Guide: Trueing Up Grain and Preshrinking Fabric

Trueing Up Grains

Before preshrinking, it is important to grain up the fabrics. You want to make sure that your cross grain is perpendicular to your lengthwise grain. If it isn't, you need to straighten it. You want to do this with dry fabric.

Fashion fabric: Pull a thread if you can, then cut along the line created to get a straight cut across the grain of the fabric.

If you've got a double woven fabric or a felted wool, such as a Melton wool, this is not going to be possible. In that case, try tearing it (see Q&A at end of post). And if that doesn't work, just start picking the yarns out until you can pull one out all the way across. What you want is a length of fabric that is cut along a thread line on both ends.

To true up your linings, first pull a thread, next cut on the pull line, then fray out a few yarns until you've got a nice clean edge. For underlinings/interlinings that are cotton or silk batiste, flannel, or broadcloth, tear the fabric. All those plain woven fabrics tear well.

Check each of your fabrics to make sure that the cross grainlines are perpendicular to your lengthwise grainlines.

Preshrinking Fabric

Here's the London Shrink method of preshrinking wool. (With permission and compliments of Lisa Laree at Sew Random [Red typing is mine])

1. Run a bedsheet through the 'rinse only' cycle to dampen it.

2. Carefully spread the sheet out, then lay your wool fabric flat (single layer) on it. Roll/fold the fabric and damp sheet together and let them rest overnight. After laying out your fabric, fold the sheet back over the top of your fabric (this may take more than one sheet for a piece of 60"-wide fabric long enough to make a full-length coat), then fold in quarters or thirds lengthwise, toward the middle. Fold again from the ends toward the center, until you've got a rectangle that resembles a packed parachute.

3. Lay the fabric out flat to dry. Before pressing, you want to make sure that your cross grain is still perpendicular to your lengthwise grain. If it isn't, straighten it again. You want to do this with dry fabric.

4. Steam press the fabric well, being careful not to stretch or distort the fabric while pressing (I have also read that you should allow each section to dry thoroughly after steam pressing before moving on to the next). If you have a grain board, or a knitting blocking board (photo below) that is marked off with grainlines, you'll want to press your fabric on it.

The wonderful thing about the knitting blocking board is that it's fabric marked with grid squares, which is placed over another sheet of fabric, then over a piece of needlepunched fleece, all so that it can handle the heat. I place mine directly on top of my cutting table.

If you're not a knitter, it's highly unlikely you'll have one of these very convenient tables. In that case, pad out a surface (not your dining table unless you don't care about the dining table finish.) Before I got my blocking board, I would pad the floor with towels (cotton towels, a double layer). Then cover it with a sheet or heavier cotton, that has a seam or line drawn on it, that you can check for right angles. To press, you want to be able to line up your wool with the selvage edge on one line and the cross grain edge on a line at a right angle to it.

Preshrinking Wool at the Cleaners

If you don't want to go through all that London Shrink method and pressing, then you might want to send it to the cleaners to have it steam pressed. Before you do that, true up your grain, making sure that your cross grain is perpendicular to your lengthwise grain, then fold your piece in half, lengthwise, and baste your ends and long edge together. This will assure that the cleaner doesn't skew it off grain while they're steam pressing it.

Ask though, when you take it in, that they leave the fold soft—do not press your fold line with a permanent crease. I've done this frequently, and while they look at me a little askance, it's worked out well for me.

Preshrinking Your Linings, Interlinings and Underlinings

For dry cleanables such as silks, Kasha, Sunback, etc., you can have your cleaner steam press these too, after you've straightened the grain, or you may soak in water, line dry, then press them yourself. For the washable underlinings, especially those with a cotton content, throw them in the washing machine on hot, then dry on hot, then do again. If your underlining has a poly content in it, like one of mine does, go easy on the hot. You just want to make sure all the shrink is gone.

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I know all this sounds like a lot of fuss and bother—all this prep work before you even get to sewing. But if your fabric is off-grain, then all your sewing and careful tailoring work will be for naught. And, if your pattern doesn't fit you, you may end up with the most couture-finished garment in the world, but it won't look good.

We'll get this done, and then the fun part will begin.

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Q&A

Digs asked: What about felted flannel, Marji? My cashmere is made up of such short fibers, there's no way I can pick a full cross thread. Would it work if I simply cut the fabric one piece at a time, paying attention to the lengthwise grain and the nap?

Marji: Well, Digs—gasp!—try tearing it. I encountered the same issue with my purple felted wool. Then I got frustrated, and cut a snip 1" in from the end cut, and started tearing, and it tore beautifully!

Last night I was able, picking with a pin, to very carefully get a whole thread across my double-faced wool/cashmere: It broke in several places because the yarns are so soft. And a big thank you to Gorgeous Fabrics (Ann) who sent me a piece that was already trued, because it too had been torn. Try it!

Thoughts on The Fitting Muslin

This is the process I go through to create a fitting muslin. It's not quick and dirty, but it will yield a well fitting garment. It's not a process I go through for every garment I make either—just so that you know that I'm not completely crazy.

In a post to follow soon, I plan to document step-by-step the muslin process that I go through to fit a coat or jacket. I'll illustrate this post with photos. If you're feeling like "it's the first of June and I'm ready to go", and you don't need illustrated steps, then here are the steps involved:

1. Measure your pattern tissue. If you're using an American pattern you'll need to first draw the seam allowances on the pattern tissue, so that you measure only the actual garment pieces, not the seam allowances. If you're using Burda or Marfy or Patrones, you're in luck because these patterns don't include preset seam allowances.

2. Determine if you need to make pattern alterations. You'll need to make the same alterations you normally do. For example, if you typically do an FBA, adjust for length or a sway back, etc., you'll need to do that here too.

3. Determine how you want your coat to fit. Snug? Loose? This is a personal choice. Wearing ease for a fitted coat will be minimum of 4" in the bust (circumference), minimum of 2" at the waist, and 5"-6" at the hip. Minimum ease for the sleeve, at the bicep is also 4". If you're planning to wear your coat over a suit everyday to work, plan on 6" at the bust, 4-5" at the waist, and 6-8" at the hip. These are minimums for wearing ease, and do not account for style/design ease. Those of you making full skirted coats such as Vogue 8346 may have 4" ease at the bustline and 10" or more at the hip. Be sure to check lengths too—back neck length, sleeve length, overall length.

Once you've altered your pattern in the flat tissue stage then you're going to want to lay it out on your muslin, leaving room for 1" seam allowances on all your vertical seams, and 1.5 to 2" seam allowances at the shoulder. I would add 1" seam allowances on the sleeves also.

You'll be transferring to the muslin every stitching line, every mark, every match point on your pattern, as well as the grain line for every piece. Draw your horizontal lines on your pattern tissue for your waist and hip lines, across all pieces, then transfer those lines to your muslin also. I use a tracing wheel and large sheets of wax tracing paper (link in a previous post on sources) to do this. You'll also want to cut out your collar, pocket welts, and any other relevant pieces.

After you've got your garment fitting properly you can add the collar and the welts or patch pockets and evaluate them for proportion to your body, placement, etc.

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When the muslin is first put together it will look something like this:

(My sister probably wouldn't appreciate being used as a model here, but this is a closed blog, and these pics have appeared before. This picture was taken during a long-distance fitting session. I was drawing on the pics and sending them back to her so that the next correction could be made. This was early on in the process of making a fitted jacket—the princess seam still needed to be moved, the shoulder extended too far out and also needed moving forward—but it was a process.)

You can see the 1" seam allowances. You can also see that I not only traced the stitching lines and markings onto the muslin, but where I needed them to show on both the right side and the wrong side I stitched my lines on the muslin.

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To show you where we're eventually going with this:


Above is a muslin that I fit for myself. After the fitting I cut the muslin apart on the altered stitching lines, and am using that as the pattern piece to lay out and cut this houndstooth fabric. You'll notice the original pattern stitching lines that I marked (what you're looking at here is the back). I needed to let out a bit in the hip and take in a bit in the waist. At the hemline I ended up sewing on another piece of muslin because I didn't like the length on the original pattern. The red horizontal line is just added fabric.

In this photo above, the muslin is ready for thread tracing on the seam lines, and then cutting apart, adding seam allowances.

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To many of you, this is old hat. But if this looks intimidating to you, don't worry. I will be breaking it down into steps with photographs so that you can make your own muslin. NancyK, I'll also illustrate changing your princess seamline then.

And I'll take pics on the process of making a 2-piece sleeve from a one piece sleeve pattern.

Also in June we'll be trueing up the grainlines in all fabrics and preshrinking.

Making up the muslin and prepping fabric is all that's on the table here for the whole month of June, so you've got plenty of time to sew fun things to wear now and to go play and work and everything else you do.

Guide: Choosing Interfacings

Understanding Interfacings

"An interfacing is a layer of fabric between the facing and outer layer of a garment. Its purpose is to add any needed firmness, strength, or stability, while adding as little bulk as possible."1.

Interfacings are either woven, non-woven, knit, or weft insertion interfacings. Wovens can be either sewn-in or fusible. Non-wovens are not something we need to be concerned about when making a coat, and knit and weft insertion (or textured weft—I use the terms interchangeably—probably shouldn't) interfacings are primarily fusibles.

Traditional tailoring is done with traditional materials and sewn-in interfacings. However, in light of today's improved processes for creating quality fusibles, and in consideration of time and cost, even high-end designers are using some fusibles in their pret-a-porter jackets and coats now. I understand that such sewing luminaries as Nancy Erickson have also had great success tailoring with fusibles, even on cashmere.

I'm going to present both options, and it's up to you to decide. Are you going to speed tailor using fusible interfacings, or are you going to traditionally tailor using sewn-in interfacings? Or are you going to do a combination of both? You have to balance your time with the amount of work you want to put into this garment and make your own decision. Either way, with care and good workmanship, you'll end up with a garment to be proud of.

In the Feb/Mar 1990 issue of Threads Claire Schaeffer took apart a Dior RTW suit and analyzed the combination of fusible and sewn-in interfacings used. In the April/May 1999 issue Marci Tilton dissected an Armani jacket, which used primarily fusibles, and outlined the process in an article which is reprinted on their site.

Illustration belongs to Taunton Press, "Armani Jackets: The Inside Story"

Click on the photo to link to the article. If you want to speed-tailor with fusibles, this article is a must-read. I've successfully used that method making a silk tweed suit last year.

All that out of the way, I'm a traditionalist at heart. I love the process, and I personally just can't imagine putting my luscious 100% cashmere fabric into the Elnapress with a piece of fusible interfacing, so I'll be using sewn-in hair canvas to interface, and woven fabrics to underline.

Where to Apply Interfacing

Areas that will be interfaced:

• front

• side front if there is a pocket that extends across a princess seam—either patch or welt pocket

• back stay—shoulder area across the back. This may be hair canvas or tightly woven muslin or a weft insertion fusible

• pockets, collars

• hems will either be interfaced with a bias strip of hair canvas or with the wiggan I've already specified.
  

Make sure when buying interfacing you buy enough—don't count on your pattern envelope to allow enough for a fully interfaced garment. All too often the pattern companies are just figuring enough interfacing to have you cut the front facing and collar.

Determining the Right Interfacing Weight

The weight of interfacing you choose will be determined by the weight and the weave of your fashion fabric. The lighter weight your coating fabric, presumably the lighter your interfacing will be.

Here's a test to help you select interfacings: Layer a piece of your fashion fabric, underlining or interlining if you're using one, the interfacing you're considering, and then sandwich another piece of your fashion fabric around the back. Now roll this over your hand. Does the whole feel pleasing and balanced? Does the interfacing support the fabric over your roll line? Does the weight of the fabric cause the roll line to collapse? You need a heftier interfacing. Try a midweight or heavyweight interfacing. Does the interfacing make the roll line feel rigid? Try a lighter weight interfacing.

Recall the words of Adele Margolis that I quoted at the top of the post about Linings. Your coat shouldn't feel like a suit of armor! Go with the interfacing that gives enough support without overwhelming your coat.

If you're using a fusible to interface, you will want to cut a 6"x8" piece of your fashion fabric, then fuse a 4x6 piece of the interfacing, then fold the rest of the facing piece over, then evaluate using the same criteria as above. You may be using a fusible textured weft insertion product to underline. In that case, fuse your fashion fabric before testing the interfacings.

I can easily see a coat that is fused with Armo-weft as an underlining, then has fused woven interfacing through the lapel and collar area. Just test all your pieces together before cutting to make sure that you don't have a rigid piece that will stand on its own.

What I Know About Fusible Interfacings

You really need to test fuse to know what the result will be.

I just found out why Whisper-Weft ends up more firm than Armo-Weft, which I've experienced empirically, but it's been counter-intuitive so I've always doubted my senses. Whisper-Weft is a softer knit base, Armo-Weft is a heavier knit base, so the expectation is that Whisper-Weft would yield a softer fused fabric—wrong. The base is more closely knit on Whisper-Weft than Armo-Weft, so that when it's fused it actually yields a firmer fabric.

While not a fusible, here's an interesting little bit about the "hair" in hair canvas

"Cashmere fibers must be separated, either by combing out the down or by using a commercial dehairer on sheared fibers. The longest, finest down is used in knitted garments and the shorter down in woven fabrics. The separated guard hairs go into rugs or hair canvas used in tailored garments.

The majority of the world supply of cashmere has come from Afghanistan, Iran, Outer Mongolia, India, and China. In recent years, when these countries' political disarray disrupted cashmere supplies, manufacturers began looking for more stable sources.
New Zealand and Australia have been producing cashmere for more than a decade. Breeding selection began even some years earlier with captured feral (wild) goats." —click for the rest of the article from UC Small Farm Program USDA

1.Margaret Deck Komives in an article entitled "Making Sense of Interfacing" Threads Magazine issue 10 April 1987

Special care when handling velvet

Adding to Marji's excellent article on sewing specialty and luxury fabrics:

There are many kinds of velvets, depending on the fabric composition, density of the pile and its surface finishing (crushed, burnout, etc). The velvet that I’m going to use is 100%cotton velvet which has been said to be the easiest to handle among velvets because it can be pressed (on the wrong side) and you can even make direct contact with the iron on the pile when you press a seam open. In spite of being the easiest to handle, this fabric requires special care and techniques. I will summarize them for you:

Storing the velvet before cutting: This fabric crushes very easily and it can gain permanent markings and crease lines on the pile side. For this reason, the best way to store it is using an empty roll of fabric and covering it with a muslin remnant to protect it from dust:

Pre-treatment: I’ve read somewhere that 100%velvet can be washed and dried by machine but I don’t do that, because I don’t take the risk of disturbing the evenness of the pile. What I prefer doing is steaming it with a hot iron (normal cotton heat setting and vapor set to its maximum), on the wrong side, applying very light pressure and preferably over a marble surface. The velvet shouldn’t be disturbed until it dries completely (and if you use a marble surface it can take some time to dry). This technique is also indicated if you need to revive old and crushed velvet.

Garments suitable for being made of velvet: simple style lines for fabrics with body, vertical seam details are preferable to horizontal seam details, avoid round seams, no topstitching. Facings may be omitted or sewn using another fabric like satin (when using cotton velvet this is not necessary).

Cutting layout: a single layer “with nap” layout should be used. I prefer cutting against the pile so the color becomes richer and darker.

Marking: Tailor tacks, thread tracing (using silk thread or thin machine embroidery thread), tailor chalk on the wrong side.

Fitting: Making a test garment (muslin/toile) is mandatory since it’s impossible to recover an already stitched/pressed seam; after unstitching it the pile will be creased permanently. Making sure that the fit is perfect and no more alterations will be needed BEFORE stitching the final garment is the only option when using velvet.

Underlining: There’s no need to underline a velvet garment unless you intend to add more structure than the velvet itself already has. Nevertheless, all the other tailoring techniques for supporting the fabric (interfacing, back and chest shields, tailor tape, shoulder pads, etc.) can and should be used.

Interfacing: This is probably the only type of velvet where it’s safe to use fusible interfacings, as long as the interfacing used has a little stretch lengthwise (thanks Paco for this tip). Lightweight sew-on tailoring interfacing can also be used with optimal results. I intend to use both for my coat.

Lining: I prefer full linings for velvet made garments. A bright contrasting lining is my preference for adding more interest to the inside of the garment.

Stitching: Always stitch with the pile; use double basting and/or pins, and a walking foot (even feed foot) if you have one. When pile is hold together against pile, the fabric shifts so one layer will pucker if you don’t use these techniques to prevent this from happening. I’ll use size 80 ballpoint needles, a 2.5 stitch length setting and cotton thread.

Pressing: Use a needle board, a velvaboard or a self fabric cover (with the pile up) on the pressing surface. Self fabric (or a needle board that bends) should be used on the seam roll and the tailor ham. Use paper strips on the underside of the open SAs for preventing imprints, apply light pressure and steam with the iron, using the fingertips to set the seams open while they are moisturized and hot.

Seam finishing: I will make little diagonal cuts along the SAs just to prevent the seams from puckering. If this fabric ravels too much I may zigzag the raw edges, otherwise I’ll leave them as they are. All seams will be pressed open (I think there are no darts on my coat but if there were, they should be cut and pressed open too). I may also tack down the seam allowances (NOTE: if using a free hanging lining, consider binding the SAs.)

Buttonholes: I will run some tests but I will favor bound buttonholes or hand stitched tailored buttonholes.

And this is all for now (I will update this entry with further information later, including pictures and book/website references)

Specialty and Luxury Fabrics

I want to take a minute to post about some of the specialty fibers out there.
I've noticed from reading many of the posts that there are two separate fabrics that both will require some special handling that many folks here plan to use. And then there is the question of the mohair that Susan has asked about.
The specialty fabrics are Cashmere, and the B*berry raincoating that is turning up everywhere.

first off, I'll talk about specialty animal hair fibers.
Cashmere is the fiber of the Kashmir goat, and comes from Asia, Tibet, India, and parts of China. It's expensive because the annual production is relatively small and demand is fairly high. There are varying qualities of cashmere available now, determined by staple fiber length and fineness of the fiber. The fine short fibers are 1-3.5" long, the coarser longer fibers vary from 2-5". It's also known to be warm relative to the weight of the fabric.

Mohair is the fiber of the Angora Goat. The fibers are fine and silky and measure 4"-6" or 9"-12" depending upon how often the goats are sheared. Mohair is "remarkably resistant to abrasion and wear" Paraphrased from Textile Science by MarjoryL.Joseph c. 1977.

Claire Schaeffer, in her Sew Any Fabric Quick Reference Guide recommends "Simple designs, minimal seaming, topsitching." She cautions to avoid intricate details when working with 100% animal hair fabrics.
She recommends lightweight silk as underlining to add structure for coats and jackets. I'll add a recommendation of the fine cotton batiste or silk/cotton batiste (see Farmhouse Fabrics silk cotton batiste blend)

When pressing both cashmere and mohair it's really important to test press scraps first and use a press cloth, and press on the wrong side only.
Again, Claire Schaeffer cautions that Mohair is easily damaged by steaming and improper pressing. Covering the ironing surface with a towel or piece of wool will help to protect the right side surface from crushing.

Adele Margolis, in The Complete Book of Tailoring Suggests designs with simple lines and few pattern pieces for Mohair fabrics, and underlining with china silk or silk organza in a matching color.

Both cashmere and mohair fabrics should be treated as Nap fabrics and a one-way layout should be used.
This information applies also to fabrics that are wool/animal hair blends. ie wool/cashmere or wool/mohair blends.

The two lines the 464 pg The Vogue Sewing Book devotes to instructions on "sewing with luxury fabrics" says "Don't skimp on the inner fabrics: interfacings, underlinings, and lining fabrics should match your fashion fabric's quality. And please, make a test muslin--the time spent is well worth the effort".

Bottom line, if you're planning on sewing with an animal hair fiber, other than wool, plan on underlining, and plan on using some extra care in sewing and handling.
All of my knowledge and experience, and everything I've been able to look up in my various source references, all make me feel confident in saying that you can make buttonholes, collars, and pockets in lovely coats using animal hair fabrics, including mohair.

Susan, I think the design lines of the jacket that you're looking at would be fine with a mohair fabric. I would avoid designs with gathers, pleats, and any other fussy details. But Vogue 2884 is a loosely fitting jacket with just a few pieces, so I really think you'll be fine.

KayY said...Threads #91 (November 2000) has an article on sewing with mohair which recommends caution in lining and underlining mohair because of the sag factor. It suggests quilting layers together à la Chanel, or letting the lining hang free at the hem. Sandra Betzina is the author.