sewing silk satin

Good ideas. Use Universal needles: ball points are for knits. But you might also like to use the Clover very fine patchwork pins I use on delicate fabrics for pinning bits that need it together. I get them from quilt supplies places.

Size 60 or 70 is good.

Have you seen the YLI 50 and 100 weight silk thread? Expensive, but FANTASTIC stuff - and while a tad fine, for light weight fabrics, even the 100 is strong enough for sewing in the machine. It's also perfect for hand finishing.

You may well find this helps a lot with fine slippery fabric like this. I find it faster and less expensive than making errors!

Dear Liz,

Whether it calls for it or not, I would definitely line the jacket. I would use hongkong finish for the dress seams. Remember to press the seams flat as they are sewn, before pressing them open. If you don't have a sleeve roll, roll up a heavy towel, and press your seams over the towel. This will avoid ridges on the outside. And do samples on scraps before attempting to sew the dress. Your samples need to be at least seven inches long. DO NOT pin the seams; hold the pieces together at the ends, sew a few inches at a time, and lift the work while it's in the machine each time you stop sewing. This will assure that the pieces sew together properly without shifting. If they still seem to be shifting, sew halfway down the seam, then turn your work around and sew from the other end, using the same technique--sew a few inches, then lift the work while holding the ends together.

Teri

I hope it still looks smart after I get done with it... I'm rather larger than the slender sketch on the envelope :)

I will call around and see if I can locate this YLI thread. Always willing to try new things! I hope the not quite local fabric store (that carries actual tailoring supplies!) has this thread; I need to get some decent lining anyway for another project I'm working on:

another vintage vogue

I love the way those front seams curve into the pockets.

Beverly

Drafting tape helped a lot when I cut out satin pockets. I don't think you can buy drafting tape any more -- CAD and all that -- but masking tape should work. Masking tape sticks a bit tighter than drafting tape, though, and you must not leave either on the fabric for more than a few hours.

I didn't have trouble with pinholes showing, but I use silk pins for everything -- and this varies from fabric to fabric. The satin I was using was rather loosely woven.

I found silk crepe easy to handle. I did hand-sew all the top stitching, but that was so that I could use ravellings and be sure the thread would still match after washing. Not to mention that buying thread to match isn't honestly possible; silk thread is so expensive that nobody stocks thousands of different colors. I just pick something in the general neighborhood out of the stash and keep it out of sight. (Except for black and white, of course.)

I used flat-fell seams in my silk-crepe blouse, but with a slinky dress like the one you plan, you'd want to hand-stitch the fells even if you make it up in black, and a floor-length dress has a *lot* of seam.

(A sewing bird helps a lot with long seams -- I made one by drilling a hole in one handle of a clamp-type clothespin. Many places sell birds

-- some call them "third hands" -- but I can carry a clothespin in my purse.)

Joy Beeson

You might do better at a quilting supplies store! :) I got some fantastic colours from here:

Yummy! And the found fabric sound good, too!

Even for the found fabric, make a toile! Test fit for best fit! :)

I've made this VV pattern:

Use blue painter's tape, rather than masking tape. It's not quite as removable as drafting tape, but it's much better than masking tape

jenn

-- Jenn Ridley : snipped-for-privacy@chartermi.net

Fortunately, the dress will be black and there will be one white and one black blouse (this is for concerts: some groups want all black and some want white and black. The white is a thick enough satin that the black won't show through). The jacket will be a blue and red giant hibiscus print, which is a little sad because it won't show the pointed yoke very well, but the topstitching thread won't have to match a solid color exactly either.

I will probably do a hong kong finish as another poster suggested

Good idea about the bird, I used to use something like that (but with a stronger spring than a clothes pin) for leather work.

liz young

There is a piece called the "middle front" that is inset into the front piece to provide the curved shape. I sat and stared and stared at the two pieces until I was SURE I knew how to alter them.

liz young

Well, having only a limited amount of time for my sewing binge, I am going to stick my neck out and treat the green jacket as a toile. School starts back in just 12 days!

liz young