Thursday 15 May 2014

Underlining: The Seen Hero

I first wrote about underlining a few months ago when I was sewing the Sybil Connolly dress. I used underlining for that garment to give the fabric support and shape. The underlining was perfect for the polyester suiting fabric that had a bit too much drape.  


This is not the case with the current project that I am working on. Here, I underlined most of my pieces for modesty reasons and the fact that I don't want to wear a slip with this dress.  

Threads magazine suggests basting the underlining fabric to the fashion fabric before it is cut. I didn't do this, instead cutting out my fashion fabric and then my underlining and then basting the wrong sides together.  

This dress pattern has back darts from the shoulder and waist and I also basted the underlining and fashion fabrics outlining the dart placements. I did this so as not to encounter any puckering while sewing the darts since I'm working with a heavier cotton lace-eyelet type fabric.

The exciting part is that I started machine sewing this tonight!

I really do like sewing with vintage patterns because they always surprise me with techniques that I haven't encounter before. The bodice side is sewn to the front bodice and skirt piece which is cut as one and there is a sharp corner to contend with.


The pattern instructions ask you to reinforce the corner not with just stitching but also a "2" squares of remnants." It worked out beautifully.


The corner remnant is then trimmed and the reinforced corner is clipped. Instead of using a remnant, I used a two-inch square piece of purchased bias tape that I had sitting in my stash. Simple reinforcement technique that I think I will adapt into my other sewing projects where there are corners.


The part that I love so far about this dress is how the underlining fills out the gathers on the dress.

Well, I have an early morning and it is well past my time to shut down this sewing space.

Happy Sewing!    

1 comment:

  1. Today I can really see how the yellow peeks through. That reinforcing with a remnant is a trick I need to remember! I'd write it down, but I'd forget where I put it. Since I look at the pictures before reading, I immediately saw how nice the gathering was filled out. It really looks good. I can't wait for the finished look!

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