Monday, February 23, 2009

Alysaundre's Perfectly Pointed Gore Tutorial

Awhile back I posted my tutorial on how I insert gores into a slashed opening. I usually do this by hand since I could never get the point to align correctly, and it didn't look very good. So for years I have been telling anyone that would listen that the best way to insert gores is to sew it by hand, well now I am going to tell you different. Last month while attending the local sewing night I was taught a new method of inserting gores, and it is all done by machine, and it results in a perfect pointed gore

So without further ado here is Alysaundre's Perfectly Pointed Gore Technique:

















On the left is the gore, and on the right we have our main fabric with the slash. Flip your gore upside down over slash Right Sides Together (RST).

















Find the place where your seam allowances converge, and place your pin through the mark.Place the pin above your slash by 2-3 threads.

















Pin through both layers.

















Position your needle directly over your pin, where you marked the converging line of your seam allowance. Take Two stitches across the top of the gore.

















You can hardly see those two tiny stitches, but they are there to be an anchor, and mark your starting/stopping point for your seam.

















Pivot the gore to align the seam allowances.

















Notice that the seam allowance doesn't match exactly at the top of the slash. This is OK! If you pull the gore over to make it match you will distort the grain of the gore and your point will get wonky.

















Sew seam with your needle inserted into the two stitches you took earlier. Use the gore to align your seam allowance, not the slash.

















See, nice and even from this side, just don't look at the back.

















This part always feels weird to me. Match the other side of the gore and the slash RST.

















Align the seam allowance from the bottom remembering thet the seam allowances won't align at the top

















Again use the gore to align your seam allowance. I found it easier to sew bottom up on this pass. End your seam at the two stitches.

















Now press your seam allowances from the gore out.

















Now you have a perfect pointed gore!

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Boring projects, and Burning fabric

I've been making gift bags for Largess. They are not worth digging out the camera to show you. But this is a good opportunity to remind everyone to use safe handling practices when conducting a fiber burn test. Can you see where this is leading? Yes while I was determining whether or not the linen look fabric I had been given was indeed linen, I discovered it was more NOT than Linen. I made this observation as the strand I was testing shot a molten ball right into the center of my palm. This is why I recommend natural fiber fabrics. Anyhow since it was an obvious synthetic I decided to cut it up into Largess bags, and spare anyone the potential pain of setting themselves alight in this melty fabric. See I'm not a fiber snob, I'm a humanitarian.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Our service will be temporarily suspended. . .

Well I have a post, and a few projects in the wings, but alas I have severely ganked my wrist. So until I can hold a needle, I will be unable to work on those projects. I did however buy another sewing machine, so you may be seeing other projects take place.