hand stitching
final post in technique week! if you are just joining us here is what we have covered so far:
on monday i did a tutorial for making your very own fabric labels with just fabric, stamps, and ink.
on tuesday i covered french seams, or rather the do's and don'ts of using french seams.
on wednesday i talked about straight stitch seams and what i feel are the three key benefits of using them.
on thursday i wrote a guide to facings, which are my personal favorite finishing technique.
for our final post today we are talking about the benefits of hand stitching.
hand stitched hems
the most basic use for hand sticking is an invisible hem. i first did one for nora's fifth birthday dress. (which sadly I don't have any pictures of the construction phase, thanks for nothing iPhone)
however i do have pictures of the next one i did, etta's third birthday dress:
since then I've done them on almost everything. from the lil' man flannel,
to baby pants.
hand picked zippers
this is a new one for me. for nora and etta's show and tell dresses early this year i was just starting my stash busting crusade (i was so hopeful then, little did I know 8 months later I would still have so far to go). anyways i needed 20 inch invisible zippers and happened to have two on hand.
awesome right? not so much. they were the wrong color. not even power clashing wrong. but a shade of purple different enough to look bad if it peaked out wrong.
so i decided to try a hand picked zipper to minimize how much the zipper it showed. it turned out awesome. as in the zipper didn't show at all.
seriously awesome.
hand sewn linings & bindings
you want to know a secret? lining a bodice is super easy and looks much better if you just hand sew the bottom of the bodice to the seam allowance of the skirt/main fabric. no stitching shows through on the front and it looks perfectly clean and professional.
case and point, maya's poppy dress:
also hand sewing bindings is great for getting bindings just right. i did it for the neck binding of nora and etta's hopscotch tops:
the seam binding of the farmers market jacket,
and top.
well that wraps it up folks, hope you enjoyed these techniques!
love,
aunt maggie
