And In the Beginning, There Was Grain....

To all the ladies of sewing!!! Dust of your unused sewing machines given to you by well-meaning loved ones and sharpen the scissors from overly ambitious giant gorilla Halloween costume projects!  This post is going to be some basics that we need to go over so that you will be happier during your sewing projects.

Let Me explain a little about fabric and the way to prepare it for sewing.

Weave (or Kniteave....)

For this project we want woven fabric because it sews differently (more easily) as opposed to knits.  If it doesn't really stretch its usually woven, if it stretches a lot, then it is most likely a knit.  Sometimes wovens have lycra in them which help them to stretch, just look at the fiber content on the bolt of fabric you're buying from to see.  Lycra makes everything more comfortable.  Just imagine getting into your skinny jeans without it, not only would you look like a little stuffed sausage, but your jeans would probably cut off the circulation to your toes once they were tight enough to be considered "skinny."  They did this in the 80s...lots of double feet amputees in that decade; be grateful for lycra.

Besides the point.

Grain

Behold, the incredible selvage.

First thing you need to do is make sure your fabric is on grain.  You see, fabric is made up of threads going up and down and then side to side.  They are woven together on a loom (one might think of 1880s industrial revolution photos of or little Mexican ladies making those fabulous blankets, these are both looms) which makes these "woven" fabrics.  This is much different from knits which are made on machines that use needles (huge mechanical versions of your grandma's knitting needles) to create interlocking loops that allow the fabric to stretch in different ways.  Your comfy little t-shirts and fleecy sweats are knits.

Ok, so like I said, woven fabrics have threads that go up and down, these are called warp threads that create the warp of the fabric.  The crosswise threads create the weft.  While you might not need to know the names of these, it is important to know that they are there.  If you are using a commercial pattern there will be a grain line marking that you want to line up with the warp of the fabric.  The warp on the fabric is always parallel to the selvage of the fabric shown on the right!

Rule of Thumb:  You always want the warp to be laying of or hanging off the body perpendicular to the floor.  This is how pattern-makers determine where the grain line is on the pattern piece.

Snipping

It order to make sure your fabric is on grain when you begin your project, cut a little ways down from the top of the fabric along the weft (perpendicular to the selvage).  Just a little snip, then rip to whole top of the piece off.  You do this because when you're tearing the fabric you're take off all the uneven cutting that the little old lady at the fabric store cut with her scissors.  DON'T rip off the selvage to find the grain!  It is a precious, precious commodity, it is always on the straight of grain and doesn't have to be stabilized with like a serger or anything.

Tearing

Once you've found the grain all you have to do is fold the fabric together, hotdog ways, match up the top to be even and press it nicely and neatly.


Pressing

When you're "ironing," you actually really want to press.  Instead of moving the iron willy-nilly across the fabric, you want to press with with the grain (mostly with the weft, but both) or press in the same direction of the threads.  Try not to stretch the fabric while you're doing this, ok?

A true mark of a professional looking garment is seams that are pressed open.  It is exactly what it sounds like and you should take every opportunity to to so!  Here is a picture.  Make sure you pull both the main fabric and the seam allowance all the way open so when you're done you can hardly see the seam on the other side because its so stinkin' flat.  Sometimes it is good to be flat.

Pressing a seam open!

So there's how to prepare your fabric so refer back to the page very much and often.  Leave questions in the comments and I will answer them with the swiftness of...an animal that is swift.

Meet, ME!

So I'm Becca, and a person suggested I do this thing.  Since my one previous blog was about the horrors of being single, I figured it would be good to move in a different direction by helping young women (and in their hearts) everywhere to express themselves through sewing and crafts!!  Since I am a Republican seamstress I will possibly interject political and religious views that are always expressed with humor and are not meant to offend anybody, unless you like to be offended in which case I am an equal opportunity Journeyman Seamstress Instructor.  Anyway, it doesn't matter because you'll probably just skim the instructions/tangential musings and look at the pretty pictures wondering how I make it look so easy to put a pocket in a skirt.  Don't worry, it'll be fun, really frustrating, but fun!

Look forward to the first project of sewing a cute little skirt with pockets and elastic waistband as well as frequent grammatical errors involving, but not limited to, there/their/they're and the masterful use of the semi-colon.