This technique produces a lovely hem – fully finished, and with a decorative ribbon right at the edge. Read the rest of this entry »
You should always do something with your seam allowances so they don’t fray and tangle. Pinking is one of the simplest things you can do to finish a seam.
Read the rest of this entry »
This is the ultra-thin version of the French Seam. It’s very useful if you’re making fine linen pieces (like coifs), or if you’re working with dolls and cannot divorce yourself from the idea of fully finished seams…. Read the rest of this entry »
The French Seam is my favorite seam of all time. It’s fully encased and leaves no visible stitching on the right side of the garment. Any time I have to make an unlined garment, you can bet I’m using french seams (or some variant thereof). Read the rest of this entry »
A Felled Seam is a nicely enclosed, reinforced seam. We tend to associate it with modern blue jeans, but it’s a very traditional bit of stitchery. Most of the shirts and smocks in Patterns of Fashion 4 use a handworked Fell seam. Read the rest of this entry »
The Fake Flat Fell Seam makes a fully finished seam that is identical on both the front and back sides. This is useful for transparent fabrics or applications where both the front and back are visible. So far as I know, it’s not a real seam, but the result of my inability to follow simple directions for a proper flat fell. Read the rest of this entry »
Hand working an eyelet with a buttonhole stitch is surprisingly fast and easy. Hand-worked eyelets are strong, easily sizable, don’t fall out, and most importantly, you never find yourself running out of the color you need at 3am. Read the rest of this entry »
This is fast way to make a fully finished hem, using commercial Double Fold Bias Tape.
I spent the day doing photography for demos on patterning and making some basic stuff (smocks, skirts, etc). I’m working at sizes to fit Tyler Wentworth dolls, and I just had some sort of completely wrong notion that sewing a smock for a 16″ doll would be easier and/or faster than sewing for a human… But no. The seams are shorter, but little dolly armscyes are a giant pain the tushie. And as if that weren’t bad enough….
I realize that instructions are far more helpful when you can print them out and put them on the worktable while you’re using them. I also realize that pages upon pages of full color photos do not a happy printer make. I’ve made a not-so-chatty (yes, I actually can edit) PDF version of the Basic Conical Draft directions, redone with black&white line art.
Unless otherwise specifically noted, the contents of this site
by Melissa Heischberg
is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Feel free to share what you find here, but please share where you found it. And, seriously, if you make money off it, could you throw some at me?