Barbara Emodi - Stress-Free Sewing Solutions: A No-Fail Guide to Garments for the Modern Sewist

PUBLISHER: Amy Barrett-Daffin

CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Gailen Runge

ACQUISITIONS EDITOR: Roxane Cerda

MANAGING EDITOR: Liz Aneloski

EDITOR: Karla Menaugh

TECHNICAL EDITOR: Debbie Rodgers

COVER/BOOK DESIGNER: April Mostek

PRODUCTION COORDINATOR: Zinnia Heinzmann

PRODUCTION EDITOR: Alice Mace Nakanishi

ILLUSTRATORS: Mary E. Flynn and Leo Booth

COVER PHOTOGRAPHY by Karen Veinot of Little Windows Photography

INSTRUCTIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY by Leo Booth

LIFESTYLE AND SUBJECTS PHOTOGRAPHY by Karen Veinot of Little Windows Photography

Published by C&T Publishing, Inc., P.O. Box 1456, Lafayette, CA 94549

Dedication

For my granddaughter, Anika, who also needs to know how things are made

Acknowledgments

This book has been inspired by all those sewists who love to sew but didnt always love the results, or even the process. Finding ways for them, and for me, to sew with less stress and more enjoyment has been sort of a life mission. Few things make me happier than discovering, from my own experiments or the wisdom of other sewists, that there is an easier way to do things. This book is my collection of tricks for the tricky stuff.

You see, I just love sewing and I want you to, too. I started sewing when I was eight, made most of my clothes from when I was twelve. Thats many hours and many garments, but look at what sewing has given me. I have never been bored, not one day of my life. I have never not been excited by the feel of fabric, never not delighted by a perfect button, never not entranced by the great beauty of machine stitches marching out from under my presser foot. Sewing has made me who I really am. Its time I said thanks, with gratitude for the craft and gratitude for all my compatriots in the sewing community. Community matters. It means so much to me that my family and friends modeled the garments. I am grateful to the very talented Karen Veinot for her ability to capture them, my neighborhood, and the sewing so well. Thanks, too, to Christina Pasquet of Patch Halifax for sharing her wonderful store and the site for the cover shot for this book.

Finally, I am particularly grateful for one special person. My amazing husband, Leo, who did the technical drawings and took the how-to photographs, made it all possible. When the pandemic gave me production challenges, he was the one who said, you know we can do this, and made sure we could. If you could have seen the photographic studio he improvised in our living room, made of dog fences wired together and of bristol boardwell, you would understand how much that man does for us and what he means to me. He comes through for everyone always, particularly if it is a creative project. This book is as much his as mine.

Introduction

This book is written for those who sew a variety of garment types for a range of peoplethemselves, friends, partners, children, and extended family. I am that kind of sewist myself. To do everything I want, I rely on my collection of tricks and maneuvers to keep my own sewing stress-free.

I want to share some of those methods with you. These are techniques that deliver first-class results but dont add performance pressure to the sewing experience. I want you to be delighted with your makes. I believe in ingenious sewing.

Defusing sewing challenges is mainly a process of finding new perspectives, not about fretting over your own skills. This is how this book works:

If something youve sewn doesnt turn out, flip through this book and find a F.A.I.L. (Followed-All-Instructions Letdown) that matches your issue.

Understand the why behind what went wrong.

Check to see if there is an immediate fix or rescue.

Learn strategies that will help you have the result you want next time. Its as simple as that.

My Principles for Stress-Free Sewing

Think ahead to what can go wrong.

Plan a detour around potential difficulties.

Build in rest stops for fine-tuning.

Remember there is always more than one way to do the same thing.

Look at the menu of techniques and choose what works best for you.

Metric Conversion

The metric measurements in this book follow standard conversion practices for sewing and soft crafts. The metric equivalents are often rounded off for ease of use. If you need more exact measurements, there are a number of amazing online converters.

Chapter 1

Neckbands and Bindings

Humans search out faces. Necklines frame these faces. This raises the stakes for sewists. A messy neckline is the first thing anyone notices. Add to that, the Universal Laws of Sewing dictate: If mistakes happen, they happen center front.

Nicely covering that raw edge around a neckline matters, a lot. There are facings, of course, and these will be dealt with in another chapter. Many patterns suggest the edges in both woven and knit tops be finished with a binding or band. In theory, this should be easy. Pattern designers seem to think so. The reality is often more of a struggle. Hands up if you have ever had a bound edge that bowed out or a knit neckband that sagged in the middle. Me too. Fortunately, there are tricks that will solve your binding and neckband problems.

Bindings are narrow strips of fabric that wrap around a raw edge to stabilize, cover, and strengthen it. In garment sewing, bindings are used for scoop necklines or the armholes of sleeveless tops and dresses. In higher necklines, a bound edge is sometimes combined with back or front openings and closuresthink a keyhole opening at the back of a top or a tie at the front of a blouse.

In knits, bindings are not the only way to finish necklines. Some folks suggest simply turning under the raw edge and stitching it down. This generally works in knits with a lot of body, such as scuba, and best if the edge is stabilized first with interfacing, fusible bias tape, or clear elastic. But my success rate with this technique tends to be about 4 out of 10. I like better odds in my sewing. So, I bind or use a knit neckband, a classic used in many knit tops of the T-shirt variety.

Lets get started.

WOVEN BINDINGS

LOOK FAMILIAR?

The bound neckline in this woven top bows out.

WHY THIS HAPPENS

This F.A.I.L. is just an example of geometry in action. The cut edge of the neckline is a curve that fans out into the body of the garment. As a result, a binding laid to match the smaller inner edge will pull in when turned and stitched down to the wider garment. Also, any binding made of fabric heavier than the fabric of the garment, as many purchased prefolded bias tapes are, can weigh down a neckline. That is part of the problem here.