ASG Sewing Blog – Page 81

September 28, 2017

Mystery of the Shrinking Embroidery Stabilizer

I love to do embroidery and when I work with cotton fabrics, I always starch them well before hooping. The starch makes the fabric crisp and the embroidery clean. After stitching, I then press again—without starch. After pressing a couple of the quilt blocks, I noticed some wrinkles along the stitching lines that I hadn’t noticed before. I pressed the second block and the same thing occurred. So, I starched the fabric again for the next block, stitched it, pressed and the same thing—only not quite as bad. This was perplexing so I began to do some investigating. I finally discovered that the poly mesh stabilizer I was using was SHRINKING when it was being pressed! It wasn’t a lot—about ¼” all around— but was enough to distort the embroidery and make me very unhappy.

My shrinking poly mesh stabilizer

Here I cut the piece of poly mesh stabilizer, placed it on a cutting board and placed pins at the corners so you can see the original size.

I then took the piece of stabilizer to the ironing board and pressed it well (I used lots of steam, too) leaving the pins in the board so I could check the size after pressing.

The piece was flipped and pressed again. Now I must admit, I press with a hotter iron than most folks to do because I work very quickly and I work with a professional iron—but, I also tested with a household iron and basically got the same results. I pressed well in all directions and all over the stabilizer.

After the pressing, I let the stabilizer cool off and then I placed it back on the cutting surface, aligning the top and right sides to the original lines.

You can see how much this piece of stabilizer shrunk—it is enough to make a difference in the finished piece of embroidery.

If you find your pieces have wrinkles around the outer (and even sometimes inner) edges of your work, check your stabilizer by pre-shrinking it. I’ve been using this same stabilizer for years and had not had this problem before so I wonder if the production of the stabilizer has changed in some way—either the brand changed manufacturers or perhaps changed the fiber content in some manner (maybe less expensive fibers to make more profit to cut production costs?) I’ll never know unless I write to the manufacturer and chances are they will not tell me anything.

So, now every time I get a new bolt of stabilizer—any kind of stabilizer (except water soluble, of course) — I will be heat testing it to be sure it can hold up to washing and drying and pressing.

Sew ‘til next time, enjoy the journey of sewing!

~Ramona

June 14, 2017

Radial Grading

Radial Grading, also known as Radial Projection, was a method used by pattern companies many years ago and I’ve often wondered why it’s not used any longer — it certainly would save a lot of paper and printing butt does require a little more effort on the part of the user. During the first part of the last century and before, magazines were printed with fashion illustrations and included were tiny little pattern templates of the pattern pieces needed for the garment all on a page or two. The fashion illustrated on the page was sewn from the pattern drafted from those tiny templates — clever, isn’t it! Honestly, once learned, the method can be used for any pattern and for any size as long as the pattern template is accurately drafted and printed.

This method is not new. The “Lady’s Godey” magazines used illustrated fashion “plates” and often included the patterns to make the garments. The University of Vermont has an extensive collection of Lady’s Godey books; they have scanned excerpts of patterns and illustrations. Some full editions may also be found online in the Hathi Trust Collection.

Costume makers use this method. It just requires using the template (small scale pattern) of a pattern piece and a ratio method to draft a pattern to full scale, as seen in this video.

Costuming Books

There are many costuming books available with pattern templates (check Dover Publications).

Fashions & Costumes from Godey’s Lady’s Book is an example
Scale Rulers and Charts: Not only can patterns be graded up, but they can be graded down using this method, as demonstrated by Don McCunn

Using this method is all about “ratios,” but it’s not that hard or complicated. Just use the ratio of the pattern to the person as illustrated in the videos and go to it!

How would this come in handy? Well, if you create a sloper for yourself, you can radial grade it down to a quarter or half scale pattern. Because it is a “personal” sloper, you already know it fits. It is sometimes easier to design in quarter or half scale either by flat pattern or draping on a half or quarter scale form. Once a newly design pattern in quarter or half scale is finalized, then all you’d have to do is radial grade the final pattern up and you’d have an actual full-size pattern in your size — how wonderful is that! Now, it won’t be “perfect.” There will still be some alterations depending upon the accuracy of your drafting, radial grading, and also the fabric used for the garment — there is always tweaking and editing as we know. You’ll be able to determine alterations while making a mock-up of the garment.

There are companies that have taken this method of pattern making and made companies. For instance: The Sunburst Pattern System,The Dot Pattern System, and Lutterloh — hot here in the U.S. in the 1980’s — they called it the”Golden Rule” system of pattern making.

Can you begin to see how beneficial this type of pattern making would be? Mr. McCunn has a downloadable and printable PDF of “scale” rulers used in his video at the bottom of the page—print them and try this method.

I think this might be a fun Neighborhood Group project for an ASG chapter, don’t you?

Sew ‘til next time…enjoy the journey of sewing!

~Ramona

June 1, 2017

RN Numbers

Clothing and Textile Manufacturer Registration Numbers

Mom needed a new pair of jeans. She gave me a pair that has a hole worn in the knee and asked that I just put a patch on them because they are good enough to wear around her apartment. As a dutiful daughter, I brought them home to repair them. The fabric is worn in more areas than the knee, though—Mom! You need some new jeans! Like many of us, Mom has had some medical issues and has a hard time finding a pair that had a looser elastic waist and simple, no fuss fit that she can just wear around her home.

I looked for a brand tag, there wasn’t one; however, there was a tag with an RN number, the registration number filed with the government by a manufacturer of clothing and textiles. It’s not a required function, but is certainly nice when done by the manufacturer. The one we’ll explore here is finding mom her jeans. Now, in doing this, one never knows what they’ll find. As we all know, manufacturers do sometimes keep clothing pieces from season to season, but many times things are made only for a season or two and then changed or removed from the line altogether. No matter, I wanted to see if I could find Mom the jeans she enjoys.

I started at the Federal Trade Commission website, entered the RN number from the tag, and clicked the search button. The system returned one record, for VF Jeanswear Limited Partnership.
I now have a manufacturer’s name. Clicking the blue link brings up additional information about the company and the location.
I then Googled the manufacturer’s name, clicked the first link and went straight to the website for the manufacturer. The home page listed the company’s brands but did not show where the brands are sold.
I went back to Google and searched the company name and included the number at the bottom of the tag—which I surmised was the garment style or inventory or some other number used by the company to identify the style as being an elastic waist, pull on jean… and on the right of the search page, I found a link to the style number by the manufacturer!
I clicked on the link and and was taken to the store’s website (Blain’s) where I was able to order mom two new pair of jeans.

I could have asked her where she got them, but then I wouldn’t have an educational blog to share with you and most of all, these new jeans wouldn’t be a surprise for Mom! Shhhhhh—please don’t tell her! I know she’ll be thrilled when they arrive in her mailbox next week.

Sew ‘til next time…enjoy the journey of sewing!

~Ramona

March 1, 2017

Sewing with a Serger

This is a snippet from our full-length video on Sergers, available to members. In this snippet, we cover:

How to place the thread on your serger using spool caps
How to prevent the needle from falling into the hole when replacing the needle
How to re-insert a new needle
Why there’s a hole in the brush that came with your serger and what to use it for
Sewing pearls, beads or ribbon onto your fabric with your serger

To view the full video, become an ASG member today! Membership in the American Sewing Guild gives you access to over 150 educational videos and project files, as well as a subscription to our weekly newsletter. Members take advantage of special offers, member discounts, education, meetings and member’s only pricing at the annual conference.

March 1, 2017

Taste of ASG Video – Pattern Drafting

Get a Taste of ASG with these snippets from our full-length video on Pattern Drafting.

Membership in The American Sewing Guild gives you access to over 150 educational videos and project files, as well as a subscription to our quarterly magazine. Become a member today to take advantage of special offers, member discounts, education, meetings and member’s only pricing at the annual conference.