I haven’t written in almost a month. Not because I didn’t want to.

I was preoccupied with altering a bridal gown.

I should have known that taking in 8 inches at the bust was going to prove to be difficult.

Isn’t there an unwritten rule that you shouldn’t take in more than like three inches or something?

This dress was a size ten and I think the bride is a size zero.

To complicate matters, there was a band sewn in around the top edge of the dress.

As in many strapless dresses, the front was higher than the back, so when you take it in at the side seams, the new seams don’t match up.

Here’s a drawing of the side view of a gown:

If you take in an inch from the front and back, which is a total of 2″ (I just folded the paper along the side seamline to make the point here), you can see that the band doesn’t line up now.

Neither does the dress itself:

My alteration was double the amount of the one in the photo above.

Plus there was beading involved.

And appliques.

But those were the least of my problems.

Here’s how it looked midway through the project:

The band is lining up fairly well with the main body of the dress. I’ll need to tweak it a bit, but do you see the “sagging” at the bottom of the photo?

My next challenge was to pull the band down lower on the dress to take that excess out of the dress and get it to lay smoothly.

This was much more difficult than I thought it would be.

The more I pulled it down, the less circumference of the band I had to work with.

Eventually, it worked.

I also added some boning to give her support on that side seam.

The manufacturer had added the original boning to the inter lining (yes, it’s a third layer…not the dress, not the lining,, but another layer.)

The interlining was made of self destructing fabric (ha!) and there wasn’t much of it to begin with. So, I needed to use some Fray Block on it to save what I could.

I would have loved to tear it all out and get rid of it, but time was of the essence and I knew whichever way I went, it was going to take time. (Oh, maybe I should have just cut it out! Hmm. Hind sight is always 20/20, isn’t it?)

I think my mind was on getting ready for Christmas and not stressing out!

Haven’t you had alterations like this before?

The farther you dig in to the garment, the more work you find to do?

I don’t run into this very often, but this was just one of those times.

Notice in the photo above that the band seam is now not perpendicular to the floor.

That is because it wouldn’t match up if I did that.

Thankfully, this seam was under her arm and mostly covered with the applique when finished, so no one cared. Or noticed.

I forgot to mention that I also had to take up the hem.

It had horsehair along the bottom and a huge train (which I didn’t have to alter, thankfully)!

The bride had a rough work schedule, but we got her fittings in when we could, sometimes at night.

I finished the day before Christmas Eve!

There were bridemaid alterations that had to be done the following Monday and the wedding was Tuesday!

What about you, have you ever had a project that consumed you or stressed you out to the point that you didn’t think you could finish it on time?

I’d love to hear about it.

Also, are you making any New Year’s resolutions?

I think you know mine!!!!

As I mentioned in the last post, there are many ways to mark a hem.

Besides the method I showed you in that post, I have tried using several measuring devices, including a yardstick.

None of them worked super well. They all had their issues.

But many thanks to Christy,an amazing tailor, who told me about another, quicker, method of marking your pants or skirts.

You may already know about this technique, but it was news to me.

First, buy yourself (or make) a stool.

I had thought of doing this for years, but I was waiting for my husband to make me a stool.

Good thing Christy stepped in and prompted me.

She has saved my back singlehandedly.

Or as kids would say, she has my back!

I found this one at Walmart:

It was only about $15.00.

I wanted one that was sturdy enough for someone to stand on. A stool that would make my customers feel confident that the thing wouldn’t collapse on them.

Then, Christy suggested I buy one of these at JoAnn Fabrics:

If you are on JoAnn’s mailing list, you can use the 40% off coupon and it will make it more affordable.

It has a ruler along the tall post and you can adjust the height of the marker to meet the height of your hem.

It also has a reservoir of powdered chalk.

Once you determine what height you want the hem at, you lock in the device and it won’t move.

When you get the marker right up to the fabric you are marking, squeeze the little bulb that is attached, and a small spray of chalk comes out of this gizmo in a straight line onto your fabric:

This is what it looks like on the pair of pants I marked recently:

Ok, my line is a little crooked. I must have moved a little.

But it’s close enough.

Chalk it in several places all around the hemline.

For a fuller skirt or gown, you’ll want to mark every inch or two all around the gown.

Then you just fold on those marks and press and you have the new hemline in a flash.

Thanks again, Christy!

There are several ways to mark a pair of pants in order to hem them.

I have used the same method for years.

It is so easy that your kids, husband, neighbor, or friend could do it easily.

And so can you!

First, I make sure the customer has on a pair of shoes that they will wear with the pants.

Then, I have them stand on the wood floor facing a full length mirror.

Then I grab a seam gauge like this one:

It is a handy tool for this assignment.

I ask the customer how high off the ground they’d like their pants to be.

If they don’t know, I start by folding the hem up 1/2″ off the ground, using the seam gauge as my guide.

Then I have the customer look and see if they like it at that point.

This customer wanted hers higher, so I folded them up 3/4″ from the ground and put a pin in there. (In the photo below, I pushed the blue slide up out of the way so you can see the fold of the pants better. Sorry, but I took this picture with the camera on the floor and didn’t look through the viewfinder first. It’s a little distorted and I didn’t look at the photo until she left.)

But, you get the idea, don’t you?

You can see in the photo below that I have turned the hem over to look at the wrong side of it:

The seam gauge shows that I had turned the hem up one inch.

(Let’s recap: The pants are 3/4″ up off the ground and the pants are folded up 1″. That is why you have the two different measurements, in case you were wondering).

Next, I put three more pins into each pant leg (one at each side seam and one in the center front of the pant on each leg).

So, at each of the three points, I will fold the pants up one inch and put a pin in to secure it.

You should have a total of four pins per pant leg:

I let my customer look at the pants now that the 4 pins are in each leg and they let me know if they like the length.

If so, we’re finished and I go on to hemming them.

If not, I raise or lower the foldline according to what they want and then change the other three pins accordingly.

This may seem like a long process, but it only takes a minute or two.

Once you have marked the hemline, you’ll want to sew the hem. To do so, you’ll want to read my posts on:

How To Hem Pants and Skirts

Hem Your Jeans the Professional Way

How To Hem Without Puckers for Flared or Tapered Pants

How To Hand Sew a Hem

There are several other posts on specific hemming solutions, so look at the left toolbar and click on “More Articles” and then “Hems”.

My next post will cover another way to mark your hems so stay tuned!

Many of you out there have been asking me how to take off beads and reattach them.

I don’t have a “rocket science” answer, but I’ll tell you what works for me.

I just begin by assessing the area where they are to be removed.

If I am taking in the side seams or bust of a dress, I will start by removing the beads closest to the seam line.

On this dress, the beads are huge and vary in size and shape, so I need to remove them or my presser foot will not be able to move over the surface of the fabric when I take in the dress.

As I assess the area, I look to see if the beads are sewn on individually with a long thread or if they are attached onto a separate piece of fabric, like a netting.

This dress didn’t have the netting.

The beads were sewn on individually, but probably done by a machine.

I can usually follow the thread with my eye, even while it is still sewn in, to figure out which beads should come off.

 I use either my seam ripper or a pair of small pointed scissors to clip the first thread.

Once that is done, I pull the bead off and store it in a small bowl or baggie.

Now, I gently pull on the thread to see where the next bead is coming from.

I try to keep the thread as long as I can without cutting it because I may be able to use that same thread later to secure the beads that are not going to be removed.

We’ll talk more about that later.

Once all of the beads are off, I do the alteration.

Then, I find a needle that is narrow enough for the beads to slide over.

Thread the needle with thread that matches the color that was used originally.

Tie a knot on the end.

I come up through the dress from the back, or if that is not possible, or I don’t want the knot to show on the underside, I come up through a spot where I will later attach a bead so that the knot will be hidden:

Anchor the bead down with several stitches. The bead above needs to be sewn by coming up through the middle of it and then down the outside of it.

Sometimes, you’ll have to go through the middle of the bead like this:

And sometimes, you’ll have to sew it on the edge of the bead like this:

Just continue to sew beads on. If there was originally a pattern or sequence to how the beads were sewn on, then follow that sequence. Sometimes you won’t be able to match it exactly, but do what you can to make it look as good as possible. In this case, the beads were sewn randomly all over the dress bodice, so I will do the same and fill in the open spaces until it looks good:

When I get to the end, I will pull the thread to the back of the dress (if that is possible).

Remember the long thread(s) that you had from pulling beads off at the beginning?

Thread those onto a needle one at a time:

Then pull it to the back of the dress and tie the two threads together into a knot that is secure:

If you’re not able to pull them through to the back of the garment, then tie your knots under a bead or in some spot where they can’t be seen.

And that’s all there is to it!

When you’re finished, it should look the same as before you started.

A big thanks to Christy, at Alterations by Christy, for telling me about an even easier way to put French bustles in your gown!

Many of you have seen the post I wrote on Putting Bustles on Your Wedding Gown. Christy saw it too and wrote to tell me about a step in the process that will save you lots of time.

Please refer back to the original post and then come back here for the short cut.

This time I am using a red formal gown that came with some bustling on the back already as part of the design.

Don’t let that throw you, if your dress back doesn’t have this poofing.

Your dress can have a simple plain train or a fancy one. The technique is the same.

This dress needed three bustles to keep it off the ground and the dress had three seams in the back, so it worked perfectly.

I always try to pin along the seams so I can hide the mechanics of the bustles under the dress.

Here is one of the bustles I pinned up.

Then I put pins to mark the upper and lower parts of that bustle, carefully took out the original pin, and laid it out flat:

Then, I transfered the pin marks to the underside of the skirt where I need to work on the bustles:

Instead of creating the loops like I did in my first post, Christy suggests using these instead:

Brilliant!

I found them at my local Joann Fabric store for about $2.00. They were in the section where the snaps are.

Ideally, you want the ring to sit above the top pin’s mark.

However, sometimes, that isn’t possible, as in this case:

Because of a previously sewn in bustle, my ring can’t sit above the pin mark.

You may find that this situation arises if your zipper tape is in the way as well.

So, let me tell you how to adjust for this problem.

I went ahead and stitched in the ring by hand onto the seam allowance only.

Then I measured the distance between the bottom of the ring and the pin mark:

In this case, it’s only 1/4″, which may not seem like enough to bother with, but I do anyway.  If yours is a greater amount, you’ll want to make the adjustment or your dress will hang too low when bustled.

So, I take that 1/4″ measurement, and go 1/4″ lower than the bottom pin mark and stitch the ribbon to the seam allowance only at the new mark:

Now, just thread the ribbon ends through the ring…

and tie in a bow like you tie your shoelaces, and you have it!

This bustle will stay put all through the reception and dance!

Thanks, Christy; you saved us all alot of time!

One of the more common alterations I do is taking in the waist and center back on pants and skirts.

Most people try and solve this problem by just making a dart or two in the back of the pants.

That doesn’t work too well if your pants or skirt is made of thick fabric and has double stitched seams.

This is when this alteration comes in handy and it works on pants and skirts alike.

For this illustration, I have a skirt:

Pin how much you need to take in and record the amounts along the waist and the center back seam as I did in the second photo of this post.

Or use your favorite method of transferring markings.

This skirt has a belt loop at the center back. With a seam ripper or a pair of small pointed scissors, take off the belt loop, making sure you pay attention to how it is attached because you are going to reattach it in the same way after you make the alteration:

Remove any tags that are sewn in:

Open up the horozontal waist seam by about four inches or more (2″ on either side of the center back) with your seam ripper or scissors:

If there is stitching along the top edge of the waistband, take out about 3 inches of that (1 1/2″ on either side of the center back seam).

Now, this skirt does not have a center back seam. Most pants and jeans don’t either.

If yours doesn’t have a center back seam, don’t worry, we are going to put one in and it won’t show, as I’ll illustrate later.

This skirt needed to be taken in 3/4″ total in the waist. So, that means, I need to take in 3/8″ on both sides of the center back.

I took a ruler and marked the skirt 3/8″ away from the center back (make sure you mark to the left of the center and to the right of the center), one  at the top of the band and one at the bottom of the band:

See the blue pen mark in the photo above? Well, you probably don’t want to use a blue pen, but I thought you’d be able to see it better than my marking pen.

Make these marks on the outside waistband and the inside waistband because you have to take in both!

Just to clarify, your markings should look like this:

As you can tell in the photo above, if you don’t have a center back seam, you can draw one with a washable marker, or press it in, or eyeball it.

When you don’t have a center back seam, you are going to create one to take the waistline in. Don’t worry, it will be covered by the belt loop. The best way I’ve found to insure that my seam is hidden under the belt loop, is to sew it to the right (or left) of the actual center back seam that you see double stitched below the waistband. See how it doesn’t line up exactly? That’s what you want. In this case, I moved it over about 1/8″ inch.

To take in the waistband, fold the waistband along the new imaginary seamline, right sides together. (If your garment came with a center back seam, of course you’ll just stitch a line parallel to the seamline.) Match the blue dots to each other and pin them in place:

Stitch in that new 3/8″ seam:

Most of the time, I cut the fold and spread the new seam out flat to reduce bulk in the waistband area.

However, if this is your first time with this alteration, wait and make sure everything is going fit together well before you trim it. If you have taken in a small amount, you may just want to leave it alone and not trim it. It’s up to you.

Now, we’re going to move to the skirt (or pants) for a few minutes, so leave the waistband until later.

Turn the skirt or pants to the underside. You need to take out the topstitching next.

Sometimes, the manufacturer will stitch the topstitching with a chain stitch. These are great because you can grab one thread and pull and the whole seam will come out. Just make sure you don’t pull out more than you meant to!

On this skirt I had one row of chain stitch and one row of regular stitching:

Take out the topstitching with a seam ripper or scissors.

Take in the skirt or pants the desired amount, tapering the seam towards the original seam like this:

Again, I don’t just guess on how much to take in, I have pinned it first and then transferred the markings so I know exactly where to stitch the new seam.

Once you have the new seam stitched, turn the garment to the right side and topstitch the seam just like it was originally:

In the photo above, you can tell where the old seam was, but don’t worry, that will fade quickly and most people don’t notice it anyway.

Here is where you want to reattach the belt loop.

Stitch the labels back on:

Now, topstitch to top of the waistband:

Stitch the waistband to the skirt (or pants). I usually topstitch this area closed:

Topstitch the top of the belt loop and then the bottom to hold it in place:

Here’s a look at the inside:

This is what it should look like on the outside. It should look the same as before you started, only smaller!

This year, I’ve seen alot of Bubble Dresses for Prom and Homecoming.

Here is one I altered yesterday:

They have lots of pouf all over them, don’t they?

The hem and the lining are usually sewn together at the bottom of the dress.

So, instead of opening up the hem area, I leave that alone as often as possible.

So far, no one has asked me to hem a short bubble dress.

I have had to hem a bubble bridal gown.

Say that fast three times!

But, on this gown, I needed to take in the bust area at the side seams.

So, instead of opening up the hem area and doing the alteration from there, I opened up the lining on a side seam about two inches longer than the area I wanted to alter:

On this dress, I needed to take in the side seams from the top of the bust down to the waist.

Once I had the side seam opened, I reached in and turned the dress inside out. That made it possible to take in the side seams.

To do that alteration, read this post.

You can do other alterations as well, but this is the most common one I do on formal gowns.

Once I was finished altering the dress fabric and the lining, I folded back the edges of the opening and stitched it closed:

I sew the stitches very close to the edge so that I don’t lose any noticeable width in the lining.

And that’s all there is to it!

I use this technique when I am working on any garment where the lining doesn’t hang loose. In men’s jackets, I tend to open up the sleeve area because it is more hidden than the back or sides of the jacket. The same is true for women’s jackets. On jackets, I tend to do alterations such as shortening sleeve length, taking in the center back seam or shortening the jacket’s length.

I like this technique because it saves alot of time and I don’t like to hand sew something together if I don’t have to!

There are many instances where you may need to sew just part of a hem. Maybe you have a skirt that is uneven, too long in the front or back, or maybe you have pants with the same problem.

Today, I am going to use this bridal gown to illustrate how to sew a partial hem.

The bride asked that the entire front edge be hemmed up, but that I should leave the train alone.

So, you’ll need to pin up the amount of fabric on your garment that needs to be raised.

Many times, the transition from front to back is no big deal.

But, sometimes, you’ll be raising four or five inches of the hem and you wonder how to make that smooth transition to the back of the skirt.

In this case, I am not raising the hem too much, but I still need to taper the fabric so that it has a smooth transition front to back.

For most long dresses, I like the front edge of the dress to be one inch off of the floor to give the customer enough clearance to walk without feeling like she is going to trip on her hem.

At the side seams, the hem will almost touch the floor, and then I’ll gradually taper the hem back to the train.

So, to do that, I took out the stitches for about two inches beyond the side seams and into the train area:

You’ll need to do the same. Take out about two inches of stitches into the hem area that you are not going to alter.

Fold the fabric back along the new foldline and press the new edge:

Next, press the rest of the hem, taking out pins before you get to them:

If you look at the photo below, you’ll notice that the underside edge is finished with a serger (stitching on the right) and the right side of the fabric was topstitched (the stitching on the left).

When I go to finish the hem, I’ll do the same to it.

Take note of how your hem is finished because you’ll want to finish your new hem area the same way that was originally done, if possible. (Sometimes, you can’t duplicate what has been done, but you can come close enough.)

Next, trim off any excess fabric and finish the raw edge.

I used a serger to both trim the edge and serge it. This saved me a step and some time:

If you serge it and you have the loose thread tails, you can weave them back into the serged edge or tuck them into the hem when you topstitch the edge.

Now you can see that all I have to do is fold over the finished edge:

Notice that the transition isn’t really noticeable.

Now, you’ll need to topstitch the edge.

I like to topstitch from the right side of the fabric (hem):

Since the original stitching is really close to the edge, I move my needle all the way to the right and then stitch:

When you get to the other side, just meet the original stitching and backstitch to hold it tight.

This is what the new hem looks like at the side seam:

Pretend I pressed it before I took the photo!

Last week I showed you my sewing room.

Today, I ‘d like to show you how I organize it.

I was raised by a very organized mother.

She taught me well. When you are finished with something, it goes right back where it belongs.

But I’m not as good as I used to be. I certainly don’t have things back where they belong here. 

What is a map doing in my sewing space, you ask?

Well, my husband and I went on a trip two weeks ago and I am journaling the trip in that small blue notebook and using the map to remind me of the places we went and the things we saw.

I bet you multi-task in your sewing room too.

We all have clutter.

And we all have to move it out of the way if we are going to sew.

So, here it is after I’ve put things away:

Do you see the gray square storage unit in the photo above?

Well, my husband used to use it for storing nails, and nuts and bolts in the garage.

But, he “graduated” to a different storage unit and asked me if I wanted this for sewing.

It has 25 small clear drawers in it and I thought it would be perfect for all sorts of notions.

The inside holds various sizes of sewing machine needles, all sorts of buttons, snaps, bridal beads, trims, my jean-a-ma-jig, etc.

I use the top of it to hold a small clock, seam rippers, the tomato pin cushion, and small scissors.

The black mesh container on its left is a pencil holder my husband bought me at Walmart or Target.

I used to use an empty cocoa container, which worked just fine, but this has lots of compartments, which is nice.

The two ends hold all my pens, seam guage, rotary cutter, crochet hooks, fray block and markers.

The middle section holds my most often used “feet” for my sewing machine, and some “post-it” notes.

Below the counter, on my right, I have several matching wicker baskets. The two top baskets hold all my sewing machine thread.

In one basket, I have spools of blue, purple, grey, black, and white. In the other, there are reds, oranges, greens, yellows and browns.

This isn’t the best solution, because I have to dig through the baskets to find the shade I need. The thread ends work their way off of the spools and get a little tangled from time to time.

I used to have a rack on the wall for my thread. It holds each spool individually so you can see the colors at a glance.

In this sewing room, I didn’t want too many things on the wall, but I think I may go back to that idea.

One basket on the lowest shelf holds my scissors:

Not sure how I got such a large collection. I don’t think I bought any of them. I think they were all given to me as gifts. Some are for fabric, some are for cutting paper, and one is a pinking shear.

The other baskets hold patterns, notions and other gizmos.

The point is, I like to have most everything at my fingertips so I don’t have to get up and go hunt something down.

In my last sewing room, I had a peg board and I was able to hang all my scissors, needle packages, mini iron, marking paper and wheel, etc. Then, all I had on the counter was my grey storage unit and my pencil holder.

You probably have a combination of things on your counter and things hung up.

You may have your iron right next to you.

I like to get up and go iron (especially with the big wedding dresses) because it gives me a chance to move around a little.

There are other reasons I get up and move around.

Sometimes, I get things out of these drawers:

They hold serger cones of thread, patterns and books.

They’re the perfect size for what I need them for.

I spotted them both as I was driving past a garage sale.

They were in perfect condition and I only paid $15 for the pair!

I also get up from the sewing machine to meet with customers downstairs.

When I do, I carry this small basket of 4 items with me:

It has my long tape measure, my seam guage, and both magnetic pin cushions.

And it’s always ready to go at a moment’s notice.

I also use this plastic container to carry all I need when I sew on my dining room table.

Sometimes the dresses or projects are just too big for my sewing area.

With this container, I only have to make one trip down the stairs with all I need.

Well, there you have a brief tour of the layout of my sewing room.

As you can see, there is nothing fancy about it.

And some things about it are rather frugal.

But  I  like to keep it simple.

What about you?

What are your favorite organizational tips?

I’d love to hear how you make the most of your sewing space and how you keep your notions handy.

Where do you sew?

Do you have a designated room where you can keep your machine set up at all times?

Is it in a bedroom, a basement, a dining room, an office?

If you don’t have a designated space, stay tuned. I will address organizational tips for you in an upcoming post.

Here is my sewing room:

It has lots of daylight streaming in.

Why is it stark white, you ask?

It all started at our former home when my sewing room was in the unfinished laundry room in our basement.

(See, now don’t you feel better about your own sewing space?!!!)

It looked like a cave in there with a single naked bulb at the ceiling (hence the floor lamp for extra lighting.)

So, I asked my handy husband if he could craft me a sewing table and paint it white.

He questioned the color choice several times.

I said, “Just trust me on this.”

And he did.

He made the shelving unit you see in the bottom of the first photo. (Yes, he made it portable so that if we ever moved, he could easily take it with us.)

Then, he bought a laminate countertop and secured it to the shelving unit.

He also bought several sheets of pegboard and painted them white. (I bet you can find them premade in white at the hardware store these days.)

He secured them behind my counter so that I could hang most anything from hooks on the peg board.

And that worked really well. I loved having everything right at my fingertips.

We hung a long flourescent light above the counter which made for a wonderful light source.

I’m glad everything was white. I really did need it to be as bright as possible in that room.

I know the photo doesn’t do it justice, but with all that white and the light, it was a totally awesome space!

I thanked him profusely for years for making it for me.

Then we moved.

And he brought the shelving unit with us.

And it fit perfectly in the new sewing room.

This room has alot of natural daylight in it, but no overhead lighting.

So, I use a floor lamp occaionally at night.

Impressive, huh?

Well, I’m just too cheap to call the electrician and have him wire me an overhead light.

Plus, I’m not sure if an overhead light will help me see the tiny stitches up close, anyway.

So, in the meantime, the lamp works fine.

My husband bought the pre-made cupboards that you see above the counter, for storage.

Ninety nine percent of what is stored there is fabric.

I have already purged the fabric pile several times and what I have left fits perfectly in the cupboards.

I use it for making quilts and for any alterations that require a scrap of fabric to solve the problem.

Ok, so now, I’d love to hear your opinions on how I can perk up this space.

Is it too white for you?

What would you change to make it better?

I’m not gifted in the design area, so I would appreciate any help you can give me.

I’d also love to hear about your sewing space and why you like it or dislike it.

Send me photos if you’ve got them. E-mail me at thesewinggarden@gmail.com

This will be fun!

Some of you are sewing or crafting for other people.

If you’re like me, you don’t want to spend a lot of money on supplies.

I wanted to give my customers a recept, but I didn’t need them to look like a beautiful keepsake.

Chances are, most people throw theirs away.

In fact, some just tell me to keep it.

So, I hunted around at different office supply stores for the perfect receipt book.

And here is what I found:

I knew I wanted my receipt book to have carbon in it to make two copies…one for the customer and one for me.

This is pretty simple looking, but it gets the job done.

And the bonus is, that they are much cheaper than anything I could find at the big office supply stores. And, actually, I even looked at the little office supply stores and couldn’t find anything remotely close to what I was searching for.

Here’s what this one looks like on the inside:

There’s a place for the name, address, date, etc. There’s also a place to check off how they paid (cash, check, etc.)

By the way, I don’t accept credit cards and no one seems to mind one bit.

In fact, in the last 20 years, I don’t remember any more than two people asking me about it.

Besides the personal information, I also write what kinds of alterations I made and on which garment.

This customer had only one garment that she brought to me at the time:

I covered up her name and phone number, but the main part says, “Take in neck straps and replace beads and trim, hook and eyes.”

I might even occasionally describe the dress on the receipt.

Of course, I gave her the top copy with a business card, if she hasn’t gotten one already and I keep my yellow copies attached to the book.

Sometimes on my yellow copy, I’ll write important info that I might need to remember, like an inseam measurement, a wedding or anniversary date, or something that is going on in their life. Later when they come to pick up their order, I can ask them about it.

It makes my job much more personal.

Then, at the end of each month, I put all my data into an Excel file on my computer so that if I need the customer’s information, I’ve got it on record and it’s handy.

You may have a favorite receipt book or other tool for this purpose.

If so, I’d love to hear what you have found to be successful.

In the last post, we looked at a technique to mend practically anything.

But in that scenario, we used the first of two Vera Bradley bags that a customer brought to me to fix.

Her dog had chewed them both to pieces.

Today, let’s look at the other bag.

It has bigger issues.

This big bite came out of the pocket on the front of the bag.

Good job, Fido!

This one needs some serious surgery.

So, we go to Plan B (Technique #2).

First, I hand sewed the area just to draw the raw edges closer together.

Because there were holes all over this chew area, I had to cover the bite marks up!

I had some leftover seam binding in my notions box. You may find something similar in yours or you may have a scrap piece of fabric that you can use to cover this hole.

I like the seam binding because it comes with a prefolded edge to it.

I cut it a little longer than the area I needed to cover.

Then, I trimmed the width, because it was wider than I needed too.

That’s the thing about alterations. You can use all sorts of odds and ends and make them work.

Then I stitched the long, unfolded edge of the seam binding to the edge of the bag.

I sewed it right sides together and then flipped the scrap fabric over to make sure I had covered the torn edge with my stitches.

Then I flipped the fabric patch to the other side of the bag and pinned it in place:

Then I stitched close to the edge. Then, using the stitching technique from the first bag, I tightly stitched the ends as shown.

If you don’t like how the tight stitches look at the ends, you can always turn under those short ends before you sew on the patch and then the last step would be to stitch straight across those ends.

But, I felt this bag needed the extra reinforcement.

And do you know what?

The customer called and profusely thanked me for making the bag look so good.

Wasn’t that sweet of her?

That kind of consideration just makes your day, doesn’t it?

Now, go and fix that ripped and torn item you’ve had sitting around for weeks or months.

It will make your day!

A customer brought me 2 Vera Bradley bags (purses) that her dog chewed up and asked me if I could repair them.

Are the sleeves on your shirts too long?

Shortening sleeves is a quick alteration.

This technique will work for mens or ladies shirts that have cuffs on them.

Let me show you what I did on this purple shirt:

There are two rows of stitching on the top edge of the cuff

It’s a little hard to see in that photo, but you have seen them on your own shirts.

I flipped the cuff over to look at the underside of it.

It only has one row of stitching.

I began by removing that row of stitching with my seam ripper.

(You might have to remove two rows of stitching on your shirt. In that case, later on, you’ll stitch it back on with two rows instead of one.)

Take off one cuff at a time so you don’t get confused as to which cuff goes back on which sleeve.

This customer wanted the sleeves raised 1 5/8″.

So, that’s how much I cut off from the cut edge of the sleeve:

Continue cutting off the correct amount. When you get around to the other side of the cuff, make sure that the two edges match in length before you cut the rest off. Otherwise you’ll have unevenness.

The original seam allowance was 3/8″ on this shirt.

You don’t have to do this next step, but I do it because it makes the job easier.

I hand baste a line just above that 3/8″ mark.

This allows me to line the cuff up easily before I stitch it back on.

Pin the cuff to the shirt.

When you pin, start by pinning the buttonhole end of the cuff first. That way, any adjustments you have to make are on the underside of the sleeve and won’t show.

When you get around to the button end of the cuff, you will most likely have extra fabric that doesn’t fit into the cuff. (On the other hand, in very rare instances, you might come up short and not have enough shirt fabric to fit into the cuff. If that is true in your case, let out one of the tucks (or pleats) and that will give you some extra fabric.)

The photo below shows that I had more fabric than I needed.

Just make an extra tuck (or pleat) by playing with the fabric until it matches the other ones, or until it looks nice and pin it.

In the photo below, the new tuck is above the middle pin:

It will be hidden since it is on the underside of the sleeve.

Check to make sure that the tucks look good from the top and underneath. Sometimes those tucks get twisted and then stitched down and that doesn’t  look good if you roll up your sleeves.

Stitch the cuff in place following the holes made by the original stitches.

That didn’t take long, did it?

It’ll take you just a few minutes to alter those long shirts in your closet and they’ll feel better when they hang at the proper length on your wrist!

I have a customer who loathes zippers in her robes.

So, she asked me if I could take the zipper out and put in buttons.

No problem, I answered.

It’s no problem because I made sure that she understood that she was going to lose some of the width in the front.

Putting in buttonholes and buttons means one side will overlap the other (just like a shirt does) when I am finished.

In the case of this robe, the “chevron” angles won’t ever meet in the middle again either.

But that was fine with my customer.

She just wanted buttons.

Here’s the robe:

The good news is that the garment you work on most likely won’t be this fussy.

You’ll probably be working with a solid colered garment, or at least one that doesn’t have stripes going on the diagonal.

To begin with, remove the zipper with your seam ripper.

On this robe, there is a facing on the inside top of the robe and the zipper is sandwiched inside of it.

So, if you have a facing in your shirt, robe or other garment, you’ll need to rip out the facing and then the zipper. Sometimes you can take out both at the same time.

For this illustration, I decided to take off the facing first and then peel back the zipper like this:

Once you have the zipper out, you notice that this garment did not separate in two.

That’s because the zipper didn’t go all the way to the hem of the robe.

So, we need to open the robe up.

To do this, I lay a cutting mat in between the layers (so I don’t cut the back of the robe by accident) and use a rotary cutter and long ruler to cut the robe open.

Line up the ruler perpendicular to the hem and make sure it lines right up to the zipper opening.

And then cut it:

Once you’ve cut the opening, look to see if you’ve cut across any seams.

If you have, you need to anchor those so that they don’t come undone as you work on your garment.

I was able to just topstitch on these seams:

Take a few stitches out of the hem so that you can open that area up to work on it later.

Serge the raw edges if you have a serger.

If you don’t, zig zag the raw edges so they don’t unravel:

To make the facing, cut a piece of fabric about 2 1/2″ wide and as long as the length of the front of the robe.

Cut some iron on interfacing a little narrower and a little shorter than the facing strip, so that when you press it on, it doesn’t stick to the iron or the ironing board.

Now press the interfacing onto the wrong side of the facing strip.

Lay the facing strip right sides together down the front edge of the robe.

Do you see the facing that is hanging free in the photo above? Just fold that over and make sure it will cover the top edge of the facing strip. In the photo below you can see that when the original facing is folded over, it will cover the white facing strip after it is sewn.

So pin it in place like in the photo above and stitch it down.

Now pin the original facing to the facing strip being careful not to cathc the front of the robe in the pin.

Open this area out flat and stitch it in place so that you don’t catch the front of the robe in the stitching like this:

At the bottom of the robe, trim off the white facing strip even with the folded bottom edge of the robe.

Open out the hem and facing. Take the bottom edge of the hem and fold it up right sides together onto itself and pin in place

Stitch along that seam line (in the above photo) where the pin is. Of course, you don’t want to stitch over the pin! I just put it there so you could see the line better.

When you turn it right side out, it should look like this:

Now stitch the hem by hand or machine.

Next, make buttonholes of whatever size you’d like based on the size of buttons you chose.

I am not including  instructions on making buttonholes because every machine is different and some have built in buttonhole makers.

So check your sewing machine’s instruction manual.

Sew on the buttons with a thread shank if you need it.

I realize every garment is a little different than the one I just explained, but the technique should be applicable to what you are working on.

Enjoy your “new” garment!

In all my years of altering clothes, I had never thought of altering a zipper from the top.

Usually, when a dress doesn’t zip all the way up, I try to let out the side seams at the bust area.

Often, I sew in gussets. Gussets are pie shaped wedges of fabric sewn into the side seams under the arms to add extra width in a garment.

They work great if you have fabric that matches, but we didn’t.

I could have used a solid beige or tan fabric as an alternative.

But this customer didn’t like the idea of gussets and how they might look on her wedding dress.

I can’t blame her. I think I’d feel the same.

But her dress didn’t zip all the way up in the back and we had to do something.

Because she couldn’t return the dress.

So, the dress shop owner gave me this idea, and the bride loved it!

Here’s the back of the dress (Ignore the darker brown thread for the moment):

When my customer tried the dress on, I zipped it up as high as it would go. Then, I folded down the top edges on either side of the zipper and pinned them. Look closely in the photo below and you’ll see the pins:

Then, I took a darker thread and basted a line across the top of the folds. (If you would zip the dress back up and take out the pins at this point, it would look like this):

Push the pointed tips down into the dress along the dark brown thread like this:

Reach your hand into the inside of the dress and pull the dress inside out.

Now you’ll see the dark brown line of thread that you basted from the outside. This will become your new sewing line:

Make sure all the layers are out of the way and your fabric is laying flat.

Sew straight across that dark brown thread line, but leave the dark brown thread in for a moment.

Turn the dress right side out and check to see if you stitched where the thread line was. If not, make the adjustments necessary until it looks like this:

Once you have it where you want it, take out the dark brown basting thread.

Follow the same steps for the other side.

And there you have it! It looks a little like a V-shaped back in this photo:

The “V” looks a little less prominant when she tried it on after the alteration:

NOTE***At the first fitting, I spoke with the bride  about another option. If it were me, I would have started at the underarm area and made a straight line over to the zipper so she didn’t have the soft V-shape to the back, but the “V” is exactly what she wanted.

I thought it looked a little tight across the back, and offered to lower the “V” for her, but she loved it this way.

And my job is to make the customer happy no matter what they want.

And if she’s happy, I’m happy.

My husband had a job for many years where he had to wear dress shirts to work.

Sound familiar?

Invariably, the collars (where it folds over) would be the first thing on the shirts to wear out.

So, I’d flip them.

And the shirts would last twice as long.

Let me explain what I mean.

Here’s a typical dress shirt:

A typical dress shirt has two parts to the collar: the upper collar with the points on it, and the lower collar that is the long skinny piece just below the upper collar.

Sometimes, the area just above the seam where  the upper collar meets the lower collar, gets worn out. There is fraying or there is staining so bad that it won’t come out.

To see if your shirt is “flippable”, look at the underside of the collar like this:

If the under side of the collar has permanent bubbles in it and there’s no way an iron will smooth them out, then I don’t advise you to flip the collar.

These bubbles usually come from the iron-on interfacing that some companies use and the wrinkles are caused when the interfacing was not applied correctly.

The shirt in the photo above has permanent wrinkles and bubbles and wouldn’t be a good candidate.

But, if the under side of the collar is smooth and lays flat, you can flip it.

Here’s what you need to do.

There is a row of stitching that runs between the tips of the blue pens in the photo below.

Take out that horozontal row of stitching.

That will separate the upper collar from the lower one.

Now, all you do, is flip the collar over and pin it back in place in the exact spot you took it out from.

Then restitch it back in following the same line of stitching that you took out in the first place.

Isn’t that simple?

And you just doubled the life of the shirt by doing so!

UPDATE 11/12/09: Read this post and then go back and read this one for a shortcut on one of the steps. You’ll be glad you did!

I have been altering wedding gowns for 25 years now, beginning with my own, 25 years ago!

One of the things I do often is put bustles on wedding gowns.

Do you need one on yours?

Let me show you how.

Today we are going to learn how to do an under bustle (some folks call them a French Bustle).

An under bustle is just what it says, it is brought underneath the dress (so to speak) and secured underneath. None of the ties, hooks, eyes, buttons, etc. will show from the outside of the gown.

All the workings are hidden beneath.

I use a loop and tie method that I figured out a long time ago. It has worked wonderfully and it is very simple to do.

Once again, don’t be intimidated.

First, begin by pulling some of the train fabric up and under the dress at the center back seam. Pull the fabric up and under itself until the hem edge of the dress is at or just above the floor. Put a pin there making sure to secure the “underneath” fabric with the pin.

Always pin on the seamline, never in the middle of the fabric (unless there is lace or something to cover up the small stitching you will do to hold these bustles in place).

On this dress, I put a pin in between two of those covered buttons to hold the under fabric in place.

I also pulled up fabric to the left and right of the middle bustle and pinned those along the side back seams. (Side back seams are not the center back seam and they are not the side seams. They are the seams that run vertically between the center back seam and the side seam.)

So, this dress needed 3 bustles to get all the train up off the floor.

Normally, I like to make the bustle that is in the middle, a little higher than the outer two, but it didn’t work in this case. The train was of a shape that didn’t allow me to do that.

When making an under bustle, just know that you can’t put the bustle any higher than where the zipper ends on the center back seam. It needs to go at or below the zipper.

Now, let’s talk about how to make the workings of the bustle.

You don’t need many items to do this bustle.

You need some tiny scraps of fabric that doesn’t ravel.

I’ve always used a quilting product called Warm and Natural. This feels like a very soft blanket.

You could also use felt.

You could really use any fabric, but if it tends to ravel, finish the edges.

Whatever fabric you use, use one that is off white in color. If you use white with a white wedding gown, it may show from the right side.

Cut a rectangle of said fabric about 1 inch wide by 2 inches long for each bustle.

It doesn’t have to be perfect, just estimate.

Then, take a piece of grosgrain ribbon that is  1/2 inch wide. Cut a piece that is 5 inches long for each bustle.

Referring to the photo below, fold the grosgrain ribbon in half and sew it like you see in the photo below.

Stitch straight across the ribbon, back and forth, securing it tightly. Cut your threads off.

Now, just flip that grosgrain ribbon over the top of the stitching you just did (see photo below) and stitch straight across again.

This is what you end up with:

Now, you need to attach this to the dress.

To do so, you are going to need to look at the dress again.

At each spot where you have the fabric pinned up, you will need to mark not only the top spot where the pin is, but you’ll also need to mark where the fabric has been pinned underneath. I do this with more pins or tailor tacks.

I don’t use a marking pen because it may not come out.

So, for every bustle, you should have two marks. One will be higher up on the train than the other, but they should be along the same seamline.

If you find that you didn’t pin exactly on the seamline, that’s no problem. Just move the marking over to the seamline.

Once you have all the markings marked, you are going to attach your loop to the dress.

You’ll have one loop per bustle.

On the inside of the dress, transfer the marking from the outside to the inside of the dress with either a pin or a tailor tack.

Working with the top marking only at this time, place the bottom  edge of the loop (that you made earlier) at the pin placement. This means the whole loop contraption is sitting above the pin or the mark you made. (The reason for this is that when you tie the bustle together, it will meet exactly where you want it. If you don’t understand now, you will later when you see how the bustle hangs).

Pin that fabric square onto the dress.

From the right side of the dress, stitch right in the seam to hold  the area just above the loop to the dress. (If we stitch from the wrong side of the dress, the stitches may show if we didn’t line the dress up correctly, and it wouldn’t look very good.) See the talior tack down below the pin? I left that in so you could see all the steps involved.

From the wrong side, it will look like this:

Ok, now we’re going to make sure that the fabric square is really held on good. It is already held on well, but this gives me peace of mind.

Turn the dress inside out again and find the loop.

The bottom edge of this fabric square is not sewn down.

So sew it down.

I do it by hand because I don’t want another bit of stitching to do from the front side in case I get it wrong, there’s less chance for error. So, sew it down to the lining only by hand like this:

Now let’s go to the second marking on the dress,  below your newly attached loop.

Again, mark the inside of the dress, making sure that the lining and the dress are in the correct position and that they lay flat. This time I use a pin, pinning it vertically along the seamline from the right side of the fabric.

Take a piece of 1/4″ wide off white ribbon that is about 20 inches long.

Now, turn the dress inside out and thread that ribbon through the pin that you placed along the seamline. It will be in the perfect position now. See how it is threaded through the pin in the photo below?

Turn the dress right side out and  make sure the ribbon isn’t all scrunched up underneath. Smooth it out and then stitch along the seamline back and forth a couple to times to secure it.

It is barely noticeable from the front. Your guests won’t notice it.

Now, after the ceremony, just have a bridesmaid or someone else who is nearby, lift the skirt and take each ribbon and run it through its corresponding loop.

Tie the ribbons just like a shoelace.

Then, drop the train and smooth it out.

That’s all there is to it!

****Note: After having been to many weddings, as a coordinator and a guest, I just have to say….make sure the bride wears off white under garments. If you/she is wearing a white dress, this is so important because white undergarments will show under a white dress. But, the off white won’t show, unless you are using a yellowish off white under garment. And please don’t wear a colored pair of underwear under your wedding dress! That looks so tacky. Wedding guests everywhere will thank you!

We’ve covered so many ways to hem pants so far.

If you’ve missed those posts, look at the left hand column on this page and click on “All Past Categories” and the arrow by “Select Categories”. Then, click on “Hems”.

There are still some more ways to sew hems which I’ll cover in future posts.

But, I didn’t want to overlook how to hem lining.

It’s very simple.

Don’t be intimidated.

First, let’s just look at a typical pair of pants that have lining.

You’ll notice that the lining is turned up twice and stitched, like you would do to some pants hems.

But, let’s look at how to get to that point.

Basically, if the lining you have in the pants is hanging at a good length (it’s not hanging out from under the pants and it’s not too short), then my basic rule of thumb is this:

Whatever amount you raise the hem of the pants is the same amount you’ll raise the lining.

So, take a look at where the lining hangs on your pants before you hem them. Do you like where the lining falls? If so, let’s proceed.

If you don’t, then figure out how much you need to take up. Sometimes, you don’t need to hem the lining at all.

But that’s rare.

In this case, I hemmed the pants up 1 3/4″. So, I am going to take up the lining by 1 3/4″ also.

I begin by pressing the lining up 1 3/4″.

WARNING: Be careful to check and see what the lining fabric is made of. You might assume that it’s polyester and set your iron to polyester, but many times the lining is made of acetate, which takes a much cooler iron.

I know because I’ve melted my share of linings.

Once I have that amount pressed up on both legs, then, in this case, I am going to trim off the lining right next to the original stitching.

That original hem was 1/2″ wide, so when I cut it off, I had 1 1/4″ left from the fold to the cut edge.

You need at least 1 1/4″ between the foldline and the cut edge of the fabric. If you don’t have that much, you’ll need to rip out the original stitches of the lining hem and press the fabric out flat.  Then, cut your lining 1 1/4″ out from the fold line. so that it looks like this:

If you are only taking up your hem 1/2″ or 1″, you can probably just fold it up once and stitch it. It will probably look just fine that way.

But, for lining that has to be raised up more than that, we’ll continue with this next step:

Bring the cut edge of the fabric to the fold and press the edge like this:

You should have two parallel folds in the hem area now.

Fold up the lining twice on those folds and stitch it like this:

Sometimes, in nice slacks, you’ll notice that there is a thick cord holding the lining to the pant at the side seam or the inseam.

(You may have had to cut that before you started this project).

Or, you may want one in if it didn’t come that way.

So, I use one of two options: Pearl Cotton thread or satin ribbon.

This is Pearl Cotton thread in a size 8. If I were you, I’d get a thicker size. This one is a little thin for my liking:

You can get it at your local fabric or quilt shop.

I like it because it is stronger than thread.

Or you can look for some cording, which is even thicker and stronger than this.

You just thread it on a needle and knot the end.

Then, make sure your lining isn’t twisted inside the pants and lay them flat so that the lining and the pant are laying where they should.

Lift up the pants and see where the lining and the pants go together.

Now, take a stitch into the side seam allowance of either the lining or the pants about an inch or two above the hemline.

As you can see, I like to come in from behind the seam and hide the knot.

Then, take a stitch into the other seam allowance. Do not pull the thread all the way. Leave about an inch and a half of thread because you want it to have some “wiggle room”.

Then, anchor it good with several knots.

You can achieve the same effect, and it may be a stronger solution, with satin ribbon.

I cut a piece of ribbon about 2 inches long and attach one end to the lining seam allowance and one end to the pant seam allowance.

Make sure you tuck the raw edges of the ribbon underneath like this before you sew them to the seam allowances:

And there you have it!

Lining that’s really simple.

It took me years to realize how great magnetic pin cushions are.

I had used the old stuffed “tomato” pin cushion during my youthful sewing years.

Remember these?

I still use one for my needles as you can see. That way, I can see the eye of each needle at a glance and grab the one I need.

But, for years, I used the tomato to hold my pins.

That’s all I knew.

And when that’s all you know, you’re fine with it.

Then, I realized, that I needed to have more pins on hand than what the tomato would hold.

So, I kept my pins in the box they came in.

I figured they’d be easier to grab than pulling them one by one out of the tomato.

That worked great except for the times I dropped the box all over the floor.

And picking them up wasn’t so bad, except that it became a regular habit….

like twice a week.

I had heard about magnetic pin holders, so I determined to go and look for one.

I found this one at the Bernina store:

It has a powerful magnet.

When you drop your box of pins on the floor, you just wave this pin cushion over the pins and it picks up every last one of them in seconds.

I’ve been tempted to keep dropping boxloads just to watch this thing in action!

Since I alter clothes for other people, I need both hands free to pinch and pin the garments that folks try on.

To do that meant that I had to put the pin holder down on a table or on the floor while I worked.

That meant bending over to get my pins, one by one.

Or, sometimes, my customer would hold the pin cushion while I pinned.

Neither option was great.

About the time I began pondering my little dilemma,

I noticed this brilliant invention at JoAnn Fabrics:

You wrap it around your wrist and then secure it with the velcro strap it comes with.

And, of course, it’s magnetic.

And your hands are free to pin garments, pin fabric, pin quilts, pin whatever.

And you can use it while working with customers and you can use it while sewing at your machine.

And, and, and!

It’s awesome!

Many customers have raved over it.

They want to go right out and get one, even though they don’t sew!

That’s the sign of a good invention.

I only wish I had thought of it first!

***Update: My friend, Mason, had an important thought about these magnetic pin cushions.

Here’s part of what she wrote:

“Hi Linda, just a thought on this magnetic pin cushion.  I could be completely off base on this and hope I am.  I purchased a Singer embroidery machine a few years ago that takes cards to get patterns from (computerized).  Like I do on many of my new gadgets I had to have…I didn’t use it for a long time.  A few months ago, I thought this is ridiculous, I need to learn how to do this and actually use it!  I found that the machine will not read the card…it acts like there is no card in there.
 
I haven’t taken it to a repair shop yet as I’m scared the whole computer section is screwed up.  My thought was that maybe I messed it up by using the magnetic pin holders close to the machine when I was sewing other types of things.  I’ve always heard that you shouldn’t get a magnet close to your computer.”

So, she Googled the question and came back with all sorts of answers, both pro and con. It looked to me like there are just as many people out there saying it could happen as those that don’t. Maybe it would be  best to call your sewing machine company and see what they say. Of course, you may not get an accurate response if the technician doesn’t know their product or they are, heaven forbid, trying to hide that info from you. But here is one response from her Google search:

“Magnets can damage magnetic computer data, therefore, use caution. Do not put them in direct contact with diskettes, and memory sticks. Some design cards are susceptible as well. To be on the safe side, watch where you put your magnets! The manufacturer of the Magna-Hoop does not take responsibility for damaged diskettes, memory sticks, design cards or other media that is damaged due to user error.”

So, I hope that helps those of you who have computerized machines to show some caution before using these. If it’s true, it is a bummer because there are several magnetic products out there that make sewing much easier.

Thanks, Mason! We really appreciate this!