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Fabric on the Bias

My newest pattern Bryant, is a dolman sleeve top that is cut on the bias.  One of the common questions that came up in the testing was on the best way to cut out a pattern like this on the bias.

The two most important things to remember when working with knit cut on the bias is to handle it as little as possible and STAYSTITCH the neckline and facing.  Absolutely in no way should you skip this step, trust me I did it with one of my tops and the neckline was so stretched out I couldn’t get the facing to fit.

Uploading Photos from Your PC to Instagram

Uploading Photos from Your PC to Instagram

Uploading photos from your PC to Instagram can be frustrating to say the least.  There are many third party programs out there that advertise the ability to upload photos to Instagram from your computer, but after trying many different ones I just never found one I liked.  They were either always buggy or the interface annoyed me.

About 6 months ago I figured out a really easy system for doing it and I am finally sharing it with all of you.  It does require a couple different steps but now that things are set up and it is a habit I don’t even think twice about it.  All of these steps were done on an android phone so there is a chance that the steps might be slightly different on an iPhone.

Choosing Fabric for the Montlake Tee Sewing Pattern

Montlake Tee Fabric Options

Choosing fabric for a pattern is my favourite part of sewing.  I love walking the aisles of a fabric store feeling and stretching the fabrics to see how they will behave with the pattern.  When designing my new pattern, Montlake I realized very quickly that depending on the fabric chosen the final tee would have a different look.  The more stretch in a fabric leads to a deeper scoop neck and relaxed fit.  For those fabrics that have only slight stretch it is a more fitted tee.  All the looks are great, it’s just a matter of what kind of mood you are in when sewing up your Montlake.

Dude Just Print It

Today was a huge aha moment for me, as Oprah would say.  No it wasn’t about the perfect pattern design or some new program that will revolutionize the indie sewing pattern world, it was something much more vital to pdf patterns.

I figured out how to print my pdf patterns on my HP printer without the bottom 1/4″ being cut off!!  Super exciting right?!

Knits Are Not Created Equal

In a perfect world you wouldn’t have to think about stretch percentages and fabric content when working with knits.  You could grab any knit from your stash and it would work the same as all the other knits when making the same pattern.

Unfortunately that isn’t the case, many times you have to make some adjustments to a pattern even when the fabric you are working with is one of the listed fabrics.  What it comes down to is that all knits are not created equal.

Grading Between Sizes

There are very few people that can look at a size chart and find that their measurements fit exactly into one size.  More often than not you have different sizes for the different places you measure such as bust, waist and hips.  For me this was the biggest draw to sewing my own clothes, I could never find clothes like dresses and tunics that would work with a small bust and a larger hip.  As soon as I saw my first nested womens pattern I was hooked!