Sewing Tips

Hi Sewing Friends:

Cutting Bulky Fabrics 

Do you have problems when you are cutting bulky, heavy fabrics like fleece or heavy wool?  Do you notice that the underneath piece will be slightly larger than the upper piece after you cut out the two layers together?

When you fold the fabric to prepare for cutting out the sewing pattern, no matter how carefully you smooth out these fabrics, it seems the layers stick together and they aren’t exactly the same.

Cutting And Pinning Tips 

Here are some tips that will help you when you pin and cut out these fabrics. It requires a little extra effort up front, but saves a lot of frustration later in sewing the garment together.

First of all, use as few pins as possible and poke them in if you can instead of flat pinning.  Pinning into bulky fabric distorts the sewing pattern.  I often use no pins at all.  Sometimes I will use weights and many times I have taped the pattern to the fabric in a few places to hold it temporarily.

After you finish cutting all of your sewing pattern pieces, unpin the pattern, carefully remove the pattern and top layer of fabric.   Now lift, lower and smooth out the underneath layer of the garment piece on the table.  Replace the top layer and the pattern as they were originally.  

You may notice the underneath layer is slightly larger than the upper one.  Recut them so that they are even.  Now, you will have both layers the same size.  This should make it easier to sew the garment together.

To Your Sewing Success,

Marian

Sewing Tips

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 30th, 2006 at 8:09 pm and is filed under Sewing Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.