5 Sewing Tips for December

5 Sewing Tips, Sewing14 Comments

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Have you ever turned your fabric selvedge into stabilising tape? Because of its firmly woven structure, a strip of selvedge is ideal to incorporate into a seam to hold things in place.

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I used these strips of silk selvedge to fix the gathers on my Ruby Slip bodice where they joined the bias skirt. An added advantage is that the colour will always be the perfect match!

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Do you know every single function on your sewing machine?

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Why not start the New Year on top by revisiting your instruction book. Pick a new machining technique to brush up on – like buttonholes, or even darning. I learnt a lot about my Elna Supermatic when I sat down and read this little book!

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This photo is at the top of an invisible zip, demonstrating how to fold down that upper bit of zip tape and seam allowance before turning it through. Hello beautiful sharp square corners!

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And goodbye horrible scooped collars and lapels:

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A mark of poor tailoring, scooped lapels drive me bananas! If you sew the notch edges of a collar and lapel straight, they will end up looking concave. The secret is to sew them convex so they end up looking straight. Fabric physics. Trust me 🙂

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While on the topic of collars and lapels, let’s revisit this in depth tutorial on how to sew them beautifully every time. It even covers how not to sew them (that bit where I sew the wrong pieces together, hehe!)

How to sew a tailored collar and lapel

Have a great sewing week!

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Designer, Patternmaker, Blogger Of All Things Sewing. Follow as I share projects, patterns, and my favourite tricks of the trade.

14 thoughts on “5 Sewing Tips for December”

    1. Hi Karen – it’s when the edges of the lapel (or collar) around the collar notch are concave, or scooped out looking. It could be due to poor patternmaking, sewing or pressing – often all three!

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