Daring to Dare

While out about today, I came across a delightfully distinctive young woman in the supermarket.  She is studying at Uni in London and after chatting in the checkout queue revealed that all she was wearing, excluding her shoes, came from local charity shops.  I really liked how she pulled together clothes from a range of styles and created a look that was both up to the minute and looks back to past decades, she paid great attention to details like how the blouse collar sat on top of the jacket collar and picking out one distinct colour from the blouse as the main colour of the tied scarf covering her hair.  Thank you Elouise for a delightful chat and for letting me take your photo, good luck in your studies.

Lots of Linen

Linen is a plant fibre that is derived from the stalk of Flax plants.  Flax is grown in moist and cool climates with the highest quality coming from France, Belgium , the Netherlands and Ireland.  Coarser fibres are grown in Eastern Europe, New Zealand and Australia.

The fibre itself is part of the main stalk structure and is called ‘Bast’, which sits just under the surface of the stalk.  The Bast is removed from the stalk by a process called ‘Retting’ or rotting, this natural process is when the plant breaks down and releases the Bast for us to weave.  The finest quality Linens are left in the fields after cutting to allow dew and sunlight to break down flax stalks over 4-6 weeks, lesser quality fibres will be processed using lukewarm water which can speed up the process to around 3-5 days, chemicals can produce them far quicker – however the chemical process of retting makes course and weaker fibres that have less durability than those that are produced using natural methods.

Once the retted fibres have been collected they are dried for 1-2 weeks and then beaten and to remove the ‘shiv’ which is used to make chipboard.  Then it is combed to remove short waist fibres leaving the longer staples that are between 30cm-50cm long, these are smooth and lustrous.  It is then spun, dyed and woven into cloth.  All this processing makes Linen a relatively expensive fabric to produce, far more so than Cotton.

For a comprehensive history of Linen production across the world take a look at the CraigAvon Historical Society page, it is quite technical too which is somewhat appealing to a cloth geek like me.  For a less intense guide to Linen and it’s production in Ireland there is a great page on the FergusonIrish Linen website, although I have not purchased cloth from this company so don’t know what they are like to buy from.

The characteristics of Linen cloth are;

• Has good moisture absorbency and is comfortable to wear, especially in warm climates
• Is strong when wet or dry
• Resists moth damage.

However is also;

• Creases easily, ironed-in creases are very difficult to remove
• Wears in folds and creases
• Shrinks
• Yellows with age
• Shines when pressed without a cloth
• Seam slippage can be a problem if the garment is tight
• Susceptible to mould and damage buy silverfish.

And for makers you need to be aware that;

• Frays easily
• Does not ease well
• Has poor elasticity.

An Irish Linen tea towel I use exclusively for pressing work

Linen is really good for protecting other fabrics during pressing when you are sewing, or just ironing your clothes made with delicate fabrics as it is lint free, if you keep them pressed and neatly folded they will serve you well for this purpose for years.

These are printed Linen fabrics for use in soft furnishings

The cloth on the left is a vintage piece that is unbleached and printed, it was produced in the 1970s/80s, the one on the right is a modern curtain fabric and is 100% Irish Linen which I have used to make Aprons and Fluffin Bags.

Natural coloured Linen Scrim

These two samples are naturally dyed, loosely woven fabrics that were used in the designs I made for Gracie Burnett when I worked for her.  This kind of Linen cloth is not the easiest to sew with as the loose weave suffers a lot with seam slippage and is not easy to launder.

Heavy Linen Suiting and Silk Linen Suiting

These two fabrics are very interesting, the brown Herringbone weave on the left is very crisp to sew with and frays like a mad thing; when sewing with this cloth I had to Overlock it immediately after cutting and before sewing with it because it practically unravelled otherwise – this made sharp corners practically impossible!  On the right is a Silk/Linen mix, this is a delight to sew with, it retains much of the strength of Linen and embraces the softness of Silk, the combination of these two fibres has produced a fabric that is less prone to creasing and is very cool for warm climates – I’ve made a few suits for my globe-trotting clients.  This cloth is available from Bennett Silks.

Some of the best Linen outlets are Ulster Linen, which I have not bought from myself although the website looks great, Ada & Ina which sell beautiful Linens for apparel and home furnishings in a wide range of weights and colours, although most of them are soft or neutral shades.  One of the suppliers Gracie used to use for naturally dyed Linen cloth is John EnglandIrish Linen

who also have a very wide range of colours and weights and their fabrics are of a beautiful quality.

Here are a few projects that I have made with Linen cloth over the years, it is pretty hard wearing and versatile, but if you are just starting out learning to sew I would develop your basic skills before tackling Linen.

A baby bag for a special pair of twins

Inside the bag

I made this bag for a relative who was having twins, a boy and a girl, and wanted a single baby bag that would accommodate all the paraphernalia for them both rather than having to lug around two bags.  It has a changing mat that rolls up and is stowed away in a zipped opening in the base.  The inside has been made using printed Linen curtain fabric and there are pockets for 2 bottles, 2 sets of nappies, 2x change of clothes and 2x favourite toys.  As far as I know it is still in use after several years – although the contents of the pockets have changed a bit!!

This is a prototype jacket made a number of years ago

It has been made with two different colours and weights of Linen, the frills are a little finer than the crisp blue Linen of the main jacket.

There are lots of contrasts in this jacket

This one has been made with two-tone, plain weave Linen, which is all naturally coloured, for the main body of the jacket.  The Linen holds the shape of the collar really well without piping because of the crisp quality of the cloth and makes it look really smart in my opinion.  All the darker panels have been made with Wool which is matt against the slightly lustrous Linen.

A skirt I found in a charity shop and fell in love with

I really love the way this lightweight Linen skirt swings as I walk in it, I rarely iron it either as it looks much more scruffy shortly afterward – I hang it up immediately after wearing or washing so that the creases drop out for the most part.  I have found this a good strategy for some (but not all) Linen garments, especially if they are bias cut or have a number of panels in the design.

Linen is a lovely cloth to work with and comes in a number of different weights;

• Handkerchief Linen – sheer and lightweight
• Lawn – loose weave a bit like muslin
• Cambric
• Linen sheeting – smooth & crisp
• Dress Linens – medium weight 
• Damask – smooth and lustrous used for top quality table linens
• Crash – coarse slub Linens
• Brown Holland – heavyweight

For those of you who like the look of Linen but don’t want the hassle of all the creases, there is a relatively new medium weight cloth made with plain woven Cotton/Polyester and is called Linen Look.  It is easy to sew with and washes brilliantly, there are lots of different printed patterns to choose from in places like Fabric Land, Hanson’s and many other stockists.

I hope you experiment with Linen fabrics in some of your projects, it is very robust for some things and I find that off-cuts make really good interfacings for tailoring.

Cotton, natural and infinately flexible

Cotton is a plant based natural fibre, it comes from the fluff that protects the cotton seed which forms part of the ‘boll’ (the fluffy white seed head that includes the seeds, fluff and casing).  Cotton has been grown to make clothes for at least 7,000 years and has been recorded in the art of Egypt, India and throughout Asia, an intriguing perspective that includes creation myths in India are on the Handy EyeMagazine website.

The vast majority of the cotton used in clothing all over the world is grown in North America and is a cultivar that is a cross of the cotton plants native to the Americas and from the Middle East. Unfortunately the American cotton growing industry was expanded largely on the back of the slave industry during the 17th, 18th and 19th Centuries so it has rather a chequered history, it is like most industries now highly automated. A good guide to production in America is on the Cotton Counts website.

While on holiday in Yorkshire in the summer I heard a really interestingn article on the local news about a new Cotton Mill that will be the first in 30 years to spin Cotton in England.  This is truly historical as the North West was nick named Cottonopolis in decades past, thus named because over 90% of the world’s Cotton cloth was produced there.  The company is called English Fine Cottons and as their website states they are not yet fully up and running but it is a really exciting move for those of us making in the bespoke end of the market, and for anyone who is interested in good quality, UK produced products.

The fibres themselves can be grouped into three main types:

1. Long staple fibres – these are up to 55mm in staple length and are of the highest quality comprising the Sea Island Cottons which are the best quality and Egyptian Cotton, the second best.  Such long smooth fibres create the strongest, softest and finest Cotton fabrics.  During my final year at University I once visited the Jermine Street Shirt factory in Gloucester which supplies the Jermine Street shop just off Saville Row, they use South Island Cotton exclusively and it is the most beautiful of shirting cloths I have ever used and it played a big part in my final collection.  This cloth feels more like silk than cotton and creases somewhat less than most 100% Cotton fabric – it’s gorgeous!

2. Medium staple fibres – this is the largest group which makes up over 50% of the world’s Cotton.  It is dominated by the American types and is around 25mm or just over in length and is less smooth, strong and soft than the longer staples; it is far less expensive too.  This type is often mixed with other fibres such as polyester to create hard wearing, easy care cloth for school uniforms, workwear and cheaper bedding as well as a myriad of other products.

3. Short staple fibres – at less than 25mm these fibres are courser and rougher than the longer ones, they are mostly produced in the Indian Sub-Continent and other Asiatic nations.  The cloths made with these fibres have some fashion appeal in the “Ethnic” categories of products but are of a much poorer quality.

Cotton is the most versatile of fibres, it is used to make a huge variety of fabrics from the finest of Muslins and Voiles to the most durable and heavy weight Denims and Canvases.  Some of its major characteristics include;

• It is the least reactive fibre so is the best fibre for sensitive skin
• Highly absorbent, conducts heat well
• Resistant to abrasion, moths and pilling
• Can be cleaned by washing or dry cleaning
• Easily takes up colour and is easy to print on
• Super fabric for learning to sew with
• Can be mixed with a huge variety of other fibres to enhance the qualities of both; e.g. Silk for greater softness & heat conductivity, Modul (a regenerated fibre that derives from tree bark) for softness, Polyester/Acrylic for easy care and durability
• Cotton is the only fibre that gets stronger when it is wet
• Conducts electricity 
• Cotton is highly flammable 
• Creases very easily indeed
• Can easily shrink
• Deteriorates with prolonged exposure to sunlight

Here is a list of some (though not all) of the fabrics made with Cotton fibres;

• Utility cloths - Calico, Canvas, Cheesecloth, Denim, Flanelette, Hopsack, Net, Sailcloth, Terry Towelling, Ticking, Whipcord
• Heavier weight apparel cloths – Bolton Twill, Corduroy, Drill, Fleece, Gabardine, Jersey,  Sateen, Velour, Velvet, Velveteen
• Lighter weight fabrics – Chintz, Cluny Lace, Crepe, Gauze, Gingham, Muslin, Poplin, Seersucker, Voile.

From left to right here is some plain weave Denim, Cotton Ticking, Corduroy and some jacquard woven upholstery Cotton fabric.  These are pretty heavy weight cloths that can be used for hard wearing clothes and soft furnishings, I use them for bag making too, they carry machine embroidery and all sorts of applique beautifully.

In this photo, from left to right is a lovely Herringbone shirting which is a South Island Cotton and is super soft and smooth, printed polka dot Cotton, Muslin and woven striped Cotton that is dyed with natural dyes.

The last batch in this photo are Gingham, Jersey and Seersucker, these are really great for beginners because they introduce a small amount of challenge without too much difficulty, for the Jersey the only thing you need to remember to use a ball point needle for stretch fabrics and make sure you don’t stretch it when sewing – if you have an overlocker, set it up as a four threader and you don’t even have to use your normal sewing machine for perfect seams.

Cotton is probably the most versatile in the finishes of cloth available, both as a pure cotton fibre and as a mix with something else, it is also the best fabric to start using when learning to sew, even Cotton Jersey is quite straightforward to sew with, with the correct needle.  There are a HUGE variety of printed fabrics available to buy in a number of widths, years ago you could get it in 30” or 90cm wide – although this is rare these days, now it is usually available in 115cm or 45”, 150cm/60” and for bedding 3m/120” (although not so frequently in many suppliers).

Some of my favourite suppliers are;

•  My fabrics.co.uk - this is a great online supplier of bargain fabrics and they usually have a vast array of colours, textures, patterns and weights 

• Fabric Land – I love Fabric Land, they have lots of great fabrics at great prices, there are stores at Salisbury, Bournemouth, Ringwood, Bristol, Southampton, Basingstoke, Reading and Portsmouth; they also do a fantastic mail order service that I use all the time. 

• Hansons Fabrics – Hansons is a bit of a textile heaven for those who sew, and especially for patchworkers, they have the largest range of printed Cottons I have ever seen, there is at least 1,000 designs at any one time on their shelves – it’s amazing!! They also stock lots of haberdashery items and are the only stockist I know that carries both Coates (my personal favourite) and Guttermann threads. They are happy to accept coach trips for larger groups and schools with some notice. It is a massive warehouse full of goodies that I can happily lose an hour or so in and the staff are lovely – especially my friend Ros. 

• Croft Mill – This is a great company for beautiful suitings, they do have other fabrics available but I have only bought top of the range cotton suitings from them, the staff are lovely and they provide good sized sample swatches on request.

Cotton is so versatile you can make almost anything with it, from upholstery and soft furnishings, heavyweight utility items, hard wearing clothing, pretty dresses to the most intricate patchwork projects. I have had a look around lots of patchworking blogs recently and my current favourite one is Flossie tea cakes, she has a lovely site with lots of tutorials and patterns for some very sweet little projects and she has lots of beautiful patchwork projects too.

As I mentioned earlier it is the ideal starter fabric for learners of sewing, something like some nice plain cotton is best if you are a complete beginner, and when you gain some confidence try out patterns and experiment with how to change the look of projects using the pattern. Seersucker is marvellous for something with a little texture without being too challenging as it behaves itself very well indeed. I love Cotton, it is lovely and cool to wear in the summer and because it behaves so well it is easy to experiment with and the patterns of printed Cottons are pretty well unlimited if you shop around.

To show you a few examples of the kind of things I make for myself I tooksome snaps of some of my togs in the wardrobe;

On the left is a pair of jeans I made with some stretch denim from Fabric Land (that I bought years ago). Next is my brand new jacket – that I wore for the first time today – the purple corduroy was gifted to me with the proviso that I made something wonderful with it, so 1 embroidered waistcoat, and a full length skirt later, this swing jacket is the final piece of the set and sports Cotton Velour details in pink; and there is enough left to make another waistcoat in a different style. The skirt is an experiment made out old vintage printed Cotton that was part of my Aunty Vivien’s fabric library and some naturally dyed muslin and on the right is my favourite dress ever – every time I wear it, it causes a stir.

So this group starts with a godet skirt with printed fine polka dots, a great summer dress that I’ve not got round to wearing yet, my perfect denim skirt, which is the same cut as the polka dot skirt but with pockets and centre front zip (I love the printed denim) and another of my prototype jackets.  After this first one I have made lots of these jackets for clients and for my off the peg range.

I love working with Cotton, it’s wonderful to wear and versatile beyond belief so take a trip to your local stockist, or if you are in the area of Sturminster Newton call in on Hanson’s and drool over all the lovely Cottons they have there.

Affordable Christmas Gifts

Just in time for Christmas I have been making lots of gift items, there are many options to choose from to suit all budgets.

To keep your clothes lovely and fresh with the scent of English Lavender these lovely Lavender Bags are made with potent English Lavender in a wide range of colours and are great value.  Priced at £2.50 each or 3 for £6 they make lovely stocking fillers on their own or as a set for a slightly larger gift.

I love those Wheat Bags that you pop in the microwave for a mo to sooth one’s muscles so have created some Lavender Wheat Bags with nice soft fabrics that will give you a scented relaxing touch of warmth for those minor aches at the end of a busy day.  Each bag has been divided into sections for even temperature distribution and is great value at £12.50.

Here are some more of my Tote Bags, these are two of the large sized ones, they are fully lined with pockets for your smart phone and purse or diary and securely closed with a zip.  They are all made as a one off piece with upholstery fabric to be hard wearing and embroidered with something to make you smile.  Many of my customers love them because they are lightweight on their shoulders and don’t cost too much to post.  This size comes in at £50, medium size is £40 and the small ones are £35, there are lots of colours and decorative designs to choose from.

All of these, and my other goods including Silk scarves, jackets and coats will be available to see and try on at the Sero Christmas Fair at The Exchange, Sturminster Newton from 10am-3.30pm on Saturday 19th November.

Would you like to learn to sew?

Have you ever thought, “I’d love to sew but don’t have a creative bone in my body” or felt a bit lost when confronted by a hem to take up or button to sew on – you are not alone by any stretch!  I meet folk who tell me exactly that at least once a week.

As well as my Fashion & Textiles degree from Bournemouth University, I also have a teaching degree that I studied with The Open University and adult lecturer qualifications from Salisbury College; this enables me to offer tailored teaching for individuals and groups.  At this time of year lots of you are thinking about a hobby for those long dark evenings and what better than learning a great life skill like sewing which can stand you in good stead for the rest of your life.

You can learn;

• A set of universal sewing techniques that will give you a solid base from which to make your own projects.  This is based on the 10 week course I used to teach at Salisbury and covers; Sewing machine basics, Basic fabric know-how, Seams, Sleeves, Zips, Facings, Buttons & buttonholes, Piping, Binding, Applique.  This can be added to if there is a specific skill you would like to learn.
• Advanced sewing skills; this would include basic tailoring techniques and a lot of other hints and tips which you can apply to your own projects.  I also pass on all the top tips I have learned over the years for dealing with challenging fabrics and students have found this really empowering and have attempted much more advanced projects – and succeeded beautifully.
• Pattern cutting; which can also be tailored to exactly what you want to do, or you can learn a set of basic pattern cutting skills that will stand you in good stead to change commercial patterns so that they fit you perfectly. For those who wish to make their own patterns from scratch you can extend your skills and make your own Basic Block from which you will be able to produce patterns from your own simple designs.

The teaching can be offered by several means;

• Individuals can be taught in my workshop with their own equipment or using my spare Singer machine and Overlocking machine to finish seams.  Students usually come weekly or fortnightly for 2-3 hour lessons.  £20 per hour.
• Individually at your home with your own equipment, I will bring any equipment we will need that you don’t have. £20 per hour plus travel expenses.
• Small groups of 3-5 at one of your homes, using your own equipment (I will bring my own for demonstrating on).  I have taught family groups like this where a Mother and teenage Daughter have got together with an Aunt as well as groups of friends and they are a lot of fun.  £25 per hour plus travel expenses.

I was very fortunate as a child to learn from my Grandmother, my Mother and a whole host of lovely ladies that my Mum knew when I was a child who were wonderfully patient and intrigued with this skinny little kid who was fascinated by all thing textiles.  I was taught sewing, knitting, crochet (which I really can’t get the hang of other than making a simple chain) and lace making – I loved making bobbin lace at school.  Nowadays, the way sewing is taught in Secondary Design & Technology can put a lot of young people off because the focus is on the design process rather than learning life skills, which I feel is a lost opportunity for many.

I am passionate about passing skills on to as many people as I can in this short life and I love teaching.  The little miracles that occur when understanding dawns, or when students beam with pride at their finished projects, is magical.

So if learning to sew appeals to you get in touch and I look forward to teaching you anything I can.

A Touch of Silk

Silk fabric is made from the cocoons of Silk worms, these cocoons are made out of a single filament which is 600-900 metres in length.  The fibre itself is triangular in shape and transparent, this lends the finished silk its iridescent quality.  There is a really good history of Silk and its production on the Silk Road page which is very interesting and dates the production of Silk cloth to between 5000 and 7000 years ago.

Raw Silk has a distinctive soft cream/yellow colour and is made using the fibres before the naturally occurring gum, which holds the cocoon together, is removed.  This fabric is called Shantung Silk and the cloth has a very soft handle and heavy slub (uneven threads in the cloth).  This kind of cloth only comes in its natural soft shade as the gum prevents the take up of dyes.  Once the gum has been removed the dying possibilities are endless; most commercially dyed silks are dyed using industrial dyes and come in a huge range of colours.

There are also companies that use natural dyes to create a product that derives from more sustainable sources.  I used to work for a designer who specialised in using natural indigo from the Indigo plant, I once watched her dying some fabric and it was astonishing.  When dyeing with plant indigo the liquid in the dye vat looks somewhat like wee, but when the dyed fabric is exposed to the air it goes bright blue instantly – it’s amazing.  Natural dye stuffs were used right up until the industrial revolution when by products from many industrial and chemical processes were found to create lovely bright and fast colours for the textile industry – usually discovered by happy accident.  I found a couple of really good articles about natural dying if you are interested, the first is a good point of reference on the Pioneer Thinking website and here is an article on successful natural dyeing at home on the itty bitty impact website which shows you how straight forward natural dyeing could be.

Back to the matter in hand!  Silk is made into dozens of different kinds fabrics, from the heaviest brocades to translucent chiffon; there are soft, raw Silks, stiff grosgrains, crisp taffeta and duchess satin and fluid crepes.  Silk can be mixed with other fibres and is often mixed with the finest of Worsted Wool, Cashmere or Alpacca for a lightweight and very luxurious cloth and yarn, or Linen to create soft lightweight suitings that are softer than Linen alone and harder wearing than Silk alone.  Silk has special qualities that make it very highly prized.  It is super lightweight, incredibly strong, it is iridescent and warm in cold weather and cool in hot conditions.  However, it is easily damaged by perspiration and has to be cleaned very carefully.

The following pictures feature just a few examples of those Silk fabrics I have used a lot over the years.

Double Woven Silk Dupion, Shot Silk Dupion

Silk Dupion is what most people think of when they think of Silk, Princess Diana’s famed wedding dress was made out of ivory Silk Dupion.  Dupion has a slub in it and is quite a crisp, paper like cloth that creases easily but adds wonderful structure to garments.  These two examples are a taupe coloured power woven Dupion that creases a little less than most, the mauve on the right is from the Far East and is shot mauve/lime green.

Crepe backed satin, patterned Jacquard Silk

On the left of this picture is one of my all-time favourite fabrics, crepe backed satin.  On one side crepe backed satin is shiny and the other side is matt, this fabric is gorgeous and cascades in large pieces, like a waterfall.  The patterned jacquard on the right is made by the threads woven in such a way as to create a raised pattern, it is made in a similar fashion to brocade fabric.

Naturally dyed raw Silk, Devore Silk Velvet

These two Silks are naturally dyed with cochineal beetle shells that have been finely ground to create a fine powder that can be used for lots of different purposes; the cloth on the left is a heavy raw silk which is hard going to cut and kills sewing machine needles for a pass time, on the right is devore velvet.  Devore velvet is rather special, you can screen print the fabric with a special acid paint which when washed out removes the pile leaving translucent areas behind – Monsoon loves devore velvet!

Naturally Dyed Silk

Looking from left to right in this photo the first and third pieces of cloth are Kantha Silk, this is made in a fair trade workshop in Bangladesh and is produced by hand sewing in concentric squares a layer of silk which is backed with cotton scrim (like muslin). The second piece is the kind of silk fabric used for the Silk layer of the Kantha and the forth is Silk jersey.  Both the green and the blue in these samples are natural dyes.

Some of the other Silk fabrics widely available are;

• Brocade – heavily patterned stiff cloth usually used for very rich garments and upholstery
• Grosgrain – ribbed stiff cloth often used for upholstery
• Crepe – comes in several weights from fine crepe de chine up to heavy Moroccan crepe, has a lovely soft fall and does not crease very much
• Duchess Satin – stiff, soft sheen and frays like mad
• Chiffon – lose woven very fine cloth which can be challenging to work with
• Taffeta – tightly woven crisp fabric that rustles
• Habiti – tightly woven fine cloth that kind of falls between chiffon and taffeta in character.

This is not an exhaustive list by any measure, there are many other finishes and weights available and specialist Silk outlets have a much wider range and stock a vast array of colours.

Silk can be less expensive to buy than one thinks depending on the quality and where you buy it, most general fabric shops will only stock Dupion, chiffon, crepe de chine, crepe backed satin and duchess satin as a rule and there will only be a few colour available; if you want a wider range of Silks there are several really good stockists in the UK, however, some will require you set up a business account with them – but you don’t need to buy loads of cloth to get one, as long as you buy something at least once a year they are fine with small purchases.  My favourite Silk merchants are Bennet Silks, they have lots of fabulous cloth and wonderful staff too.  The other two suppliers that I sometimes use are James Hare and Pongees, all three have great websites and they will send individual sample swatches or swatch cards with all the colours of a given cloth for a small charge.

A word about using Silk, in my opinion there is no such thing as a difficult fabric to sew with, as with all things you just need to practice to get the hang of it, for the best results here are a few tips;

1. Measure twice, and thrice, cut once!  Silk is expensive so you don’t want to make any big cutting bloopers so measure grain lines carefully and pin in the seam allowance so you don’t mark the cloth.  When pinning the best pins are good quality glass head pins, glass head pins are made with better quality steal and are thus more expensive but worth every penny, pin quite close together to prevent slippage, around 3cm apart with fine cloth and around 5cm apart with heavier fabric.
2. ALWAYS pin or tack your silk in the seam allowance when cutting and sewing.
3. Use the right sized needle, you can generally use finer needles with Silk, crepe de chine and habiti need new needles as they mark easily with blunt ones.
4. Tack your project if you don’t feel so confident, in the seam allowance, this is especially important with velvet as the pile in each piece will want to wriggle about a bit and will distort the seam if you are not on the ball.
5. Use a scrupulously clean cotton/linen cloth/brand new tea towel to press silk as some can be water marked, when pressing velvet use a velvet board if you can get one to prevent flattening the pile – and lay it right side down; if you don’t have a velvet board use another piece of velvet to lay the right side against, this won’t entirely prevent flattening the pile but it does help.
6. Be brave, don’t be afraid of the cloth, there are much more challenging fabrics than Silk in the synthetic fabrics that will slide all over the place, you just need to take your time and be methodical.

The following pics are some examples of the projects I have made using Silk over the years.

These scarves are double sided, often using two different Silks for each side and are piped at the edge, I love making these and they make lovely gifts.  Sometimes I make them with small pieces sewn together with mixed shades of similar colours, it is amazing what goes together and they end up being very useful garments that will go with lots of outfits, it’s a great idea for you to make something special for a delicious gift.

Embroidered Silk Dupion is more often used for curtains but it makes exquisite garments too, this butterfly patterned jacket was worn at the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

This was a really exciting project, the Silk velvet was part of an antique opera cape belonging to the client, she wanted to re-use it on a bespoke jacket so we selected a Mutka (raw) Silk that is woven with a silver lame thread.  To utilise the effect of the silver I designed the jacket with panels that are split just below the bust line and the lower panels are cut on the bias (diagonally) which gives the jacket a lovely soft fall over the hips and it gently flares at the hem.

This is the back of the wedding dress I made with the jacquard woven patterned Silk highlighted in photo 2, it was teamed with a heavy Moroccan crepe in pink for the details and I sent some of the jacquard to DM Buttons to make the matching covered buttons. You can see the dress in full in this article.

I hope you will consider sewing with Silk now if you haven’t before, it is a marvellous material to work with and the finish you can achieve is unique and totally luxurious – I love it!!  Silk is also really exciting as a medium for lots of textile techniques such as painting and a whole host of other ideas so if that is your thing, go for it, there are loads of books and courses about that kind of thing.

For something a little different to take a look at, Spider Silk has been used in Madagascar for hundreds of years, it creates something quite delicious, there is a fantastic video on YouTube so take a look, it’s fascinating. 

Enjoy

New Sleeves

You know how sometimes you make a new project and when it is finished you are really chuffed with it, then you wear it for a while and something about it doesn’t work quite right; that is like my lovely orange coat.  I originally made it with priest sleeves, and it soon became apparent these were a bit annoying because I could not wear long sleeved woolly jumpers under it and the cuffs were too tight to get on and off easily.  Grrrrrr!

The Priest sleeves are nice but impractical, this is before the change

So, over the weekend I cut some new sleeves and made them up ready to change them a bit.  I still wanted to retain the brocade detail at the wrist but it needed to be much narrower so I can wear my nice fluffy silk and mohair jumper under it.

Today, in my lunch break I unpicked the old sleeves, removed the shoulder shaping and the old sleeve linings ready to be replaced by all new ones.

New sleeves

These are the new sleeves.  I replaced them after work today and they are perfect.  Because the previous cuff was a little tight at the wrist the strain caused the brocade to come apart a little at the seams and I had had to repair it before it gave way completely.  To prevent future strain on the seams I have double stitched all the new seams and then top stitched them down to make them sit flatter as the fabric is quite bulky.  The new cuffs are much shorter and the full part of the sleeves are longer so I can wear all the woolly pullys I want to.

I have fallen in love with my coat all over again because I have worked out the major design flaw that it had first time around.

Don’t be afraid to change something you have made, sometimes you need to have a second pass at the projects that don’t work out right first time around –  take it apart and make it beautiful so that you will love wearing it until it practically falls apart.  Design is about experimenting, and it doesn’t always work the first time, don’t worry, you will learn more from your mistakes than from your successes!  Dare to fail sometimes, all the most accomplished designers and makers make plenty of mistakes along the way before they reach perfection.

Have fun.