 60+ years and hit a stump ever so often, sometimes on things I have done hundreds of times before. That when I go to what I call my "Bible of Sewing", The Reader's Complete Guide to Sewing. I use the 197? issue although there have been several later editions published since then. I have the 2005 edition, but still like the old 70s one better. It is getting ragged around the edges and will soon need to be replaced. Check out Amazon.com or any second hand book store may have a copy. We have a local Half-Price Books and I find so many new-looking books for sale at really good prices. The local library will have many for loan as well. When you are relaxed, go pick up the dress you began and skip the facings, especially if it is a summer woven cotton, that is maybe going to be worn "around the house" most of the time, then go on to the rest of it. Sometimes, on a cotton dress, I use the same fabric and make a second facing to give a little body, if it is absolutely needed, instead of an interlining/interfacing. Just my opinion. Emily
Seconded! I still refer to the Reader's Digest Complete Guide for specialized or new-to-me techniques.
I hope that was a typo... no way should OP "skip the facings". She could probably eliminate the *interfacing* without serious consequences. But a really light weight fusible interfacing, applied
Just because it's a summer cotton dress, doesn't mean that you shouldn't be lazy about the construction. Using a very lightweight interfacing will give it a bit of body and crispness and simply look nicer when you're wearing it. Just to throw a spanner in the works, you did wash the material before you cut it out didn't you (as cotton shrinks)?
Just because it's a summer cotton dress, doesn't mean that you shouldn't be lazy about the construction. Using a very lightweight interfacing will give it a bit of body and crispness and simply look nicer when you're wearing it. Just to throw a spanner in the works, you did wash the material before you cut it out didn't you (as cotton shrinks)?
On 18 Jun 2006 20:36:42 -0700, snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote:
I suspect most of what's wrong with this dress is that it needs a good clipping around the curves of the neckline facing, a good pressing, and a good understitching. And I'll bet they sold you interfacing that's too heavy for the fabric.
I used to truly detest fusible interfacing. It did strange things when I tried to make it stick, it turned the facings too heavy and cardboardish, it bubbled and peeled off, and it was just generally a pain in the posterior. Then I found out how to choose it and use it correctly.
Fusible interfacing almost always needs to be really wimpy in comparison with the fashion fabric -- especially when you've got something as drapey as this dress. But with the fairly wide neckline, I have a feeling it's going to want to droop and sag and look generally dispirited without some interfacing or a firm neckline treatment of some sort, which probably isn't the look you're going for.
IMO, much of the interfacing I see in fabric stores is not good quality and too heavy for most fabrics. And I think most patterns don't call for enough interfacing. In this dress, I would probably use (assuming you're doing facings) interfacing in the facings and in the sleeve hems and probably the dress hem itself. It would probably be a very light tricot, probably designated as "for sheer fabrics", with tiny dots of adhesive over the back, not a sort of glaze of adhesive or big dots. (I keep four interfacings on hand -- all of them RTW interfacings Connie Crawford buys on big rolls and resells:
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-- the one I on mostlightweight to mediumweight cottons is HTFM-4091. I use the HT15p-7927on the front plackets, collars and cuffs of shirts.) It's pretty rare thatI have to go hunt up a special interfacing other than these. I'd gone backto non-fusibles before I found these, I was so disgusted with the variabilityof the chain fabric store offerings. Here's how I'd apply the interfacing to your facings: it's something called "block fusing". Cut off a piece of fabric big enough to cut the facings from. Cut a piece of interfacing about 1/4" short of the edges of the fabric, all around (btw, interfacing has grain, just like fabric.) On a non-metallized ironing board cover (a piece of sheet over a piece of wool over a hunk of plywood is excellent for this), place the fabric wrong side up, the interfacing (not preshrunk) adhesive side down, and a piece of muslin you've wetted thoroughly and then wrung out so it's about as wet as a rag you'd wipe the kitchen counter with. Turn your iron to "linen", and don't add water -- dry iron, please. Let the iron heat up at least 5 minutes, preferably 10-15. On a corner of the interfacing sandwich, press with the iron and hold 30 seconds. Chances are, when you lift the iron, the muslin will be dry. Now comes the hard part: Let it cool completely. Completely. All the way down to room temperature. Ok... now you can pick up the corner you've fused. Does the interfacing look well and truly stuck down? Can you pull it off? If you can, you need a longer fusing time. If it looks ok, you're ready to finish fusing the entire block of fabric... but the gotcha is, if you get done fusing all you can on the ironing board, let the fabric cool completely before you move it. Then you can fuse another ironing-board width. Moving the fabric before it's completely dry is one of the ways you get fusible interfacing to fail after the garment is washed a few times.
When you get all done with the fusing, then cut the facings out. Much easier.
The next thing I'd have you do is staystitch the neckline of the dress, a smidge (maybe 1/16") in from the seam line. One of the other "tells" of a not-so-wonderfully sewn garment is that necklines and armholes often get stretched out during handling, before the facings or other neckline and armhole finishes are applied. You can staystitch while you're waiting for the fusibles to cool. Keep the dress pieces flat and well-supported as much as possible... don't leave it draped over the back of a chair or grab it off the ironing board by the neckline edge. After you've staystitched or otherwise stabilized those curves, you can be a little less gentle in handling cut edges.
If there's a back zipper in this dress, I'd put it in now, and I'd probably use a strip of that very lightweight interfacing in the zipper placket. Next, I'd do the neck facings, and armhole facings if you're going to do a sleeveless dress. (Actually, assuming they gave you "donut" facing pieces, and you were doing a sleeveless dress, I'd cut an all-in-one facing for both neckline and armholes),
Clip the neckline curves (Kate's got a good tutorial on her site), and press the facing to the inside, rolling just a tiny smidge of fabric from the rightside to the wrongside. Press *very well*, then understitch and trim. The little bit extra you're rolling under helps keep the facing from peeking out, and the process is called "favoring". You don't need great gusts of steam from your iron for this process. I use a 1/2" nylon paintbrush or a wad of fabric that I daub along the seamline to dampen it, and then press. Fewer steam burns, less chance of accidentally distorting the fabric. I also use a wool glove on my left hand (the iron's in my right), because I always burn my fingers a bit while turning facings. Been doing it for 45 years, you'd think I'd learn, huh? Anyhow, the wool glove takes care of any accidental touch to the fingers.
Pressing is one of those techniques that really, really makes a difference in how a garment looks. I probably spend more time at the ironing board than I do at the sewing machine. If you've got a library nearby, see if they can get you the pressing videos by either Mary Roehr or by Cecelia Podolak. Both are very good, and it'll help you a lot in your sewing.
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