Sunday, October 14, 2007

The Threads tip that changed my life

Okay, that might sound a little dramatic, but it's true. A couple of years ago, I was browsing through the latest issue of Threads that arrived in my mailbox when I came across this reader tip: Sewing Perfectly Even Darts. This tip actually works for both darts and pleats.

Here's the shirt I'm currently working on, it's BWOF 10-2007-117; it has 4 long pleats on the front and 2 long pleats on the back.

First you mark the dart on the fabric (I use a fabric pencil), then you thread baste a "ladder" up the dart. This shows the right side of the front bodice, two pleats side by side.


When you pull both ends of the thread, the fabric will fold right sides together and the basting thread will give you a nice line to sew along

Up to that point, my darts had always been very sloppy and imprecise. I just folded the fabric and hoped for the best. This Threads tip showed me a very easy and precise way to make darts & pleats. So I've got to send a big shout out and thank you to Leona Butchart for submtting the Threads tip that changed my life! Now darts & pleats are easy peasy.

11 comments:

Kitty Couture said...

That is a brilliant tip and thank you for sharing it! So far I've always done as is described here but your method is even more precise.
I'm about to make Simplicity 3673 with plenty of pleats so your tip will be coming very handy :) Thank you!

cidell said...

Oh. That's a good one. Thanks!

LauraLo said...

Great tip, I love it! I was doing the exact same thing but with pins and it was more difficult. Can't wait to try this one!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing! That is a great tip; I read Threads but I must have missed that one.

yaiAnn said...

OMG! That is awesome! I will have to do that next time. Thanks for sharing!

Leslie said...

That is a really great tip, thanks for sharing. And thanks for the info about the free Vogue pattern, I just ordered the 8379 wrap dress!

Adrienne said...

What a great tip!!!!

Shay said...

I echo yaiann, OMG. Can't wait to try this one!

Tany said...

Great tip!! Thanks for sharing it, Christina!

narcissaqtpie said...

Thanks! I just printed it out.

Melissa said...

Awesome tip, thanks for passing that along!