Button Hole......

Domestic Machine.

Last week I discovered a new machine, it was a domestic sewing machine that could create button holes. I was very confused at how it worked at first because there was a lot of buttons and pictures. My Thursday group worked with the technician Gemma to create a button hole. Well it's now my new favourite machine as it does all the work for you because it has an automatic setting. I really enjoyed doing this, I got a little scared as I thought I almost broke the machine and they are very expensive.

Creating My First Garment.

The first garment of many...

Finally I have created a garment, this garment was a skirt which firstly I had to make a block for. The block looked simple enough to make, until it came to it. I had to create the whole card block from scratch following instructions from my lecturer and a handout. I had a lot of help from Trish, she really does make life so much easier ( who knew there would be so much maths involved in fashion ). Then after I had created my skirt block I went on to cut out my pattern in fabric and manufacture my skirt. It took me two lessons, I really struggled with it, but with Trish helping me I got the job done and it wasn't as hard as I was making it for myself. So by the time my skirt was completed I was really pleased with the outcome.

This is my front and back skirt block.

The front of my skirt.

The left side of my skirt.

The back of my skirt.

The darts on the back of the skirt.

The right side of my skirt.

Lapped Zip.

Second task of pattern cutting : I was told to create a lapped zip, I found this a lot more difficult than the centered zip. Here is a step by step guide to make a lapped zip.

Step 1- Mark out exact length of where your about to stitch. Stitch up to the bottom zip placket with a regular stitch length, do a back stitch. Then do a machine tack, and press seam open.

Step 2- Place zip face down, make sure the edge of the coil is along the seam line, using zipper foot place to the right and machine tack.

Step 3- Place zipper foot to left of needle make sure the zip face is up. This creates a fold, bring fold close to but not over. stitch through edge of fold.

Step 4-  Turn to the right side, stretch fabric till it's as flat as it will go over un-stitched zip. Hand tack across the bottom of the zip, then up along the side from the seam line. Put zipper foot to the right of the needle, top stitch close to tacking across the bottom of the zip and along the side. Do not go over the tacking and remove hand tacks.

Step 5- Open the zip by removing the machine tacks, and you will have created a lapped zip.