Couture Snippets ~ Covering an ottoman

My photographer friend brought me this a LONG time ago to have it covered.  She wanted it to use in her photography studio.  It sat in my sewing room for so long the girls thought it was ours and were very disappointed when I got it finished and they found out we didn't get to keep it!

 

This is what it looks like now.

Below is a tutorial (sort of) showing how I made this slipcover.

Step #1.  place top of stool on fabric and trace around it.

Step #2.  cut out the circle.  You can add a seam allowance if you want to.  I don't always because if the fabric has any give to it at all it tends to come out too big and I wish I hadn't added the seam allowance.  If you DO add the seam allowance and you decide the slipcover turns out too big you can always just take a bigger seam.

Step #3. measure around the stool...

...and measure the height of the stool.  Cut out a piece of fabric the height of the stool plus enough for a hem and seam allowance x the measurement around the stool plus a seam allowance.

Step #4.  Sew the large rectangle together.

You will have a tube.  Press the seam allowance open

Step #5.  Fold the round top piece in half and make small snips at the center on each side.

Fold in half again and mark the centers again with a small snip.  This will give you 4 snips evenly spaced around the circle.

Step #6. Fold the rectangle piece in half with the seam to one side.  Make a small snip at the edge opposite the seam.  This marks the other side.  Then fold in half again bringing the snip you just made even with the seam.  Now make small snips on the opposite fold lines across from the You will now have 3 small snips and the seam evenly spaced on the rectangle piece.

(snip across from the seam)

Step #7.  Pin the circle piece to the rectangle piece (that has been sewed into a tube)

You will match up those small snips.

When you are finished pinning it should look like this.  Fits evenly all the way around with no stress and it is easy to make it happen when you mark your pieces with those little snips!

Step #8.  Sew the seam you just pinned.

Step #9.  Try it on for size.  If you are happy with it at this point and this is the look you were going for, press that seam around the top well, pop the cover back on and viola!! you are finished!

If you would like to spiff up that cover a little, make it a little girly, a little foofy, or if you just love ruffles, continue on - I added a continuous ruffle to the whole thing.

1st step of the ruffle is to cut the strips.  I measured them about 2 1/2 inches and made all my snips first, then tore the strips of fabric.  I love a good raw edge :)

They will look like this and you will need a TON of them.  Way more than you see in this photo :)

Step #2 of ruffle.  Sew all those strips together.  Since I was going for the raw edge look I turned the seam allowance out instead of in like you normally do with a sewn seam.

For the ruffling stage I used this wonderful little gadget.  It is one of the best sewing investments I've made for awhile!  I love it.  It was around $40 I think and so, so, so worth it.  If you like to make things with ruffles I highly recommend you get one.  If you can't get one that works with your machine, I recommend a new sewing machine.

Step #3 of ruffle.  Feed the beginning of the strip into ruffler.

See how cool this thing works?  You can adjust it for how big each tuck is and how far apart for the ruffled look you want.

You will need a lot of ruffled up fabric for this project. I had to add more ruffled strips to mine halfway through because I didn't know how much it would take.

Step #4 of ruffle.  After ruffling your strip start sewing it on.  I just started at the bottom and went around.  When I got around to where I started I just moved the ruffle up and went around again.  Around and around and around and around and....

You can kind of see here where I started overlapping the ruffles when I got back to where I had started.

When I got to the top of the side piece I just continued onto the round top piece and went around and around to the center.  Easy peasy!

It looked rather cute in my living room.  I considered forgetting my friend wanted it for her studio and just leaving it in my living room.  But then I thought better of it and took it to her!

So what do you think?  Do you like the ruffly slipcover?

Do you think you could make one using my instructions or do I desperately need lessons in tutorial writing?

Couture Snippets

Have you ever bought clothing items that had to have tons of loose threads snipped off before they looked wear worthy?  To me, trimming threads as I go is a no-brainer.  I've just always done it.  (that I can remember anyway.  No asking my Mom if that's really true!)  But I have had people ask me to finish something they have started and never finished and I know that not everyone just always snips threads as they go!!  It makes a MUCH neater, tidier finished product when your thread cutting has taken place all along the way.  If you don't practice this I suggest you start!  It just adds a great tough of professionalism to your finished project when there are not little threads hanging on here and there.

And just in keeping with the picture I added to this post, my husband always says - 'measure twice, cut once.'  This can apply to sewing as well as woodworking:)

Happy Thursday, enjoy the wonderful weather!

{Couture Snippets}

When sewing rounded seams, all pattern guides or instructions tell you to 'clip the curve'.  In some places you even need to make 'v' cuts to make things lay right.  I have found that using my pinking shears on the whole seam is faster, easier, and looks nicer.

On scallops you also need to go back and clip each point just to the stitching.  Don't clip through the stitching!!  The points won't turn nicely if you do not make this clip.

Try it next time you sew anything rounded that needs clipping to lay neatly.  You just might find that you like it as much as I do!

Couture Snippets ~ No. 2

A seamstress is only as good as her iron. 

There was a time when my Mom would not have thought I would ever say that.  I detested ironing.  To put it mildly.  What was the big deal?  What was the point of pressing your seams before moving on in your sewing project?  Just turn the seam the same direction at both ends when sewing it into the next seam and iron everything at once when you got finished.  Yeah.  I once thought that.  And I proceeded to test my theory.  Mom was right.  IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO PRESS YOUR SEAMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think it was an author in Martha Pullen's magazine 'Sew Beautiful' who said "your iron will be your most important tool".  She was right.  I cannot end up with a quality finished job if I do not do the proper pressing at the proper times.

I still hate ironing clothes.  I dash through the few things we need for Sunday morning, ON Sunday morning.  I iron an outfit or shirt when necessary.  But I do NOT spend my Tuesday ironing clothes along with all the towels and bedsheets.  Just don't have it in me.  Besides, I tend to not get all the laundry done on Monday anymore:)

So thankful I'm not placing this on a hot, wood burning stove every time I'm sewing!

This one looks a little more up and coming, might be able to put water in it to have some steam?

That's another thing about irons.  THEY MUST HAVE STEAM.  Pressurized steam is by far superior.  I HIGHLY recommend it even if you don't sew.  Your clothes will look like they came from being pressed at the cleaners.  Or better.

I started out with one of these.  And I wore it out in less than 2 years.  I have been through so many irons I have totally lost count.  I've had several Rowenta's.  They are good irons, I just can't seem to get them to last.  I've tried cheap, I've tried expensive, I have decided I am just too hard on them. 

Eventually I spent the $$ on a pressurized steam iron from Reliable.  It looked similar to this one but didn't have the cork handle.  It lasted 2 years which was over twice as long as the non-pressurized had been lasting.  I think it cost $159. 

By now, I was hooked on the pressurized steam.  Wouldn't consider anything else.

This time around I tried this one for about $50.  It lasted around a year to a year and a half.  I ordered another one that was supposed to be like the Reliable I'd had before and when it arrived guess what was in the box!  Another iron just like this one.  I was not happy.  But I'm using it and for now it's working.  My husband and I have decided that the way I use an iron is too hard on them, they get too hot for too long.  When I sew, my iron is on.  And most times it is on for hours if not all day long.  I think these irons just are not made for that kind of use.  I would HIGHLY recommend the Reliable if you can spend the $$.  If not go for the Euro Monster.  Especially if you mainly just iron most of your clothes at the same time, once a week or so. 

This is the iron I want now.  It is $899.  The boiler tank holds over a gallon of water, it gives over 6 hours of continuous steam and is rated for unlimited use per day.  I'm hoping I can swing that price the next time my iron bites the dust.  This thing is a must.

After all, a seamstress is only as good as her iron:)

Couture Snippets #1

Haute couture (French for "high sewing" or "high dressmaking"; pronounced: [ot kutyʁ], English pronunciation: /ˌoʊt kuːˈtʊər/) refers to the creation of exclusive custom-fitted clothing. Haute couture is made to order for a specific customer, and it is usually made from high-quality, expensive fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finished by the most experienced and capable seamstresses, often using time-consuming, hand-executed techniques. Couture is a common abbreviation of haute couture and refers to the same thing in spirit.^[1]
It originally referred to Englishman Charles Frederick Worth's work, produced in Paris in the mid-nineteenth century.^[2] In modern France, haute couture is a "protected name" that can be used only by firms that meet certain well-defined standards. However, the term is also used loosely to describe all high-fashion custom-fitted clothing, whether it is produced in Paris or in other fashion capitals such as Milan, Tokyo and London.
The term can refer to:

• the fashion houses or fashion designers that create exclusive and often trend-setting fashions
• the fashions created

This definition found here.

That said, I hear the word 'couture' used for the 'proper way to sew something'. 

I'm using it in the name of my tutorials.  'Couture Snippets'

Now.  Don't expect a tutorial every day!  Or even every week for that matter:)

And by all means do not consider my tutorials the only way or even the best way something could be done!  Just because I'm using the word 'coutoure' does NOT make me the one and only or best seamstress out there.  By far the opposite if I were truthful:)

I have had requests for tutorials on a few things. 

So I am going to try to be accommodating.  I want to do this.  I love the tutorials I've used from other bloggers.  A seamstress can never know too many fun tricks of the trade.  There's always a quicker, easier, or more fun way to do something:)  And while I'd like to do this every week I am being realistic.  Life gets hectic.  I never have enough time to do everything I WANT to do now.  So I will do them when I can:)

First up is an invisible zipper.

It's been so long since I did the other kind I almost forget how.

Invisible zippers are the way to go.  It's, well, invisible!!  Hence the name:)

 Start by sewing the seam the zipper will go in.  Invisible zippers can be put in any straight seam.  You will leave an opening in the top portion of the seam that is 1 to 1 1/2 inches shorter  than your zipper.  If you zipper is 9 inches (just the teeth, don't include the extra below the spot the zipper tab stops) then you will have a 7 1/2 to 8 inch opening.  Sew the seam below that point.

 Press that seam open.  Press back the edges that were not sewn the same amount as your seam allowance.  I use 5/8 inch seams and press the open edges back that far too.

Next open the zipper

Press those zipper teeth the opposite way from what they already are.  press them as flat as you can.  This is VERY important:)

Use your machines 'zipper foot'.  Every machine should come with one. If yours didn't go buy a zipper foot that works with your machine or get a new machine.

Your zipper will end up sewed in this way.  Right side of zipper against the wrong side of the fabric.  That's the end goal.

Place your fabric right side down and your zipper also, right side down.

Make sure the seam allowance that you pressed back is laid out flat, not folded back.  You will use the crease you ironed in as your guide line.  You want your zipper teeth right on that fold line.

You zipper foot will allow you to sew with your needle right beside the zipper teeth.  I change my needle postion slightly to get it as close as possible.

Continue to sew along the zipper teeth, keeping the teeth right on that creased fold you made when you pressed the seam allowance back.

Sew down as far as you can.  You should have an inch or so of zipper feet that extend beyond the point where your seam starts.  Just stitch to this point and backstitch.

Done with side one.

This is what it looks like with one side sewn in.

Your zipper sides should both start at exactly the same spot at the top for everything to end up smooth at the bottom when you are finished.

Sew the second side just like the first.  Zipper teeth on the fold line, sew as far as you can to the bottom.

This is what you should have left at the bottom of your zipper when you have finished sewing side 2.

Close the zipper.

Check the right side.  It should look like this.  Invisible.

Now it's time to stitch down that little end that's left!

Open out your seam allowance under that last couple inches of the zipper.  Sew the remaining part of the zipper to the seam allowance from where you stopped to the bottom of the zipper.  Your garment is all folded to one side and you are stitching through ONLY the zipper and the seam allowance.

One side of the bottom part sews from the top down and the other from the bottom up.  You only need to sew down the couple of inches that were not already sewn in the first couple steps.

Voila!  All you see is the tab at the top.  That's the beauty of an 'invisible' zipper:)

Inside view.  i turned down and topstitched the top of this skirt after the zipper was in. 

Here is what it looked like when i pressed it before turning down the top and topstitching to finish it.  Once I turned that down the tab was completely at the tip of the seam.  If you have space above where the zipper stops when your garment is finished you need to add a hook and eye.  I don't like hook and eyes.  So I eliminate that as often as possible:)

Finished:)

So.  Did that help you at all?  I'm sure the pictures do WAY more than any instructions I can write here.  A picture is worth a thousand words you know!  Let me know, should 'Coutoure Snippets' become a regular part of 'Sew a Fine Seam'?  What would you like pictorally explained??