Whether it’s gorgeously faded vintage cotton or a fresh bolt of jersey knit, we are fabric fanatics, and we’re betting you are too. We’re constantly wowed by the immense array of choices that are available these days; at our local boutiques, at national retailers, and from online shops big and small, the variety is both dazzling and daunting. In preparing these projects, we dove headlong into this sea of fabric options, and we found some real pearls (as well as a few rather gnarly grains of sand but don’t worry, we left those out of the book). We hope these pages will inspire you to use not only the treasures from your stash but also to experiment with some fabrics that might be new to you, like a swishy jersey, a sturdy canvas, or an upcycled leather.
The first step of every project in this book is to select and prep an appropriate fabric in a print or color that you really love. Then, once you gather the proper tools and notions (listed on the project page), you are on your way. Read on for a few pointers for happy improv adventures.
For some mysterious reason, many retailers take a cavalier attitude toward organizing and displaying their beautiful fabrics. Knits in particular tend to have their fiber content and care information labeled in a haphazard fashion in the stores and on the websites. We’ve ordered yardage from the ″cotton jersey″ section of a website and then discovered that it definitely was not 100% cotton or jersey. So, when shopping in a store, be sure to check the bolt end and look closely at the fabric content information and washing instructions. If you are shopping in the virtual world, ask for swatches or contact the vendor to get specifics on any fabric that you’re not sure about. If you do end up with fabric that’s different from what you expected, just flip through these pages—there’s bound to be something sweet you can make with it!
Most fabrics are either knitted or woven. These two fabric categories have their own characteristics and benefit from different sewing techniques. As a general rule, knitted fabrics are made from a series of connected loops that stretch, sometimes in both directions, with edges that don’t fray. They are easy to sew and easy to fit, perfect for improv projects. Woven fabrics, on the other hand, are made with two sets of threads that interlace and have little or no stretch. The edges often ravel, requiring some type of edge finishing technique. Here are our thoughts on some of the many knit and woven options out there.
This is our favorite ″everyday″ fabric; it’s the classic stuff of your favorite t-shirts, stretchy, soft, and deliciously comfy. Contrary to popular belief, it’s not hard to work with, especially if you use the right, or most suitable, jersey for your project. It comes in many different weights and fiber blends. Jersey doesn’t ravel, so a raw edge doesn’t need to be hemmed—although it can be, if that’s what you prefer. When shopping for jersey, look for rolled edges. They are a sign that the fabric really is a single-ply jersey (not an interlock, see page 14) and that the fabric will drape well. Jersey knits are single-sided fabrics, and appear slightly nubbier and less polished on the wrong side. The right side typically has noticeable ribs, especially when you stretch it.
Oh, and jersey has one other terrific quality: it’s usually cheap! You can often find it for less than five dollars per yard. And, of course, you can harvest free jersey from old t-shirts or even those ubiquitous jersey bedsheets. So go ahead and play with jersey—no anxiety necessary!
COTTON JERSEY This fabric is our go-to choice when making casual, throw-on garments, like those dresses, tunics, shirts, and skirts that you can wear as easily as a t-shirt and jeans. It comes in a variety of weights, from heavy to tissue-weight. It also comes blended with synthetic fibers (particularly Lycra), which is not necessarily a bad thing, especially if you really want bounce-back stretch.
Before cutting it, always wash jersey to preshrink it. Cotton jersey and interlock can be washed and dried as you would any t-shirt, but launder others knits according to the instructions on the fabric bolt. Press lightly and only if needed, being careful not to stretch the fabric out of shape.
WOOL JERSEY Elegant, slightly fuzzy, and warm, this fabric has more substance than cotton jersey, and is still very easy to stitch. Most wool jersey is smooth and soft, but be sure to rub a sample against your neck (an old knitter’s trick) to make sure you like the feel of it.
RAYON JERSEY This fabric has a luscious drape, breathes nicely, and makes up into beautiful dresses and skirts. It’s just a bit slippery, so stitching takes more patience and care. It’s not the best choice for your first jersey project, but certainly okay for your third or fourth project. Rayon jersey should be washed by hand or on a gentle cycle, dried flat, and pressed with a warm (not hot) iron.
BAMBOO/MODAL JERSEY This ecoconscious option is springy and denser than cotton. It feels a lot like rayon jersey and is a bit slippery to work with, but we love the results. It’s definitely worth experimenting with.
SILK JERSEY Delicate and sometimes slinky, silk fibers elevate any project into something pretty, and the added stretch in silk jersey makes it very sexy. It comes blended with several different fibers, so make sure to avoid any that look cheap and shiny.
Have you noticed how the fabric design world seems to have exploded with new energy and talent lately? Browsing in our favorite stores or websites, we’re instantly smitten with the yummy and incredible fabric patterns; they’re all quite inspiring. And yet, as you flip through this book you’ll notice that we’ve included relatively few of the woven cotton prints that are so ubiquitous right now. Are we just being contrary? Not at all! Instead, we hope you’ll be emboldened to think of your fabric as an open canvas full of possibilities, with your stitching as your palette, and yourself as the artist. With that goal in mind, we’ve used prints judiciously, and instead have lavished most of our attention on exploring the amazing potential of solid colors. And by the way, solids are usually much less expensive than prints. We like that, too.
This flat, smooth-surfaced, double-sided knit isn’t our preferred stretch cotton, but it can be used successfully for garments that don’t require much drape, and for many of our gift and home decor projects. It’s a staple in many large fabric stores and is often labeled or displayed with the single-ply jersey knits described above, but it’s actually quite different. It does not roll at the edges and looks the same on both sides of the fabric; it’s also a little heavier and denser than single-ply jersey. Because interlock doesn’t have a right and wrong side, you can simply choose the side you like the best to be the right side (see Knit Tip #3 on page 15), but make sure to label it with masking tape.
These fabrics are knitted to form ribs that show on both the right and the wrong side and are very stretchy in the crosswise direction. A tight t-shirt might be made from a baby knit rib; leggings and underwear are also often made from rib knit.
When most of us think of fabrics, we think first of woven ones—the endlessly tempting array of patterned cottons, plus other classic fabrics like seersucker and linen. Woven fabrics come in many different weights, including light- to medium-weight, quilting, home-decor, and upholstery or heavyweight. (In this book, if a project requires a certain weight, it will be specified in the ″What You’ll Need″ list.) The straight grain on woven fabric is parallel to the selvage edge, and crosswise grain threads run perpendicular to the selvage. If you cut diagonally across the threads, you’ll have bias-cut fabric that will stretch more than vertical or horizontal cuts. For our projects, we suggest cutting the pattern pieces with the length positioned along the straight grain, so the garments will hang straight. If you are creating something that won’t need to hang, like appliqué pieces or the nesting boxes on page 126, then it really doesn’t matter which way you cut the fabric.
Prep tip: Wash and dry woven fabrics the same way you would launder the finished garment. Press the fabric well.
Prep tip: We don’t bother to wash wool felt; that’s part of its no-fuss appeal. If a sheet is creased, mist it lightly with water, then press it with a steamy iron on low heat, covering it first with a dish towel or pressing cloth.
Prep tip: Wash canvas and dry it slightly, removing it from the dryer or clothesline while it’s still damp and quickly pressing out the wrinkles with a hot iron. If the fabric gets all bunched up in the dryer, the creases can be tricky to remove, so a little attention will save you time later.
There’s a reason that, for centuries, artists have been turning to canvas. It’s simply an ideal launchpad for getting creative with free-motion sketching, doodling, writing, stitched lines, and appliqué. Check the fiber content before you buy; for our projects, 100% cotton canvas or duck cloth will be perfect.
Yes, you can buy sheets of felt at the big box store, but those felts are really meant for kids’ crafts and not for a beautiful creation like yours. We strongly recommend wool felt for the projects in this book. Keep in mind that wool felt is different from felted wool, which is made at home from old wool sweaters (see page 244). You may need to order sheets of wool felt online, but it is so much nicer to work with than the usual craft variety and the colors are fantastic. Of course, felt is probably the simplest of all fabrics to use. Cut it any way you choose; it’s not woven, so it won’t ravel and it holds its shape perfectly.
If you run into any trouble while sewing, blame your tools, not yourself. Beg, barter, buy, or steal yourself some suitable ones, keep them at the ready and in good repair, and you’ll have eliminated a large part of the frustrations that too often keep fine sewists down.
If you’re just dipping your toes into the world of sewing machines, then listen to me now, because I have opinions. I sewed for years on a machine my mother-in-law gave me. It felt great to sew on a machine she’d taught me how to use and that I got for free. Unfortunately, it also felt terrible to sew on that machine, because I developed a bad case of sailor’s mouth whenever I used it, and because I knew it would be wrong to throw it across the room, but I had to fight to restrain myself from doing so. I finally had the sense to take it for a tune-up a few towns away, at one of those great old-fashioned shops where they really know their stuff (it’s called Newman Sewing Machine and if you’re in western Massachusetts, it’s worth a stop). They told me it would cost about $80 to tune the machine. Instead, I walked out with a brand-new Janome Sewist 521, a just above entry-level mechanical model. I couldn’t afford it at the time, but it turned out to be the best decision I’d made in a long time; in fact, it actually changed the direction of my life. I went from fearing my machine and being stymied by sewing problems to lying awake at night thinking about all the things I wanted to create. Yes, I was losing sleep, but in a good, inspiring kind of way. Flash forward, and I’ve now developed and sewn each and every design in this 101-project book on that basic model. Maybe a faster stitching machine would have been helpful, but in the end, my little Sewist got the job done.
And that is my very long-winded buildup to my following opinions:
1. If you already have a good machine, have it tuned up and you’ll be a happy camper.
2. If you have an old machine that causes you grief, or no machine at all, buy the best new one you can afford from a reputable shop that has in-house service and you’ll be set for life. Cheap machines from big box stores might end up giving you big headaches later and you will have no one to help you through it. Don’t feel like you have to spend a ton on digital gadgetry; although computers are fun, you don’t really need them in a sewing machine unless you have big embroidery plans. Every project in this book can be completed using a basic machine with a decent selection of utility stitches. My feeling is that, without all of the computer chips and electronic gadgetry, there are fewer things to go wrong.
3. I’m not going to suggest a brand. There are many good brands and if you are lucky enough to live in an area that has a real sewing machine shop, I’m sure they would be more than happy to point you in the right direction. Do some research online and head to the store with questions. Most likely you will be able to test sew on some machines in the showroom. The shop where I bought my machine has a one-year warranty and free one-on-one lessons; you can’t beat that!
4. If you find what you want on Craigslist or eBay, check to see if you can find a local repair shop that fixes that type of machine before you buy it. And definitely bring it in for a tune-up before you start sewing with it.
I bought my first sewing machine using advice from my friend Nicole and the nice man at the sewing machine shop. It was, as Nicole suggests above, a basic machine without a ton of bells and whistles. A few days later, I sewed my first dress using the Four-Panel Garment method (page 38) and a swishy plum-colored jersey. Eighteen months later, here I am, the coauthor of a sewing book. Come on, if I can do this, you can too!
Here are a few more things to consider:
1. Keep presser foot options in mind. The basic, multipurpose presser foot is perfect for most sewing needs; straight stitches and utility stitches work with this foot. It has a nice little toe and etched lines for guiding your stitches; on new machines it is often marked ″A.″ In addition, there are feet for darning, sewing zippers and buttons, and all sorts of other tasks. New machines come with a whole set of them, and/or you can also purchase individual feet for your specific needs. Check to see which feet are included with the machine you are considering buying. There’s a handy free-motion quilting foot on the market that is especially suitable for free-motion stitching, and if inspiration overcomes you while reading this book, you might want to buy one. It’s totally optional, of course, and you can do any project in these pages using your machine’s basic foot, but the quilting foot does allow you to see where you’re going while stitching, which makes everything easier.
2. Store your owner’s manual close to your sewing table and use it often. Refer to it for specifics on the correct settings and needles for different fabric types. We sometimes suggest needles or settings, but you should always test stitches on scrap fabric and follow your machine manufacturer’s guidelines. We like to jot notes right in our manuals about our test results and the best settings for each fabric type we’ve used.
3. Stock up on extra bobbins and needles for your machine. Wind a few bobbins with white and black thread.
4. Change your needle often.
In our project instructions, we assume you have the following basic sewing tools, so they won’t appear in the ″What You’ll Need″ lists, which focus on the fabrics, threads, and any special notions or tools.
—Rotary cutter and lots of extra blades
—Large self-healing cutting mat
—Clear quilter’s ruler (we like the 24″ length)
—Seam ripper
—Sharp fabric scissors (label them, and don’t use them to cut paper!)
—Paper scissors
—Straight and quilting pins
—Safety pins
—Pincushion or magnetic pin dish
—Chalk (we use regular colored chalk and sharpen it with a simple pencil sharpener)
—Vanishing-ink fabric marker
—Pinking shears
—Iron and ironing board
—Tape measure
—Compass
—Kraft paper for pattern-making
This is not a sewing manual, because there are so many great ones out there, and we recommend having a few of them close at hand. But we did want to include a few basic techniques you’ll use to make the projects in this book. Be sure to refer to the chapter intros for pointers on embellishing techniques.
What it’s used for: to secure stitching at the beginning and end of stitching or seams. Unless you’re basting or doing other temporary stitching, you should always backtack.
How to do it: At the start of each line, take a few forward stitches, then stop and sew in reverse for a few stitches, then go forward again and complete your line. At the end, repeat.
What it’s used for: to prevent bulkiness around seamed curves and corners How to trim: Where seams meet, especially at corners, cut away seam allowances at a 45-degree angle, carefully avoiding cutting the stitches. Also, if the seam allowance seems wide, trim close to the stitching.
How to notch: Cut out regularly spaced V-shaped notches in the seam allowance as it travels around convex curves to help the fabric lie flat.
How to clip: Cut regularly spaced snips in the seam allowance as it travels around concave curves to help the fabric lie flat.
What it’s used for: to create a well-fitting waistband or cover raw edges
What to know: Fold over elastic has a shiny side and a dull side; it’s up to you which one you want to use as the right side.
How to do it: For the projects in this book, always use ¾″-wide elastic. Cut a piece of elastic equal to the length of the edge you’re covering (you’ll end up with extra because you’ll be stretching it). Trim the end so it’s straight, then fold the elastic in half lengthwise. At the start of the seam, insert the raw edge of the fabric into the fold of the elastic and pinch the layers. Insert the needle near the edge of the elastic and backtack with a few zigzag stitches.
With the needle still in the fabric, pull the elastic taut about 4″ from the presser foot, and zigzag stitch along the edge of the elastic. Check to make sure that the fabric edge is flush with the inside fold and that both sides of the folded elastic are caught in the stitching. Start slowly and stitch in small increments, 3″ to 4″ at a time, pulling the elastic but not the fabric. At the end, overlap the elastic ends by about ½″ if applicable, and backtack. Trim any excess elastic.
What it’s used for: to enclose and hem an edge with machine stitching
How to for a 1″ double-fold hem: Press the raw edge ½″ to the wrong side, and then ½″ again to completely enclose the raw edge. Edgestitch close to the folded edge.
How to for a ¾″ double-fold hem: Press the raw edge ¼″ to the wrong side, and then ½″ and proceed as for the 1″ double-fold hem.
What it’s used for: to finish, enclose, and decorate the raw edges of garments and other items
What to know: Ready-made bias tape is a neat solution, but trimming edges with custom-made binding is simple, inexpensive, and looks uniquely beautiful. All of our projects that call for homemade binding give specific measurements for cutting the strips, so be sure to follow those closely. Binding made of woven fabric should be cut on the fabric bias; if it’s made of jersey or other knit fabric, it can be cut on the cross grain.
How to cut woven bias strips: Measure and mark chalk lines at a 45-degree angle to the selvage. To find that angle, fold the fabric corner so the selvage is aligned with the cross grain. Lightly press the fold and then measure from that pressed line the desired width for the bias strip.
How to cut knit strips for binding: Simply cut strips so the desired width of the strips are on the straight grain, or parallel to the selvages.
How to join strips for added length: Sew them at an angle, as shown, aligning the seamlines, not the raw edges.
How to press the binding: There are several ways to press the binding. The projects in this book feature raw-edge binding and double-fold binding.
• raw-edge binding: Press the strip almost in half, so it is just a bit off-center and so that one side is marginally wider than the other; this makes it easier to catch both sides of the binding when it is stitched to the project edge.
• double-fold binding: Press the strip almost in half, so it is just a bit off-center, as for the raw-edge binding above. Open the strip and then press each long edge toward the crease. Re-press the strip in half along the original crease.
How to attach the binding: Insert the raw edge of the fabric between the folds of the binding and topstitch close to the inside edge of the binding (make sure the narrower edge of the binding is on top, so the stitching will easily catch the slightly wider bottom edge).
What it’s used for: to create neat corners where two edges or ends meet, often when you’re attaching binding
How to do it:
1. Cut lengths of binding to match the project’s two shorter edges and attach them as directed in the project.
2. Cut lengths of binding to match the project’s two longer edges. Press each binding strip almost in half, with one edge about ¼″ wider than the other. Unfold the strip and fold the corner edges in toward the center crease, creating pointed ends. Refold the binding along the center crease.
3. Center the binding over the remaining raw edges of the project. The corner points should hide the ends of the binding strips already sewn onto the shorter edges. Straight stitch the binding strips in place, close to the inside edges.
4. Hand-sew the binding lengths together at the corners.
NOTE: We used this no-fuss shortcut for mitering the edges of the Jute-Edged Throw Rug (see chapter 4, page 93) and the Reversible Loopy Bath Mat (see chapter 10, page 264) to prevent the corners from getting too bulky or bumpy.
NOTE: We used this no-fuss shortcut for mitering the edges of the Jute-Edged Throw Rug (see chapter 4, page 93) and the Reversible Loopy Bath Mat (see chapter 10, page 264) to prevent the corners from getting too bulky or bumpy.
You’ll find creative ideas throughout this book for reusing textiles. It’s our favorite way to get something beautiful for (almost) nothing. But, be forewarned: once you begin to turn old things into new ones, the whole world starts to look different. You touch your friend’s cashmere sweater and wonder if she might be finished with it soon. Your husband’s favorite t-shirt, the one with the stain, becomes a skirt for your daughter (″Sorry, Babe!″).
A trip to the thrift store will become a treat-yourself outing. Yes, it can be a little stinky in there, and even if you’re not the hand sanitizer type, you won’t say no when your friend offers you a squirt once you’re back in the car. Still, when the improv juices begin to flow, you’ll be glad you braved the land of the secondhand. We’ve turned vintage trousers into napkins (Nicole went through a big napkin-making phase); t-shirts into skirts, tunics, dresses, and other shirts; sweaters into blankets, hats, pot holders, skirts, kids’ clothing, and revamped sweaters; and men’s dress shirts into pouches, produce bags, skirts, and dresses. The list is long. We used to love knitting, but the sweater section at the enormous local Salvation Army has banished that winter pastime. Someone else has already done the knitting and all we have to do is sew it into something beautiful. Plus, we never were great knitters, truth be told.
What should you be searching for? Good quality! If it is used and it still looks good, then you can count on its quality being high. Touch things and see if they are soft. Look to see if the fabric is pilled, because that won’t improve with wear. If you’re really not into the idea of thrifted clothes, you can certainly nab outgrown or retired items from family members and friends (they’ll thank you for it!). If you do decide to hit the thrift stores, stick your finds right in the wash when you get home to give them a fresh new start. You’ll be silly with happiness over how little you spent, and about the creative potential of your stash.
Tip: Chapter 10 is devoted to upcycling. It includes hints to ensure the best upcycling results as well as projects to get you started. Prepare to be amazed at what you can create from items headed for or already in the so-called junk pile.
