Sew Confident!
2020 Preview
Sew C
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Confident!
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Contents
06 10 16 18 22 Visions of Velvet
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The Velvet Splice Dress
Red Velvet Cupcakes
Sewing with Velvet
Fitting Shoulders
Greetings, Welcome to this sneak peek of Series 9 Sew Confident! by The Sewing Workshop. As a member of this sewing education program, you will receive a monthly digital magazine filled with our favorite sewing techniques, wardrobe, color and style inspiration, step-by-step tutorials and more. The tutorials and techniques featured in the magazine will coordinate with four exclusive digital patterns that you receive quarterly. Along the way, you will also get membersonly videos, opportunities to chat with noted sewing teacher Linda Lee about your sewing questions, a private Facebook community to share your projects and so much more. This sneak peek is just a taste of what you will see when your monthly digital magazine arrives. You can look forward to more fitting solutions, more in-depth tutorials and more ways to advance your sewing techniques. We hope you will join us for this year’s Sew Confident! To learn more about the program visit SewingWorkshop.com
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Visions o Page 6
of Velvet Page 7
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Velvet Splice Dress Page 11
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Velvet isn’t just for sewing...
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Red Velvet Cupcakes Ingredients – For the cupcakes
Ingredients – for the frosting
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2 ½ cups flour ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder 1 teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon salt 1 cup butter, softened 2 cups sugar 4 eggs 1 cup sour cream ½ cup milk Red food color 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Directions
Cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Set aside. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Mix in sour cream, milk, food color and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until just blended. Do not overbeat. Spoon batter into 30 paper-lined muffin cups, filling each cup 2/3 full..
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened ¼ cup butter, softened 2 tablespoons sour cream 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 (16 oz) box confectioners’ sugar
Frosting: Beat cream cheese, butter, sour cream and vanilla extract in large bowl until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in confectioners’ sugar until smooth.
Bake 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted into cupcake comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire rack 5 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely. Frost.
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A Notion For... Velvet is woven with an extra set of warp yarns which form a pile. Originally made of silk, velvet is now available in cotton, rayon, acetate, polyster and blends. Burnt-out velvet is made using two different yarns with a pattern effect produced by destroying one of the yarns in a printing process that employs chemicals instead of color. Crushed velvet is pressed in different directions to create a pattern with various color shades. Cut velvet is woven on a jacquard loom to create a distinct pattern in pile on a plain background. Panne velvet is a long-pile velvet that is flattened during the finishing process so that the pile lies in a uniform direction resulting in a shimmering, lustrous appearance. Velour is a fabric that is commonly knitted, similar to velvet, but has a thicker pile.
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A Notion For... Cutting and Marking Velvet has a definite nap. Run your hand over the fabric. If the nap is going down, the velvet will look darker. Generally, velvet garments are cut with the nap going down. Just be consistent! Use a sliver of soap or a chalk marker on the wrong side of the fabric to mark the direction of the nap. Lay the fabric as a single layer with the wrong side of the fabric facing up so you are laying the pattern pieces on the fabric backing. Use silk thread and tailor’s tacks or dressmaker’s pencils to mark dots and other necessary interior markings. Make small snips into the seam allowance for notches along the pattern edges. No tracing wheels, please!
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A Notion For... Hem Finishes Before hemming a velvet garment, let it hang for 24 hours, giving it time to relax. Re-measure and re-cut the hem length if necessary. A simple hem is best. Turn it up and stitch using a catchstitch by hand or a machine blindstitch. For longer garments, interface the hem using bias-cut cotton flannel. Catchstitch the top and bottom edges of the interfacing to the wrong side of the velvet before folding the hem in place and stitching again. Pressing Pressing velvet is delicate work. It is easy to mar the fabric with an iron, so never allow the iron to touch the fabric. Steam and finger pressing only! Use a needle board next to the pile when pressing. Or better yet, cover your ironing surface with a large piece of heavy, coarse fabric such as mohair, velveteen or frieze.
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Sewing Workshop Signatures
Fitting Shoulders Shoulder seams on a garment should fit the width and slope of your shoulders. The fit of the shoulder seams influences the fit of the entire garment, improves the overall drape, and many times solves other fitting problems. Start by determining the correct length of your shoulder and adjust the pattern, making it narrower or wider, if necessary.
1 Measure the shoulder length from the neck base to the shoulder joint. Find the neck base by wearing a simple chain necklace or bending your neck toward the shoulder to locate the crease. To locate the shoulder joint, raise the arm and feel the indentation at the socket.
Example: Your shoulder length = 5″ Pattern width = 5 ½″ Adjustment- reduce the shoulder seam length ½″
2 Using an indicator such as a red dot, mark the ends of the actual stitching line on the shoulder seam of your size. Measure the width of the shoulder seam on the pattern between the stitching lines (the finished length). This shoulder measures 5 ½″ ″ ″finished for a size small. Compare your shoulder length with the pattern measurement to determine how much to adjust the pattern.
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The basic concept of fitting is to start at the top.
Make all lengthen and shorten alterations first, then make the adjustments at the shoulders before altering other areas such as the bust.
Sewing Workshop Signatures
Narrow & Broad Shoulder Adjustments 1
Use pattern tracing paper to trace and record the original armscye shape of both the front and back.
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For Narrow Shoulders mark the new shoulder width (both front and back) at the end of the shoulder seam. Place the traced armscye under the pattern piece. Position the top of the traced armscye at the new shoulder mark. Pivot the tracing until the bottom of the traced armscye is aligned with the side seam. Redraw the armscye of the front and back using the original shape.
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For Broad Shoulders mark the new shoulder width (both front and back) at the end of the shoulder seam. Your mark will be placed beyond the original shoulder point. Place the traced armscye under the pattern piece. Position the top of the traced armscye at the new shoulder mark. Pivot the tracing until the bottom of the traced armscye is aligned with the side seam. This mark will extend below the armscye point. Redraw the armscye of the front and back using the original shape.
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Sewing Workshop Signatures
Balancing the Shoulders You should balance the shoulder when a garment continues to fall back and you keep tugging at it to bring it forward. This problem tends to occur with over-sized garments or those with rectangularshaped pieces. To fix the balance, the entire shoulder seam needs to be moved forward. However, note that ½″ is about the most that can be removed and added successfully without other issues occuring.
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Remove ½″″ from the front shoulder seam.
Add ½″″ to the back shoulder seam.
Tip! Remove the strip of pattern tissue from the front shoulder line and re-tape it to the back shoulder. Page 24
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On the sleeve, move the top dot forward towards the front ½″″″. If there is a stand or collar pieces, move the shoulder dot forward towards the front ½″″.
Techniques to look for in next month’s Sew Confident! • Lengthening the Detour Jacket pattern: We’ll give you step-by-step instructions for this fun pattern variation. • Sewing a yoke with the “burrito” method: A burrito? Yep, this fun construction technique creates a beautifully finished yoke. • Working with panel and graphic prints: We all love a bold graphic print, but how do you use it in a garment? Linda will show you! Plus, the new Detour Jacket digital pattern, Japanese interfacing, statement jacket inspiration and more!
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Sew Confident! is brought to you by The Sewing Workshop. Sew Confident! brings inspiration and education to your inbox every month. Each issue is designed by Linda Lee and the Sewing Workshop team to help beginner to advanced sewists with design process, trend curation, fitting solutions and couture sewing techniques.
Visit www.SewingWorkshop.com to see our collection of women’s garment patterns, beautiful fashion fabrics and nifty notions. Also be sure to check out Sew Confident! Series 1 – 8, available as collections or individual tutorials.
