Step away from the polyester blend suiting…
bethh on Nov 6th 2009
November is no time for wool, especially not in Georgia. That’s part of the reason that I went for this poly-rayon suiting when I was shopping around at Fabric.com last week. Not only that, but I love the color and the checked pattern of the stuff. It looked stable when I opened the box. When I washed it, the hand changed to soft, loose, and fluffy, reminding me of chenille.
While chenille feels nice to snuggle your face in, it’s not any fun to sew!
As you may recall, I cut three garments from this piece. Ugh.
When I finally got some sewing time last night, this skirt cut from the suiting was on top of the cut pile. With the fabric being so soft, it was really hard to place it back in any kind of shape for marking or pinning.
No, I don’t mark on the cutting table. I cut, cut, cut and then mark as I’m ready to sew. Usually that is not a problem, but this fabric made it one. It was a real nuisance getting the cut pattern pieces to line up with the paper pattern what with the fabric shifting and refusing to lay straight.
Thanks to the checks, I was able to finally get it lined up with the pattern and mark the darts. Sewing the darts was not a problem, when it came time for pressing however, I proceeded with caution. Poly-rayon tends to show every place you touch it with the iron.
I generally keep my pressing to a minimum and on the back side. If I have to press from the front, I use a silk organza press cloth. Most of the time I come out ok.
With a fluffy poly-rayon like this, all bets are off. Even with my having pressed from the back, I can see press marks. (The wide stripe in the center of the photo is a trick of the flash.) I continued sewing, and will complete the skirt before I decide what to do about the other two garments. The pressing may have simply compressed the loft and a trip through the washer may fix it.
If it doesn’t look good after the skirt is done, I may throw the other two pieces out. I definitely don’t want to be pressing all those darts in that vest if it’s going to come out all shiny.
The fit of the skirt is good, so the worst I’ve done is make a disposable muslin to check my draft.
Tags: Aldrich draft
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Filed in Skirts | One response so far
Oh, no. I hate when fabric doesn’t live up to my expectations. Good luck. Maybe you can salvage it.