Trim seam, clip curves

My experience is that before doing an understitch or turning a seam inside-out, there is usually a step that says "Trim seam" and if the seam isn't on a straight bit of fabric, it's followed by "Clip curves." This can be across any number of layers of fabric and/or interfacing. All this means is that you are going to trim down the seam allowance from a previous seam, and then make notches in the curves of the allowance. This will help ease folding the fabric over to prevent wrinkles or bunching.

When you trim the seam, you basically want to trim it to where there is still a little bit of allowance for you to do your understitch through, so don't take it right to the seam, give yourself about ¼"-⅜" of an allowance, depending on how comfortable you are with your sewing machine--smaller is better. Even if you're not doing an understitch and you're simply turning the seam inside-out, you don't want to clip right up to your seam simply because it will increase the chance of the seam coming undone.

Ironing basics

Iron Man isn't afraid to let loose a blast
of steam. It gets the wrinkles out.

This post is a little late in coming, but it's probably worth it to get out there.

As mentioned in the basic equipment post, the iron is the most important piece of equipment for successful sewing. Here are the some of the things you will need to iron even as a beginner:

• You fabric after you've washed and dried it, before you cut it.
• Plain seams are usually ironed open or in a particular direction. In fact, most seams require ironing in some capacity.
• You better believe you need to iron your hems into place.
• Fusible interfacing uses an iron to melt the glue and join the interfacing to your fabric facing piece.

So it's safe to say you'll need to be comfortable with your iron. Irons don't have to be fancy, but generally speaking, the heavier the iron, the better it is. Get distilled water to fill your iron with, so that sediment doesn't build up and block your steam vents.

Working with fusible interfacing

Many patterns will require interfacing to reinforce a particular panel or structure in the pattern--think of it as hairspray for fabric. Collars and lapels are popular candidates for interfacing for the new seamster.  For our purposes early on, we will always be working with fusible interfacing, which is applied to the fabric with an iron. Interfacing comes in a variety of weights, most of my early projects have focused on using lightweight interfacing.

It's not a bad idea to just have a few yards of lightweight fusible interfacing on hand for your sewing projects, rather than buying it on a per-project basis, but of course, your patterns will tell you how much you need so it's hardly a requirement, and sometimes the amount of interfacing your need and the pieces are so small that you can use scraps from a previous project. You don't need to worry about finding "the grain" of the fabric with interfacing.

Stitching: Seam basics (Plain seam)

Click to enlarge

The most basic sewing skill is sewing a seam. There are a lot of stitches out there, and a finished product will of course need to be hemmed and finished, but the most basic element of joining two or more pieces of fabric together is the seam.

There are actually a few different kinds of seams out there, the Plain Seam, the Overlock, the French Seam, the Flat Seam, and the Laped Seam. For our purposes, and the purposes of the patterns we are making, we are going to be doing the Plain Seam.

Most seams are ⅝" (1.5 cm) from the raw edge, although you might find a pattern calling for a particular seam at ⅜ (1 cm). Your sewing machine will have a strike plate with grooves on the right side of the presser foot. These will indicate these two measurements (sometimes, they might even be labeled!) If you line up your fabric to be flush against those lines, sewing a seam is pretty easy. If you have more than 2 guide lines on your strike plate, I would suggest centering your needle, then using the manual knob on the side to lower it, then use your seam gauge to determine which line is the ⅜"/1cm line and which line is the  ⅝"/1.5cm line, then use a paint pen or other indelible marker to highlight each line for easy reference.

Fabric and You

So now that you've found the pattern you want to make, you're going to need to find the fabric to make it out of. Fabric shopping is one of my favorite parts of making a pattern because it's all about possibility and customization. For a first effort, I highly recommend sticking with light- to medium-weight cottons, as other fabrics will have peculiarities to them that will make them difficult for a novice to lay out, cut, and sew.

Note before continuing: On this blog, I will try to avoid using the term "Pattern" to describe the design or print on a bolt of fabric, and reserve the word "Pattern" to only mean the instructions and template for an item of clothing. So when I say "check the pattern," I mean the paper envelope with the clothing recipe you want to make, not the particular print of the fabric.