This is a very short tutorial to teach you a couple of easy techniques that can have huge impact on your garment making. A lot of modern patterns skip these steps, often suggesting top-stitching instead. Top stitching is useful, even pretty in some cases, but it certainly isn’t refined. Once you understand grading and understitching you will see how useful they are. You can use these easy techniques in your facings, waistbands, linings and anywhere else that your seam allowance is pressed together and not open. Grading reduces the bulk of your seam allowance and encourages the seam to lie flat. The understitching keeps the inner layer from rolling to the outside and gives a clean, professional look.
For me, it’s the little tricks like these that really give me such pleasure and pride in my dressmaking.
Here it is! My very first online photo tutorial. This is a super easy project, that can spruce up your sad ironing board into something rather charming. If you’re following…
Fabric covered buttons, originally uploaded by the workroom. I bought my first button press about eight years ago. I had visions of making buttons from everything around me – postage…