Sew Colette - The Truffle Dress

7 comments

It's chapter three of the sew-along and it's time to get started on the Truffle dress from the Colette Sewing Handbook. Right now we are going to jump right in with the muslin, but if you need a refresher on taking your measurements or cutting out your patterns, then please check out the links for either. And if you have any questions please let Sarah or I know, don't be shy to ask! Or you can always ask the ladies in the Sew Colette Flickr Group.


For this dress both Sarah and I are going to be using slippery fabric and I wanted to ask all of you a question: do you have any tips or tricks on cutting and/or sewing with slippery fabrics? In the future I want to post your ideas into a helpful list for anyone that needs it. So, what works for you? What doesn't work?
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Schedule for sewing the Truffle dress designed by Colette Patterns.
March 2nd: The Muslin
March 8th: Perfecting the Fit
March 15th: Choosing the Right Fabric
March 22nd: Sewing the Final Version
March 29th: Truffle Parade

7 comments :

  1. before I discovered Colette, I did it the hard way: pinned and cut my pieces and with no stabilizer - it's not bad if you are careful and go slow. But this time I'm gonna try using a spray starch, and since I switched to pattern weights instead of pinning, I reckon it'll be a LOT easier!! :)

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  2. Definitely use a new, sharp, fine machine needle... size 60/8 or 65/9. This will help the needle pierce through the fine woven fabric without snagging or puckering. I learned this the hard way when I was sewing chiffon for the first time!

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  3. I had a terrible time cutting out some silk. Next time I will use Sullivan's spray on stabilizer before cutting. I'm also told that you can sandwich the slippery fabric between some non-slippery fabric when cutting it out, to help stabilize and hold it in place. My machine had a hard time with the thin fabric too--I eventually used tissue paper underneath the fabric to finish sewing the seams--the machine kept jamming up. The tissue prevented this, and although it was a hassle, the end result was much nicer. the tissue paper just tears off afterwards.

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  4. Good tip! I'm so happy to be doing this dress it's my favourite item in the book.

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  5. The best tip for cutting slippery fabric is to have tissue paper or newspaper (ironed to be flat with no creases) underneath the fabric while cutting. Pin all layers together -tissue paper, fabric and pattern and cut. It works every time I have to cut silk charmuese! Hope that helps and I'm excited to see the finished project!

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  6. I saw a tip somewhere (I thought on the Colette blog but can't find it) to lay out muslin fabric, then your slippery fashion fabric, and then your pattern. Use scissors to cut out only the top two layers. The muslin keeps your fashion fabric from slipping around. Grippy stuff like fleece, flannel, and quilt batting work really well but you might be sadder if you accidentally cut them.

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