The clapper - highly recommended sewing gadget

Have you ever heard of the clapper?  Sometimes known as a clapper board? No, not the black thing they use in filming, this is the wooden instrument that helps you put a beautiful finish on your dressmaking project and labour of love.

It produces crisper creases, at hems or along seams where you want them to lie flat and smooth.

The way to use a clapper is to first press a seam or hem with the iron using steam, then press the clapper onto the area that's hot from pressing and either just hold there some seconds for easily creasing fabrics, or press down a bit harder for fabrics that crease less easily. The raw wood of the clapper will absorb moisture and heat and leave the seam or hem cool to the touch - and the material will "remember" to hold this crease.

You can use it on hems, seams like shoulder and collar seams and it works beautifully on darts too.

I wouldn't have thought so myself before trying it, but it does work - the waterfall collar jacket I am making at the moment does look just that bit better than it would without using a clapper.  I am really pleased with the result!

It is made from hardwood, has a handy groove along both longer sides for easy handling:

And one side is narrower than the other:

As with everything, the best gadget does not guarantee an absence of user error - which is what I managed today: I was using my newly purchased clapper with abandon and delight on the seam between sleeve and body - to get the seam to lie that extra bit flatter, which it did...

...then I discovered that I hadn't removed the basting stitch and was therefore producing a crease where I didn't want one. Noooo! Just imagine...

Luckily my Jacquard-type fabric did forgive the rough treatment: with a bit more steam I was able to get the fabric to crease where I wanted it to, and the first crease in the wrong place did come one. Phew! Now that's a relief.

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Sewing Reward or Sewing Comfort

This is for those moments when you have cut, pinned, stitched and trimmed late into the night and, at last, your perfect creation is finished so you want to reward yourself. OR things have gone wrong, you have sewn the wrong sides together, the waist has turned out too small, the buttonholes are unevenly spaced and you need tea and comfort to enable you to think of a solution or come to terms with the idea that this dress is going to end up being cut up into an apron.  You need a special little something- but the shops are shut and the cupboard bare of biscuits and cake.
Do not despair- SUPERMUG to the rescue.  With the aid of a microwave and some store cupboard ingredients you can have a luscious chocolate brownie in less than 5 minutes.

I found this recipe in a  book in my local library - "Meal in a Mug" by Denise Smart, published by Ebury Press.
You need a microwaveable mug or cup that can take 200 ml (7 fluid ounces) of liquid.  It doesn't matter if it is bigger than this .  Also a measuring tablespoon, the sort you get in a set of measuring spoons, not the sort of tablespoon you put on the dining table.

Ingredients:
2 tbsp plain flour
2 tbsp of soft brown sugar
1 tbsp of cocoa powder
Pinch of salt ( I have tried this recipe with and without salt and I don't notice the difference)
1 tbsp of sunflower oil
2 tbsp of milk
1 tbsp of chopped nuts (I have tried almonds and also brazil nut but you could leave the nuts out if you wish or maybe try raisins or raspberries or whatever you have)
1 tbsp of chopped milk or dark chocolate.

Method:
Put the first 4 ingredients in the mug, add the oil and milk and stir until a smooth batter. Stir in the nuts and chocolate. Cook in a microwave on high,  for a 1000 w, category E microwave cook for 1 minute.  I have a 900W microwave and cooked it for 1 minute 10 seconds.  If your microwave is different then adjust accordingly.  Leave it to stand and cool for a minute or two.
Then I spoon it into my mouth directly from the mug- oh, warm, chocolatety, rich, delicious!  You can turn it out by running a knife round the edge of the mug but it sticks to the mug a bit so it will look something like this.

If you needed a really big reward or extra comfort you could add cream or ice cream if it is to hand.  This is also useful for impressing an unexpected guest with cake in little more time than it takes to brew a pot of tea or make a filter coffee.
As the mug in the picture says "Happy Sewing".

Press, press and press again

A good press with the iron makes sewing so much better! 

One of the most valuable sewing tips I can give is about pressing your work as you go along.  One caveat: I sew mainly with woven fabric, the need to press may or may not apply to jersey fabrics.

I used to underestimate the difference it would make.  I dismissed the need for pressing and felt it was just a bit too over-the-top, too fussy and pernickety - I wanted to sew!  Which meant that anything that was not about sitting at the sewing machine and putting my foot down (literally, on the foot pedal) didn't feel like 'proper sewing' - it just didn't count in my book.

I used to get incredibly impatient with the need to cut out the fabric, mark it, overlock, baste or pin and when I finally got to the sewing stage I just didn't want to stop for anything.  Getting the iron out?  What for?!

Well, I learned from experience that sewing over unpressed seams produces an end result that I am not happy with. Fabric has this habit of not creasing by itself: it will hold a certain rolled shape at the seam until you press it flat.  If you are really stuck without an iron you could try to use your thumb nail to crease a seam flat enough to be able to sew over it, but it is not ideal.

You will need the iron anyway for attaching interfacing but keep the ironing board out, or you could get an ironing mat you can spread out on a table - quilters use this a lot but their projects start smaller than full-size garments. It is so very much worth the time to set this up because you can wander on over whenever needed. Use it often: if in doubt, press!  Except, perhaps:

...there are areas where pressing is not wanted at some stages of construction: when you make welt button holes or pocket openings you don't want press the welt lips flat because it would distort them before you carry on with further steps. A skirt waist edge that will be understitched to stop the facing or lining rolling up into view should also only be pressed once the understitching is done.  There might be other occasions, let me know if you can think of other elements.

But most of the time a quick press is hugely important for a good result that brings joy as opposed to the frustration of a bodged project: it feels very demotivating to have put all this time and energy into a sewing job and then it doesn't turn out very well.  You're not quite sure what went wrong so you don't even know how to fix it next time.

Pressing seams flat might just make the difference.  Try it!


What are your experiences of using an iron while sewing?  Any mishaps, any tips?

"It's got to be perfect...Now I'm determined, I'm gonna get it right" *

I unpicked a seam for the fourth time in order to stitch it again.  Despite this I still did not get the perfection for which I was striving, I think, partly, because so much handling and resewing had distorted the fabric a bit, so I settled for that fourth attempt at sewing the seam  I know it isn't exactly  right but will anyone else notice when I am wearing the garment unless I draw attention to it?
Recently I admired a sewer's polka-dotted skirt and immediately she pointed out where the pattern did not match completely.  A couple of days later another sewer, when I commented on how great her dress looked, replied that the belt ought to be a bit lower.  I know, when in the same situation,  I  hasten to point faults out with my sewing.  Do you do this also?  I would bet that many of you do.  Do you point out slip-ups only to other sewers or does it extend to whoever makes a comment on your garment?   If we were complimented on a ready-to-wear garment would we behave in the same way?
Why do we do it?  Is it due to a form of "impostor syndrome", the frame of mind where one feels that one does not deserve to be praised. Does a confession of a fault help expiate the perceived "sin" of not being "perfect"?  Has the proliferation of helpful bloggers and pattern reviews, writing about problems that arose in their sewing and fitting of a garment, made us feel that we need to point out our own complications and mishaps?
If I look at all the me-made garments that I have now (and some of these can be categorised as vintage! due to the length of time since I made them) only two seem to me to be without mishaps of sewing or fit- the zip perfectly inserted, the buttonholes exactly matching and evenly spaced, the pattern matching, the hem stitching invisible, the inside neatly finished, the collar points sharp and no bodging or tweaking.  Unfortunately they are not my favourite garments, they are very boring, and they are not the ones that get compliments.  Usually the favourable remarks arise due, not to the perfection of their construction, but to a striking fabric or unusual detail (sometimes this later has been created by me to cover up a sewing deficency- there you are, the urge to confess surfaces).
Etiquette says that you should accept a compliment gracefully.  Telling someone that the dress they have just admired is faulty is tantamount to casting aspersions on their judgement.  So, in future, if a non-sewer  gives me a bit of praise I shall try just to smile and respond with something nice about them.  However if it is a sewer and they ask me what the pattern was like to sew I shall probably regale them with stories of what hell the fabric was to stitch without puckering, how I misread the instructions twice and how I sewed the left sleeve to the right side of the bodice.  What about you?  How do you react  when someone congratulates you on something you have made?  What do people most remark upon?  I'd love to hear.
* Taken from the lyrics of the song "Perfect" by Mark Nevin

Sewn in One Hour- Not! And a Re-fashion

This pattern, New Look 6483, came with the June 2016 edition of Sew Magazine.

It looked the answer to many a sewer's prayer- a simple top in woven fabric with neckline variations and a sleeveless or short sleeve option- plus the promise of a swift sewing time, one hour, as it had no zip to insert or buttonholes to make.
My partner, Nick, was keen for me to make it in the same fabric that I used for my carry-on luggage rucksack blogged here but I drew the line at wearing a garment in bright yellow with multi-coloured spotted and striped ponies cavorting on it.  However I did want something cheerful so went for this poly/cotton at only £2.99 per metre from the Sewing & Craft Superstore at Tooting Bec.

I bought 1.60 metre as I wanted to make version A but with longer sleeves and possibly a matching headscarf. 
I traced a size 10 (83 cm bust) using horticultural fleece as described here
and pinned the pieces together to check for fit.  Since my bust is just under 85 cm I thought that I might have to make an adjustment here but it was a perfect fit across the bust with just the amount of ease that I wanted.  However I did make several adjustments to the pattern before cutting out the fabric, due to my narrow shoulders, thin arms and rounded upper back, as follows:
1. Decreased the height of the armhole by sewing a larger seam allowance on the shoulders and decreased the size of the sleeve cap to match by making a horizontal pleat on the pattern across the sleeve head.
2. Extended the length of the sleeves to below elbow length by continuing the line of the original short sleeve pattern to the appropriate length but tapering the sewing line to create a slightly narrower sleeve.
3. Put a dart in the back of the neck so that it fitted my rounded upper back and amended the back facing pattern to take account of this.
4.  Instead of using one large button for the closure of the back neck opening I used two tiny ones as I thought it gave a neater look.  The button loops are hand stitched using red thread.
The photograph below shows the fastening and the back neck darts.

So how long did it take to sew?  By sew I mean actual machine stitching time- stay stitching, basting the sleeve head to gather for sleeve insertion, edge overcasting, sewing the seams and top stitching (which I did on the bottom and sleeve hems and around the back neck opening).  Definitely more than an hour.  I am not a fast sewer but I note that reviewers on Pattern Review also mention that it took them more than an hour.
 However, if not as speedy as claimed, it is easy and not a long project.  I like it very much and a complete stranger came up to me yesterday saying how much she liked it and was disappointed to discover it was not a RTW buy!  It can be worn loose or tucked in and goes with loads of separates already in my wardrobe.  The naive fabric design brings a smile to my face when I put it on, something much needed given Brexit and the dismal, dull weather we have been having.  I am already thinking of another version, with a different neckline and  longer sleeves, using fabric from my stash.

This fabric also inspired a refashion of a fleece pullover that I had.  Although it was a useful item, I found it annoying that it had no front opening so the only options were Fleece on or Fleece off.  I could get too hot wearing it but then become too cold when I took it off.  While I was in the store buying the fabric for the top I spotted, in one of their zip offer bins, an open-ended zip that was the same blue as the fabric and exactly the right 25 inch length at only £1.50.
To make the jumper into a jacket I just cut up the middle of the front of the fleece and stabilised the underside of the front edges with a narrow strip of  light-weight fusible interfacing before turning the edges under on either side of the zip and sewing the zip in.
 I used some horticultural fleece to trace off the underside of the little stand-up collar and created a facing pattern to cut out in the boat fabric.  Then I hand stitched the facing in place.  Eh voila!, a zip-up jacket that I can just unzip for a bit of a cool down.  Plus it makes a rather dull fleece a bit more exciting and individual.  My tame photographer had to leave for work so you don't get to see me wearing it but here it is.

But the best bit is the inner collar.

Costs for top and jacket refashion - Fabric £4.98, Zip £1.50, The white, the blue and the red sewing thread, fusible interfacing for the facings and the buttons all came from my stash.  Total £6.48.

Have you made something that puts a smile on your face when you wear it?  Tell us about it on this blog, contact Giselle, London Dressmakers Club Organiser through the Meetup site here
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