Sewing crêpe, satin and peach fabrics, or You vs. the Pucker Demon

Crêpe, satin and peach fabrics come in several types and fibres, but they always remain difficult fabrics to sew. In particular, most machines have trouble sewing a straight seam along the length of the material - it puckers. Yes, it means the tension is too high, but no, it is not actually too high, and…

Backtacking is for amateurs

That's according to my college tutors. Backtacking is rough and ugly and has no place in couture sewing. If backtacking was spotted in our work, points were taken off. Ugh! But it's quick and easy! So, as proper students, we found ways to cheat. 😀 After all, points were only taken off if the teachers…

That elusive flexible stitch

Flexible stitch is necessary for sewing jersey so that it would stretch with the material. However, regular straight stitch of a lockstitch machine is usually not flexible. So what to do? Popular solutions include using elastic thread, sewing with narrow zig-zag instead of straight stitch or sewing with an overlocker. But what if you really…

Stitches that stretch with your jersey

Snap... snap-snap-snap! There go your stitches if you've sewn your jersey top with a regular straight stitch on your sewing machine. 😦 Surely, there must be a better way! Yes, there are in fact several. In this post I'm investigating which stitches stretch with the jersey and which don't, using regular sewing thread, not lycra…