~tricks of the trade: turn of cloth allowance~

June 14, 2010.Reading time 7 minutes.

I was prompted by a couple of questions in the comments on yesterdays post about my pink jacket to write this post. First I started with a brief reply in the comments, but ended up with a complete essay instead! Cloth allowance (or turn of cloth) is a simple but really important concept to understand if you want a professional finish to […]

How To sew: Tailored jacket sleeve vents

May 10, 2010.Reading time 14 minutes.

How to Sew Tailored Sleeve Vents by Machine

This tutorial explains how to sew a two-piece sleeve vent on a lined tailored jacket, just like this: This is the method you will often find in ready-to-wear, where the vent on the shell is first constructed, the lining is then attached to the hem, and finally the buttons are sewn on. Personally I don’t […]

~tricks of the trade: inserting an invisible zip~

March 30, 2010.Reading time 5 minutes.

This is my method for inserting invisible zips – it’s a bit different to the way dressmaking patterns describe, and I’ve included a few little tips and tricks that (hopefully) make things easier! Make life easy on yourself and insert your zip as early as possible in your garment assembly. It really is much easier to sew […]