Basic Sewing

For my basic sewing project I chose to make a casual summer top, using the fabric I discharged colour from in the last assignment. I am making View D of this pattern. The relaxed shape of the top, and the gentle, curved lines created by the gathers and the hemline, give the relaxed feeling I am going for.
















I picked a 100% cotton fabric, both because it would allow colour discharging to work and because it would be cool and comfortable to wear in warm weather. I confirmed it was cotton by doing a burn test. The dark, reddish-pink colour worked well for discharging and has the warm, cheerful appearance I wanted to achieve. The tie dye pattern created by the discharging is consistent with a casual, fun garment and the different pattern on the yoke suggests a different texture in this area which adds interest.  

 I had already washed and dried my fabric during the discharging, so the next step to prepare for cutting out, was straightening one cut edge of the fabric. I pulled one of the crosswise threads and cut along the line created. I then folded the fabric in the lengthwise direction, with right sides together and the selvage edges even.

I measured the straight of grain line (lengthwise) to ensure I was cutting everything out on grain. The front and back pieces were both cut on the fold line so did not need to be measured.















It was then time to cut out.

 All pieces cut out and ready for next step.

Symbols, and some sewing lines, needed to be marked. I tested tracing paper and wheel on a scrap piece of fabric. It worked fine and blue seemed to show up best, without showing on the right side. I went ahead and marked anything that needed it.

Finally I was ready to sew! My machine is a very old White but it still works great and is like an old friend. The wall behind my sewing machine just happens to be metal, which I love because I can put my pattern instruction sheet on the wall with magnets for easy viewing.

The yoke, yoke facings and front opening were the first part of the construction and requiring staystitching, gathering, pressing and hand sewing - a lot of slipstitching!

The neck binding required careful trimming, after being sewn in place. The fabric binding had been cut on the bias to allow it to stretch. I purposely did not discharge the colour from the neck binding piece to create some colour contrast in this area.

 For the main seams and seam finishes I decided to make French seams. The fabric is lightweight and somewhat see through, as well as fraying easily. Therefore a seam finish that encloses the whole seam seemed like a good idea. For a French seam you first make a 3/8 inch seam with wrong sides together. You then trim that seam, press it flat, and with the right sides together, sew again. For a more detailed explanation of French seam construction go here. This makes a nice seam that looks normal on the right side and equally neat on the wrong side of the garment. It would obviously not work on a thicker fabric. I used this seam on the side seams and the sleeve seam.



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 Seam on right side.                                                       Seam on wrong side.

I now had the main part of the top completed, it just needed sleeves!

I decided to add some embellishment to the sleeves. I chose some ribbon and sewed two strips on each sleeve piece. I thought this would add some interest to this area of the top and the horizontal lines created are consistent with the stable, casual feel of the garment. Though the ribbon was not 100% cotton like the fabric, I read the care instructions and they were similar. It would not be good to sew something on to a garment that would react differently when washed! There would be lots of other opportunities to embellish this type of top. For example, embroidery on the yoke would suit the style very well.

Sleeves together.


















Ease stitching and careful pinning made the sleeves go in fairly easily.


 

The hem was the final step which I seem to have neglected to take any pictures of.

And here it is, the final garment, ready to wear on a warm summer day!

Resources for Basic Sewing

Julia. (2013, September 15). Sew skillful:10 sewing skills and techniques to master [Blog Post]. Retrieved from https://www.craftsy.com/blog/2013/09/sewing-skills-and-techniques/

St. Germaine, Tasia. (2011). Seven essential sewing skills. Retrieved from http://www.sewmamasew.com/2011/09/seven-essential-sewing-skills/

Suggestion for Student Learning - Gift bag

For this project, students can use the fabric piece they discharged a design on previously. They will then need another matching piece of fabric and a ribbon. It is quite a simple project so would be most appropriate for Grade 7 students.

Fold the ribbon in half. Put the two pieces of fabric together, right side together, with the folded edge of the ribbon inserted about 10 cm down from the top edge.

Pin around three edges, pinning the ribbon in place and leaving a small edge of the ribbon sticking out, so you can see where it is when sewing seams together. Leave the top edge unpinned.

 Sew around the three sides in a 5/8 inch (15 mm) seam. Just sew right over the ribbon.

Be sure to pivot around the corners (lift presser foot, turn, put presser foot back down and continue).

Trim the bottom two corners diagonally, being careful not to cut stitching.

Press the three seams open. You can just press them flat (we will press again later), or use a seam roll to press open.

Press down a narrow hem, by pressing down the top edge all the way around once....

 ...and then again.

If pressed carefully, you can sew in place without pinning. Be sure seam allowance is still open where hem is pressed.

Sew hem in place. (You would have students turn to the other side and use the free arm of the machine for easy sewing. Since my old machine is in a wooden cabinet and does not have a free arm I just make do!)
















Turn back to the right side and press all the edges
out nice and even.




















 Tie the ribbon and you have a gift bag!

Things this simple projects covers and/or reviews for sewing students, and can be evaluated for;

Pinning

Backstitching at beginning and end of seams

Straight sewing

Proper seam allowance

Turning corners

Trimming thread ends off

Trimming corners

Pressing

Making a hem

Discharging Colour

Removing or discharging colour can create a new visual effect in a plain coloured fabric. I decided to be brave (or foolish) for this assignment and try to discharge colour from a fabric I would then use for my final sewing project.

I purchased a lightweight, reddish colour, cotton fabric to make a casual top with. I thought the style of the top would look good in a tie dye type pattern. I burned a small swatch of the fabric to make sure it was cotton, since discharging works best with cellulose fibres and does not work on synthetics. Luckily this fabric passed the burn test. I washed and dried the fabric and then got out the pattern pieces I would need to make the top. After placing them on the fabric to check where they would fit, I cut the fabric into several pieces as I thought it would be interesting to make different discharged patterns in different parts of the top. I tried discharging colour on sample pieces of the fabric using a paste bathroom cleanser (Vim) and with chlorine bleach. The bleach seemed to work best so that is what I decided to use.

I gathered up circles of the main fabric (to be used for front and back pieces of the top) and secured them with elastics.

I then got my work area ready. In the first dishpan I put the bleach mixed with water. I had started with a ratio of about 5:1 water to bleach as this was recommended on several websites. However, in my trials this did not seem too effective on my fabric so I made it closer to 3:1. In the second dishpan I had cold water to stop the bleaching action, and the third had hydrogen peroxide for further neutralizing.

I put my fabric in the bleach solution and left it for 10 minutes. I did not want to leave it too long as I was using quite a strong bleach mixture and did not want to weaken the fabric.

I then rinsed the fabric in the cold water. At this point I could see some of the red colour coming out in the water.

Finally I saturated the fabric in the hydrogen peroxide, which I had mixed with a little water.

The circles clearly show up, though they are somewhat muted. I wanted the pattern to be quite subtle in the top, so I was happy with this result.









I then repeated the process with the fabric for the sleeves, which I tied differently. The result was very light stripes. I probably would have liked the colour change to show up a little more but we'll go with "subtle" again.

For the yoke front and back, I tried something different. I had a gel bleach which I applied directly to the fabric in a swirling design. I only left it on for a few minutes before rinsing with cold water and neutralizing. 

I washed and dried all the fabric pieces. Now they are ready to be made into a top!

Resources for Discharge Dyeing

Burch, Paula. (n.d.). How to tie dye on dark fabric. Retrieved from http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/FAQ/dark.shtml

Ericson, Lois. (2008). Dyeing with Bleach. Retrieved from http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/3720/dyeing-with-bleach/page/all

Erin, Verena. (2013, November 1). Lemon juice bleach printing [Blog post] http://verenaerin.ca/lemon-juice-bleach-printing/

Up and Dyed. (2013, June 7). Discharging with household cleansers [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://upanddyed.wordpress.com/tag/reverse-tie-dye/


Suggestions for Students Learning




For a simple student project using a discharge technique, I chose to use black, 100% cotton fabric since it usually works well when discharging colour. I cut the fabric to the size of a gift bag, as I plan to use it for a basic sewing project for students after the discharging. I found some cookie cutters with interesting shapes and placed them where I wanted to add the design by discharging.













I put some bleach in a glass dish and added some paper towel to soak it up.

I then simply dipped the cookie cutters in the paper towel soaked with bleach and quickly stamped them on the black fabric. The results are immediate and dramatic, which would appeal to students, but also means you have to work quickly to avoid the first design stamped from bleaching too much. You could avoid this by just putting on one design, or perhaps diluting the bleach so it doesn't work so quickly. You need to immediately put the fabric in cold water to stop the bleaching.

I had originally planned to do this project with household cleansers as I think they might be more acceptable and safe for using with students. The test I did on a scrap of different fabric worked fine but it did not work well on this black fabric, so I changed to bleach. Lemon juice would be even better for classroom use but careful planning and testing would be needed to make sure it would work.





Another option is spraying, which is what I did on the sample here. I tied this piece with elastics first and then just sprayed it with a mixture of 1:1 bleach and water. This could be interesting, as depending on the time of year, you might be able to collect things like leaves to spray over with a bleach mixture.

Whatever method used, my goal is to have students create a design on the front of what will become a gift bag, using a discharge technique. They will sew the gift bag in another class and I will describe that in my next post!