Technique Tuesday: Turn Of The Cloth, Why Does It Matter?

This post is here to remind you (and me) of two things: 1) pay attention to the lessons of experienced sewers and 2) just pay attention! In two previous posts, I described the basic process by which I make clothing for my dolls (Part 1 and Part 2). It is fairly straightforward and is easy as long as I am using lightweight cloth. The weight is important because of an issue called turn of the cloth. The concept used to be taught (and I thought I learned it...) to impress upon the sewer than cloth in a seam takes up space. This becomes very important when you are sewing close seams, turning components right side out, and pressing items flat. Think about sewing a collar - denim is going to be more difficult than shirting fabric.

So, what can go wrong? When you are working with tiny garments, a lot can go wrong. I ran into all possible problems a while back when making a set of 10 small figures. I was in robo-sew mode, went into the studio, chose a bunch of fabrics and sewed everything together to make clothes.

I didn't discover my mistake until I started turning the garments right side out. I had chosen corduroy and wool as exterior fabrics and a loosely woven silk to line it. A deadly combo: thick plus delicate = disaster. I couldn't turn the garments and I was ripping the lining fabric. I was ticked, but didn't want to give up on all 10 garments. After wrestling with the tiny coats, I gave up and cut through everything at the shoulder. The next problem to solve was how to seam the shoulder area quickly and cleanly.

All the fabrics were fraying, so I was losing length. The pattern was not designed for overlap or a seam at the this place, so if I added a seam, the armholes would be too small.  I decided to butt the joins and whipstitch them front and back.

I couldn't leave the shoulder seam looking like that, so I decided to glue an epaulet-like segment over the seam, top and bottom. Well, that didn't look so great (raw edges) so I whipstitched the edges to the garment and added a seed bead with each stitch. Stronger and more attractive.You can see the final result at the top of he post.

BUT, if I had been paying attention to what I was doing and remembered my sewing lessons from years ago, I wouldn't have to have gone through the whole process with 10 little coats. Lesson to remember: when sewing tiny things, use lightweight fabrics. Maybe medium weight. Corduroy? Not a good idea...