I was recently working on a garment for the Fall 2012 issue, and I had made the mistake of falling in love with an inappropriate fabric. It was not the best decision, but I was in love and didn't care. My pattern that I had drafted was for a woven fabric and I had a lovely cobalt blue wool jersey, that was substantial in weight, but with more stretch than a doubleknit. (FYI, doubleknits are the only knits that can be reliably substituted for use with patterns designed for woven fabrics.)
I had rotated my dart to the side seam andI dutifully made my muslin in a comparable fabric, and, oh dear, the French dart was really loose and saggy--not good. (A French dart angles up to the bust from a side seam.) I made a quick lifeline call to a sewing expert buddy and she suggested that perhaps because the dart was on the bias, it was stretching and causing the bustline to sag.
Her solution was to reinforce the dart with a very lightweight fusible interfacing. I chose a light woven fusible and ran the crossgrain along the bias. The crossgrain of a woven fabric has the least amount of stretch, giving me that extra reinforcement that I needed with a wool jersey on the bias.
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On the muslin, the darts were sagging. |
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I reinforced the darts on the seamline. |
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I fused it right on top of the dart seam line after I had sewn the dart. The result was not too pretty on the inside, but when I put the garment on the dress form, it was fantastico!
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I fused the interfacing right
on top of the dart. |
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The final bodice fits the form perfectly! |
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I used this technique for doing something a little unorthodox with a knit (i.e. treating it as a woven), but it is a great technique for any seamline that needs reinforcement, especially on the bias. The only thing I would do differently next time is to be a little neater in cutting my interfacing!
If you are itching to try this out on a new project, check out the bumper crop of patterns from Stitch Fall 2011 that are now available for download in the Sew Daily Shop.
Do you have a sewing buddy lifeline? You know, that one person--your mom, your best friend, your sister--who you can call with your burning sewing questions? Tell us about it on the Sew Daily blog.
Happy stitching!