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Transcript:

Caroline: We are recording today on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish and Kwakwaka’wakw peoples, including Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish, Musqueam, and K’ómoks first nations.

Hello and welcome to Love to Sew! I’m Caroline, the owner of Blackbird Fabrics and BF Patterns.

Helen: And I’m Helen, the designer behind Helen’s Closet Patterns and Cedar Quilt Co.

Caroline: We’re two sewing buds who love to sew and it’s essentially all we want to talk about.

Helen: In this episode, we share tips and tricks for fiddly, persnickety, awkward, and complicated sewing techniques. We cover invisible zippers, darts, spaghetti straps, princess seams, and lots more.

Caroline: If you love to sew, this is your show. Hi Helen!

Helen: Hi Caroline!

Caroline: How are you?

Helen: I’m good. I don’t know why the intro always makes me laugh.

Caroline: Yeah? Why?

Helen: I think, like, I don’t want to break the illusion, but we chat before we record. And then we start recording and then it’s like, “Hi!”

Caroline: Yeah. I know. Obviously, we have to chat before we record, because…

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: Nobody wants to hear that.

Helen: ‘Cause we have so much to talk about.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: What should only take, like, an hour and a half often takes us, like, three hours.

Caroline: Yeah, absolutely. Especially if we haven’t recorded in a while. It’s like, we gotta catch up. We gotta do our catch-up. Yeah.

Helen: I’m not mad about it.

Caroline: No, me neither.

Helen: If you want to see your friends regularly, start a podcast with them.

Caroline: It’s so true. Oh my gosh. Well, if you want to hear some of that catch-up, we actually do it every month on Patreon. How’s that for a segue?

Helen: I loved it. It was flawless and it’s so accurate. If you like the vibe of this first 30 seconds, you’re going to love Patreon.

Caroline: Yeah. Absolutely. We love recording Patreon and our Apple Podcast bonus episodes. We love them. We love them. And we want to tell you about them because it’s a really great way for you to support the show if you have the means to do it.

Helen: Yeah, it really is the best way to support Love to Sew. You can join us over on Patreon or Apple podcasts. You get access to bonus content every month. And we have so much fun catching up with you on those more casual episodes. We do a little chat about what we’re sewing. We make recommendations of things that we’re enjoying right now. And we get a little peek behind the scenes of what’s going on in each other’s lives, which is so fun.

Caroline: It is so fun and it means so much to us if you are able to support us, even if it’s just for a month or two. You can hop in, you can hop out, you can catch up on episodes. In and out is totally fine with us. Whatever you can do to support us is amazing. And obviously, if that’s not on the cards for you right now, we totally get it. We are just so grateful that you’re listening to us right now and cheering us on. We love our listeners and I can’t believe we’ve been doing this for so long. It’s incredible and blows my mind.

Helen: Right? I know. Our listeners are the best, too. They’re, like, so supportive. We get so many nice emails from people, truly just, like, heartwarming, every day.

Caroline: Yeah. It really, really is.

Helen: Well, speaking of listeners, we want to start today’s episode with some listener feedback. First up, we have a voicemail from Romy about our Intro to Surface Design mini-episode. This was all about designing your own fabric, and that episode was actually a subscriber episode, but we thought all of our listeners would really like to hear Romy’s story.

Romy: Hi, Helen and Caroline! This is Romy. I’m from England and I love listening to the podcast. I’ve just listened to the episode on surface design and it’s something I’m really interested in. I had an experience a couple of years ago of designing my own fabric and it turned out way better than I was expecting. So, my nephew was six years old and it was going to be his birthday. And he’s really into drawing. He was always drawing his own monsters and creatures. He’s got a really vivid imagination and some of his drawings are amazing. So on the lead-up to his birthday I started taking photos of his drawings and I had the idea of turning them into a garment. Something that would kind of use his designs in a really fun way and show off his creativity. So I took the photos and edited them in Photoshop to make a fabric design. I used instructions on Spoonflower on how to make a repeat and then I uploaded the design to Spoonflower, got the fabric printed on a jersey, and then when it arrived I turned it into a T-shirt and I gifted it him for his birthday. At first, I think he was a bit confused. He looked at it and I could see him thinking, “Hang on! This looks kind of familiar.” And then he realized, “This is my design! These are my monsters! How did you do that?” Everyone was really surprised and impressed. It’s not like anything they’ve ever seen before. So I’ll include some photos as well, in case you want to see it. It’s something I would love to do again. Unfortunately, it does get a bit pricey, printing fabric just for one garment. But if it’s something I could figure out how to upscale, then it’s kind of a cool business idea, I think, or at least something I could do in future for more family or friends. I definitely encourage everyone to get into fabric design, even if you’re not that arty. I consider myself to be so, but I wouldn’t say I’m great at drawing. But you can take designs from anywhere, even something that’s just squiggles or abstract designs can look great on fabric. And it’s something that no one else will own, so. Thanks for doing the podcast, I love listening to all the episodes and the bonus episodes and feeling like I’m hanging out with you and just chatting and listening about sewing. You keep me company while I’m working from home, so thank you and speak to you soon, bye!

Caroline: Thank you so much for calling, Romy. Okay, these pajamas look absolutely amazing. I’m gonna describe them for our listeners. There’s lots of bold black line drawings of all kinds of creatures. It’s on a white background. The contrast really makes the drawings pop. We’re definitely gonna have pictures in our show notes. This is such an amazing gift. My nephew loves to draw and it’s really getting those ideas flowing for me. I think it’s such a great idea. I love it. I love it. It’s so cute. Come on, who wouldn’t want to wear their drawings?

Helen: I know. It’s absolutely brilliant. I mean, if you really want to blow someone’s mind, this is, this is a good way to do it. We’ll also link up a Spoonflower tutorial for making a repeat pattern. They have lots of really great tutorials about how to go about doing this, so you don’t have to worry about having those skills. You can totally learn them. And if you’re interested in learning more about designing your own fabric, you can also listen to Episode 90, which is Surface Design with two of the lovely folks from Spoonflower. We chat with them all about it and that’s a great episode,

Caroline: Wow, Episode 90, hey? That was a long time ago.

Helen: Right? That one was in-person, too, a rare in-person recording.

Caroline: I know. And it feels, when I think about that episode, it feels like the really early days of the podcast, but we were almost at a hundred episodes. It’s…yeah. Anyway.

Helen: Right? How many in-person recordings have we actually done? I think only, like, three. I mean, with guests, with guests.

Caroline: Oh, with guests? It’s true. We did Jenny from Cashmerette…

Helen: Mmhmm. Jasika Nicole was in person.

Caroline: Yes. And Spoonflower.

Helen: And Spoonflower.

Caroline: I feel like that was maybe it.

Helen: I think so.

Caroline: Other than the boys.

Helen: Oh, yes, that’s true.

Caroline: The men.

Helen: The boys, we haven’t had them on the show in a while.

Caroline: I know, I know.

Helen: They’re doing great. They’re fantastic.

Caroline: Yeah, they are. They’re doing great.

Helen: Anyways, okay, back to Romy. This is amazing. And I know, you know, you were saying, if you’re not very arty, but I just want to remind folks that if you sew, you’re arty. I mean, it totally counts.

Caroline: Yeah, absolutely. There are different kinds of artists out there, you know?

Helen: Yeah, exactly.

Caroline: All right, next we have an email from Charlotte about our Sewing Horror Stories episode. Warning: there is blood and injury in this story, although everything turns out fine in the end. But if that bothers you, maybe hit that “skip 30 seconds” button a few times just to skip over the story.

Helen: Charlotte says, “Anytime I’m in my sewing room I am listening to your podcast and this time I was cutting out a satin vest for a friend’s son’s school play. You told the story of a sewist who managed to get the machine needle completely through her finger and had to resort to a friend removing it with pliers. Alas, I did the same thing very early in my sewing journey. My mom couldn’t get the presser foot up high enough to remove the needle so we covered the entry point with a cloth and she used a few strokes of a hacksaw to cut the needle. My father was a doctor so I had to go to his office for him to remove it. Needless to say, interrupting his already busy patient schedule did not make him happy. Story ended and was all well, though.” She goes on to say, “But the funny part is that JUST AS I WAS LISTENING to this episode, I gave myself a cut on a finger with a rotary cutter. Man, fingers sure do bleed. Nothing stitches-worthy (get it?), but who wants to interrupt a productive cutting session? So, I grabbed a scrap of the fabric and wrapped it around my finger to stop the bleeding and prevent me from getting blood on this gift-garment. Thought you’d get a chuckle from the photo of my green satin bandage. All is well. Thanks for a terrific show. Your friend from Charleston, South Carolina.”

Caroline: Charlotte! Okay, definitely got a chuckle from that bandage. It’s basically a piece of green satin wrapped around Charlotte’s finger, injured finger, and it matches the project, obviously, that Charlotte’s cutting out. But you are such a sewing survivor. It is wild to think of your mother using a hacksaw to cut the needle off and your dad being peeved that he has to treat you on a busy day. Thank you so much for sharing your story, and just in time for spooky season. I love it.

Helen: It’s true.

Caroline: Mmhmm.

Helen: Yeah, I definitely cringed so hard when I was reading this. The hacksaw…no, no, no, no! But also I wanted to mention, we’ve shared this tip on the show before, but in case people missed it: your own spit is the best tool for getting out your own blood because it has similar enzymes, I believe, not a scientist, but I think that’s how it works. So if you do cut yourself, get a little blood on your project, instead of taking it to the sink to try to wash it out, spit on it. Try to get lots of spit on there and then rub that in to kind of get it out and that really does make a difference. I know, it’s gross, it works.

Caroline: I’m just imagining gifting this to somebody and being like, “Blood, spit…”

Helen: Sweat and tears.

Caroline: “Sweat, and tears went into this.”

Helen: Exactly.

Caroline: Oh my gosh. Well, on that note, I think it’s time to get into this episode. Helen, hit it! [fiddle music] Dang, I never knew you were such a talent on the fiddle, Helen! Wow!

Helen: Oh, this old thing? That’s nothing. You should see me with my fiddly sewing.

Caroline: Ooh, now that’s impressive. Oh my gosh, we are not actresses. Let’s just put that out there. No, but for real, sewing is fun most of the time, but when it gets fiddly, it can feel like all the relaxation goes right out the window. Invisible zippers that are definitely not invisible, spaghetti straps that seem impossible to turn right side out, extra pointy darts…they can be sewjo drainers.

Helen: Totally. But there are lots of tips and tricks you can learn to make fiddly sewing actually enjoyable. Or, if not enjoyable, at least doable and with a nice result. So today we’re going to be sharing a bunch of those tips and tricks so you can keep your cup of sewjo full.

Caroline: Gotta keep that thing full. Before we get into these tips, I think we should share some of our personal sewing peeves, our sewing gripes, our sewing avoidances.

Helen: Yes, the tasks that when you come to them, you’re like, “Okay, here we go.”

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: Caroline, what sewing things do you dread?

Caroline: Okay, so, my first one that came to mind is welt pockets. For someone who designed a pair of pants with welt pockets, I really don’t like sewing welt pockets. They just…

Helen: And it’s been, like, a good chunk of time since those came out, so you’re still feeling that.

Caroline: Oh, oh, the whole way through. Writing instruction for welt pockets? That’s a whole other ball game. Oh my gosh.

Helen: Oh. Brutal.

Caroline: But no, they just take a really long time. It feels like there are so many steps, like, by the time I get to the end of the first welt pocket, I’m, like, exhausted. I’m like, “Am I not finished with these pants yet? Come on.” And also, the permanence kind of freaks me out. Like, it’s one of the few sewing steps that is irreversible. Like, if you make a mistake on a welt pocket, you’re sleeping in it, baby. Like, that’s it. You know, like you’re, that’s, there’s no going back.

Helen: Are you sleeping in it because they are now gonna be pajamas that you only wear around the house?

Caroline: Yeah. Oh my gosh. You’re making your bed with these pants!

Helen: It’s true. They do take so long. And cutting that hole to, like, actually flip everything to the other side is so intense.

Caroline: And that’s the beginning. That’s at the beginning.

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: And then you have so many more steps. It’s like, you do the whole welt and then you’re like, “Wait, now I have to do the pocket bag? Now I gotta attach the pocket bag? What if that goes wrong?”

Helen: I know. It’s so true. They’re really intense, but they’re also one of those things, playing little devil’s advocate here, that make you feel like a superhero when they’re done.

Caroline: Yeah, no, for sure. When you have a good welt pocket, you do feel like a superhero. I do.

Helen: Yeah. It’s like magic.

Caroline: It is like magic. It’s one of those things. So yeah, welt pockets is something that I kind of, I have an aversion to, but I’ll do it. I’ll do it for the plot.

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: And for the beauty of the, what it looks like when it’s finished. I do love the look of a welt pocket. The other thing for me is probably buttonholes, but I do, I want to blame my machine. I feel like we’ve talked about this on the show before. I’ve been like, “Every machine has problems with buttonholes,” but, like, my machine is such a B sometimes. You do, like, so many tests and then you’re, like, gearing up, it’s like, the, this is the buttonhole, like, I’m doing it. And then it just, it fails.

Helen: All of a sudden it’s like, “I’m just going to sew this direction forever and I’m never going to turn around, and…”

Caroline: a hundred percent. That always happens to me. It’s like, you do the test. It’s perfect. And then all of a sudden, she’s sewing for miles. Doesn’t want to turn around.

Helen: You’re like, “Wait, how long is this buttonhole?”

Caroline: Like, “What is up with that? I don’t understand.”

Helen: Honestly, I don’t know. My, we have the same machine, and mine does, very rarely does that. So maybe you should go get that checked out.

Caroline: Okay, well, I don’t use, I still use my Bernina. No, I don’t use my Pfaff that much. I’m sorry.

Helen: Well, try your Pfaff! The Pfaff, like, really does great buttonholes.

Caroline: Yeah. I guess, I guess I should…

Helen: She doesn’t want solutions, she wants sympathy, y’all.

Caroline: I just, that Pfaff machine, yeah, I like my Bernina better, generally, but I guess she’s not perfect. So I should be, I should be switching. I should be using both.

Helen: Yeah, I mean, yeah, you gotta use it for the buttonholes, that would be cool. And then you got, like, different tricks for different things,

Caroline: Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Uh, let’s move on.

Helen: Yeah, now you can solve my problems.

Caroline: Yeah, what sewing techniques make you want to throw a fit?

Helen: Okay. Pressing little hems on fabrics that don’t press well, like anything with polyester in it that just, like, doesn’t want to go, or like a really thick wool or something where you have to press like a little quarter inch hem and it’s just like so fiddly and you, like, burn your little fingers and…

Caroline: Do you know? I have a solution.

Helen: I’m painting a picture.

Caroline: I have a solution. I have a solution.

Helen: What’s that?

Caroline: Don’t press, just sew.

Helen: Don’t press?

Caroline: Yeah. Like if I’m doing a hem on a fabric that doesn’t want to press, I just don’t press and I just go to my machine and I just, like, fold it with my fingers and sew and fold and sew, and just, like, sew as I go. Sew as I go, fold as I go, hope for the best?

Helen: You know, that is a good tip and I have done that before, but I also worry about, like, roping and stuff. Like, sometimes you just really want to make sure it’s going to be okay. But you could pin and finger press and then you definitely would avoid the burning your little fingies.

Caroline: Yeah, or get some of those, like, silicone finger covers…

Helen: Oh yeah.

Caroline: That kind of make you feel like I’m like a dog wearing booties. You know, like, I’m like, “What is my hand doing right now?”

Helen: I know, all of a sudden your hand just doesn’t work.

Caroline: I don’t understand how fingers work when I’m wearing, like, little silicone gloves on them.

Helen: No, I, I do not enjoy those.

Caroline: Yeah, but they work. They protect your fingies.

Helen: Anyway, that’s my first one. Just pressing anything poly in general is the worst. Okay. The part where the collar stand meets the shirt on a button-up.

Caroline: Ooh.

Helen: And I know there’s, like, different techniques for how to sew it and, like, different orders of operation to, like, get that area and, like, some things work better for others. And I’ve tried them all, but it’s just like, it’s a tough spot. There’s so many little layers and it’s such a tiny little spot. And it’s right in the front, right under your neck where everyone can see it. And like, there’s no good side. Cause if you’re going to wear it all the way buttoned up, then it shows on the underside. And if you’re going to wear it kind of open, it shows on the other side. And it’s like, what do you, I don’t even know. It’s like, it never comes out perfect for me. And then you go to the store and you look at them and they’re like, how, how are they so perfect?

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: I don’t have any solutions for you on this one. I’m so sorry.

Helen: That’s okay. Practice, practice, practice. Every once in a while, I get a good one.

Caroline: Yeah, I think practice, and, like, accepting that it doesn’t have to be perfect? You know?

Helen: It doesn’t. You know what the solution is, actually, what I’ve had the best result with is hand sewing it first and then machine sewing it, if you want to. Then you can close it all up nicely and you have so much control and then you can machine sew it and that’s, that’s the best result I’ve seen.

Caroline: That’s a really good tip. Like, when in doubt, baste it, don’t pin it.

Helen: Yeah. And my third one is, we’re going to talk about this today, but, invisible zippers, particularly that little bit at the bottom.

Caroline: Yes. Oh my gosh, yes.

Helen: Where you never like, you’re like, “Do I close it before? Do I close it after? Why is there a bump? Why is there a hole?” Like, come on.

Caroline: Yeah. For me, it’s got to be after. It’s got to be after.

Helen: Uh, see, I don’t know. I don’t know, Caroline.

Caroline: We’re gonna talk about it today. This one we’re gonna talk about today. We’ll hash it out.

Helen: Okay. First, we do have some general tips that can apply to any fiddly sewing process. If you’re feeling frustrated or disappointed, take a break. It doesn’t have to be a long break. Take some restorative breaths, maybe get a little drink, go to the bathroom, give yourself a little perspective. Sewing is such a learning process. So making mistakes and facing difficulties is a part of it. It’s a part of every sewist’s story. And it really does help just to, like, get up and walk away from the machine, even just for a couple minutes.

Caroline: Yeah, it really does. Go complain to your roommate or partner or friend.

Helen: I don’t know. Scream into a pillow. Like, do whatever, do what you gotta do.

Caroline: Nothing like a good trip to the bathroom to gain some perspective, you know?

Helen: You know what? I have, like, this is a tangent, but I have night terrors sometimes. Where, like, I wake up, I have nightmares and I wake up like really scared and, like, my go-to thing is to just get out of the bed and go to the bathroom. And then by the time I come back from the bathroom, I’m like, “Everything’s fine.”

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: It works.

Caroline: No monsters in the toilet, so we’re good.

Helen: Yeah, exactly.

Caroline: Oh my gosh. Okay, our next general tip is that you can look up some tips. So, chances are, lots of people have had the same issue that you’ve had. If it seems rare, you can post your question on a forum like Pattern Review or the sewing subreddit. But, chances are, you’ll find some ideas for how to proceed just by googling it.

Helen: Third is: practice. This is a strategy that’s going to get you the best results in the end. Take some of that scrap fabric and practice the technique until you like the result. That way you don’t have to make 10 pairs of trousers before you like how the welt pockets look. You can actually get them right on the very first pair of pants. The secret is practicing. And it won’t even necessarily take you 10 tries. That’s an exaggeration. You can learn a ton just from one single practice round. And it totally lowers the stakes.

Caroline: Yes, 100%. Our next tip is to just let the small imperfections go. Most people aren’t going to be inspecting your garment with a magnifying glass. Hopefully no one’s going to do that. That would be kind of weird. So just let it go and remember it’s not going to be perfect.

Helen: It’s totally fine. And lastly, celebrate your triumph. Even if it’s just patting yourself on the back, you deserve a little recognition for completing a fiddly step. You can put on your favourite song, you can give your pet a hug, or you can go and show off your technique to someone who will cheer you on. I mean, we’ve all been there, right? You’ve run out into the rest of the house and find somebody to be like, “Look, I did it!”

Caroline: Yes, when I was sewing Taylor Trouser samples, there were definitely moments when I’d, like, finish the welt pockets or the front fly and just, like, hold it up for the office and be like, “Look what I did!” And everyone would cheer and it was great. You really need that sometimes.

Helen: Oh, that sounds amazing. I want to, I want to show off my stuff to the birdies.

Caroline: Okay, I think we should get into some of these fiddly techniques and give some good tips here. So first up, let’s talk about darts. Marking darts is pretty annoying, let’s be honest. It can be hard to be accurate when the paper gets in the way. I used to mark darts by, like, sticking my marking tool into the dart point and trying to, like, get it through the paper. Or I’d stick, like, a pin in, you know, and try to pull the pin through.

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: And then I learned this method from Natasha at the office, and it’s basically to cut along one dart leg and fold that paper back along the other dart leg. So you’re creating, like, a triangle opening, but you’re not removing that paper completely, because when you cut out your pattern piece, you want to make sure you get that, like, hat on the end of the dart, right?

Helen: Yeah, totally.

Caroline: So you fold that back and then it’s so easy to just trace the dart and it’s super accurate and you can flip it over and do it on the other side. When I learned this, I was like, “How have I not been doing this the whole time? Like, what?”

Helen: That’s a great method. I have not used that and I’m totally going to do that next time. That sounds legitimately fun.

Caroline: It’s a game changer and it’s like, you get the perfect dart marking every time. Like, in my opinion, it’s the best way. But there are other methods. What do you do, Helen?

Helen: I do the pin through the hole, pin through the point and then fold the pattern back and, like, mark the point and then notch the dart ends and then redraw it with a ruler. But your way is so much better, so I’m not going to do that anymore.

Caroline: Yeah, definitely try this way. Everyone try it. It’s amazing.

Helen: Yeah. Another thing you can do is carbon paper and a tracing wheel. If you have those tools and you’re familiar with them, that’s a really great way. You just slide the paper between the pattern and the fabric piece, and then you roll that cute little spiky wheel along the dart legs, and it marks the dart perfectly.

Caroline: Yes. Love it. This one’s good, too. If you have any issues with pointy bust darts, when you’re sewing them, we have some ideas for how you can round them out. So you can sew the two thirds of the bust dart normally, and then from there sew in a shallow curve towards the fold that eases to nothing at the dart point. It might be hard to visualize, but By Hand London made a reel demonstrating this technique and we’ll link that up for you in the show notes. They don’t redraw the darts in their video, but I think that would probably make it easier to do.

Helen: Wait, redraw the darts where?

Caroline: Like, redraw the dart so that it has that curve before…yeah.

Helen: Oh, I see. They just, like, intuit the curve. Also, pressing on a tailor’s ham really helps to get that nice curve across the bust point. But yeah, I love just adding that little gentle curve to my darts. I just kind of do that intuitively when I’m sewing my darts because it makes sense. Like, I’m pretty round, so I want it to be round.

Caroline: A hundred percent. Yeah.

Helen: And you don’t need to backstitch at the end of the dart. In fact, it’s better if you just sew off the end of the fabric. First of all, you can get a little pocket at the point if you don’t quite sew to the end. And second of all, backstitching can pucker up the fabric and make the dart lay less smoothly. So instead of a backstitch, you can decrease the stitch length to almost nothing for the last few stitches. That will hold. Another option is to sew off the end of the dart, lift the foot, pull threads long enough that you can tie them off at the end. Usually I’ll do one or both these things just to be safe, but I really like tying little knots at the end of the dart. I find it quite satisfying.

Caroline: I often will do both. Like, I’ll lower my stitch length and I’ll tie them off just to be, like, totally safe and secure. The only annoying thing about lowering that stitch length is that I always forget to put it back and then I’ll start sewing whatever I’m sewing next and it’s doing these teeny tiny little stitches.

Helen: Like, “Why is it taking so long?”

Caroline: Yeah, “Why is this taking so long?”

Helen: One thing with tying those, like, dart threads is not to pull too hard, because you can actually, like, cinch up the fabric if you’re tying that knot really tightly. So just a gentle knot and then you can do two or three, whatever feels good, and trim off the excess.

Caroline: Totally. Okay, our next fiddly sewing technique that we want to talk about is invisible zippers. So let’s just get into it because they’re, they’re, this is stressful. Invisible zippers can be stressful.

Helen: They can be, but they are approachable. I know there’s sewists out there who haven’t tried them and are intimidated by them, so I don’t want to give the impression that they’re, like, really hard to sew or anything. There’s just a few things about them that can be kind of annoying. So, invisible zippers come pre-pressed so that the tape kind of curls outward from the zipper teeth at the center. And this curve can make it hard to stitch close to those teeth, and you want to stitch as close as possible to make it invisible. As a first step, you want to open up the zipper all the way and gently press the tape flat, so you’re removing that curve. And use a low heat; you don’t want to melt the tape or the teeth.

Caroline: Yeah, definitely use a low heat, and maybe even after pressing it, test that your zipper still goes up and down easily. Just to make sure, because you don’t want to sew on a whole zipper that has some melted teeth, that it gets caught. It’s just not worth that effort if you melted your zipper. Our second tip is to mark out your seam lines, or your stitch lines. So, the zipper tape is usually narrower than ⅝ of an inch. So you can’t just line it up with the edge of the fabric. So drawing that seam line on will show you exactly where to lay down those teeth. And It’s also a good idea to make a horizontal line at the top, about ¾ of an inch from the edge of the fabric, because that’s where the zipper stop will go. Since you’ll be sewing each side of the zipper separately, this is going to help everything line up in the end. I actually like to, when I’m sewing one edge of the zipper, I’ll then close it, mark exactly where the end of the zipper teeth is on the opposite zipper tape. And then I know exactly where to line that up with that marker on the other side, if that makes sense.

Helen: Totally. Yeah, you can do that with, like, a waist seam, too if you’re doing, like, a center back dress zip, to get everything to line up. It’s also a good idea to finish your seam allowances separately before you sew the zipper because it’s way easier to do it before than it is to do it after the zipper is in.

Caroline: And this is something I started doing recently that I’ll never go back from, and that is basting the zipper in place before you make your final stitches. So before you actually sew into that invisible zipper groove that’s kind of harder to access and a little bit more fiddly, I sew in my zipper with a regular zipper foot. So you can baste on the machine using a zipper foot, like I do. You can also baste by hand. That’s going to give you a lot of control. You could also use wonder tape or like a school glue stick to hold the zipper in place without any stitching. But you’re basically attaching that zipper, closing it, making sure everything lines up and looks good, and then you go in with your stitch line really close to those zipper teeth so that you get that invisible look in the zipper. But you’re not worried about, I don’t know about you Helen, but when I’m sewing the invisible zipper on my machine, it feels almost like the zipper is like, moving because I’m trying to get in so close that, like, your zipper almost, like, travels a little bit and almost doesn’t stay straight. So basting it in place first totally eliminates that risk of your zipper moving around and getting a little bit wonky.

Helen: Yeah, that’s a great tip. And it’s super quick, like you said, you can just baste on the machine. It’s, like, easy peasy. If you’re using a plastic snap-on invisible zipper foot and you’re still getting bad results, you’re not alone. A lot of people have issues with these. And it could be better to get a metal invisible zipper foot that works with your machine or just to use your regular zipper foot. I don’t like the plastic snap-on invisible zipper foot. The difference is that, like, it has a little tunnel that the teeth go into and then the needle is supposed to perfectly align right next to the teeth. But I find that it doesn’t get as close as I can get with my regular zipper foot and I have a little bit more control with my regular zipper foot. So if you have been frustrated by an invisible zipper foot in the past, you’re not alone.

Caroline: Yeah. And they’re not all created equal. I know my invisible zipper foot, that’s all metal, has those tunnels and it works really well. I can actually move my needle position over just a little bit to get even closer to the teeth than, like, having it at the center position. I find that helps a lot. You just want to make sure that you’re not getting so close that you’re stitching over the teeth, because then that, again, will make it really hard to open and close that zipper.

Helen: Yeah. Okay. Let’s talk about the butt of the zipper.

Caroline: Oh, this is the part that you struggle with, and I do, too. Sometimes it can be so frustrating because your zipper itself looks amazing and then you sew that seam below the zipper and you’re like, “What is happening? Why is there a little bump? Why is there a gap, a hole,” whatever. So, some instructions recommend sewing the seam below the zipper before you insert the zipper and some say to do it afterwards. The fiddly thing about sewing the seam before is that you need to make sure that the top of the zipper matches up perfectly on both sides or you’re going to get a bubble at the bottom of the zipper. So you can prevent this by marking out where the top zipper stop should go.

Helen: Yeah and the fiddly thing about sewing the seam afterward is that it can be tricky to stitch along that seam line at the very bottom of the zipper where you pull it inside the garment. Use a regular zipper foot and get as close as you possibly can. But it’s just really tricky because there’s tape and teeth there as well, so it’s hard to get super close.

Caroline: Yeah, overall, I think sewing the seam afterwards is the less fiddly option. You can always try both if you’re curious and see which one you prefer. I find the best trick to avoid any, like, weird bumps or lumps or things getting off is I don’t try to get right up to my previous stitch line. Like, I’m always going maybe like a quarter of an inch away from it in both directions. Does that make sense? Like, I’m, like, not trying to get all the way up to it and I’m not trying to get all the way over to it. Like, I’m just giving myself like a quarter inch buffer around it and just starting a little bit lower and a little bit off to the side. As long as I’m getting a straight line and the fabric is flat and doesn’t have any puckers in it, then usually it’ll look pretty good from the right side.

Helen: Well, yeah, and that’s the end goal, right? If it looks good from the right side, then you did it right.

Caroline: Yeah, yeah.

Helen: You nailed it.

Caroline: You nailed it, exactly.

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: if you’re finishing the top of your invisible zipper with a hook and eye, you can sew them on so that the edges of each one just reach the edge of the opening, and this is gonna make each side just touch in the middle when the hook and eye is done up.

Helen: Yeah. We talked a lot about the bottom of the zipper, but the top can be challenging, as well. If you, like, put that zipper top a little too high, then when you flip your facing over or do your bias binding, there can be, like, a little mountain that forms around the teeth. But if you put them too low, then there’s that little gap. And honestly, it just takes practice, a little intuition about thickness of fabric and things like that. So if your first one’s a little wonky, don’t worry about it. I definitely have makes where I have a little mountain or a little valley at the top of my zipper and whatever, you know, it’s no big deal.

Caroline: You know what, too? Like, if your invisible zipper ends up being a visible zipper, cool. Then that’s how it was meant to be, you know?

Helen: Design detail achieved.

Caroline: Design detail. An argument for finding a matching zipper.

Helen: Yeah, that’s true.

Caroline: But yeah, it’s okay. It’s just sewing. It’s not that serious. Let’s just remember that.

Helen: It’s not. Okay. Speaking of not-serious things. What about teeny tiny little tubes?

Caroline: Oh, but those are so annoying! Oh my gosh. I hate those little delicate spaghetti straps. I don’t love button loops.

Helen: Did you do button loops on your wedding dress or did you get loop tape?

Caroline: I got loop tape for my wedding dress.

Helen: Oh, smart.

Caroline: There is a button loop closure on the Selena Set, our newest pattern. So I did get familiar with a few different techniques for turning loops, but there’s just, like, no fail-safe, proven, easy way to do it. Like, it’s always gonna be a bit of a struggle, so you kind of have to accept that, in my opinion.

Helen: Yeah. Okay, loop turners can really help with this step. There’s a couple of different kinds. There’s the kind that has a stick and a tube, and to use these you sew one end of the fabric tube closed, slide the plastic tube inside it, and then you poke the closed end with the stick, which goes into the plastic tube, therefore turning the fabric right side out as it goes through.

Caroline: Yeah, these tube turners are gonna work best with tightly woven fabrics or straps that aren’t super tiny. The risk is that the stick pokes through the fabric or, like, in between the stitches at the closed end. So, always, like, no matter what you’re doing with turning straps and delicate things like this is, like, take your time and don’t force it because, chances are, if you force it you will poke a hole into your strap. And that’s really annoying.

Helen: Totally. It’s so annoying. Yeah, and you can do a smaller stitch length to add a little bit of strength in areas that you know you’re going to be putting pressure on. There’s another type of tube turner that looks like a long metal stick with a little hook at the end, and this one is good for tiny tubes. You cut a little hole about a half an inch from the edge of the fabric tube, you put the little metal stick through it, and then you put the hook through the hole. You close the hook and you pull it through the tube. The hardest part is right after you hook the fabric and start pulling it through. Be patient and fiddle with it for a little bit. Once it gets started, it’s easy from there, but getting that hook to, like, hook on properly is the tricky part.

Caroline: Well, that is, like, one of the best feelings in sewing is, I don’t know if you’ve ever used one of these, but when you’re, like, struggling, struggling, struggling, you’re like, “It’s not going to happen. It’s not going to happen.” And then, all of a sudden, whoosh, she pulls through and it feels amazing. And you’re like, “I am a superhero. I’m a sewing superhero.”

Helen: Yeah, I love that feeling. Yeah. This is one of those techniques. It’s like, I have a love/hate relationship with it because it’s annoying, but also one of the most satisfying things. So you, you get a win in the end.

Caroline: When it works, it really works.

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: There are a couple of ways you can turn tiny tubes without any special tools. So Annie Stafford posted a genius tip on her Instagram. We’re going to link it in our show notes. This one is for sergers. So, first, you’re going to serge a long thread tail, about an inch longer than your strap will be. Without cutting the tail, lay it In the fold of your strap. You’re going to try to sew it up without catching it. So you’re kind of folding your strap around this long thread tail, and then sew your strap, trim the end, and pull on the end of your sandwiched thread tail to turn your strap out. So you’re kind of, like, I don’t know, pulling this little snake through. And everything should turn right side out.

Helen: It’s so genius.

Caroline: Yeah, when it works, it works so well and it’s so satisfying.

Helen: Totally cool. I gotta try that.

Caroline: Yes, definitely. And True Bias also posted a similar tip on their blog, but for people without sergers. You just need a large hand sewing needle and some strong thread. Topstitching thread is great here. Upholstery thread. Double up the thread and attach it near the end of the tube and then thread the fabric over your needle, eye end first, and then pull the needle and thread through to turn your tube out. So, this is the same method, just with using thread instead of a serger tail. This is what we recommend in our instructions for the Selena Set and it works really, really well. I think it’s, like, the greatest method you can use without having a tool. Otherwise, how do you even do it without a tool, honestly? I don’t know. I’ve actually done the bobby pin method. Have you done that?

Helen: Oh, no, I haven’t. But that would work for, like, a short one, right?

Caroline: Yeah, where you, you kind of hook it and then you have to keep pulling it through. It’s just that, like, the bobby pin is maybe like a quarter of an inch, so if it’s smaller than, the opening is smaller than that, then it won’t work, right? Like, the width of it?

Helen: Yeah. Similar to the safety pin method, but bobby pins are, like, that much narrower. So they’re good for those teeny tiny tubes.

Caroline: Mmhmm.

Helen: Teeny tiny tubes.

Caroline: Teeny tiny tubes.

Helen: If your fabric has a bit more weight or bulk than the suggested fabrics on the pattern, you might consider widening your straps a tiny amount. So, for example, if the pattern says to sew, you know, 3/16” from the edge, you could increase that to a quarter inch, and that adds an extra eighth of an inch to the circumference of the tube, which can really help with the turn of the fabric. You can also widen it and then just, like, do the double fold, like, fold into the center and fold it and top stitch it. You could go for a slightly different look for a spaghetti strap with a wider strap. So yeah, you’ve got options. If you feel like you want to make a change, go for it.

Caroline: Yeah, definitely. Okay, next up we’re going to talk about easing, and really, easing, it’s not easy, Helen.

Helen: It’s not, unfortunately. Easing is when you have to fit a longer piece of fabric onto a shorter piece of fabric without getting any folds or tucks. You often see this in sleeve caps, but it can also appear in places like curved hems or in the crotch of pants. Ease is everywhere.

Caroline: It really, really is. It’s usually recommended to make a row or two of long basting stitches and gather them slightly, especially if you’re easing a much longer piece of fabric into a shorter piece. Sometimes you can just do it by kind of fiddling with your machine and making sure that the fabric is sitting in the right way so that the feed dogs are easing the fabric through. But if it’s a longer portion of easing or more easing, then stitching is the way to go, for sure.

Helen: Yeah, and Kenneth D. King gave a cool tip on his Instagram that he called “cheater’s ease” that he uses with crisp fabrics. So you lay your fabric on your pressing surface and you press into it with your finger, pushing it forward a couple of inches so that it kind of wrinkles along the seam line, and this is pretty genius because the wrinkles can expand or contract as you need them to when you’re pinning the pieces together, but it’s basically a similar idea to those gathering basting stitches. It’s that you’re trying to shorten those fibers, like, push those fibers together, but without actually getting any crinkles or folds.

Caroline: Yes, it is very cool. I feel like this one really blew our listeners’ minds, because we posted it on our Instagram at one point, and people went crazy. It was very, very cool. Like I mentioned earlier, you can also use your feed dogs to distribute the ease. You can either face the gathered side down when you’re sewing, or you can face it up and use a walking foot. Walking feet have feed dogs on the top. So if you place it correctly, your machine can do the work for you.

Helen: Yeah. And if you want extra insurance against tucks and gathers, you can hand baste the eased section an eighth of an inch away from the seam line before you go to sew it.

Caroline: And if you end up with a tuck, you don’t have to rip out the whole seam. Just rip out an inch or two around the tuck and redo it. I think we’ve all been there, hey?

Helen: Oh, yeah. I feel like 50 percent of the time I get a tuck in my sleeve caps.

Caroline: Yeah, it’s so true.

Helen: Because I’m a little bit of a reckless sewer and I like to just, like, run it through the machine real fast. And I’m like, if there’s a tuck, I’ll deal with it later.

Caroline: Yeah, there’s always that, I always, like, hold my breath after I sew a sleeve in. I’ll, like, I’ll, like, finish and then I’ll be like, “Okay, got to check it for tucks.” You know, turn that thing right side out, make sure it’s all looking okay. Oh, it happens to the best of us.

Helen: Totally. Okay. Well, speaking of sleeve caps, sewing curves can be a really frustrating process, but it doesn’t have to be. Let’s explain a little bit about how sewing curves works. So when you add seam allowance to straight lines, like, say, a boxy t-shirt side seam, the edges will match up perfectly. It’s easy to pin them and sew them. But when you add seam allowance to curved lines, like princess seams or sleeve caps, the edges are no longer going to match up. The convex curve will have a longer edge and the concave curve will have a shorter edge. So it makes it harder to match up and sew correctly because you want to be sewing on the seam line, not so much worrying about the edge of the fabric.

Caroline: Yeah, that’s really what you want to focus on when you’re pinning and sewing curved seams, is that seam line. So the seam lines are going to match up perfectly even though the edges of the fabric won’t. And if it helps you, you can even draw the seam lines on the fabric pieces so you know you’re pinning exactly in the right place.

Helen: Yeah, that’s a really helpful tip. So, pin along that seam line, taking tiny little bites out of the fabric. The seam allowance will not lay smoothly and neither will the fabric. pieces, but try not to worry about it. That’s just the way it is with curved seams. So you want to take it slow and pause if you need to rearrange the fabric that’s about to go under the needle. And this is really, like, a muscle memory thing with sewing, where the more you do it, the more comfortable you’re going to get with kind of zhuzhing the fabric and getting those curves to line up. But your first few curved seams are going to feel quite silly. “What am I doing? I don’t understand.”

Caroline: Absolutely. We do have some tips for sewing curves. So you definitely don’t want to skip any of the markings or notches on your paper pattern. Make sure you transfer these over. These can be really helpful for lining up the pieces. Many patterns will give you a marking near the middle of the curve, so you can start pinning there and then work your way outward.

Helen: If your fabric isn’t prone to fraying and you plan to trim your seams anyway, you could trim your seam allowance down to a quarter inch before you start pinning. This can actually make it easier to sew because there’s less seam allowance kind of pulling your fabric in the other direction.

Caroline: Mmhmm. And stay stitching your curves is going to help them to keep their shape as you work with them. They might stretch out if you don’t, so definitely, if the pattern recommends stay stitching in one of the first steps before you start handling your fabric too much, do it. And even if it doesn’t recommend it, if you feel like your fabric is, like, shifty, delicate, lightweight, just stay stitch. There’s never any harm in stay stitching within the seam allowance.

Helen: Yeah, and you can clip or notch your seam allowances so that they lay more smoothly. So, with princess seams especially, some instructions recommend clipping the curve on the center piece before you sew it. This can make the pieces easier to handle because the seam allowance is going to spread out and lie more flat. And after you sew the piece, you can clip the other side of the seam allowance as well. Anything you can do to kind of increase those curves’ ability to move can be really helpful. But If you’re working with a really fray-y fabric, maybe avoid clipping because it might just turn into a hot mess.

Caroline: Yeah, this works really well with heavier fabrics. I was, spoiler alert, sewing a little bucket hat for my niece recently and…

Helen: Ooh! Oh my gosh.

Caroline: The instructions had you clip basically all of the seam allowances before even pinning them together. And that made such a huge difference and it was no biggie because the fabric I was using was a little bit heavier weight, so. Wouldn’t recommend it for lightweight fabrics, but definitely works in some applications. For unlined garments with princess seams, you might want to trim your seams to a quarter of an inch instead of clipping them. And then you can finish them with a zigzag or you can serge them.

Helen: And using a pressing ham with lots of steam to press the curve Is going to help the curve to turn out really nicely.

Caroline: Yes, definitely. I think hand sewing is a love it or hate it thing. We’ve talked about this on the show before, Helen. I’m not the biggest fan of hand sewing, but I definitely got more into it when I made my wedding dress last year. I was one of those sewists who would do anything to avoid it. But I think some sewists really like that control. And I can get behind it. I think sometimes hand sewing can go a long way to just, like, that insurance of making sure things are going to work out.

Helen: Yeah, especially if you know that you are the kind of sewist that gets frustrated in fiddly sewing situations, hand sewing could be just the ticket for you. And we have a few tips to improve your hand sewing situation so it’s something that you’re going to want to reach for more often. If you find that your beginning or end knots pull through the fabric, it can really help to combine them with a couple of back stitches. So, for example, you make your little starting knot, you pull it up to the fabric gently, and then make a couple of back stitches, one on top of the other, to really anchor that spot, and then you start your sewing. And you can do a similar thing at the end, just to make sure that both of those points are really secure.

Caroline: Ooh, okay, I learned this technique from Bernadette Banner and I used it so much when I was sewing my wedding dress. This little backstitch tip is incredible. If you haven’t tried it, definitely try it. Try to keep your hand and needle above the fabric. So instead of putting your needle down into the fabric and pulling the thread down to the end and then poking the needle back up, try inserting the needle and bring it back up at the next place it needs to be, and then pulling the thread from above. This is a lot faster. You can’t do this with every hand sewing task, like sewing on buttons, but for most of them you can.

Helen: Yeah, big time saver. A lot of hand sewing manuals from the past recommend keeping your thread at 18 inches or less. This prevents those really frustrating tangles that make you pull out a bunch of your work. Like, it’s just so frustrating, especially when you don’t notice them underneath the project and then you, like, flip it over and you’re like, “Wait, what? No!”

Caroline: What do you do in that situation, Helen?

Helen: I don’t know, cry?

Caroline: But do you start over or do you just, like, leave, leave the little, little hangy bits?

Helen: No, I would probably cut that out because, like, it could un-nest and then there’s going to be all this slack in the thread line, right? So I think the best thing to do would be to go back to that point and redo it or put extra stitches on it or secure it somehow. I mean, you gotta do something, I think.

Caroline: I’ve been known to, like, take the little nest at the back and just tie it in a little knot and trim it…

Helen: Oh, you know what, that’s really smart!

Caroline: Like, so that…because…or, I’ve definitely just, like, trimmed it and been like, “You know what? Out of sight, out of mind. I’ll redo this button at a later date.”

Helen: Oh my gosh.

Caroline: Like, if I’ve stitched it enough, I’ll just…

Helen: When it falls off…when it falls off tomorrow I’ll figure that out.

Caroline: Oh my gosh, I just revealed my secrets.

Helen: I like the idea of untangling it and then tying it in a knot. That’s a great solution.

Caroline: If the end of your thread is fuzzy and kind of hard to thread, you can fold the thread near the end and then hold the fold close to the top of your pinched fingers to make like a little point and then slide the eye of the needle over that point. You could also clip the end of the thread to take the fuzz off, sometimes that works, too. I also find, with hand sewing, if you have, like, a thread wax or I have, oh my gosh, what is it called? Like, thread magic or, I don’t think they make it anymore, but I still have this, like, precious little square of it and I always run my thread through that before I hand sew and it really helps with avoiding those like knots and tangles and it just gives the thread a little bit more strength and just makes it easier to use.

Helen: Yeah. Yeah. And you can get needle threaders, too, different kinds, if you struggle with threading the needle. It is so annoying.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: Okay, Caroline, this next section is for you: buttonholes.

Caroline: Ugh. Yeah.

Helen: These are tricky and we hear a lot of sewists say that they avoid them because they’re scared of them or tried doing them, but they turned out badly. Once you get comfy with buttonholes, your pattern options really open up. And buttons are amazing, but the price of having buttons and buttonholes on your garment is learning to do good buttonholes. So for this one, I would definitely recommend testing, testing, testing. It’s not just about testing your machine. You also want to test out the tension and the size of the buttonhole. Use some scraps of fabric and interfacing, the same number of layers that you will have on your finished button placket or cuff or whatever it is you’re applying the button to, and then test out your settings until you’re happy with the result. Make sure to push the button through the test buttonhole to make sure that it fits nicely. Not too snug, not too loose. You want it just right.

Caroline: Mmhmm. Some people are disappointed by how sparsely their machine stitches their buttonholes. So if you want a sturdier result, you can always sew it a second time right on top of the first one. Whew, that would stress me out too. What if it works once and then not the second time? I’ve been burned!

Helen: That is stressful. Yeah. Ideally you have machine settings that let you really tighten up those stitches, but it’s, it’s frustrating when they’re, like, kind of sparse. ‘Cause you’re like, “Well, if I clip it into this, it’s just gonna unravel. Like, this is not enough stitches.”

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: You can also use Fray Check before you cut your buttonholes open. It keeps them neat and free of loose threads after you open them up. But if you’re nervous about putting Fray Check on your fabric, you can test it on some scraps to make sure that it’s not going to change the look of the fabric. Fray Check, if you’re not aware, is kind of like a little liquid glue almost. It’s, like, clear liquid that you just sort of dab onto the buttonhole. I swear by this stuff. I put it on all my buttonholes.

Caroline: Yeah, me too. And it really doesn’t, I haven’t had a bad experience with it, like, staining my fabric, but I do always test it, just to be sure.

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: Super pointy, thin scissors like Gingher embroidery scissors are great for cutting buttonholes open. The nice thing is that you can push your scissors through the fabric to start cutting without having to snip a hole first.

Helen: But whatever scissors you use, you want to make sure they’re sharp to the tips. So, line up the tip of your scissors to the end of the buttonhole before you snip. And if you need extra help, you can put a pin at the ends of the buttonhole opening so that you won’t accidentally snip through it. The only issue with this is that you might nick your scissors on the pins. I’ve seen those method, too, where you do the pin and then the seam ripper. That makes me so nervous. I do not like that. I don’t like seeing it. I don’t like even talking about it. I’m, I’m mad that I brought it up. Don’t do it.

Caroline: It had to be mentioned. It had to be mentioned. Just don’t do it. Cautionary tale. I have seen many sewists complain that they’ve cut right through their fabric with this method. So…

Helen: Yeah.

Caroline: It’s not foolproof, failsafe, none of that. Don’t do it.

Helen: It’s not foolproof. And it dulls your tools, right? You don’t want to be jamming your seam ripper up against a pin.

Caroline: Yeah, totally. I, personally, have a buttonhole cutter. Maybe this is a really niche sewing room tool, but it’s, like, a little Clover buttonhole cutter. I find it super satisfying. You can just cut right into it. You have to have, like, a surface underneath, like a cutting mat or something, so you don’t ruin your table. But I find this works really well and that I’m not stressing about cutting through anything.

Helen: And, pro-tip, you don’t need to buy a specialty buttonhole cutter. It’s literally just a little chisel. So if you have, like, maybe a woodworker in your life, they might have a set of chisels that you could use one of those, or you can just go to the hardware store and buy a small chisel. That’s what I have. It’s just, like, a woodworking chisel and it works great.

Caroline: All right, another one of my fiddly things that I don’t love, but we’re going to talk about it: it’s welt pockets. These are notorious for being fiddly.

Helen: It’s so true. I think one of the reasons that they have such a scary reputation is that it’s hard to visualize the entire process of how they’re done. If you’re looking at a photo tutorial or a pattern instruction booklet and feeling intimidated and confused, it probably will help to watch a video so you can visualize the entire process. And then that will give you a bit more confidence.

Caroline: Yeah. And this is one of those techniques that really benefits from a practice run. Emily from In the Folds recommends doing the pockets one at a time instead of assembly line-style. You’re gonna learn a bunch from doing the first one. You can bring all that knowledge to the second one. Or do a test one and then bring all that knowledge to the second and third ones that are on the real garment. I probably wouldn’t sew a welt pocket for the first time on the garment that I want to wear. Like, I think I would always recommend doing it on some scrap fabric. Low stakes, learn all the lessons before you’re actually cutting into your precious pants or skirt or jacket or wherever you’re going to have that welt pocket.

Helen: Yeah. 100%. And you want to use very short stitches to sew the welt to the main piece. This strengthens the opening and keeps threads from poking out at the corners when you turn that welt to the inside.

Caroline: Once again, use scissors that are sharp to the tips when you’re cutting the Y shape into the corners of the opening. You want to get as close to the stitches as you can without cutting into them. This is really important because you gotta get really close or else you’re going to get little puckers in the corners.

Helen: Yeah. And after you turn the welt to the wrong side, you press it thoroughly on the wrong side and then on the right side. This is going to help you to get the corners perfectly flat. You really gotta take your time with welts. And it can be a really enjoyable process if you’re not, like, pressed for time or feeling super stressy. So it’s not one that I would recommend doing, you know, late into the evening or at the end of your sewing session. It’s probably one you want to do with fresh eyes, you know?

Caroline: Totally. Yeah, one thing I’ll also say about welt pockets is, if you end up with, like, corners that aren’t perfect, or maybe you clipped too far into the corner and you have a tiny little hole and you’re worried about it fraying and getting bigger as you wear the garment, you can do a little bar tacks, like, on the edges of your welt pocket. I find this works really well with, like, a bottomweight fabric, maybe not necessarily for, like, a wool coat or something, but if you just sew little bar tacks along those short ends of the welt, it sort of like locks in that corner, locks in that edge. Gives it a little bit more of like a workwear look, but I think it works really well in certain applications and it hides all the things that might be wrong with those corners if you’re struggling.

Helen: Just reinforce that area. Yeah. It’s tricky because these are pockets, so they’re under a lot of stress when you’re putting your hands in and out or putting your phone in and out. So it’s definitely an area that you want to make sure is secure. Okay, we’re down to our last fiddly sewing technique for the episode. And it is shirring. Or shearing. Or shirring. Shearing?

Caroline: Ed Sheeran? What?

Helen: Ed Sheeran?

Caroline: Oh my gosh.

Helen: I say shirring. You say shearing. Let’s call the whole thing off. I don’t know.

Caroline: Tomato, tom-ah-to. Yeah, no joke. Um, Helen, what do you think about shirring?

Helen: Uh, I’ve only done it once, so I feel like that’s not really fair. I didn’t enjoy it that much, but, yeah, it was a while ago too, so I feel like I really gotta give it another chance. You’ve done quite a bit recently.

Caroline: Yeah, I did a lot last summer, or two summers ago, maybe two summers ago. And then I did a lot again this summer when I made a dress for my sister-in-law. And I’ve done it a little bit on, like, back panels. It was one of those techniques that, like, felt so intimidating. And it was annoying, like, don’t get me wrong. Shirring, I wouldn’t call it fun, like, I wouldn’t ever call it fun, but, but it is super satisfying when you get it right, and it looks really good, and it’s just, like, a really beautiful finish on a garment, it makes things easier to fit, like, I think it has its redeeming qualities. Would do again. It’s one of those ones that, you know, once you learn it, you’re like, “Yes, I got this!” and it doesn’t feel as crazy. One of the biggest tips that I have with shirring is to mark your lines. This feels like it takes forever, but it’s so worth it. Even if you’re sewing lines that are, like, the same width as your sewing machine foot, because you have to stretch out your fabric as you’re sewing. And once you sew one line, your fabric gets kind of puckery. It’s really hard to sew accurately if those lines aren’t marked out. Like, you might think you can, but I’m here to tell you, you can’t. Or if you can, you are, like, working miracles over there. But, like, I could not do it without marking my lines. It just got super wonky. And once you go off with shirring, like, you can’t get back on the road. Like, you’re off, you know?

Helen: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it makes a difference in the final result, like, it’s visibly off, right? Yeah, and you definitely need to test out your machine settings before you start shirring on your fabric. So, probably increasing the tension. Usually the goal is to get the fabric to shrink by about 50 percent, so this is one of those situations where testing is mandatory.

Caroline: Yes.

Helen: You get your scrap fabric, you figure it out, and then you can start on your project.

Caroline: Oh, and one thing to remember is, like, once you get your little panel of shirring off the machine, go over to your iron and steam it. Because the steam is going to shrink everything up and it’s just going to give you a, like a much more finished, beautiful final result. So it might not seem like your fabric shrunk enough once you sew it, but once you take it over to your iron and steam it, it’s going to shrink even more. It’s going to look even better. So don’t, like, think you did something wrong until you take it over to your iron and make sure.

Helen: Oh, Caroline, what a hot tip!

Caroline: Speaking of tips, Geri in Stitches has some great shirring tips on her Instagram, and we’re going to share a few that we love. When you’re hand winding your bobbins, drop the elastic thread in a little cup so it won’t roll away. My own tip is to hand wind a few bobbins at once so that you don’t have to pause to wind in the middle of your sewing. Also, like, when you’re hand winding bobbins, you have to use the same tension every time. It really makes a difference if you’re not using that same tension for every bobbin. So if you’re winding them all at the same time and wind more than you think you’re gonna need, then you’re setting yourself up more for success. ‘Cause if you end up having to, like, stop in the middle of sewing and wind a new bobbin, your tension might be different. Like it’s, it’s such a nuanced thing. So try to do it all at once.

Helen: That makes sense. And for bobbins, Geri recommends buying a bobbin case that’s just for shirring or for thicker threads. Then you can turn the bobbin screw a quarter turn counterclockwise to loosen the tension. You can also do this with your regular bobbin case. You’ll need to turn the screw back when you’re ready for the regular stitching again. And opinions in the sewing community are divided on whether or not you should ever mess with your bobbin case screw and we are, too, also divided. Caroline and I have debated this before. I’m more of a, like, make an informed decision to adjust the bobbin tension if you feel like you need to, and Caroline’s team don’t touch the bobbin screw. So, you know, do it at your own risk.

Caroline: Yeah and, like, to be fair, I have evolved a little bit as a sewist and I have touched my bobbin screw. I’m just going to put that out there. I don’t want to feel like a fraud. I want you all to know the truth. I’ve, I touched my bobbin screw and it’s okay.

Helen: Good for you.

Caroline: Thank you. Feels really good to get that off my chest.

Helen: Yeah. This is a good idea, though. ‘Cause you can just get another bobbin case and then you can mess with that case and you don’t have to worry about your original one.

Caroline: So true. Adding a band of elastic to the top or bottom of a shirred bodice can help it to keep its shape and its place on your body. At the top, you can fold over the top edge to make a channel, and at the bottom you can sew a band of fabric on the wrong side. You’re going to need to make these channels before you start shirring, so keep that in mind. A lot of the patterns I’ve used do this. They have that sort of anchoring elastic at the top and bottom. ‘Cause shirring is nice and stretchy, but it’s not necessarily, uh, like, it doesn’t have good hold, you know. It’s not going to suck everything in. So it’ll support better at that top edge, if you have some elastic in there.

Helen: Yeah, definitely. And Geri also recommends holding the fabric down with one of her fingers as it comes out from under the foot so that it bunches up. She says it makes the shirring tighter and more even. I haven’t tried this technique, but I really want to. And Geri’s shirring looks amazing. So we’re gonna link all these reels in the show notes so you can see all these tips in action if you’re working on a shirred project.

Caroline: Yes, well, that’s all we have for fiddly sewing tips for this episode. Sewing isn’t always easy, but it’s worth it, right?

Helen: It is so worth it. A lot of these tips have really satisfying elements to them. So it’s, you know, no risk, no reward as they say.

Caroline: Yeah.

Helen: Well, should we just go back to regular fiddling?

Caroline: Yeah! Hit it, Helen! [fiddle music] And on that note, that’s it for today’s episode of Love to Sew. You can find me, Caroline, at Blackbird Fabrics and BF Patterns and Helen at Helen’s Closet Patterns and Cedar Quilt Co. and her new account, “Helen Plays the Fiddle,” on Instagram. Go check it out. Fiddly Helen!

Helen: I wonder if there is such an account.

Caroline: We’re recording in beautiful British Columbia, Canada.

Helen: You can support Love to Sew and get access to bonus content by subscribing on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. You even get access to the back catalogue of bonus episodes. That’s over 75 hours of Love to Sew. Go to patreon.com/lovetosew or check out our podcast page on Apple Podcasts for more info.

Caroline: You can head to lovetosewpodcast.com to find our show notes. They’re filled with links and pictures from this episode. And if you’d like to get in touch with us, you can leave us a voicemail at 1-844-SEW-WHAT. That’s 1-844-739-9428. Or send us an email at hello@lovetosewpodcast.com.

Helen: Thanks to our amazing podcast team. Lisa Ruiz is our creative assistant and Jordan Moore at The Pod Cabin is our editor. And thank you for listening. We’ll talk to you next week.

Caroline: Buh bye!

Helen: Bye! I feel like next time I have like a struggle, fiddly moment in my sewing room, I’m going to play…

Caroline: Like, a fiddle music…

Helen: And it’s going to make me laugh. Break the tension. Yeah. And also really ratchet up the tension! You know when you’re trying to cook and you’re listening to, like, really intense music and all of a sudden you’re like, “Why am I so stressed out?”

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