by Yvette Chilcott It’s been an exciting week, (yes, sewing with new fabric makes me giddy.) This arrived on my doorstep!
The fabric wasn’t a surprise, but I chose it ON-LINE! Seeing and feeling it in person firmed up my sewing plans for it. The wild print is a very sheer mesh called “STELLA“, colour is called ” 002 blue” and the solid royal blue is a bottom weight suiting named DEMI, colour 010 blue.
I had 3 garments in mind, 2 tops and a pair of pants; all are Jalie (a Canadian company) sewing patterns. As a Jalie Creative Ambassador, I’ve have sewn their patterns for years, and used 3 of my favorite Jalie patterns.
The mesh became a Dolman #3352, the version with sleeves. This such a versatile pattern and I’ve sewn many variations of it over the years. It does have a wide neck, and my version has been altered to make it narrower.
I wondered if the mesh was going to be a challenge to work with, and in some ways it was. My rough hands and the very light weight of the fabric had me using a lot of hand lotion. My serger was put to good use for most of the construction, just a 4-thread overlock. The pinning was easy, but the fabric was so light that by the time I got the intended seam to the serger it had slithered out of line. That problem was solved by using 1/4 inch wide strips of Heat n Bond Featherlite and fusing the first couple of centimeters together, before serging the seam. I serged right over it, and it make starting the seam much easier to handle.
I used a “standard” neckband, (not the one in the pattern) cut 2 inches wide and 85% of the neck measured at the sewing line. Then I top-stitched using a “serpentine” stitch. I REALLY like the look of it.
The sleeve insertion and the side seams went well, again I used the Heat n Bond at the beginning of every seam.
The hem presented 2 challenges, the fabric itself and dealing with turning up an even hem at the curve. I solved the curve problem by putting fusible thread in the upper looper of my serger, setting the differential to 1.5, lengthening my stitch to 3mm and loosening off the tension in that upper looper. Then with the right side of the fabric against the feed teeth I slowly serge finished the back curve (which gathered it) , then reset the differential back to normal before serge finished the front.
After that, pressing up the hem with the fusible thread was painless. (Be sure to trim the fusible thread tail before you press.) I top-stitched the hem in place with the same serpentine stitch I used to top-stitch the neck.
The mesh also became a cardigan, Jalie’s Helene #3677. Although this pattern has been around for a few years, it was new to me this year after I was asked to teach it virtually for That Sewing Place, Newmarket. I fell in love with the pattern, made one to test the fit, love it and now I have 2 Helenes.
It’s an “edge to edge” cardigan, so no buttons, buttonholes or zippers, this is an easy-to-sew garment. The front pockets make it useful, and the sheerness of this fabric makes it perfect for summer. Pressing up the 3/4-inch hems was another challenge, but using strips of the Heat n Bond to fuse them prior to sewing helped. I again used the “serpentine” stitch for hemming.
The solid Royal blue became a pair of Jalie’s Vanessa #3676, described as “fluid pull-on pants”. And boy, was this fabric FLUID!!! It literally dripped off the cutting table, and off the sewing machine. I alter my pant patterns to suit my shape, by increasing the rise and the length by 1-inch for my height, and folding out 1 inch from the back crotch curve for my diminishing backside.
The cuffs add a bit of pizazz to this pant and so does the drawstring detail. I used medium sized grommets and a strip of the mesh fabric instead of a string.
I hope this post inspires you to try some new fabrics, and then how to deal with fabric challenges.
You’ll find me as SewWhatYvette on Substack, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, where I share more sewing adventures.
(Disclaimer; I received the fabric, thread and interfacing at no charge from Fabricville in exchange for sewing the garments and creating this post. The Jalie patterns were also provided to me by Jalie in exchange for sewing and promoting their perfectly drafted sewing patterns. My experiences in sewing these 3 garments are my own opinions.)
