Sewing With Nancy - The Best Of Tailoring (VHS, 1993)

[Music] welcome to sewing with nancy tv's how-to sewing program with your host nancy zieman this educational video tape is being brought to you in part by phof the largest european producer of sewing machines foff's creative line of sewing machines and hobby lock sergers are simply the best buy pellon the first name in interfacing and craft material and the first choice of home sewers for professional results pellon products by freudenberg buy ginger a tradition of quality and scissors and shears for home classroom and industry ginger scissors and shears are the choice of professionals and by nancy's notions catalog featuring specialty sewing books and unique hard to find sewing notions and supplies now here's nancy zieman welcome to sewing with nancy and to our program on the best of tailoring over the last 11 years of doing sewing with nancy programs i've given several programs on tailoring well in this program i'm going to combine the my favorite techniques over the years and give you the best tailored jacket you can make now tailoring takes a little bit of time but here's the finished result a great looking jacket completely lined and the details to put it together are fairly simple just following these step by steps the first section is working with interfacings fusible interfacings to save some time the general interfacing is going to be lightweight to give overall shape and support notice how lightweight this and drapable this interfacing appears the second interfacing is more crisp it's very stiff and it's going to be used in the roll line and under color doesn't have any drape to give that extra support it will save doing a lot of hand work so i'm going to sit up at the table and show you the details of making the best tailor jacket with fusible interfacings the first step for a best tailored jacket is to work with the interfacing as i mentioned we're going to have two weights a very crisp weight and then a general all-over weight the general all-over weight is what i'd like to discuss first of all it's a very drapable interfacing available either in the off-white or the charcoal color again it has a lot of support to the garment but not stiffness this interfacing is going to be practically on every fabric piece you'll need about a yard and a half to two yards depending upon the style of this interface check the back of the envelope to be sure but before actually cutting out the interface i make a quick sample run of using a scrap of fabric a little square of the interfacing and testing it on the fabric just putting the two together remember remember this is a scrap just a test but a hint is to put another piece of fabric between the interfacing and the fashion fabric when fusing follow the manufacturer's instructions place a damp fab damp cloth over the fabric and press this the allotted amount of time when pressing this what you'll do is get a couple of tests by doing this sample you'll you'll be able to test if the bond was correct by pulling on this tab if it pulls off obviously you need to press longer but most importantly at this point you can check the the compatibility of the interfacing and the fashion fabric and that's what we really need to check right now to see if that's the one you should use if not if it's too crisp go lighter now when making the interfacing pattern pieces i like to use waxed paper and for the jacket front the piece that will have the most interfacing i have two layers that have just been fused together with the tip of my iron will give you nice wide wax paper and then i have i'm going to be using a gauge i think many of you may have one of these in your sewing box where you can slide the gauge here we're going to slide it to a half of an inch this will allow us to get rid of the interfacing a half of an inch into the seam leaving just a little an eighth of an inch so that you can catch it with your stitching line all around the seam lines i guide one point along the cutting line the next point will scratch off the wax i'm working on a padded surface another layer of fabric tablecloth whatever you may have and just scratch off the wax and get your interfacing shape all the way around doesn't take a lot of time but it gives a nice accurate pattern piece now the darts do not require any interfacing at all it will just add bulk to the dart area so place a ruler or a straight edge and trace away the interfacing from the dart and i have two darts right now i'll just show you on this smaller dart that would be cut away now the hemline is the other area where we're going to address the interfacing on the front since we have what's called a full fuse interfacing practically the full width i like the interfacing to go just a touch into the hem about an eighth of an inch rather than stopping at the hem line you could get a brisk line a very sharp line if we extended about an eighth to a fourth of an inch into the hemline just trace this you'll have a much softer hem it will look very tailored very nice so these are the guidelines for making the full fuse eliminate the interfacing a half of an inch from the seam allowances eliminate it from the dart and extend it an eighth to a fourth of an inch into the hem line now you can cut out the interfacing for this particular piece and i'll give you some fusing tips now interfacing on a jacket takes about a oh i'd say a good half an hour to press it on so this is not a speed technique as far as you're going to make a jacket tonight it's a process but i think it's an interesting process and kind of fun to work with the fabric here we have a jacket front and i have steam basted the interfacing to the wrong side of the fabric steam basting means before actually doing the fusing use the tip of your iron to position the interfacing so it's not going to shift during the fusing process notice that the interfacing is minus a half of an inch in the seam allowances eliminated from the dart is generally in the right position then after you have it kind of steam basted i'll move it to my ironing board you may want to do this on your ironing board mine is a little smaller than my one at home have it nice and flat on the ironing board and cover with a damp cloth it's crucial to use a damp press cloth my iron is set at wool and i'm going to press for ten seconds count to ten thousand one thousand two and make certain that you are applying pressure this is the area that's so often missed is to apply pressure to the iron to advance that bonding then overlap slightly where you press the last time and press another 10 seconds when i'm pressing at home i actually lower my ironing board so i can lean into it to give it a proper bond and just keep working down the jacket front and fuse it in place and you can see this does take a slight amount of time but after you have pressed it it gives a nice bond and this is very drapeable extremely workable besides full fusing the scent of the garment front there are other pieces that will get the full fuse the collar and the facing are other areas that will have the interfacing included except the seam allowances here's the upper collar we'll discuss the under collar a little bit later and the front facing piece so you can see we have it included in these pieces minus the seam allowances now part of the other jacket pieces will have a partial fuse the jacket back is what i'm going to work with next the jacket back will have interfacing just in the shoulder area and i'll grab my little gauge again starting at the underarm slide it back to that half of an inch about two inches below the underarm and trace around the armhole shoulder neckline and center back the interfacing is just left in the seam allowance an eighth of an inch and then at the center back i'm going to scoot this down to two inches below the underarm area so it's partially fused into place then the jacket itself looks like this after it's been fused this is the way ready to wear works with the interface and giving it shape in the shoulder obviously the garment hangs from your shoulder that's where it needs the most support the ham does need additional support the hem of the sleeves would apply in the same manner here we have interfacing in the hem allowance now this interfacing has been trimmed away a half an inch or so from the side seams but it's also cut on the bias now bias cut interfacing has more support and more shaping ability the hem generally has curve and shaping so that's why we cut this on the bias notice this strip has more give than if it were cut on the straight of grain my hem allowance on the pattern was an inch and three fourths i cut this a slight bit wide about an inch and seven eighths to two inches and fused it into the jacket back the sleeves and also it could be fused into the side panel if you had a panel such as this again we're fusing it beyond the hemline so that as that jacket is pressed it gives a nice roll to the hem to the hem edge in my interleaf you know that section that comes on the bolt the directions that are wrapped around the interfacing i've kept some of those instructions and made a pouch for my interfacing if i i have leftover interfacings i simply place it into the pouch just stitching the side seams i have an extra bias strip or two so that the next time i need an interfacing for a jacket in the hemline it's kept safely in this pouch and i have the directions close at hand so now you need to fuse on the jacket back all the other pieces that need some shaping in the hemline and then it's time to do a second layer fusing and that's what i'm going to set up to do right now the next step of double fusing only takes place on two areas of the jack of the lapel and roll line of the under collar the reason for using a crisper weight of interfacing on top of the original layer of interfacing will allow the jacket to have more stability and stand up in the lapel and roll line where most of the detail of a taylor jacket is found as i mentioned this interfacing you'll find in your fabric store catalog an old note where it should be used it's much crisper than the all over interfacing look on your jacket pattern for the roll line marking it's that bias line above the buttonhole section angling up into the neckline we'd like the jacket when it's finished to roll right at that line to have a break line not sharp but a nice soft roll to encourage that roll i'm going to place another layer of waxed paper align it with the roll line but then back off about a fourth or an eighth of an inch just so that there's a difference between the two notice it's not much a fourth or an eighth but wherever it ends and that's where the break line will take place i'll position this on the pattern front now this is i usually make this after i have made the original all over interfacing for the jacket front now as you might guess we're going to do that same tracing using the gauge guiding one point along the cutting line and the other one along the will scratch off the wax giving the marking for the interfacing i'll be cutting along this inner line i'll just continue down into the roll line section now for the grain line that's something i really like to point out this grain line needs to be marked both on the all over interfacing using the same green line and on the second layer of interfacing to keep it the same green line just simply use my sewing gauge again align the gauge with the arrow and then slide just so i can transfer the marking you can measure whatever you'd like to do just so that you get the grain line transferred i'll just extend it up into the jacket just like that so this is the pattern piece that i'll use to cut two layers one for the left side one for the right side of that jacket front after that first interfacing has been fused in place then we can apply the second layer as i mentioned this is not a speedy process i don't make too many line blazers in the course of the year but when i make one i usually make it out of fabric that i'll use wear and use for many years like the one i'm wearing simply place this interfacing following the same cutting line in the seam allowances but then notice this grain line will transfer it to our ironing board and give it a good press using this following the same interfacing fusing techniques that you'll find on the bolt end damp cloth steam iron set at a wool setting for 10 seconds and just keep pressing this is really quite quick and i'm not quite giving it the full 10 seconds but because it's in this area you'll then see that it's very crisp and nice in this area now to follow this through to the under collar is important because the roll line does not stop on the jacket front here you can see how this is breaking and you can see how the fold occurs after the interfacing has been put into place and now for the under collar we're going to do the same type of interfacing here's my interfacing pattern piece that i'm going to make for the under collar one thing i didn't mention about the under collar is the full fuse the first layer i mentioned the top layer but not the bottom out of the crisp crisp interfacing cut the full fuse not the general just that crisp this is really quite stiff and then sew the center back seam and trim that seam to 3 8 of an inch trim it so it's smaller this has this general interfacing on it generally applied i should say but it is the crisp interfacing not the all over because this area of the jacket has the most wear and tear now in making the second layer of interfacing i have my wax paper folded in half and the fold is aligned right now at the center back i'm not going to put a seam in this area so it's aligned at the center back and i'll grab my gauge once again and this roll line is marked on the collar measure a fourth to an eighth of an inch from the roll line toward the neckline away from the roll line again so i'll have that great break line and trace and then do the same tracing at the lower edge this is a small piece now for the interfacing grain we're going to deviate from the pattern's grain line notice that this had a bias cut we're going to put the grain it's on the fold so it'll be parallel with the fold i have a little arrow just drawn on there this will be placed on the fold and when i cut this out the interfacing is shaped like this very crisp it was cut on the fold of the fabric as i place it here you can see the green line how it has it'll be followed the fold once you cut this simply match it to the to the collar positioning it position it in the correct manner there we go and now we'll press it onto the collar cover it with a damp cloth and give it again a nice quick fuse now almost all of the interfacing has been put into place the double fusing on the under collar and on the jacket front and the full fusing on the other pattern pieces and notice how this is covering the center back seam line and now we can do some shaping you know part of tailoring is not only pressing interfacings doing sewing but also steaming and shaping you need an iron that steams well and obviously some pressing tools i'm going to be working with a pressing ham and ham holder to work with the shaping of the under collar as i mentioned this is one of the areas that needs the most support and shape i just have my pressing ham dressmaker ham in this section and i'm going to be folding the interface excuse me the under collar along the roll line notice again how this will break or or it will roll right after the double fusing has been marked and i'll fold this around the ham let me just pin this from the underside and shape it around the hand the ham has a comparable shape to your neckline sneak another pin in there and as i kind of turn this ham holder you'll see that this break line is where your collar will shape a nice shaping now this does not require pressing pressing is meeting the iron surface to the fabric rather it's steaming to give the shape we don't want a sharp line so get your iron pressing holding it parallel to the fabric to the ironing board and then just simply give this a nice steam trying to avoid to get direct contact to the fabric and we'll turn it around to the front i'm just going to move this pin a little to the front and now do another steaming but if you hold your iron parallel with the floor to the ironing board then you'll get that to steam well and this moisture will absorb into the fabric you can kind of mold it with your hand we'll do the same on the other side and that will continue that roll line from the jacket front to the under collar leave this on your pressing ham and hold it in your hand holder for a while needs to dry so that it will dry into that shape but after you've gotten this far all your interfacing is in place we've worked with the jacket front with two layers of interfacing the under collar with two layers and every other layer or every other fabric piece has interfacing applied somewhere on it that will give the shape in the beginning to working with a taylor jacket [Music] i hope you've enjoyed this first part of our program on the best of tailoring i like getting to this point because after getting my interfacing fused into place i have determined i'm about a third of the way finished with my jacket just as a quick review i use pellon's soft shape for the general overall interfacing almost every pattern piece or fabric piece and the very crisp interfacing with the lapel and roll line of the under color is called pel air you're going to be working with these two in combination to get the best tailoring look don't forget to use your pressing tools so press so press and here we have the under collar shaped around the pressing ham leave it that way until it's nice and dry and the ham holder is a kind of a funny looking notion but works so well like an extra hand when you're pressing on the ham because you don't have to hold the ham on the ironing board so now that the interfacing is pressed in place the next thing is to sew the jackets together but before we do that first a word from one of our national underwriters before we go on to the next project i'd like to talk about one of the fine underwriters of sewing with nancy i'm sure you've noticed that i use foss sewing machines and surges exclusively in my television show and videotapes and there's a good reason for it vap machines provide the reliable performance i need and they're very easy to use what's more 5 stitch quality is exceptional so whether i'm using a 5 creative model for elaborate fashion sewing or hybrid lock serger for home deck work i know i can counter my ft to help me do my best sewing every time and so can you your local faf dealer is there to help and can show you the entire faf line here's a message from ginger a national underwriter of my program ginger incorporated manufactures the finest shears and scissors used by sewing enthusiasts across the country ginger products are valued for their tradition of excellence and quality i rely on getting your shears and scissors for all my cutting needs ginger is recognized by sewing experts as a premier line of cutting tools and home sewing and needle arts look for ginger scissors and shears at your favorite sewing center or in the latest nancy's notions catalog thanks for joining me for the second program of our series on the best of tailoring these are my favorite tailoring techniques for a line jacket today's program i'm going to show you how to take those fabric pieces that all have the interfacing fused onto them and place them into a jacket actually two jackets a lining unit and a fashion fabric jacket first of all i'm going to work with a fashion fabric jacket here you can see that jacket all the pieces have been sewn together side seams shoulder seams the sleeves have been set in and the under collar attached the jacket it basically has all the components of a jacket now for the lining unit this again has side seams shoulder seams sleeves and the upper collar attached to the facings both jackets have comparable components and after sewing them you're going to put them together into the completed finished jacket well right now i'm going to get set up at my sewing machine and show you my favorite way of easing in sleeves attaching the sleeve heads and sewing in the shoulder pads some of the first sewing details of putting your jacket unit together involve stitching the shoulder seam the underarm seam and putting in whatever pocket your pattern calls or it could be a patch pocket or a welt but right now the next detail is to work with the sleeve filling in the ease or sewing in the ease of the cap traditionally you'd be asked to roll sew two rows of basting stitches from notch to notch i'd like to sew just one and here's how to go about it rather than having your dual feet connected if you have one of these on your machine disconnect it if you have a walking foot replace that and put on your traditional foot and then set your machine to the standard stitch length straight stitch i have my machine set about 10 to 12 stitches per inch at a 2.5 on my machine now i'm going to sew about i would say a half of an inch from the cut edge the important placement is of a finger behind the presser foot and i'm going to be pulling toward toward me and as i'm kind of have my foot behind the presser foot and sew notice the fabric that is gathering between my finger and the back of the foot after you sew an inch or so release a section sew another section the finger is stopping the fabric from going through the back of the machine kind of an unnatural flow but because of this the feed dogs those little teeth like metal mechanisms underneath the presser foot will cause more fabric to go in each stitch and it works remarkably well on most fabrics you will find it eases in just the right amount as with the traditional method you'll be doing this between the two notches now we'll see how i did one more time there we are when i pull this up you'll be able to see how this has eased into place and what a nice slight cap shape i now have rather than that flat fabric that you saw earlier after you have this eased in then place it right sides together the sleeve into the jacket pinning around the armhole and stitch you can use your favorite stitching techniques or method you'd like to ease and set in the sleeves but i also recommend to do some under stitching or second row stitching under the arm i've used turquoise thread as a contrast to show you this jacket and you can see the 5 8 of an inch stitching but then when i get to the notch section the underarm area i've trimmed the seam to 3 8 of an inch and then notice a double row stitching two rows one at the seam line one a fourth of an inch from that line to give more security and shape in that underarm area after sewing you might guess we're going to do some pressing and pressing the cap will give you the best look to the sleeve but you have to be careful in pressing the cap place your jacket over a pressing ham you're working with the wrong side facing you and press the seam allowances toward the sleeve now when i say press kind of not literally but just going to use the tip of your iron to press the seam allowance toward the sleeve don't flatten out the cap if you would flatten it out you'll have ridges or an imprint of the seam allowance on the wrong or on the right side so just get that kind of roll edge shaped and with your fingers you may want to kind of get the shape pressed in when i turn the jacket to the right side you'll see what this accomplishes gets that nice little lip of the sleeve we'll put a sleeve head in a few minutes to give it additional shape but this cap hasn't been flattened it has the proper shape for a tailored garment and now the step next is to put in the sleeve head as well as shape it with a shoulder pad a sleeve head is the next technique it's a small little shaping device that makes a great difference in the look of your finished sleeve this is made out of fleece lightweight fleece this is three inches wide by about 10 inches long 3 by 10 for each sleeve fold under approximately one inch along the lengthwise edge and stitch a half of an inch or so from the fold on this sample we have already done the stitching a half inch from the fold now it's time to set this into the armhole find the center of the sleeve head and place it at the shoulder seam and here you can see i've already started to position this and i have the fold of the sleeve head next to the cut edge of the seam allowance the second layer that layer that i turned under is between is between the fabric or next to the fabric i should say i'm going to sew from the right side of the sleeve following my initial stitching line when setting in the sleeve just to put this in there now what this leaf head does is allows the cap the ease of the cap some place for it to go giving it some shape and padding it's a small section but it makes as i mentioned earlier a large difference in the way the sleeve will look i kind of like this technique too because if you had any area when you were sitting in your sleeve where you had a slight jut to the seam you could straighten it with this row stitching it basically goes between the notches and now i'm coming to the end area when i show you the difference that this makes just set in a simple row of stitching you'll see that that extra fullness of the sleeve has some place to go and it is rounded off and gives a very neat finish it doesn't it isn't flat the sleeve cap doesn't fall off the end because there's some padding and shape inserted in this area the final shaping for the jacket unit is the shoulder pad and i usually put the shoulder pad in right about now rather than waiting to the end it's easier to check the fit because you're not contending with the lining and place the straight edge of the shoulder pad this straight edge next to the cut edge or the seam allowance of the sleeve now you have to put it inverted upside down because we're working with the wrong side of the fabric this is quite a thick shoulder pad but i wanted to show this to you for a specific reason that when attaching it we don't want to have dimples occur in other words sewing too tightly that you get a dimple mark which would transfer to the right side i'm going to tack this at the shoulder seam at each end on both sides and one more time attaching it to the shoulder seam allowance at the curved edge so there'll be four tackings these tackings are done by machine you can do them by hand but i like to do things a little bit quicker by machine using a tailor tack foot or a fringe foot this is a given by that name these are two alternatives it has a metal bar a raised metal bar in the center and when the zigzag stitch goes over the bar it creates a shank a thread shank another alternative is to place a thread a quilting bar which came in my accessory box over a traditional foot so again as the machine zigzags a thread shank is created i'm going to use this quilting bar right now the sleeve head is in place and let me quickly give this pinning so i know where this will be positioned on both ends you could try this on obviously tried on to make sure they're in the right spots but just generally is where it's going to be placed and my machine is going to go to a wide zigzag and no stitch length and i'm going to be sewing again in the seam allowance i'm going to put that quilting bar over the top of my foot and just hold it into place and do that zigzag stitch and it's just going over that area creating a shank of a thread now as i lift this off you'll see this great thread shank that will occur and as i'm pulling this there is a distance created about a half of an inch between the two so it's a floating thread a floating shoulder pad but it will stay in position but will not give the dimple effect that if you tack this too too securely into place on the other side i have the finished shoulder pad all in place tacked at the four times one two three and four and as i bring it forward the finishing details of the sleeve are now complete [Music] and now for the collar i'm going to attach the under collar to the jacket unit let me show you a close-up of how this will appear when we're finished with this step the lapel and the under collar are attached to form this great roll line that you traditionally find on a taylor jacket the first time i did this i had to think twice i wanted to put the upper collar to the jacket but remember this will be the underside match your notches and markings but i'd like to give you a couple details of sewing this into place on a sample jacket of contrasting collar and jacket i have the interfacing pressed on this jacket and notice that there is a faint mark this is the large dot on your pattern indicating the lapel point where the lapel and collar will intersect probably the most important marking on a jacket i usually mark this after i fuse the interfacing so that obviously the marking isn't covered on the jacket itself i have that same corresponding marking so i know where those two dots should meet now generally in sewing there is room for a little fudge factor but when working with the lapel and collar it's important if you can be as close to accurate because it will make putting these two garment units together much easier i'm going to start to sew right at that lapel dot and i'm sewing with the jacket facing me the under collar toward the feed dog since that under collar has a curved seam a slight curved seam it's easier to put that on the under layer you can manipulate it more readily i'm going to start to sew with my stitch length set at zero zero stitches per inch put the needle in the fabric right at that dot remove the pin lower the presser foot and let the needle dance a few stitches just to lock the stitch rather than sewing back and forth this is more accurate now i'm going to punch up my stitch length back to the normal setting and then sew as accurately as possible with the 5 8 of an inch seam allowance just as a quick review i do have that collar the the under collar on the lower layer and just keep sewing from notch to notch this takes just a touch of time to get these two layers together we'll restitch this to make certain that it's on straight but first of all we'll give it one quick seam i'm at the center back there are a lot of layers of fabric many curves so it takes time to fold this so that you're not stitching any tucks or puckers into the fabric now i'm getting close to the opposite end of this collar point and as i started before i started with my machine set at zero stitches per inch when i end i'm going to try to hit that mark just as close as i can and then change my stitch length to zero let the needle dance when i'm finished then some clipping is in order and i'm going to clip to the stitching line without without cutting the stitching clipping through all layers and then press when i stitch this i'm going to place it over again the pressing ham and you can press it flat and then press it open and here we're going to press this open all the way along the entire neckline and again this is just a step that is not difficult just take your time to get it correct and then as i lift this up you'll see that there's that 5 8 of an inch distance between the collar and the jacket and that's how the collar is applied to the jacket and the under car that is and now it's time to do the lining unit now the best tailoring techniques i know of putting the lining unit together let's take a quick look at the finished lining unit it has the upper collar attached to the facing the facings and lining are joining and the sleeves are set into place basically has all the elements that we worked with earlier for the fashion fabric unit but the greatest detail that i'd like to change from the traditional methods is attaching the lining to the facings there are different curves in the pattern design causing sometimes some puckers and problems but we'll avoid that by using this technique let me just show you what i mean traditionally the front facing would be stitched to the back neck facing at the shoulder seams and it would be attached all in one unit and then the lining would have the same stitching shoulder seams to sew shoulder seams and all units then would be attached oh i like to do it separately put the front facing to the front lining the back facing to the back lining and then stitch the seam and i'll show you why it's nice to look at the pattern piece to identify what we're going to do and i should say fabric piece here we have the front facing with a slight inward curve and the lining has a more definite outer curve i have my two notches and i'm simply going to meet them together but notice when i flip meeting the right sides how this outward curve goes now we can definitely clip and press and do all sorts of things to get these two to meet but the easiest thing to do is after pinning the layers as closely and accurately as possible is to stitch with this longer layer the lining next to the feed dogs now remember those feed dogs when i was easing the sleeves they kind of bit the fabric to ease in extra fullness well it can work to your benefit by sewing with that longer layer on the bottom so when sawing the facing and the lining the front facing the front lining together this longer layer the lining will be lower next to the feed dogs so just stitch from the hem upward by the way one other quick little hem idea is on the lining hem hem to press up one inch this will save a nice and this will give you a nice neat finish at the hemline think of that before sewing the facings together now for the back facing and here on the front piece the lining was next to the feed dock it's going to be the reverse and the lining but first let's take a look at that back pleat you'll traditionally find on a back lining a pleat giving you room to give somebody a hug to drive your car reach around there's just that little extra play rather than hand cross stitching the layers together for this pleat i've used a decorative stitch from a machine choose one of your favorite stitches to stitch something attractive at the pleat at the top of the neckline waistline and then again a hem line but when we lay this flat you'll see the shape of the neckline here we have quite an inward curve and we get the back neck facing it's very pronounced outward curve and to put these two together requires placing in this instance the facing toward the feed dock so the opposite of the lining and when i move this around you'll see how the back lining excuse me the back neck facing seems to be much longer actually the stitching lines are the same length it's just the seam allowances that are causing problems so to ease this in without a lot of difficulty you can see that i am now stitching with the facing toward the feed dog and the lining upward and this will so easily fit into place if we had attached the facings together and the linings together the shoulder and then stitch this all continuously in one area it wouldn't ease in very nicely so this is why i like to do it separately so once you get the facings attached and put them together at the shoulder seam then you can follow some of those same guidelines we went over earlier of setting in the sleeve now notice the sleeve does not have a sleeve head or shoulder pad you only need one per side but this lining was eased in using the same manner the collar upper collar was attached to the facing using that same technique i detailed working with the jacket unit now we have a lining unit and a jacket unit and all the basic construction is completed on these two units in our next sewing segments i'll show you how to put these two units together and put the final touches on your best taylor jacket [Music] in today's program i detailed how to work with the jacket unit and the lining unit to make the best tailored jacket remember you're going to make almost two separate jackets each of them has a collar set in sleeves and next they'll be ready to put together but one other hint before we go on to the next part and that is to detail or give it a little extra detail to your jacket if you recall earlier i had you do some decorative stitching along the pleat in the back of the lining but you could also carry that detail through on the lining section where the facing meets the lining by using decorative stitches on your sewing machine sewing along the lining itself adding a little extra touch of personalization to this area it takes about maybe five minutes extra sewing but really adds a nice touch and you get to use some of those stitches that maybe you don't use as often as you'd do in the in the past next i'm going to show you how to put the jacket together sewing the lapel and the collar but before i do that i'd like to share with you a word from one of our national underwriters i'm pleased to introduce freudenberg palin won the fine sewing with nancy sponsors since 1951 the freidenberg pelon name has represented the foremost line of interfacings and fusible web products for fashion sewing i turn to pell on products like softshape and shirttailer when creating craft projects my choice is wonder under fusible fleece and stitch and tear freudenberg palin continues to be the leader in researching and developing new products for home sewing and crafting look to pellon i always do let me tell you about nancy's notions a sewing with nancy's sponsor all the notions i use on my program can be found in my current nancy's notions catalog the 176 page full color catalog contains over three thousand items you can save up to twenty percent on every order you can order from the convenience of your own home with our toll-free order line you'll receive your order fast orders are shipped within two working days and we guarantee all our products shop nancy's notions we understand sewing quilting and surging welcome to sewing with nancy and to our third program of my series the best of tailoring making a tailored jacket recall last time i worked with a lining unit and a fashion fabric unit and i have those samples right here the outer fashion fabric unit has the under collar attached the sleeves are set in basically has all the components of a jacket the lining unit has comparable components the upper collar is attached to the facing the sleeves the lining sleeves are attached and now with these two jackets we're going to meet right sides together and that's today's program putting this jacket together at the lapel and collars and giving it the finishing touches that a jacket needs in about a weekend you can make a jacket such as this sometimes we think of the difficult part of making a jacket is the lapel the collar and the facing come together that'll be the first thing i'd like to show you at the sewing machine how to make this foolproof so it's a perfect lapel i could set up the sewing machine right now i'm ready to sew the lapel of this jacket that's one of the first things i do to put these two units together i have the two jackets pinned together right sides meeting along the neckline seam notice that the seam allowances are pressed open and my idea was to match the two jackets so that at the lapel points those two points were meeting about as closely as i could get them to meet it's something that you'll have to just match them one on top of the other so that those ending points are meeting now i'm going to meet the cut edges and pin the lapels together and sew from the edge of the lapel to this point now the first time i do this i really like to use a basting stitch so that if it's not quite right i can easily take it out it's a short seam so i'll set my machine a little longer stitch and sew now as i'm getting to the point which is obviously the part of a tailored jacket that is the most difficult to stitch i'm going to brush the seam allowances out of the way notice that i'm not going to stitch them down or include them in the seam allowance and as i get to the point i'll stop and then just let the needle dance in the fabric for two or three stitches to lock it cut the threads that's one of one seam of the lapel now the second seam is the collar do the same type of stitching meeting the collar edges together from the point or the outer edge excuse me to the point again brushing the seam allowances away and as i'm sewing to this point i'll again let the needle dance in place now many times i have to sew this a couple of times to get the points matching but i have i really appreciate having the jacket points matching gives it a more professional look and then as i'm reaching this point i'm just going to try to stop right on the dot let the needle dance in place and we'll check the work before checking i'll remove the neckline pin so i can turn this right side out notice it's only attached right now from the collar to the point neckline to the point and as i turn right sides out you will not have white thread on a dark green jacket if you're doing this at home but i think you'll see that i have a pretty good looking lapel nothing has been cut or so should clip there is the facing section here is the collar section and our idea was to allow that these all these four areas came to meet at this point it needs to be pressed it needs some trimming in this area and that's what i'm going to do at the ironing board pressing is as important for tailoring is knowing the correct sewing techniques and i'm going to place these seams on my pressing pointer and just press flat and do the same on lapel treat these seams independently even though that they are come to a point it's easier to work with them independently notice that at this intersection we have many many areas coming together many many areas of fabric that's why it needs to take the special consideration then place it open over a pressing point and press once more and i'll just flip this around to the lapel side and press this open now i have my lapels starting to get in position and the next thing i'll do will be to do trimming trim the seam allowances of the lapel to about 3 8 into the collar of about fourth of an inch and the lapel basically will be completed next i'm going to show you how to sew the top of the collar off camera i stitched the other lapel area and did some trimming and i'd like to show that to you the lapel seam is trimmed to about three-eighths of an inch and both collar seams to about a fourth of an inch or you could stagger them having one side the collar three-eighths and the other side a fourth just so that this area has some trimming accomplished in the neckline seam allowance the upper collar and the under collar seams have been trimmed to about a fourth to three eighths of an inch the seam that is pressed down is left at the total 5 8 of an inch you'll see why in a few minutes now the next step is to stitch the upper edge of the collar and to do this i'm going to start at the collar edge and then rather than starting at the cut edges i'm going to wrap the seam allowances toward the under collar see the white stitching on the fold that's where i'm going to start to sew this will assure that i'll be have a very sharp color point then pin all the color edges together and sew with the under collar on top because the upper collar is generally a little bit longer and we'd like to have the under collar on top so that the under upper collar eases into place i'm going to start to sew out the fold and stitch just that upper collar edge to save some time i've already stitched half of this collar off camera and your student will see that row of stitching will just merge these two stitches together now after doing the stitching of sewing the collar noticed again how this has been wrapped around the edge i'm going to now press it open but first press it flat it always works out better to press it flat first of all it sets the stitches in the seam allowance and just work around this area and then to press the seam open i'll slip in the middle of my jacket and the right side point presser the reason i like sewing a jacket in this manner kind of one seam at a time rather than sewing the whole outer edge at once so that you're able to get in to the jack in the crucial areas and do the pressing now i'm just going to press part of this for you it's pressed completely open and by working over a presser that's only one inch wide the edges of the collar will not leave an imprint on the right side of the fabric then after pressing we'll do some grading and trimming trimming off or angling cutting off the corner of the collar and then trimming the under collar to the smaller seam allowance generally it seems that the under collar will always have the smaller width the upper collar just a slightly wider width i'm trimming off about a fourth of an inch in this instance you would of course do this on both sides and now just to see how this looks we'll turn this right side out and use a point presser now i have white thread in here so you would normally have matching thread to the fabric and we're starting to get a jacket that looks like it goes is going together on my purple sample i have already sewn both sides of the collar and now it's time to attach the collar edges when i get done with this program i'll have two great jackets you can see that this has been pressed the upper collar has been pressed but the colors are not attached at the neckline yet notice how this opens up and all jackets need to be attached at the neckline there are several ways you can work with this either pin the neckline seams of the under and upper collar together and baste through the neckline seam or since i'm not real fond of doing a lot of hand stitching generally what i like to do is work from the inside of the jacket and we'll flip this to the inside and here you can see a whole interesting part of the jacket we'll tuck the collar and meet the collars wrong sides together and these seam allowances represent or are the neckline seam allowances and i'm simply going to meet the long seam allowances together and pin and pin from the entire neckline just meeting the collars then with your sewing machine zigzag just these seam allowances together or straight stitch them it really doesn't matter i usually use a zigzag and on this half of the jacket they have been sewn together so that when i flip this to the right side you'll see it once again on this half of the jacket the collar is attached and now we're ready to sew the front facing [Music] the last seam to sew the lapel is the center front area i like to keep this to the very end because having this section open allows me at the ironing board to have the jacket flat i'm not confined like working in a cubby hole but now it's time to close it because we're almost done with the lapel we're going to do a wrap corner just as before this time at the top of the lapel not at the collar here's my stitching line the neckline stitching line and i'm going to wrap the seam allowances toward the jacket and you'll see on the fold the white stitching where i'm going to be starting to sew on that white stitching area wrap corners i think are such a great invention because they allow us to get very sharp points simple as that now at the lapel area at the end lapel notice here this is where i have the pin marking where the end of the lapel is you can tell that by the two shades of interfacing or two layers of interfacing when i have those two notches meeting and the collar meeting i find that the facing it is longer or seems slightly longer than the jacket it's purposely done that way because the facing when the jacket is turned right side out has to roll and that becomes the outer lapel so we want to keep that longer or ease it in i should say to the jacket and i'll do this simply by sewing with this longer layer next to the feed dogs instead of on the top so through this section will always sew with the jacket section or excuse me the jacket section up the facing section down you'll do this on both sides of the jacket when i start to sew i'm going to start to sew right at the fold and stitch a simple row of straight stitching much of tailoring is just rows and rows of straight stitching but the sequence of how these stitches are put together is what's important and if you can remember to pin so that the pinheads are outward so that they're easier to grab as you're sewing the seam i forgot to put one at the end but we'll make that work and this is the last row of stitching for the lapel of course you do the same on the other side as you might guess after stitching this we're going to press actually press try twice press it flat then press it open if there's anything i can instill upon you when tailoring is to sew once press twice for each seam and at pressing this using the same techniques we worked with earlier just press it not iron but press it flat use plenty of steam and then after getting it pressed flat then use a seam roll or a point presser in the between in the right side of the fabric and press that seam over that narrow one inch point or the small c sleeve roll now the reason to work with a smaller pressing surface is to prevent the seam allowances from leaving an imprint on the right side the fabric and pressing it flat will make it so much easier when turning this right side out to get a sharp crease line at the stitching now you're going to grade your seam allowances using the same grading techniques making one seam a fourth of an inch wide the other three eighths and do clipping angle clipping at the corner but just to save time i'm going to show this to you turned right side out without doing a lot of pressing or trimming i should say when this comes right side out i'll use a turner to get the point nicely inserted and voila you can see my lapel i have the lapel of the collar in the front and with a few little pressing details and trimming details this will be complete and now we'll do the finishing details of the lining and now for some finishing details on the best trailer jacket like to show you how to attach the lining unit and the jacket unit along the hem line to do that put on your jacket enlist the help of a friend and have your friends smooth the fabric from the neckline to the waistline and pin the two together we would like the fabrics to be at a one to one ratio in this area the reason i'm asking you to do this is it will allow you to easily put in a pleat along the lower edge and most jackets have an extra pleat along the hemline so that when you put on your jacket or take it off there's some give and this will this will help you create that pleat once you do it to the jacket then also do it to both sleeves around the elbow area now there isn't anyone in this jacket so it's not as accurate as when you'll be doing this at home but pin those two layers together into both sleeves all the way around carefully take off your jacket and when you put it on your work table you'll see pin marks or pin lines on the inside let's see how accurately i have pinned this and the pin marks are right around the waistline and these pin marks allow you to take a tuck about half of an inch to three-fourths of an inch tuck in the lining now later on this tuck will be moved down to the hemline but by taking up the extra pleat in this area it will allow you to more readily work at the hem to make it will go together more smoothly now you'll notice on this section the jacket that the hemline has already been hemmed just by hand turn up the right amount of hemline and gently hand stitch blind stitch the hem to the jacket then i've pressed just a fourth of an inch of the seam of the lining and it is meeting just covering the seam allowances of the jacket not seam allowances but the finished edge and pin all layers together now this is what's so nice about this technique is that at this point you can hand stitch the lining to the jacket catch it the way you'd like making some invisible blind hem stitches now on this other part of the jacket i've already worked on this stitching and because it's been has this tuck the upper part of the jacket it allowed me to work free and flat along the lower edge before when i did this sometimes i'd catch the pleat involved i'm simply going to release these upper tucks and then i'll smooth the lining down and voila that pleat that was at the waistline is now at the hemline where it belongs you can press this lining edge and to make it lie a little bit flatter but that way you'll have that nice pleat at the bottom and you didn't have to worry about getting it out of the way it was pinned out of the way while you were hemming it now of course there are many other finishing details buttonholes buttons of course finishing the hems at the sleeves but the other area that i'd like to point out is working with the two jackets at the sleeves we need them together so if these two were not pinned together or sewn together i should say when you take off your jacket the lining unit might stay and the jacket unit would come off so at the cap of the sleeve and i'm going to pin through all of these layers pin through the shoulder pad attaching the lining to the jacket so that you're they're attached right through this section only then with a hand needle and a basting stitch just attach the layers by sewing through this section making certain that you have a long thread shank you don't want to create a dimple in the jacket you just want to attach them by hand at the cap of the sleeve at the underarm you may want to have a little bit more security and match the seam allowances at the underarm called stitching in the ditch match the sleeve and the lining and stitch about an inch on either side of the underarm the stitching will not show on the right side and on the inside you may see a little machine stitching to hold the two together and those are some of the important details or finishing details for this jacket [Music] i hope you've enjoyed this three part video tape on the best of tailoring you know tailoring is not something that i do every week it maybe make one or possibly two tailored jackets a year but i like using this process because it works for me every time remember to use the right interfacings and use double fusibles where needed to make two jacket units and then when putting those two units together instead of sewing the lapel seam in one seam sewed in four as we did in this last portion of the program all the details from this program are in the book called the best of sewing with nancy in chapter 4 you'll find speed tailoring ideas and all the ideas that i've shown you today and in this series are in that book so i hope you use that as a reference thanks for joining me on this sewing with nancy series bye for now this sewing with nancy videotape has been brought to you in part by fop simply the best european line of sewing machines buy pellon quality products by freudenberg buy ginger a tradition of quality and scissors and shears and by nancy's notion sewing catalog featuring specialty sewing books and [Music] notions

Channel: PFAFF Talk

Views: 9,971

Keywords: pfaff, sewing machine, nancy zieman, sewing with nancy, jackets, sewing jackets, velvet, sleeve setting, collars, creative 1475, 1475cd, 1475, tailoring

Id: uXKUDPYq0rE

Length: 62min 17sec (3737 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 06 2020