Thursday, July 22, 2010

Shifty Slippery Silk: McCall's 5661 Progress

Finally making progress on my first silk blouse!



I have cut the fabric,started sewing and Man! is it tricky!  I layed out the fabric on a padded table and pinned it down.  It didn't shift too much while cutting, but when I started sewing, it started to shift everywhere.  I tried putting pattern paper (all I had at the time) under it, but it was too thick. I'm going to switch to tissue paper and see how that goes. 

I'm also trying a new technique and its working beautifully!  (or as beautifully as you can get with shifty fabric). Have you ever heard of or tried 1 thread darts?  One of the first online Threads articles I read was a tutorial from Kenneth King on how to sew these suckers to prevent puckering and any ugliness you would get from having to backstitch.  At the time I almost immediately forgot about the article, but then my fitting instructor recommended using them for this project and this technique was mentioned again in the most recent Threads mag.  It's a real pain to thread the machine, but the sewing part is easy.  I'm working on a photo tutorial for it.  The tutorial is really just practice for me, because there are better sources for this info out there.

Here is the bodice so far:

All the darts are sewn and the facings are interfaced.  I used a fusible knit interfacing because it was light weight and the best I had.  My mom bought me a bolt of fusible interfacing from Joann's during the After Xmas Sale and the stuff sucks! It has destroyed everything I have attempted to use it on by immediately shrinking and wrinkling up the fabric with it.  It is awful!  I'm too lazy to pre-treat.  I think I'm going to start buying my interfacing from Fashion Sewing Supply.  I've only heard great things about their products.  

I also used a strip of the interfacing to stabilize the shoulder seams.

Lastly, I tried another new-to-me technique.  Hong Kong Seam finishing!  I used bias strips to finish the raw edges of the facings (I've only done the front facing so far).  I'm not sure if I'm using this technique for the right application, but it works for me.



I want to finish it this weekend (unlikely though because I'm slow!).

1 comment: