Sewing With Nancy - 1st Class Sewing (VHS, 2001)

thank you for joining me I'm Nancy Zeeman today on signing with Nancy we'll be taking a journey in first-class sewing many of you have asked for updated garment techniques or requested beginner skills but you don't want to learn to sew on an apron or pillow you want something stylish something first-class the first-class shirt has all the style and easy elements to start you on the road to easy enjoyable sewing I'll start you on streamlined techniques and proceed to creative options that's what's next on sewing with Nancy sewing with Nancy TV's how to sewing program with Nancy Zeeman is brought to you by 5 the largest European producer of sewing machines Fox creative line of sewing machines and hobby lock searchers are simply the best Jing er a tradition of quality and scissors and cheers for home classroom and Industry ging ER scissors and shears are the choice of professionals Madeira superior quality threads from Germany specializing in embroidery quilting and special effect threads because creativity is never black and white creme drifts the source for sewing and quilting notions including products by drifts columns and Amna grid amazing designs by great notions your one source for home embroidery over 200 disc pad collections currently available including designs by Nancy Zeeman coil cabinets from Australia quality crafted fully assembled sewing furniture designed for maximum storage and minimum space Rowenta professional performance and beautiful results for all types of ironing the choice of professionals and Nancy's notions catalog featuring specialty sewing books and unique hard-to-find sewing notions and supplies the pattern that I'm using this series is designed by Louis Erickson perfect for beginner sores or refreshing your sewing techniques it has six basic pattern pieces front and back plus sleeve collar and then pages or panels in the front these panels are perfect for designing options and accent options or different fabrics we've used ran fabric you could use other lightweight fabrics rayon is the perfect choice for this project and I'm going to show you some other color combinations the pattern that I'm going to cut out is going to be in the taupe and black combination we're going to use this woodgrain color for the basic shirt and then for the panels these two other options I like to pre wash my rand fabrics dip them in cold water and then line dry and press flat that way I can hand wash the fabric later on I'll set aside the panel pieces and then just teach you a review with you some basic cutout principles after pre washing your fabric and pressing it I'd like to match the selvages or those finished edges at one end and then create the fold on the opposite end so the fabric has been folded in half the front back and sleeve will be cut double layers plus the collar the grain line kind of like the straight of grain or the straight road that you travel on follows the length of the fabric and when positioning it on the fabric the pattern the fabric that is I place one pin at the top of the arrow and measure from the arrow to the fold it's eight inches then I move down to the end of the arrow find the selvage area and then make sure that that second arrow is at also at eight inches and then pin that will keep everything on the straight grain for your sewing journey now I don't do a lot of pinning I really just pinned corners and every couple of areas I don't put a lot of pins in because then you have to take them out after you've done after you've done some cutting and just cut pin in corners make sure you've are pinning flat and anchor that pattern piece down some pattern pieces particularly the back will be placed on the fold of the fabric again making sure your selvages are matching at the top place them the back piece on the fold of the fabric and way down at the bottom you can see that the fold is matching the fold of the pattern and you'll see an arrow on the back pattern piece that coincides with the fold of the fabric the other pattern pieces the sleeve will be cut double the collar will be cut double and again match those grain lines the short little arrow making certain that runs with the length of the fabric and and you'll see that this pattern piece will not will be a kind of a small funny looking piece this is an asymmetrical collar one of the great design features of this pattern when cutting out silky or lightweight fabrics such as ran I like to use a micro serrated scissors it has a kind of a little gridded edge along one blade catching the fabrics making it easy to take nice long strides to cut around the edges trust me it's easier to cut out on a flat surface than what I'm using right now but just take time to enjoy the process of cutting out after you've cut out this pattern piece you'll need to do some marking as well as to do some interfacing to give some stability and shape to this pattern first of all markings for those of you who have sewn before you maybe are familiar with notches well notches are little markings to know which pattern pieces should align and they're little arrows in this instance we cut them off we don't cut around them we just cut them off and then place a little nip or clip a quarter of an inch clip marking the fabric piece I think it's much more accurate than trying to cut around a shape sometimes you may see them going out into the seam allowance interfacing is what next and we're going to put interfacing on the panels and the collar full fuse fusing the interfacing the full size of the fabric shape a very lightweight drape about can you see how this kind of just kind of floated in the air going down you don't want a lot of heavy weight just something to give it some body aline it because it's been cut to the same size get it aligned here we go and then steam baste it just a little corner of the tip of your iron get it positioned and I need to position this just a little bit better so that it's baste it into place and then cover with a press cloth as the instructions inform you and press give it a burst of steam and take some time to go around the pattern piece to make sure it's fused properly so you fuse the panels and both colors both upper and under and now I'd like to share with you some basic seaming techniques on rands one of the first things that I like to do when starting to sew is to finish the edges of the fabric so it doesn't Ravel especially on rands they're very prone to raveling some fabrics can withstand just a simple zigzag over the edges but on light weight drape about fabrics you may get some tunneling or even end up with little extra whiskers of fabric that you really don't want I'm going to suggest that you clean finish the edges using a trim that finishes the edge it's made for edge trimming it's bias cut tricot on the roll 5/8 of an inch wide and when you give it a tug it curls just in one direction it cups over the edge you're going to still use that zig-zag stitch but cut and wrap the product over the edge in zigzag it will give it a little extra weight and will keep those little whiskers of your fabric from peeking through and as you're sewing you simply place the fabric over half of the trim wrap it around the edge and so it will enclose all those edges and keep it nice and trim and neat now it is a nylon product so you have to be careful not to use an extra hot iron but it certainly will give those seam finishes a very neat appearance and longevity to your garment if you are fortunate enough to have a serger or a friend that has a serger you may want to have the edges surged as on this sample shows but these are two great examples for finishing the edges on rayon type fabrics or silky fabrics on our shirt we have many options or abilities or areas I should say to have mitered corners on these front panels the corners are shaped in the wrong side it looks like a picture frame the seam going down the center I'll show you how to shape that the other areas where you'll have these mitered corners are on the vents on the lower edge you'll have a nice mired quarter option to sew the miter of the corner it's very simple it just requires a little tape tape it could be office or school supply tape or special sewing tape and one or two measurements we're using five eighths of an inch seam allowances so we're going to double that number five eighths equals one and a fourth and I have already measured one in the fourth inches from each corner of the front flap and I have marked it with a marking pen from the wrong side of the fabric at these two markings I'm going to place a piece of extra long tape from the top of the marking to the top of the opposite marking placing this extra long tape across the wrong side of the fabric then fold the corner in half and this is where you are going to match the tape edges those extra long tape edges they'll work as pins and I'm simply going to sew across the top edge of the tape that will give me a mitered corner I'm going to change back to a straight stitch on my machine and the first time around you may want to lengthen the stitch just to make sure that it's a little longer so if you need to pull it out you can easily do that and I'm just going to sew across that top of the tape edge simple as that now normally or afterwards I'll trim off this extra scorner but right now I'm going to leave it there just to double check my work probably the hardest part of this job is taking off the tape so I've taken it off I'll get it off my fingers and now I'll do some finger pressing just kind of pressing that seam allowance to the side and inverting it now use a little bamboo piece or the point increase tour to see if that works and how about that now I'd recommend re stitching that little seam and trimming off the excess seam allowance and you can press your corners perfectly I'd now like to share with you some basic seaming techniques and I'll review this technique by teaching you the collar treatment this collar is really fun because it's asymmetrical you don't have to have your edges even and it's reversible from both sides or you see both sides of the collar so we'll just be doing some basic seaming but so this collar in three seams the first step is a Loup for beginner sores a refresher sawing ideas rather than working with buttonholes I like button loops it's easier to work with I've cut strips of fabric that are about an inch and a half wide folded right sides together and sew down the center then thread it on to a Turner or use your favorite Turner idea put it on the cylinder I have the little pigtail wire in the middle of the Turner and it comes out the end and that's going to hook the tube so as I pull this it's going to invert the tube to make a button loop then I'm going to turn that wire counterclockwise and I have it removed and I have a button loop the button loop is going to be cut one in 1/4 inches longer that's a 2 seam allowances width and your button opening needs to be what I'd really like you to do is to test it out on your button that you have chosen and baste it just straight stitch it to the marking on your pattern where the button loop placement should be and test to see if that fits your buttonhole if not make it a little longer a little shorter and now we can sew the collar the collar edge is going to be shown stitched in three steps the top edge and then after sewing that then we'll stitch each front edge I'm going to make certain and I had it upside down excuse me here's the top edge and then we'll sew each lower edge when I sew a collar I like to make certain or any seam allowance that my notches are matching and I can see my little notches there and I pin with the head of the pin toward the cut edge so I can easily remove the pins prior to getting to the seam area notice the full fuse of interfacing on both sides of the collar it really works best to have the interfacing on both collars not just one then as I begin to sew I'm just going to sew from the cut edge to cut edge with my 5/8 of an inch seam allowance and I don't use a lot of seams I should say I don't use a lot of pins I use a lot of seaming excuse me and is so long the collar top edge and I'm just going to sew half of it for you now then after sewing this then I'm pressing I'm going to press the seam flat just the way I stitched it it always works best on a seam if you press it flat then it will press open with greater ease and since this has a slight curve to it I'm going to press open the seam over a slight curve and separate the seams and I think my little interfacing has caught but here we go press it open and I sometimes even finger pressing works well but we'll just press that now for the collar we're going to gray grade the seam alone says one smaller than the other and for this color that's reversible it really doesn't matter which one you make smaller and I'll just trim and then I'll quickly show you how to sew that front edge you would do the trimming all the way along the collar but right now I'd like you to sew this Center front edge folding the collar along the stitched line along that stitched line and I'm going to sew from the fold down and this will give a very sharp corner to my collar and it's a very quick little seam and when I turn this right side out again I always test it first before trimming notice how that seam allowance has wrapped around I'm just going to invert it and use again my pointer increaser to get those edges even and there's my corner very sharp do the same on the other collar end there are many basic seaming techniques on this first class shirt first of all stitching the panel's which I showed you how to finish to the Front's this is the left front of the shirt and on the other side we have another panel already stitched to the neckline of the front after the panels were stitched into place then the shoulder seams front and back were sewn together which I have done off-camera I'd like to review quickly that collar again to show you that after stitching the front edges of each collar makes certain that you go back and trim the excess seam allowances grade them making one layer longer than the other impressing so that you have neatly pressed and finished collar shapes we're going to attach the collar next and notice that we've pre-pressed under one of the seam allowances just so it gives me a sewing guide sometimes pressing if you press accurately and mark it it'll help you do the sewing on the right side of this front panel I have aligned the collar to the neckline and I stitch the two together just one layer the collar using a 5/8 of an inch seam allowance the standard seam allowance with on the inside I did some trimming grading the seam allowances one seam allowance smaller than the neck so that that bulk will not be there by pre pressing the collar this wraps around the neckline edge folds under and you can pin the collar to the neckline and with some hand stitching which I like to do a little hand stitching in this area to attach the inside of the collar and with those simple steps your collar has been attached so that's what I need to finish to do on the opposite side of this collar and as I said the collar edges are asymmetrical which is perfect for re-entry or begin Saurus because you don't have to get them to match so basic seaming is what we're going to be talking about to finish this shirt and particularly when putting the sleeve in or setting the sleeve into the shirt itself shirt pattern pieces do not have as much ease as blouse pattern pieces I'm speaking of the sleeve the sleeve is somewhat larger than the front and here I have started to pin the sleeve to the armhole matching the notches and you can see that lower layer is a little bit larger than the top layer rather than having to ease it I'm gonna let my machine do it for me all machines are set up in the same manner they have feed docks the funny term that of the little grid surface underneath the presser foot that bites the fabric as it goes through helps it advance through the longer layer will always kind of ease in if you have a feed dog our dual feed excuse me disengage the dual feed so that the feed dogs work to their fullest potential will ease in that longer layer so whenever I have one layer longer than the other I always make certain that I disengaged the dual feed put the longer layer next to the feed dogs and stitch and I'm just going to still get this positioned there we go and I'm not going to do a lot of pinning in this area I just usually like to finger pin I pinned at the starting point and at the center seam the shoulder seam and then I'm gonna let my machine do the work for me just so and that bottom layer eases into place and I'm going to so again making sure that those edges are aligned and girls straighten this out a little bit so the top layers are not going to get caught and I'll so half the sleeve for you and you can see what this looks like even though that layer was longer when the Machine eased it for me that sleeve fit into the armhole with ease little pressing and the sleeve will be set in after setting the sleeves into your shirt the next step would be to sew the underarm seams as well as saw the hem from the sleeve and the lower edge of the shirt so with a friend if you're beginner sore or even if you're a reentry sore in our next segment I'll show you some more ideas on this shirt at home and at my studio I so with koala cabinets because of their perfect design there's no waste of time in getting started because of the koala soft-touch airlift system the machine quickly and gently raises to the perfect sign position the design allows me to sit directly in front of the needle in clear view of my work with no strain on my neck or back and koala has a place for all my favourite notions and supplies I always feel more efficient and more motivated to do my best work when my space is organized a perfect design that's why so with koala here's a hint from ging err when you're doing machine embroidery or cut work it's sometimes a challenge to trim threads and fabric from the hoop fabric I keep my curved embroidery scissors closeby for just those occasions the curved blade cleanly cuts threads close to my work without cutting my stitching and the slender blades allow me to cut right next to my straight stitch cut work design another terrific use of the curved embroidery scissors is to trim closely to scallop stitching this is a very versatile scissors here's a hint from Madeira adding a layer of stabilizer to the top or bottom of a project is an important step giving extra stability to the fabric for most of my projects I prefer Avalon Madeira this water-soluble stabilizer has double the strength of comparable stabilizers I simply place the Avalon underneath the fabric giving the fabric some general stability if working with nap fabrics like fleece are quarter right to keep the threads from embedding into the NAP place the Avalon on top and underneath the fabric when finished to simply tear away the majority of the stabilizer and spritz the rest away first-class sewing is a topic for this miniseries unsigned with Nancy thanks for joining me we're in the second program of this three-part series where I'm teaching updated sewing skills on a pattern that has first class style louis erickson is the designer of the pattern and gave us two creative options in this program you'll learn sewing scales on the jewel neckline version of the first class shirt it has creative potential for special touches on the front panel discover the joy of sewing basics and creative touches next on sewing with Nancy in the first program of first-class sawing I went over some of the very basics of sewing cutting techniques marking using interfacing and basic seaming and I did all this making this shirt or a sample of this shirt like I'm wearing I have rayon fabric a couple samples or different styles of rayon fabric in this shirt the same pattern has another option the option is on the mannequin and it can be made without a collar and more streamlined with just one decorative flap in the front you can see we've added machine embroidery at the top plus the neckline trim and also carried that machine embroidery through in the opening around the opening for the belt and then have the reverse coloration done on the closure for the sleeve the sewing on this pattern is very simple lots of straight stitching so that's why I'm going to introduce the creative element of working with embroidery at this time fabrics to use for this pattern range from rands lightweight Cotton's drape above all yesterday that you would like for a drape above shirt and you could use two different fabrics reversible fabrics like the one on the finished on the mannequin the choice is yours there is no limit when it comes to sewing because you get to decide on the fabrics and the pattern combinations marking is a critical thing for this particular pattern to mark the belt opening we're going to be making a little window opening in a while and in order to have the window opening you need to refer to your pattern piece and on the pattern piece there is an opening mark for the various sizes down below in the waistline area and I have transferred that to the front as well as to the back of this piece of fabric using a disappearing marking pen now the other markings that I went over during the first program where these little notches the notches that are on the pattern mark which pieces go together you could also mark the notches with a little mark from your marking pen or as I do know what it earlier simply just give it a little clip and you have them notches to align the areas if you did not have an embroidery machine let's say you wanted appliques you would also position the appliques before you actually did the sewing and we're going to position the embroidery I'd like to make sample embroidery using my embroidery machine and stitch it on a crisp piece of fabric and then from this point make a template the template can be made by simply using this fabric as a template marking the inner position of the hoop and there's a light blue line marking this marking T for top at the very top and B for bottom if you'd like and then cut out this unit to use as your template for positioning or if you would like you could simply after making your design make a clear template from a quilting fabric or Templar it's called a plastic fabric outline your design with either material you need to position this on your fabric so you know where you'd like your design placed and I'm going to Center this right over the opening for the belt in position the plastic or the fabric template in my embroidery hoop I have already positioned a sticky back stabilizer when you remove the top I just scored the top paper with a pin point just to remove that top paper you get the sticky back and center or place the template within the circle fitting fitting exactly the size the template if it was this size or just positioning it within the open area and then I'll be ready to embroider the design for those of you who do not have an embroidery unit for your sign machine around the belt opening around this flap of the front of the shirt is a great opportunity to try some applique or creative stitching perhaps double needle stitching but since I've started to work with embroidery let me show you how to finish is how I should finish this and follow through you notice I didn't put the fabric in the hoop but rather I put the stabilizer in the hoop and then the fabric on top of the sticky back area the reason obviously the fabric is smaller doesn't take up the whole width of the hoop and you need that fabric nice and taut so I'd like to use a sticky back stabilizer for that purpose now I have the template and I'm not going to sew over the template it is just a guideline and I'll set my machine up so I can place this into the machine I'll raise the machine into the free arm position so that I can attach the embroidery unit now you'll have to follow the manufacturer's instructions for your various for whatever type of machine you have to get it set up for embroidery I have dropped the feed dogs I've attached a embroidery foot I have an embroidery needle in the machine and I've used ran thread embroidery thread in the top of the Machine and the bobbin I used a lightweight thread I'm going to place my design in my machine and turn my machine on I'm going to select the design that I've chosen to go around the belt opening and I'm going to right now position my hoop underneath the presser foot area and get it locked into place and then I'll make sure I get the design position just in the right area now the beauty of working with templates whether they're fabric templates or plastic templates is to get the starting position correct from where I'm sitting I can see the starting spot or the middle spot which I have made an opening with a paper punch is about 1/2 of an inch from the area of my needle so I'm simply going to walk eatle over to that area so that I'm going to start right in that position let me move over a little bit you can see here is the opening so I'm just going to get the two aligned and as I put my needle down yep starting right in the center area remove the template place the machine in the same position and it walks over to the first area and start the stitch and I stitch a few stitches clip the top thread let me do this a few more stitches there we go and let it so now I just forgot to do something and that is put the stabilizer I always need to put another stabilizer underneath I so often forget to do this that this trick works so well you have your stabilizer and you forgot to put it on your knees cut a slit into it and then you can slide it underneath the foot and the hoop and get it around the area that has just been stitched and no one will ever know I haven't so I'll let this soak and off-camera I will finish this but in about five or so minutes I'll have the decorative stitching complete that's going to go around the belt opening and then I'll show you how to do this opening off-camera I finished doing the embroidery the wrought-iron design around the opening of the belt or what will be the opening of the belt and I just wanted to briefly show you this stitching that it was accomplished and then show it to you on the flip side because you saw that I added that stabilizer at the last minute and it worked out just fine now to remove the stabilizer first removed the fabric from the hoop set the hoop aside and then I like to hold the fabric firmly with one hand and remove the tearaway stabilizer or the other now the stabilizer that's been put on with the pressure-sensitive again hold the fabric and stabilizer so that you're not putting a lot of strain on the stitched fabric and keep working away at this and it just take a few seconds to get the rest of the excess stabilizer out of the way I'll show that to you on my next sample piece we have a little bit left over but not much and you're ready to do the stitching now if you do not have the embroidery on there that's just fine but I'd like to show you now how to the belt opening simple stitches straight stitches even though it may look a little bit more difficult than it is I have marked on the rights of the fabric very faintly the opening of the belt and it was about four inches wide and about excuse me a fourth of an inch wide and four inches long and I also recommended that you mark the opening on the wrong side of the fabric well what we found is that you can also have a stitching aid by using gridded paper gridded freezer paper it has a shiny back surface we cut 1/4 of an inch strip and I'm going to press this to the underside of my design this will be simply a stitching guide and many of you who maybe worked with quilting before have used gridded paper gridded freezer paper for a project for stenciling or stitching around while it also works great for for assembly on the right side of this I have a little facing it's about 2 to 3 inches wide this one's about 2 inches wide and longer than the opening and I'm going to pin this to the right side so I have right sides together and I place some interfacing on this piece as well to give it some stability now I'm going to sew from the flip side of my sample stitching around the window opening that I have fused down so it's just going to be there temporarily I'm going to quickly just move my pins to the wrong side makes sewing a little bit easier and then set my machine for a short stitch length I'd like to start stitching in the middle of a long edge and sewing with a short stitch length I'm going to shorten that stitch length just a little bit especially as I reach the corners the shorter stitch length will kind of reinforce that area and sew across the edge and then down one edge and just sew all the way around so I around that paper edge I'm sorry a little bit into it but the needle will perforate the paper and just keep sewing can't get much simpler than that then after doing the stitching remove the paper and cut through it's been fused down there pretty good cut through the opening and just keep on removing the paper when cutting through the opening on this sample you'll see that I've flipped to the right side and I've got already cut through the center and cut two clips our nip to the corners and I've already done this on both sides as I've turned this to the underside even without pressing you'll be able to see with just that short stitching around the box area you have a nice opening a little pressing and we'll be ready to go on to our next step the next updated sewing technique like that I'd like to share with you is using a quilt binding technique around the neckline of the first-class shirt many of you have perhaps put a binding around a quilt edge and this is the same technique used on a garment we're cutting a strip on the bias or on the diagonal that's to no fourth to two-and-a-half inches wide and wrapping this clean finish of the neckline remember I'm wearing this same pattern like the pattern I'm wearing is with a collar on it so you have a couple of various options you'll see this as a bias because of we chose a print that would show the bias cut and the little give that it has and it's important that this piece is cut on the bias so it goes around the curves of your neckline more easily meet the cut edges meeting wrong sides together and then match the cut edges of the binding to the neckline extending that cut edge about half of an inch or so from the folded edge of the neck now again like to pin with those pin heads to the outside at this front securely wrap the binding around the neckline so we'll have that edge finished and secure with a pin and I'm going to sew a couple of inches of the neckline for you you'll find that you'll be using more pins you're doing this then the traditional seems because you're stitching around a curve you're molding this bias edge around the curve and it just does take a little bit more time a straight stitch is what you'll need but it works best with 1/4 of an inch seam allowance or you should use 1/4 of an inch seam allowance I should say and to get that I'm just going to move my needle position to the right and I haven't about at the fourth of an inch or if you had a presser foot that was 1/4 of an inch wide that would be a good option for you right now also that fourth of an inch and I'm just going to backtrack a little bit one more time and then we'll go forward and just mold that trim around the cut edge and as you're getting two pins I always like to remove them and this should give you a general idea of how this works now when I raise the presser foot remove the fabric you'll see how this will wrap around the edge now I simply move the trim upward and then that front edge is all finished and then wrap the seam allowance around the neckline and I'm going to pin in the well of the seam in that little ditch and gently stitch this down now you can either stitch it by hand or I'm going to stitch it by machine using that term that those of us who sew like to use stitch in the ditch stitching in this well so I can attach this from the underside I'm going to go back to a straight stitching and Center needle position is where I'm going back to and I'll place the fabric underneath the presser foot and sew in that ditch remove the pins again as I'm going along this is a basic basic technique that you'll use on a multitude of garments and projects easy to work with and only takes two stitches or two rows of stitches to complete on our first-class sewing journey you'll find that almost all the stitching on this top whether it's the collar version or the colorless version can be with straight stitching and I just finished showing you how to stitch the binding around neckline with a nice simple binding technique the button loop can also be created just with straight stitching we went over that in the first program and you can hand tack that loop to the corner so that you'll have a nice closure if you'd like you can use button closures button and buttonhole closures or snap closures if you'd like for beginners stamps might be the perfect alternative I'd like to review that button or I should say belt area that decorative area doesn't have to have the decorative stitching around it but the closure is what's important right now the belt pattern can either be cut in half as it is right now or used in its entirety when it's cut in half like this it's cut in half in its lengthwise position it is tacked underneath the flap and the seam and then on the outside on top of the flap or on top of the back so that the bat the belt in the back comes around and the belt in the front is underneath the flap and comes through the opening but I didn't mention when I was sewing this flap is that after pressing it securely you need to tack down in the corners or around very gently the opening the facing so that you have a nice flat opening the other option of course when working with this belt let me just undo it here is to make the belt in one unit and have the belt come around your waistline on top and we showed this version earlier so that this way the belt is on the top of the flap the choice is yours the fun part about sewing is the great designing part the sleeves have other options than just a straight option and the pattern I'm wearing I did not do any extra shaping to the sleeves I just rolled up the cuffs but to follow the motif of the rod iron design we did some stitching on the sleeve creating a cuff a fake cuff sewing the wrought-iron design this time with gray thread on the black background by the way this was just one fabric we use the the wrong side of the fabric so to speak for this flap and we got two different looks it's a great idea now even if you didn't have embroidery stitching you could use this modified cuff idea here is the sleeve how wide it is in its entirety you would measure four inches from the seam and fold the fabric and after folding the fabric four inches from the seam place a buttonhole through all those layers and on this sample we have stitched the buttonhole through the layers added a button and you have a very elegant closure to the lower edge of the sleeve without physically having to add a cuff another option would be to cut a strip of fabric that's two and a half by 10 inches and create a tube attach a button and buttonhole on opposite ends tack that in the seam and then again add the closure to the lower edge these are just two of the many options that you can use on this great pattern [Music] in the second program a first-class sewing I gave you some basic ideas like working with the neckline finish of straight stitching and then creative ideas adding embellishment around the neckline with embroidery and this great belt opening we'll be back with more ideas with the designer Louis Eriksen here's a hint from fothe for the most accurate of top and edge stitching use 5s ability to change the needle positions there are a total of 19 positions ranging from far left to far right plus many more positions in between I use the needle position option frequently when using the edge stitch foot the stitching can be positioned just at your preference I also use the needle position option when top stitching a zipper I know you'll find many more uses here's a hint from chromed roots the manufacturers of omni grid rulers these precision laser-cut rulers give unmatched accuracy they're made of heavy-duty clear acrylic and are perfect for very cutting any color fabric from light to dark omni grids exclusive double sight lines are printed on the underside of the ruler for greatest accuracy in contrasting black and yellow enabling you to see the measurements you need notice the ease of measuring on this pink fabric as well as a dark print in addition to the straight cutting lines you'll find degree lines 60 45 and 30 allowing you to cut geometric shapes without the use of templates I think you can see why use omni grid rulers on TV and at home here's a hint from amazing designs by great notions sometimes a garment recurs subtle embroidery due to the fabric weight or the delicate garment style like this cotton Piquet shell amazing design suggest looking at embroidery designs with a new eye look to see if you can eliminate some colors or elements to get a completely different look the flowers on this shell are from the amazing designs floral collection number 5 where they are shown in very large vibrant flowers by eliminating all the color except the outline you have a look that's just right for this garment here's a look at we went a steam generator and iron I use in my home and at the studio the steam generator features a lightweight iron a 33 ounce water tank for steam on-demand continuous steam is available at a touch of a button generating twice as much steam as a conventional iron I use the vertical steam feature for final pressing and when creating home decorating projects the steam generators water tank provides up to one and a half hours of steam without refilling now you can see why Rowenta is a choice of professionals get ready for a sawing with ease and style next on sine with Nancy I'm Nancy Zeeman during the first two programs of this three-part series I presented updated construction techniques in this show we'll take a creative approach Lois Erikson designer the first class share pattern is my guest to share her artistic ideas loss every time I talk with you you inspire me and I know you'll do the same for our viewers well thank you I'm looking forward to sharing some creative options with them and encouraging them to be more more creative if they can and certainly have fun with their sewing we'll start by incorporating ready-made products as part of the shirt panels this shirt created by Louis showcases a lovely Japanese hankie in the panel's linens tablecloths and other finished textiles are other options discover the joy of sewing next on sewing with Nancy during the first two programs of this series I worked with the first class shirt pattern a very great style but with simple sewing techniques showing you updated sewing ideas and when working with the pages our panels in the front of the shirt I just showed you some very simple ideas of cleaned finishing the edges with a serger turning under the edges and top stitching these pages and panel ideas have great possibilities for design options and that's where Louis can really share with us some wonderful thoughts you just saw this shirt and Louis this is a beautiful hanky or you actually mentioned there are two hang keys here yes well one wasn't not quite enough it had to be too and they were even a little small so I had to piece them here as you can see on the shoulders and on the other side over there also the beauty of using ready-made textiles are finished textiles is that some of the songs already done for you that's right you don't have to do any hemming or any facings or anything like that the pattern piece that you have obviously has seam allowances allowed in this and what we have to do is just to turn under or turn under the five-eighths of an inch seam allowance along the top edge excuse me the front edge and then the lower Hemme Riyaz so you could just turn that under and then let your creativity flow that's right here you have some great examples of textiles well one idea to use is a scarf and we most of us have many of those yes are half the time unused so this one has fringe on the bottom this is a silk scarf but the edges are of course finished and then that lower him you could just leave the fringe if you like that hanging down so again you can just kind of play with it how you'd like the positioning to be remembering to allow that 5/8 of an inch to extend beyond the pattern piece and then cut out the rest of the pattern mm-hmm that would look very well another one that works very well is a napkin this is a vintage napkin lovely and a nice detail on the edge and a lacy effect inside with all the pulled threads so that would be your two edges would be finished again for you there this is a tablecloth a very small one but it has a wonderful border and you could use certainly used that to advantage really this is spectacular and we pointed out when we were looking at this earlier that as I lay this pattern piece on the tablecloth right in this area on the tablecloth looks like a stain of some sort that probably is never going to come out probably not so when cutting the other page you can have an idea there for them that's right you can do a long one and you'd even have probably scraps to maybe trim your collar or maybe make some cuffs out of the borders that are left so you want to utilize everything I don't think you throw any fabrics away I'm not too often not too often one item that you that would be easy to find and you probably would need two of these because these are fairly small these are placemats and hand embroidered or battenburg lace or but they placemats come in a variety of material so that would be a very good option for using and looking for placements that would be interesting colors we're gonna glance back at Lois's finished shirt and just show you again how she pieced the panels right in this area you can see that the shirt was or the panel was longer than the hankie itself and she had a little extra button but also look at the collar this asymmetrical collar has so many options I noticed I really I really like the color I think it's flattering on most body types and it seems like it always looks nice with jewelry and that sort of thing but you can piece this you want to make sure that you piece the inside because that's the part that folds down so you want to you know I mean usually you would think about the outside of the collar for being the finished edge well now consider using textiles as part of your sewing projects it's time to let your creativity take over use the pages of this pattern as artistic panels incorporating unique fabrics textures and stitches Laura Berman created this version of Lois's shirt making a collage of fabric with a specialty organza next we'd like to show you how to create this collage technique one thing that I'd like to point out first of all is that the sheer fabric that she's used on this other panel has been covering this very bright orange --red to create a wonderful color that more goes with this other red and underneath she's also added bits of ribbon and you could add other things like threads loose threads or whatever as long as they're stitched down they are covered with the organza so it's very protecting what a change from bright orange to a muted yes red what a great look yes we mentioned that organza is a perfect fabric to use in this designing tool and here we just used organza as a background and pinned some pieces into place right you just cut randomly whatever size or shape you wish and pin them in place and then of course you will need to stitch them down because they have to be attached there and then you'll be covering them with a shear layer as you would this when you're finished with this of course you'd also have to put a shooter on top of this one after the stitching is completed and the color the shear can tone down the vertically in the intensity now you stitch down but you don't have to finish these edges because they will be covered right another layer shear that's one real plus for using the shears is that you don't have to finish the edges now rather than turning under the edges zigzagging and top stitching which would kind of distort this look Lois now recommends to cut a lining piece the same size as your original pattern and then stitch the front edge and the lower edge right and then you can turn this right side out and here we have another shear combination just to show you that the facings have the facing has been turned underneath now Lois this is a hint that I think all of us should incorporate mm-hmm and that's this little piping edge yes it looks like faux piping and it really is just the facing that you've pressed creatively just roll it out a tiny bit as you're pressing and then you'll see that nice little colored edge I've just used a very muted fabric on the back but you could also use something very bright or could be a print it could but it changes the color completely on the sheer part of this panel so we had a sheer overlay here with obviously the cutouts and what a what a change that gives that you know you can use the facing idea not just on a very decorative fabric but one of your students made this beautiful silk top mm-hmm and she faced the edges and your students name is Diane day and she faces with the very like a China silk so it's very lightweight and in keeping with the way the whole garment is the fabric for the whole garment is so the alight fabric for the lining is always a good idea so the spacing technique can be used on a multitude of fabrics now another thought that you have which i think is really fun and that is to use well is to use a strength well stripes are a wonderful face material and as well as a piecing material so you can just cut up your stripes and sew them back together any way you wish and in this case we've lined it with the red so that little red line is showing at the edge and as facing this same material is used on this next one okay and it just then shows this very tiny little edge with this dot so the stripes are a nice little addition to that even the button has stripes on which is kind of a nice connection there a nice relationship now there's an overlay on this panel mm-hmm well I wanted to have something that was a little more dimensional looking and this was just a scrap I always like to look at my scraps when I'm making something and usually those pieces are more interesting shapes and something you could try to cut so I just put facings on the scraps and they could be a collar piece or you can in this case I've cut the collar edge as the pattern but the outer edge is whatever shape the scrap is this is very unique look at this little cutout section here and that is the way the pattern the scraps were and they weren't quite long enough so I had to put two together so you just keep adding until your piece is big enough we're showing you here how to add this interesting addition this is going to be on a cuff or could be on a cuff you've cut the lower edge the size of the pattern but then let the top edge be freeform right the facing is placed right sides together but you did not cut out the facing shape until after stitching right well it kind of keeps it from stretching or getting out of shape any more than it already is actually you just apply this on top of the sleeve mm-hmm so what a creative element to work in this area you know we have some other creative ideas this time again Louis has a lot of students who have incorporated some of her pattern pieces or pattern ideas but then usually come up with they came up with a new idea and this one is using a strike but mitering it right mm-hmm and Cindy Lynch is the designer of this and she has chosen to make the collar come down a little more like a V she didn't like the high next so much so for herself she just changed that which is of course it's great to do you want to be able to modify and change as easily as you can so we have kind of a tapestry like fabric as chambray what an interesting combination mm-hmm our next panel for inspiration has texturing in it some wrinkling yeah this is a lightweight silk and to wrinkle the fabric you simply want to you can twist or just roll it into a ball or whatever you want I usually kind of pleat it in my hands and just twist it like this so when i steam it on the board then those wrinkles will be stayin in there let that dry a little bit we pre steamed this and twist it this is fusible interfacing sticky side up so then when you spread this out you can pin it in place if you wish or you can just simply place it on there and then just steam again so you have your wrinkles are just more attached to their interface this is perfect this is a very easy way to be creative doesn't take a whole lot of ingenuity you would need to do a little stitching on this panel to hold it down - yeah you would and you could do pattern stitches if you like those are just a simple top stitching would be fine and it could be contrasting or metallic thread or whatever you like and our last two creative ideas for the panel happened to do with stenciling and we'll quickly go over these beautiful stencil patterns again your students worked with this one is done by Dawn McIntyre and she's done a bamboo pattern and this one is Carol elephants and she's picked up the colors from the print and made a stencil and and used that as her design I know you'll be inspired after seeing these great ideas I once overheard law say if you're going to only make one closure make it spectacular that's what this first-class shirt features one downright spectacular Lupin button the button loop is made from self fabric bias tubing combined with a dynamic looking button what better way to finish a sewing project with a fun to sew closure we'd like to start by showing you how to make corded self tubing and lo as we cut a strip about an inch and a half wide met right sides and stitched a presser foot with or about 1/4 of an inch from the fold and now you're going to add the cording after putting it on the the tube turner right well you just want to lay your cording on the table and it just magically turns itself inside out and there you have it now to finish the end you want to be able to have some kind of a finished nice-looking finished edge there so you're going to trim off about an inch or so of the the cord now you have a little empty space at the end so you fold that over and you're going to take a couple of stitches into the cord through the tube and then you're going to just wrap this very end like this what a nice neat closure you can do it contrasting thread right matching through and the choice is yours you bet so that pretty well takes care of that part the close-up that you saw earlier of the blouse that Lois is wearing had a great button loop but it's really a Chinese ball button before it was tightened up and lost you can do the magic of showing how to twist and turn they're going to make a loop there bring that behind fold that over there's diagrams for this in a lot of different publications and you you don't probably need a little more mm-hmm instruction than this but that is basically it so you could use any one of these loops as the button loop and just tack it down right now they both the ends have been finished already so it looks great now we have a board showing a variety of do and closures and just very creative closures you could purchase cording if you could find the right color right and then there's just a glass bead on the end of that this one has a button from a military school uniform a large bead with a knot to keep the cord from falling off this is a stone donut that has more or less what they call a price tag not holding that on and here we have just three different cording to carry the button loop and then these glass bead on the end just notice it creative well it's just a very simple knot I mean I think a lot of times we try to get a little too complicated with things this is kind of clever this one is a cord with shank buttons and you can of course have a series of those and then you would slide it down do your stitching and then slide the button up in place and then keep keep going with that these are just a few of the options that you can create and one of Lois's students again we showed this shirt earlier do the stenciling on the front area but look at this beautiful button loop and how she carried the cording through around the collar and then added mm-hmm a little back also a little piece on the sleeves so you can kind of continue the idea and have a nice relationship there between the collar and the cuffs so the choices are endless that's true that's true Louis has a wonderful collection of buttons and she sometimes stacks buttons so on this one you can just glue several together and just put a snap on the back that way if you wanted to change the button maybe you want to have a different color one on there another day on your shirt you could do that now these are I really make a statement don't you think well and there was weren't even a larger than that let's find that one here we go sometimes when you have a huge button like this you don't want to have this enormous loop so one method that I figured out was to put a small zipper and when you unzip it you can have any size button here that you want so you would just be zipping this up underneath the shank part or the some one part of your button so if you're into collecting buttons you can simply use a lot of the cording ideas or purchase cording ideas to make interesting loops interesting ties and you can do this as as you say make it a spectacular closure I hope you'll try some of Louis's ideas are you ready to sew well you can try these updated sewing techniques and creative embellishment ideas with Lois's first class shirt pattern i'll multi size for you Louis thanks for being my guest it's been my pleasure thank you for inviting me happy sewing bye for now visit Nancy's website at wwlp.com for more information on this program sewing with Nancy has been made possible by grants from the following companies 5 simply the best European line of sewing machines ganger a tradition of quality and scissors and shears Madeira threads because creativity is never black and white trim drifts the source for sewing and quilting notions amazing designs buy great notions your one source for home embroidery coil cabinets designed with maximum storage using minimum space Rowenta professional performance and beautiful results for all types of ironing and Nancy's notions sewing catalog featuring specialty sewing books and notions [Music]

Channel: PFAFF Talk

Views: 7,064

Keywords: pfaff, sewing machine, nancy zieman, sewing with nancy, jackets, sewing jackets, sleeve setting, collars, tailoring, creative 2140, creative 2144, creative 2170, creative 7570, 7570 pcd

Id: 1Abu5m2FVs8

Length: 63min 19sec (3799 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 29 2020