Innholdsfortegnelse for SewStylish Spring Fashion 2015 i Threads Magazine

This issue’s “Designer Spotlight” subject on page 18 is Mimi Goodwin, known as Mimi G to the fans of her blog, MimiGStyle.com. Mimi is a DIY entrepreneur who sews, writes, and recently started her own Simplicity pattern line, but she says what she loves most about sewing is her “ability to share it and teach it.” It’s a philosophy shared by the SewStylish staff. We planned this Spring 2015 issue to inspire and teach you to create on-trend tops, jackets, dresses, and accessories. This issue features garments based on the new Simplicity SewStylish 1202 pattern and techniques drawn from spring runway trends. To play up the clean lines of the pattern’s classic jacket, learn to make “Fluted Ribbon Trim,” page 42, or discover a simple pattern manipulation and create a…

A-LINE SILHOUETTE—A dress or skirt that flares slightly from waist or bodice to hem. APEX—The highest point on a rounded bulge. ARMSCYE—Armhole. BACKSTITCH—A strong hand-worked stitch that doubles back on the previous stitch. BACK-TACK—To machine-sew a few stitches back and forth to anchor a seam’s beginning or end. BASTE—To temporarily join fabric pieces with large, easily removable hand or machine stitches. BIAS—Any line diagonal to the crosswise and lengthwise grains. “True bias” is on a 45-degree angle to the selvage and allows for the most stretch in wovens. BIAS TAPE—A fabric strip cut along the fabric’s true bias; often used for binding. Also referred to as a “bias strip.” BINDING—A fabric strip used to cover or enclose raw edges. BLIND-HEM STITCH—A hemming stitch that does not show from the right…

FOR SUCH A SIMPLE DETAIL, A SLOT SEAM PACKS a visual punch. A slot seam is a partially open, topstitched seam revealing a contrasting fabric underlay. Use slot seams in any type of garment: formal or casual, woven or knit. You can turn almost any seam into a slot seam, and there are many creative possibilities with the variations shown. Play with color, print, and texture; use unexpected underlays, such as sheer fabric; change the seam’s shape; embellish it with thread and stitching; or slice patterns to create new seams. Make sure the garment fabric and the underlay fabric have complementary weight, drape, and stretch to avoid problems. Cut the strips to match the direction of stretch or the grainline used in the garment. Once you’ve learned these techniques, use…

Zippers are so much more than mundane closures. When installed on a garment’s exterior, instead of hidden behind a fold of fabric, a zipper becomes an eye-catching embellishment that instantly modernizes any garment. Nearly any seamline offers an opportunity to showcase a zipper. The trick is in how you manage the seam allowance at the zipper’s bottom end. A miter-cut opening—in which the corners are clipped at a diagonal (think of the corners of a picture frame)—gives a flat, clean finish on both sides of a garment’s seam. This installation technique exposes the zipper teeth and tape on the garment’s right side and wrong side. Keep this in mind when deciding where to place the zipper, as the teeth could rub against the wearer’s skin. Use this detail on any…

Baby-doll styles are easy to make, flattering on many body types, and offer much opportunity for self-expression with different design elements. All you have to do to create the silhouette is trace a bodice from an existing pattern or garment. Then, gather a fabric rectangle and attach it to the bodice to create the skirt section. Wovens or knits work for this design. A woven fabric yields a more structured silhouette and should be finished with a 14-inch center-back zipper, while knits can be combined to sew a closure-free, pullover style. Depending on the garment type you choose to make, you’ll need approximately ½ yard of 45-inch-wide fabric for the bodice, and about 1 yard of 60-inch-wide contrast fabric for the shirt or dress option. Next, choose a method to…

Every pant-leg style imaginable is currently in fashion, from slim capris to fabulous flares. The key to looking great in any pant style is to hem the legs to the correct length. Too-long or too-short legs look sloppy and can visually change your body proportions. Luckily, it’s simple to determine how long pant legs should be. The first step is to analyze the leg width, as there’s a direct correlation between a pant leg’s width and its ideal length. Then it’s just a matter of marking the hem allowance, and folding, pressing, and sewing the new hem in place. The hem-shortening method described in this article is shown on Simplicity SewStylish 1202, a classic pair of straight-leg pants—but it can be applied to any pant style. Making a hem doesn’t…

Patricia Keay (“Surprising Notions,” page 86) “Although my preference is to throw myself in and sew all day, I also like having a project that I can spend a few minutes on here and there. I set a timer so I don’t lose track of time—sometimes for as little as 15 minutes. I enjoy mentally ‘sewing’ when I’m driving or washing dishes, when I analyze challenging steps in my mind. That thought process enables me to savor the time even more when I actually sew.” Patricia studied fine art at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, but her favorite creative outlet has always been designing and making clothes. Jacque Goldsmith (“Exposed Zipper,” page 36, and “Zipper Saves,” page 82) “I used to sew at night and go to bed when…

WHEN YOU VISIT MIMIGSTYLE.COM, it’s easy to understand why this blogger has her audience hooked. Fashion-forward garments are accompanied by sewing tutorials, eye-catching ready-to-wear outfits are supported with helpful style tips, and lifestyle tidbits are interesting and informative. In addition, Mimi’s infectious laugh and genuinely relatable personality in her many video posts bring her audience back for more. Beyond the daily blog posts from her Nebraska home, Mimi hosts an annual conference for her blog audience, holds “meet and greets” all over the country, and has recently launched a line of patterns with Simplicity. Mimi spoke with SewStylish about her sewing. SewStylish: What do you love about sewing? Mimi Goodwin: I have always loved working with my hands, and being able to turn a piece of cloth into a wearable…

THE BACKSTITCH IS AN EXTREMELY STRONG AND USEFUL HAND STITCH primarily used to join seams that require strength and elasticity. Some couture houses and Savile Row tailors use it to set sleeves to control the fullness of the sleeve cap and to precisely match fabric patterns, especially when working with plaids and stripes. It is also commonly used to join crotch seams on trousers to make the seam more elastic. Unlike a forward stitch, or a running stitch, where the needle is inserted into the fabric in front of the thread from the previous stitch, a backstitch is made by inserting the needle into the fabric behind the thread of the previous stitch. Each line of stitching begins and ends with a bulk-free knot replacement, which can be applied to…

Recently, I discovered a beautiful vintage stole embellished with a ribbonwork trim that resembles little fluted flowers strung in a row, each one nesting into its neighbor. The shapes are reminiscent of calla lilies, and the trim was so extraordinary that I just had to figure out how to re-create it. So I purchased the stole and examined the ribbonwork. Here, I’ll show you how to re-create this vintage embellishment. To form the lovely, dimensional shapes, simply stitch the ribbon’s edges together in a specific sequence, and repeat until you’ve created enough trim for your project. This trim is versatile; it’s perfect for trimming straight lines, but it also navigates curves well. You can apply it in many ways on many types of projects. Work it in a narrow ribbon…

NOTHING SAYS SPRING AND SUMMER LIKE breezy tops, pants, or skirts in lightweight cotton or linen. Semisheer fabrics, however, can allow an unflattering show-through peek at interior details such as pockets, darts, seam allowances, and facings. To stay cool, you don’t want to line the whole garment; instead, add backings that match your skin tone to those details, and prevent them from showing through. CHOOSE BACKING FABRICS It’s best to select a backing fabric that’s the same weight as or lighter than the garment fabric. Linen or linen blends, batiste, cotton or silk broadcloth, Bemberg rayon, and crepe de Chine all work well. Be sure the backing fabric has care requirements that match those of the garment fabric, and don’t forget to prewash it. Skin-toned facings in a few strategic places…

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IT’S EASY TO ADORN COTTON, SILK, RAYON, SYNTHETIC, AND SHEER FABRICS in minutes by using paint sticks to transfer a surface texture to the cloth. Just heat-set the pigments with an iron after the design has dried to make the image washable and permanent. For the technique shown, you’ll need fabric, Shiva Artist’s Iridescent Paintstiks (Richeson Art.com, Amazon.com, or CedarCanyon Textiles.com), a toothbrush, a protected worksurface, and objects to use as rubbing surfaces. You can use plastic rubbing plates, rubber stamps, or any surface with an interesting texture, such as a grater, wire mesh, or woven straw. Objects with defined ridges and deep grooves ensure crisp image transfers. Find the right texture for your fabric, and then make a rubbing using these oil-based 822 paint sticks. I’ll tell you how. Select…

The term “bolero” was derived from the name of a Spanish dance. Bullfighters wore bolero jackets for their dangerous choreography in the arena, and since the 19th century, the waist-length or shorter jacket design has been adapted and worn by women. This spring, designers featured this comfortable silhouette, with its trace of history and romance, in runway collections. The bolero is the perfect complement to a floaty, untucked camisole, or a great garment for showing off high-waisted pants or skirts. A basic pattern alteration makes a bolero pattern from a standard jacket pattern. Simplicity SewStylish 1202 offers a jacket style for bolero conversion: It has no front fastenings, no collar, and the neckline and center-front corners are slightly rounded. Traditionally, boleros are collarless and closure-free, and have rounded front edges.…

THERE’S NO END AND NO BEGINNING to this stunning, easy-to-make scarf. It turns inside out and outside in, and has the potential to never look the same twice. How does it work? It’s a continuous, reversible tube of pieced fabrics that can be rotated so that any part of it is on the scarf ’s outside, thus rotating other sections to the inside. It can be clearly two-sided, with only two fabrics pieced together, or you can make a mix-and-match scarf by connecting a continuous row of beautiful fabrics in various widths for an unpredictable effect every time you turn the scarf just a few inches. We made two versions—one ombré scarf with nine changing fabric shades and one with luxurious velveteen on one side and shimmery silk charmeuse on…