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| Burda style 135 |
Piping has been on my learn to sew list for quite awhile now and I am finally going to use some in a blouse. Pattern Review is hosting a fitted blouse contest and since that's also been on my list of things to sew, I am making a white blouse with black piping. I don't like collar stands with my short neck but I found this blouse BS135 from 5/12 with a convertible collar. Perfect. Well except that I wanted long sleeves that don't button, and it needed to fit my bust so in the process it became more fitted with vertical darts added to the existing side bust dart. I thought about making them into two vertical darts but I didn't want it that formfitting below my bust. I did balance the darts since the side dart became very large. I rotated a portion of it into the vertical dart. Much better. I added a cb seam so that I could make my usual flat back alteration, and a pair of back darts. I thought I needed them to meet the fitted blouse definition but since a pattern that only had bust darts met the criteria I may leave them off. Or not. The blouse will be in a white cotton poplin; expensive, gorgeous, silky white cotton shirting that I bought at B & J when I met Claire Kennedy in NYC a couple of years ago. I would never have spent that much on cotton shirting on my own, but Claire was buying some and I couldn't resist. The piping, which I made today, is black silk and linen from a very good sale at Michael's Fabrics. I have lots of it, it's gorgeous and I have never made anything from it. I was really thinking about a pair of pants and a matching top, but I'll get to it.
The pattern is ready to cut out first thing tomorrow and my cutting table is actually clean and ready to go. I made a full pattern to accommodate the difference in my shoulder so my 5' wide cutting table will come in handy. When I took the pattern drafting class with Kenneth King I learned that my right shoulder is quite a bit forward of the left. Not only does the shoulder seam need to come forward at the shoulder tip, but the sleeve cap has to have quite a bit more in the front of the sleeve as well as flattening the curve out in back. The muslin was good without the binding I always get at the front sleeve cap. I also had to move the match point on the right sleeve quite a bit to the front, while the left sleeve was fine. KK had us sew the under sleeve for about 3" on either side of the underarm seam so that he could adjust the sleeve forward or back until it hung correctly. I did the same thing here and it worked. Of course it is a bit harder doing it on yourself!
I am really hoping that this blouse will become a tnt pattern since I have quite a bit of shirting material in my stash. After all a blouse has been on my to sew list for a number of years now and a girl needs more than one blouse, doesn't she?
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The black piping on the white cotton will be fabulous. Piping is easy just take your time inserting it. You will be fine and will get a new technique under your belt!
ReplyDeleteOh, I really want to learn to pipe! Can't wait to see the blouse.
ReplyDeleteThe blouse sounds wonderful with that lovely fabric. I'm working on fitting a TNT myself and trying to understand how you can adujst the sleeve forward or back with the lower part sewn. Any clarification for me? Thank you! Elle
ReplyDeletePiping is something you don't find much in RTW, and no doubt because of the time factor. I hand baste the piping to the garment before doing any machine sewing. It just works better for me that way.
ReplyDeleteYour piping sounds really sharp. Is it corded?
ReplyDeleteSo here is the funny thing I've learned about piping - the way it's laid into a seam makes a difference in how good it looks. Piping looks best when it's tightly sewn into the seam so the flange doesn't show. Another factor is how the seam is turned out, generally the side of fabric right under the presser foot is tighest and looks best so I've learned to make sure those sides are the ones turned out in the finished garment. And when the piping runs perpendicular into a seam I always pull out the cord (if it's the fabric covered type) so I don't have to sew over the bump. Lastly I make sure the flange and the SA are the same width because that makes it much easier and faster to lay the piping along the SA when they match. Piping looks great but it does add a lot of time to the construction process. At the same time it always looks great and my big piping project, a trench coat I made almost 4 years ago, is garment I still wear
ReplyDeleteKenneth King is ABOUT piping! His book "Cool Couture" has excellent tips and instructions on piping, so be sure to check it out.
ReplyDeleteI have the book and those are the instructions I am using. Especially on how to pipe an outside corner.
DeleteLove the title of this post! That is all. Also, I think piping looks cool. I obviously did not get the sewing gene from you. :-p
ReplyDeleteI made up that cotton and wish I had some more. This is one of my extravagances that I love....that silky, long-staple cotton!!! Can't wait to see how this ends!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that you made me buy 3 yards of it otherwise I wouldn't have had enough extra for all of the collars I've made, er "samples" working out how to do the piping so that it looks good. It's one of those fabrics that would be hard to sell on a website, but in person it's a must have.
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