Crepe backed satin

Triple ARGH!! Especially when I sewed the wrong two pieces of lining together and ruined one of them trying to take out the stitches and had to cut another piece :((

There must be a better explanation of sewing this type of facing all-in-one with neck somewhere.

Not very successful I'm afraid. Much easier to make lots of snips and fit it in normally. That's with the lining - I haven't tried the fabric yet. I've used it on quite a few sleeve heads quite successfully.

The threads have now arrived so I can get on with finishing the skirt seams and doing the waistband and hem - and try to forget about the jacket!!!

Maybe it'll be easier when I go back to it. It can't be any harder :)).

BTW the pattern describes itself as 'average' !

Thanks again

Susan

Ah, well... Lining is always okkard stuff! Try more experiments with the CBS and see how that goes. You might be surprised.

Yup, just give it a few days neglect and it'll soon fall into line!

Oh the pattern is average all right... But that fabric isn't! ;)

I see what you are saying about using poly crepe back satin. I tried it once and just hated it myself. Didn't like the feel of it. I had a dress about 3/4 of the way done and ended up throwing it away. I just knew I'd never wear it. What about silk? It is still as slippery, but do you find all the puckering, pressing, and other problems with it? I've sewn with silk charmeuse but not yet with any of the crepes.

Rosefolly

Kate XXXXXX wrote:

Actually, I didn't find the material itself too much of a problem. It was the lousy pattern instructions that caused most of the problems!!

Update - the skirt is just awaiting the right shoes so I can measure the hemline. The jacket just needs hooks and eyes, which I don't have, and shoulder pads which I need to find :))

The outfit looks really nice on her. I'm glad I did it - thanks Kate for convincing me to have a go - but I will NOT be making that jacket again. (I hope!!)

Thanks again to all who offered help and advice.

Susan

I don't find it too much of a problem either: you just have to know what you can do with it and recognise that in some areas it's not very forgiving...

Which jacket pattern is it again? I'd like to know ehich to avoid... ;)

You're very welcome.

Butterick B4603.

Thanks again

Susan

Ah... Too much ease in the sleeve head? I have a trick for that, learned from Teri Jones, developed by Kenneth King.

Go on then - what's the trick?

Susan

Well, according to Kenneth, you only need between an inch and an inch and a half ease in the sleeve cap. Any more and you WILL get ruckles, especially on crisp or bloody-minded fabric! Silk dupion and crepe back satin instantly spring to mind... ;)

Measure the armskye seamline, and the seamline of the sleeve. If there's more than an inch and a half difference, reduce the sleeve cap until you have the right amount. You do this by slashint down from the seam towards the point at which a line drawn vertically from the seam matching dot hits a line drawn between the front and back halves of the sleeve under-arm seam... The middle of the bell curve, as it were. If the sleeve cap is fairly flat, you can do this at one point where the dot is, but if the sleeve cap is a narrow hump, do it in two or three mini-slashes. Just overlap the edges f the slashes until the seam line has the right amount of ease in it, and true up the cutting line. Do this BEFORE making any adjustments for fat or skinny arms.

I like to trace off the sleeve pattern and do the alterations on a copy, so I have the unaltered pattern to refer to if things go wrong!

This, and a whole pile of other nifty things, appear in Kenneth D King's CD book, Cool Tricks, available from his web site:

I haven't sewn crepe-back satin, but I have a silk-crepe blouse. (An ankle-length blouse, but that is another story.) I don't recall any particular trouble with it. I did all the top stitching by hand, but that was so that I could use ravelings and make sure that the thread would continue to match after the shirt had been washed.

I did have trouble with the ravelings: the warp threads (I *think* it was the warp threads; there are stills scraps around, so I could check if anybody cared) were floss, and exploded into fluff when raveled out. They would have worked fine if waxed, but I couldn't keep the thread together long enough to wax it. The weft threads were over-twisted -- that's what "crepe" means, after all -- and, when dangled, never did stop spinning, not even when I folded them in half and let them ply themselves. Repeated wetting, dangling, and waxing made the plied threads useable.

The blouse is lovely-- crepe sort of sparkles -- and I wore it last Sunday with my new black T-shirt slip and my old black-and-gold paisley skirt. Pity there's only one day a year I can wear it.

Joy Beeson

Many thanks.

Susan