Week 5 Technical Sewing

Sewing Bee week 5 was a technical challenge. Since there were no modifications allowed, it placed the focus of judging on key elements of technical sewing. Judging is never that simple or easy though.

I was reminded of an experience I had though 4-H judging. When I judged 4-H garment sewing at the fair, I had judged a teenager’s project: shorts, with a zip fly and pockets. These shorts literally looked flawless. Among the entries at county, these shorts were clearly the best sewn project in my opinion.

Well, when her impeccably sewn shorts went to the State Fair, they received second place. I knew about the one flaw and she and I had talked about it at county when we sat together during the judging process. She hadn’t realized that she should have done one tiny detail differently. I had hoped the rest of the her work would be enough, or perhaps the other judge wouldn’t notice. But the other judge did notice, and there was a garment without any flaws evidently.

What was the tiny flaw? She neglected to sew a shank onto the flat button when she sewed the button onto the shorts. This is not something you can readily see. In fact, you have to look for it to see it. And you have to know to look for it in the first place. It is a technical thing. She looked amazing in her shorts, as they fit perfectly, too. No one would ever know about this flaw unless she told them.

In my sewing classes, I tell my students, “Don’t point out your flaws to others. They most likely won’t notice them. It’s your journey and your relationship with sewing. It only matters that you like it.” You get to decide.

I know where every single flaw is in my projects. I will point them out to some people, but not everyone. I point them out to someone who is learning to sew, or someone who sews and wants to improve, to learn proper sewing techniques, and to show them what result is ultimately the goal with any specific technique.

I’ll share a couple of my projects with you. This one I made for my oldest daughter. It’s a great little knit top.

Looked good to everyone, at least that’s what they said. I do like it. I spent a very, very long time aligning those stripes. I worked hard to achieve perfection, but it’s not. Let me point out some of its flaws. I left the photos large, so you can see.

Those stripes aren’t all aligned perfectly, despite all the time and effort. It’s not horrible or ugly. It’s handmade from love, with imperfections.

Here’s the other side seam. Not so seamless looking. Another flaw is my hem stitching isn’t all on the white as I wanted it to be. I still love it and think it looks good, so there it is.

So what about plaids?

Plaids are trickier for sure, especially an uneven plaid. Meaning its colors and spaces don’t match in both directions. To check whether it’s an even or uneven, fold the fabric diagonally through the center of the repeat to see. If it creates a perfectly matched square in the pattern (both vertically and horizontally folded) and is a mirror image, then it’s an even plaid. If not, then it’s uneven. Uneven plaids cannot be matched both horizontally and vertically.

Then we have bias printed plaids now. When matched, it creates a chevron.

When matching plaids, it’s important to match the seam lines, not the cutting lines.

So where should one focus? Horizontally is always a good place to start, as is finding the dominant vertical stripe that you want to highlight. Then it depends on the garment. With dress shirts/blouses with a center front opening, you definitely want those to match up. If it has a separate placket, that should be matched horizontally, and vertically if possible with the repeat. If it has a pocket, it should be cut out and sewn to look seamless as well.

There are a lot more considerations and details involved, but that’s a brief overview.

Here’s an “uneven plaid” dress, made from a vintage pattern, that I sewed for my daughter many, many years ago. It only needed matching on the side seams. If you look closely, you’ll see it definitely isn’t. I could tell you my excuses and reasons, but they don’t matter. This was a tennis dress I made last minute and my daughter still talks about it as one of her favorites. I learned the hard way, you don’t get rid of a dress because of its flaws when it’s a favorite of the recipient.

I could have done a lot of things to improve this dress. What I should have done? Probably aligned the horizontal pattern in the plaid first. Then with the side seam specifically, I should have aligned the horizontal pattern at a key point or a small range in that side seam, so that even though it wouldn’t match through the entire length of the seam, because it was shaped seamline, the most visible part would have looked better visually.

I also could have made sure the center pleat on the skirt aligned with the center vertical stripe of the bodice, so visually the eye would see this as one stripe. Instead, non of them match, which is a bit unfortunate looking.

I don’t remember clearly, but I suspect that I didn’t take the time to consider all of it before cutting out, or possibly I didn’t care. Done is sometimes better than being perfect, to quote a friend.

It could have been that I didn’t have enough fabric. This is why patterns instruct you to buy extra for matching plaids and directional fabric, as well as fabrics with a nap. AND they will tell you when a pattern is not suitable for plaids.

This would not have won any competition, but my daughter loved wearing it and I loved seeing her wear it. It also became part of a fond childhood memory we share together. It would not have earned my a blue ribbon at fair either.

~Erin