Peggy Sagers: Sewing construction is not an exact science because there are many options and variables involved.

Typically, sewing factories don't share construction information with each other.

However, some factory sewers are creative thinkers and constantly push the boundaries to make sewing methods easier.

Rosie, our guest today, has been both a seamstress and factory owner and has taught many sewers quick and easy methods for garment construction.

She is here to share her timesaving and efficient tips with us.

♪♪ ♪♪ male announcer: "Fit 2 Stitch" is made possible by Kai Scissors, ♪♪ Plano Sewing Center, ♪♪ Elliott Berman Textiles, ♪♪ Bennos Buttons, ♪♪ Imitation of Life, ♪♪ and Clutch Nails.

♪♪ Peggy: Sewing construction methods are ever changing.

It is so incredible to me how, over the last 10 years, the last 20 years, sewing methods have simply changed.

And I think part of it is our fabrics are always changing, our timeframe and the budget on our garments are always changing, so designers, patternmakers, sample makers, are always working their creativity to be faster, more efficient, more precise, and when all of those things come together, these methods we see are constant improvement.

So we want to bring you three different sewing methods today that are new and updated and current and fresh, and they're just beautiful.

Rosie is a patternmaker, and Rosie has worked for many years as patternmaker, but she's done way more than that because she's actually owned factories, she's actually employed those and taught sewers how to do this.

So I'm gonna tell you something.

If there's somebody who knows her methods, it's definitely Rosie.

We're gonna welcome Rosie on today and she's gonna start off and really help us learn some of these.

And thank you so much for being here.

Rosie del Bosque: You're very welcome.

Peggy: You know your stuff.

Rosie: Well, thank you for that great introduction.

Peggy: It's all true.

Rosie: Thank you, and I do like to share all the things that I know and share so that everyone can learn how to do these things better than ever, yeah.

Peggy: And as easy as you do them.

How many years you've been doing this?

Rosie: Thirty years.

Peggy: And you've seen a lot of change.

Rosie: Yes, I have, and I've learned along-- I mean, I consider myself a student as well, so I'm constantly learning.

I'm happy to learn.

But I also like to teach what I know.

Peggy: But I think that's what's great about you because you just don't act like you know as much as you know, but you know a whole lot.

Rosie: Oh, thank you.

Peggy: Let's start over here.

Let's start over here.

So I love this because when you suggested we do this, I hadn't really thought about it, but I don't really--I don't really know how I would do this, you know, when we sat and talked about it.

And that's why I felt like this would be, you know, a great place to start because you call it what?

Rosie: Absolutely, this is-- I've put together-- this is a clean finish.

Well, this, in this particular case, it's a neck edge but it could also be in the case of this skirt here, is a skirt facing edge, so.

Peggy: So is it typically like if we see here, is it typically always with an invisible zipper?

Rosie: No, not--no, it can be a regular zipper.

Yes, it can.

Peggy: So anytime a zipper is coming into an edging.

Rosie: The edging, and you need it to be nice and clean because, you know, you want a nice clean finish.

Peggy: And on that finish, do you typically put a hook and eye?

Rosie: You can, you can.

You know, and that differs between, you know, the designer that designed it or your preference.

I personally don't care for when I'm putting on a garment I don't care to hook, depending.

But a lot of people, there are designers that are sticklers for having that hook and eye at the top.

Peggy: Yeah, I notice on this, like, you almost have to do the hook and eye first.

Rosie: I think it's very useful in the case where if you don't hook it first, the garment will be falling and it's not gonna stay still for you, but in some cases, yeah, but in some cases you can get zipped up without the use of a hook, so.

Peggy: So I think a hard thing for home sewers to understand is that they actually have the choice, because we're so often want to just, "Tell me what to do.

Tell me what to do."

But there's many cases where they have a choice.

Rosie: Yes, think about what your needs are, and think about what your likes and needs are, because a lot of it is esthetics as well.

Peggy: And there's logic.

I think that, again, let's just make sure we understood that.

If I put on a skirt, it's hard to zip it up while it's staying in place.

So the hook and eye will keep it in place while I'm zipping up the zipper.

Rosie: Exactly, yeah.

Peggy: So if I'm looking at something like this, it actually has a hook and eye too but I would not ever do that hook and eye and it's placed in such a place I notice that you could actually not do it, and it doesn't show.

Rosie: Exactly, so you have to think about what your needs are with the garment so, you know, I mean, you can buy the garment like that and if it's something that is cumbersome to you, you can always remove it, you know, if you want.

But if it's there, it's fine too, so yeah.

Peggy: Okay, so where do we start?

Well, let's say we have a-- I'm gonna really kind of almost think that we have a pattern that doesn't have any type of facings to it.

Maybe the pattern intended us to just tuck a seam allowance under and stitch it down, which I think is a little-- this is so pretty.

This is clean, like you said.

It's a clean edge.

Rosie: And the thing-- what I've put together here, it's effortless also.

If you know what steps to take, it's effortless and, you know, you turn your garment over and it's, like, nice and clean and everything is in its place, whereas when I first started doing this, you know, I might reach this point but it might have taken me, you know, trial and error, and unstitching it and just trying to get it to lay right.

And so this little technique is gonna show you a very effortless way to clean finish the edge.

And again, the hook and eye comes in afterwards so you can always apply or decide not to apply a hook and eye, so.

Peggy: I just love that, that the hook and eye actually holds it up.

I just never even thought of that.

I mean, I never even realized what good is a hook and eye.

I've never really gone to that point, but-- Rosie: Well, any work-- through the years as I've worked with different designers, like, I had one designer that, "Where's my hook and eye?

Where's my hook and eye?"

And it was like, "Oh, the hook and eye, okay," you know.

And then there were designers that, you know, "No, you know, I don't."

No, they really don't prefer the hook and eye.

So it's kind of a preference thing and, you know, just working with different designers, I just kind of have learned different ways to do things.

Peggy: This makes a lot of sense, though, on a bottom garment versus a top garment.

Rosie: Yeah, because you know, you don't-- you want it to stay up while you're trying to grab the bottom of the zipper and hook it up, so that makes all the sense.

Peggy: Well, and once you do that hook and eye, it kind of relieves pressure off the zipper as it's going up.

It would have a tendency to stabilize the fabric.

Rosie: Otherwise, you need another pair of hands.

Peggy: Yeah, you do.

That's a good point.

All right.

Rosie: So, anyway, I've put together some mock-ups of how to do this technique or this process, so I've got-- the pattern is here, like we've got the two-- imagine this is the back of the dress or the shirt or whatever.

Now, my seam allowance in production is 1/2-inch seam allowance in the back, so I've drawn a 1/2-inch here.

Peggy: And is that in all cases or just with a zipper?

Rosie: In all cases I do-- well, I take that back.

In custom, 'cause I've done a little bit of everything, but custom, our seam allowances in custom is an inch because when you're doing a custom garment for someone-- Peggy: Make mistakes.

Rosie: --you wanna be able to have a little bit of some seams in there, some fabric in there in case you had to let it out.

Not that you would normally need to let it out in the center back, but sometimes you do, you know.

But 1/2-inch is standard side seam allowance in production and center back seam allowance.

That's in production.

I know that commercial patterns, I think it's 5/8 is the seam allowance, so-- Peggy: And some are 3/8, evolving to 3/8 now.

Rosie: Some are 3/8, okay.

And especially, I think, if it's a knit, maybe it's 3/8, but this I'm gonna do 1/2-inch so we've got a 1/2-inch seam allowance.

I'm gonna just kind of draw that in so that you can see that more clearly.

Okay, so the facing is gonna be cut the same.

Normally, if you get a pattern, it's gonna probably, more than likely, be the same.

Now, what I wanna demonstrate here is that-- Peggy: And that facing's 2 inches wide, just because.

Rosie: Two inches wide, yes.

Okay, so I'm gonna pretend here, I'm gonna mark another 1/4-inch and I'm gonna do little marks like that.

You can either cut that off, but what I'm gonna demonstrate is I didn't cut them off in my samples but I want you to imagine that now you're gonna be a 1/4-inch over, which looks like it's throwing everything off here, but I'll show you what we're doing next.

Peggy: Oh, this is really smart.

We're making the facing a little bit smaller than the actual dress.

Rosie: A little bit smaller, exactly.

So now-- Peggy: I have never seen that.

Rosie: Yes, and then-- Peggy: That's not in any patternmaking book, Rosie.

That's in the Rosie patternmaking book.

Rosie: Well, you know, in production, like I said, it's kind of like a production pattern.

We would make the pattern a quarter of an inch smaller in the production pattern because when sewers are sewing production, everything is about efficiency.

So they're not gonna want to-- nor are they gonna want to ooch this over.

They're gonna want it to line up.

And they don't want-- gonna wanna trim.

You don't want your sewers to have to trim anything.

They need to only sew, sew, sew.

So, but I'm demonstrating it this way because I want you to see the process and how we got there, okay?

So then in this-- now I used invisible zippers on my sample here.

So as you can see here, what I'm gonna show you here is where I have sewn the zipper, I've set the zipper in, but I've sewn the facing in a 1/4-inch pretending that, you know, I cut off that 1/4-inch but what I did is I just moved it over.

I didn't cut it off.

Okay, so that's what I'm demonstrating here on this side is where I have sewn this a quarter of an inch.

You can kind of see there against the gray table that it's a 1/4-inch ooched over.

Peggy: Got it.

Rosie: So then on this side, I'm showing you where I have stitched this down and what you wanna do is after you've stitched this down, you wanna turn it towards-- Peggy: Away from center back.

Rosie: Yes, turn it towards the side seam but to the side of the self fabric.

So then what you're gonna do is you're gonna stitch this down and I stitched this to here, just so I could show you what that kind of looks like.

It looks like, you know, it looks like it's not gonna fit.

See, like, if you see it there, you see that little bit of give, okay?

But you wanna turn it this way.

Peggy: 'Cause it'll take up that little bit of give.

Rosie: Then it's gonna take up that, and then you're gonna stitch it down.

So once you've stitched it down, then you'll end up with your facing being slightly away from the zipper.

You don't--I purposely left this one right up against the zipper because you don't want it so close that you risk catching.

So that's why I also brought these seam--these presser feet.

You wanna use your zipper presser foot for your invisible zipper 'cause you wanna go-- get up right against the zipper, but you wanna use this little, I think it's called the lining zipper because it's meant to just give you that little bit of extra--it's very narrow, so you're not gonna butt it up right against the zipper.

There's gonna be that little bit of space.

But what I wanna really show you is how clean, okay, so then once you've done that, I'm gonna turn this around and show you.

You know, when you've just stitched this and you've just gone right across there, the top of the zipper, and you very cleanly just fold this under and flip it over and everything is just where it needs to be.

Peggy: Yeah, it's perfect.

Rosie: And it's perfect, yeah.

So, and it was effortless.

I mean, you know, you just take those steps.

You didn't have, you know, and you hardly even had to trim anything.

Peggy: It's beautiful.

I mean, it's just, it's exactly even, it's gorgeous.

I'm gonna have Rosie sew for me.

Let's show this.

This is gorgeous too.

Rosie: Let me cover this.

Peggy: Because, this, you have a lot of options on.

Look at that.

Look how cool that is.

That's, like, perfect.

Rosie: Okay, yeah, yeah.

I mean-- Peggy: You've been doing this a few years.

Rosie: I mean, well, and you wouldn't believe how long I went before knowing this, you know?

It's, like, a struggle to get it to look nice.

I would reach the point but sometimes I would do part of it by hand or, you know, but then you learn these little tips and tricks and you're, like, "Oh, my God, nice."

Okay, so, now we have--are we ready to move on to this?

Peggy: Yeah, let's do an exposed zipper.

Rosie: So this is an exposed zipper.

And I--there's a couple of ways to do it and I chose to do this way because I feel like this is such a easy and clean way to do it, okay?

So, first of all, and I demonstrated here different sized zippers, like, this one is a really beautiful zipper.

It's a lot more narrow.

This one's thick and chunky.

And here's another, just a regular zipper, but you can also set it in as an exposed zipper.

So what you wanna do is here are your panels.

You wanna measure down to the edge where the zipper needs to finish at this level, okay?

So this is a very small zipper and it only, like, clears about a quarter of an inch.

Peggy: Yeah, it's really fine.

Rosie: So the important thing about setting in a zipper and not having to struggle so much is whatever this distance here, you need to cut away out of the edge here, okay?

Peggy: Oh, interesting, the width of the teeth?

Rosie: The width of the teeth.

It may be a tinge more, you know, so you cut-- so I cut away a quarter of an inch, okay, and I want the end of the zipper, you know, I wanna take about a 3/8-inch seam allowance or a 1/4-inch seam allowance, so I'm gonna go ahead and give myself down to here, okay?

So I'm giving myself 3/8 to play with, and so because you're gonna actually clip that, 'cause your seam allowance is gonna be probably, like, a 1/4 when you put it in and then I'll demonstrate that over here.

But mainly, the width of the teeth is gonna be what you're gonna cut away and you also want--you want to make sure that you are clearing at least a 1/4 or 3/8 to the edge here because then you're not gonna have--if you do this here, where the cut-away part, then you're not gonna have any fabric to play with.

Peggy: Sure, you won't have any--yeah.

Rosie: Exactly, so that's kind of how I came up with the how to prepare for an-- for a exposed zipper.

So here I wanna demonstrate what that looks like on the underneath, so see, I took the seam allowance all the way down to here and then if you'll--where I clipped it, see, my fabric goes all the way up to this edge, okay?

So you--it's almost like a welt pocket, you know?

You just kind of go here, make a nice clean clip there.

Peggy: It is like a welt pocket, isn't it?

Rosie: You know, and that's what's really important.

Like, on these type of techniques, it's really important that you make clean cuts and in some cases you might wanna fuse this area, if you feel like your fabric is too-- or if you're nervous about it.

Because one little eighth of an inch over or-- Peggy: A sixteenth of an inch, yeah.

Rosie: Yeah, sixteenth of an inch and you end up with that little part that wants to ravel to the outside, so sometimes you can fuse that little area or maybe the whole strip.

I noticed on this one, it's been fused, you know, in here I can see that they've done some-- and that's really smart to do.

Peggy: It is, just a preventative almost.

Rosie: But your clippings and everything, that's why I like to--I don't mind drawing them in with-- they have a lot of marker pencils for fabric, and marking them because the cut has--it really needs to be very clean for your work to look clean, okay?

So as you can see, I have a stitch here, a very clean stitch here, here, and see, that lines up because I took the time to measure what my seam allowance needed to be and cut away what I needed.

So then when it came to sewing this piece on, you know, it's just a straight stitch from there.

Peggy: And it cleans everything up.

Rosie: Exactly, and this part, and I'm just gonna pin this here, you know, pretend that's sewn up.

But see, then, now--and this is just a very easy way to do an exposed zipper, because the other-- there's other ways you can do it.

I'm only demonstrating this today, but this is a very, very clean and easy way because then this stitch just becomes just one straight swoop.

Peggy: I wanna see the sleeves.

Rosie: So, and then this is another finished in this exposed zipper.

A nice chunky one, but it's basically the same thing, you know.

Peggy: Okay, and that zipper is offset.

And that's because it was offset in this one, we duplicated this way.

Rosie: Exactly.

Peggy: Okay, so can we quickly go through this, 'cause I wanna see it.

Rosie: Okay.

Peggy: And not all sleeves are done like that.

Like, that's a little bit different whereas this one is done a little-- Rosie: Yes, this is a very tailored sleeve placket.

It's the same thing, like they do on men's shirts but a lot of women's are done this way.

I think it's a beautiful-- Peggy: I do too.

Rosie: Like, I used to get really intimidated to have to sew one of these.

Like, I could do the pattern to it, but it's like, here are the pieces.

Peggy: I agree with you, and I mean, as I've worked through it, it's a beautiful method.

It's beautiful.

Rosie: It really is.

It's kind of like, even when I first started pants, I was like--men's pants.

I was so intimidated by it but once-- it's like a puzzle, you know?

You just put the pieces together.

Peggy: It's a patternmaker in you comes out.

Rosie: Right.

Okay, so this is the sample of the finished, and you know, I did a little "X" in the middle but you don't have to do that.

Okay, this is what the-- can I have the pen, the Sharpie?

Okay, again, another important point to do on this is that you want--these are the pattern pieces.

I want you to see what those look like, okay?

So an important detail on this is that this, you know, I hope you can see.

This has been cut to here.

The--this piece needs to clear a 1/2-inch beyond that-- the edge of that cut edge.

So that's a 1/2-inch here because you're gonna clip it a 1/4-inch and I'll show you what I mean by that.

The other really important trick to do is prefold or prepress in that, you know, on this case, you can almost even just fingerpress, you know, you wanna first press it in half and I did--you'll see that I did it on my samples but this will help you tremendously.

Peggy: I agree with that.

It does help.

Rosie: If you--because you don't want your little detail here, I mean, it's all about this detail.

You don't want this to become-- you want everything to be square, so, you know.

Peggy: Recognizing that if it's not, no one will say, "Oh my goodness, it's not--" Rosie: Oh, but it's so frustrating when you get one side that's kind of lopsided and, I mean, I've been known to rip it out two or three times.

Peggy: You can tell you're a true sewer.

Rosie: Yeah, so, anyway, so and then here I've demonstrated that you really want to stitch all the way to that first dot, which is just a 1/4-inch up, because you still have that other 1/4-inch play, so-- and you want a backstitch there.

Make sure that that's not gonna-- that's not gonna move and they need to be perfectly even.

That's--a lot of that is gonna determine how neat and clean your work is, okay?

So then, what you do after that, and I'll show you here, is, okay, so what I've done here is basically I've clipped it.

Again, I've drawn here where you're gonna clip, kind of like a welt, you know, to those two corners.

So then, you're gonna turn this-- Oh, and this is the face side of the fabric.

This is the wrong side of the fabric that you're work-- 'cause you're gonna turn everything over to the right side of the fabric, where's-- where all the detail is.

So when you move-- when you bring this around, you're gonna fold it over.

You can imagine, 'cause I've already done it, and stitch that and what you're gonna find is that you can stitch it down and, you know, move everything over and you just stitch it all the way through.

What you need to do is now we're on the right side of the fabric, and this little lip needs to come up.

That needs to come up and then you're flipping also this prefolded placket to the right side and then that-- so you've already prefolded everything so everything kind of falls into place.

Peggy: Look how easy you've made that.

Oh my gosh.

Rosie: So then you just stitch-- then it becomes that easy.

By prefolding everything, it almost just kind of comes like a little origami.

Peggy: And then you can just do whatever stitching you want.

You don't even have to do this if you don't feel comfortable doing it.

Rosie: Exactly.

And I like to mark.

Like, I did a little pencil mark so that I'll know exactly where that--the 1/4-inch-- Peggy: Where this has to come across.

This is what's holding that little-- Rosie: Because I mean, that's beautiful, right?

Peggy: That is beautiful.

That's your beautiful.

Rosie: But I mean, I just see something like that, and I'm like, "That's just beautiful."

Peggy: No, it is.

I mean, as I sew, I'm amazed at how much I enjoy the perfection of it all.

Rosie: Yeah, I mean, I do too.

Peggy: Can I--how do I say, "Thank you?"

Thank you.

Rosie: Oh, well, it's my pleasure.

Peggy: Thank you.

I really appreciate it.

Rosie: You're very welcome Peggy: Now, it is so amazing, the beauty of just doing it so precisely.

In our last series of "Fit 2 Stitch" we talked about the space suit and the fabrics used to make that suit.

Next episode, we travel to Houston, Texas, to learn much more.

We will see that space suit that children collectively created and sent into space.

I think you will love it.

So be sure to join us on our visit to Houston.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ announcer: "Fit 2 Stitch" is made possible by Kai Scissors.

♪♪ announcer: Plano Sewing Center.

♪♪ announcer: Elliott Berman Textiles.

♪♪ announcer: Bennos Buttons.

♪♪ announcer: Imitation of Life.

♪♪ announcer: And Clutch Nails.

♪♪ announcer: To order a four-DVD set of "Fit 2 Stitch," series 11, please visit our website at fit2stitch.com.

♪♪