- We start a new series today with lots of key information.

Fashion is creative, exciting, and always changing.

Learning new techniques makes our sewing skills better.

New techniques can also simplify the design and sewing process.

Today, we're going to learn wraps, which are the basics of fashion.

We'll use rectangles and clever ways to make fresh new looks.

What you learn today will make your designing easier even if you've never sewn before.

Rectangles, squares, and more, all today on "Fit 2 Stitch".

(upbeat music) (gentle music) - [Announcer] "Fit 2 Stitch" is made possible by Pendleton, Vogue Fabrics, Bennos Buttons, Kai Scissors, OC Sewing, Mike Gunther Industries, and Sew Steady.

- Fitting is my favorite part of sewing, but I learned a long time ago that for many of you, fitting is not your favorite thing.

The last series of "Fit 2 Stitch" was about fitting nine pieces into a capsule wardrobe, getting them to look wonderful, and then mixing and matching them to make many, many outfits.

In this series, we're gonna use those same nine patterns.

We've already done all the fitting, so we don't have to even worry about fit anymore.

So now we're gonna change the pattern or the fabric or both to make all kinds of great looks.

We have great guests, great information, and you'll find this all so easy to do.

Remember, if I can do it, so can you.

It's going to be fun.

We have so much in store for you.

Today is going to be an easy day.

The hardest part, which will come here in a minute, but it's gonna be fun.

This is what we call our flat fabric day.

Today, we'll use flat pieces of cloth, arrange them creatively, and see what the results are.

And we're going to make four wraps, so we're gonna be quick.

But here's the hardest part, when I said there was a hard part, it's called perspective.

And this, my little glass, we're gonna use my glass as an example.

There's some that say the glass is half empty, and there's some that say the glass is half full.

But there's some who say, I'm grateful to have a glass.

So what we learned is there's just lots of different perspectives.

So I know many of you well enough that I know that you say to me, I hate shopping.

My goal today is to change your perspective on shopping.

We are not going to buy anything.

We are going to research and through all of these series and all of these shows, you're gonna find that you've gotta do your homework, and the fastest and best place to do that homework is at the store.

You don't have to go to the store.

Some you can go online.

You can look, you can do all kinds of things.

But that's really what it's gonna take.

It's gonna take a little bit of borrowing ideas, and whenever I go shopping, the designers, they're so, don't go to the low end.

Go to the high end because they're so much great stuff and it's all the same price to you, it's free.

You're not gonna buy any of it.

You're just going to borrow those ideas and come home with them.

So let's get started.

We're gonna start on a wrap.

I want you to see this little wrap because it's cute, it's easy, and it's really fun.

And who doesn't like a little wrap like this?

And we're gonna use, it's all faux fur.

If you like real, it doesn't make a difference, but we're gonna use faux.

And what this is is just wraps around your neck.

So we're gonna take it apart, and I'm gonna show you just how to do it for yourself and some things to work with when we're working with fur.

I'm gonna show you these deep dark secrets.

When you're at the store, don't ever go to that store without a tape measure.

You're gonna always wanna tape measure because that's your key.

And tape measures fit in pockets.

They fit everywhere.

They fit in partner's pockets, anywhere.

Somebody's gotta have a tape measure.

So this first wrap, what we learned about it is it is going to 45 inches long, five inches wide.

So, I want you to notice a couple things that you'll need to know when you're using fur, and that there's different furs.

There's different lengths of the actual fur itself.

So I'm gonna use this one as an example just to contrast the difference.

You can see this one because it all goes in the same direction when you go to wrap it around, you don't see a change of directions.

But this one, because it's a longer fur, you do.

So what I'm actually gonna do, is I'm gonna cut it at center back, and I'm gonna seam it.

And I'm gonna show you a couple things.

Really right here what I'm wanna show you is if you've got a cut or a seam, you'll never even see it.

I'm gonna put a pin there just for right now.

You can see on that side that ugly pin, but on that side, you see absolutely nothing.

So fur is really fun to play with because you can mess it up, and it's not messed up.

So because of the way this one hangs, if these two ends ended like that, that would be kind of yucky.

I'm actually going to cut it in the middle, and I'm gonna put a seam at center back.

So you don't have to do this on every fur, just depending on what kind of fur.

When you cut fur, you're gonna cut from the back side, and you're literally just gonna put the point of your scissors in there, and you're going to just snip smoothly.

And you can see that will all still be there.

And then when you sew fur, in this case, we're gonna put these two ends together, you're going to make sure that you just mash all the fur down, and the seam itself is just going to be with the backing together.

Don't try, just make sure all this fur is poked down inside.

I'm not gonna sew this one, I'm just gonna pin it so that I want you to see that as you turn it over, you see there's, you can't even see a seam there.

And then when the wrap comes around, you'll get both of these nice ends where you want them to be.

So just depending on the kind of fur you're doing and how long that fur is, you'll wanna possibly put a seam at center back, not always necessary on all furs by any means.

The one thing I wanna caution you against is when you have fur, don't cut through the fur because this looks like, remember the little kid that they stuck a bowl on his head and they made that haircut?

That's what it's gonna end up looking, and there's no way to fix that.

You've lost the fur.

Okay, so on this particular fur, all they did was 7 1/2 inches from the end, either end, they just made a slit.

You don't have to finish faux fur.

It's really fun to use.

It's really easy to use.

And the backs, a lot of these furs are so pretty, you can just leave them.

And they're somewhat reflective of the print on the outside.

With this one, when it wraps around, this slit is, again, it's 7 1/2 inches from the end, and it's four inches in length.

Now, remember, this was five inches wide, so the reason that's the case is so that this can actually come through, and you make a little wrap around your neck.

And it's cute, it's warm.

I've worn it so much, I love this thing.

It's just really fun to wear.

So 7 1/2 inches from the end, four inches long, and that's all you need to know.

And again, this one is lined, but I don't think you need to line it.

I think it's actually prettier to let that back side show depending on what you wanna do.

Alright, so for this next wrap, again, quick and easy, I wanna show you a little bit about this.

What I like about this one is notice here I've got it over the back and exactly like we want it.

It's pretty in the back, it's very pretty.

But, a whole nother way that I can wear this is I can take the center and put it around her neck, and then I can take one end, which was the armhole, and I can make a little scarf out of it.

So what I like about stuff like this that's convertible like that, is it can, I can bring in my purse and wear it, or put it around my neck and later if I get cold, I can wrap it around my shoulders.

So I love stuff like this, especially when I'm traveling, and it just easily goes into my bag.

Alright, so this one we're gonna make out of this particular fabric.

It doesn't matter.

I think what you wanna look for is a fabric that has two sides because the two sides are probably gonna show, and it's just really pretty to see those two sides.

In this case, remember that all you had to do was shop, and you got this great idea.

This fabric is 50 inches long.

If you have a fabric that's 60 inches wide, then you can use the 60-inch wide, and then you just need a yard.

So this was 60 inches wide, so I actually narrowed it from the edge because you don't wanna get too much.

For some of you, if you're a little taller or a little shorter, you might wanna alter these, but what I would suggest is that you start off with these measurements and then decide where you wanna go from there.

Okay, so you're gonna fold it in half, the 50 inches long.

Now what I did in this case is I went ahead and finished the long edges.

So let's lay this out so you can really start to see it.

This is the 50 inches in length.

It's one yard wide.

And so these are the edges I'm going to finish.

And what I'm going to do is you're going to leave an armhole that's half of that width.

So that part's gonna be the armhole, this part you're gonna secure together, and you're gonna do that on both.

So this is the time you pause your TV set, you cut that out, and then you come back and let's go sew it together.

I'm gonna go to the sewing machine and just sew this little section, and you'll see, we'll see we'll get the exact same result.

So when we're doing this, now I purposely put in some different color contrasting thread.

You don't wanna do that.

You wanna actually make it all match, and it'll look really pretty.

In this particular case, this is actually the selvage.

So I really wouldn't even have to finish this.

So, the beauty of knits and wovens, and you can do this out of knit or woven, is there's so many options that the finishes are.

You could actually sew the selvage right back on so you wouldn't have to finish at all.

And I think a lot of it depends on your sewing skills as to what you decide you wanna do.

If you're a beginner sewer, you could hand stitch this.

You don't even have to sew it at all.

So what I'm gonna do is just sew just half of this armhole.

And I'm gonna do that on both ends.

(machine thumping) Easy enough.

So let me show you what I did, and again, I did that contrasting thread so you could see easily what's going on.

You wanna backstitch right there.

I didn't do that.

And then what happens is as you open this seam, then you can actually stitch this open, and you hem the armhole.

So I'm gonna stitch down, around, and back down the other side.

These edges are already finished.

And then I do the exact same thing to the other side.

So you get this long scarf just like I showed you in the beginning, it's just simply gorgeous.

And what I love about making them over buying them is I can find the fabric I want, I can, if I'm shopping and I see a great fabric, I get it.

And I think, you know what?

This is what it's gonna work for.

It's gonna be just perfect for this wrap.

And a lot of times, even if I don't have a wrap in mind, I'll buy the fabric 'cause I love it, and then I know I'll figure out, well, I guess we all do that.

We'll figure out what we're gonna do with it at some point in time.

So that was a long narrow.

I wanna go into a little bit more of a square.

And so we're gonna change it up right now, and let's take a look at the mannequins and just see the different looks I get with it.

So with this one, you can see if you look at it, and don't ever be afraid in the stores to go in the dressing room and take them in the dressing room and measure them.

That's what your tape measure is for.

The dressing rooms are private.

You can go in.

You can just measure how long it is, how wide it is, how big the opening is, all of the those things are just really fun to measure.

And you notice in this particular one, it forms a cowl neck here in the beginning.

And it's off the shoulder.

It's just simply gorgeous.

And this asymmetric line is very flattering.

And again, what I love is there's so many different fabrics that you can use for it.

It can be sheer.

It changes the look up completely.

It's just a lot of fun.

Alright, so let's make this one.

Again, this time we're gonna go to 60-inch wide fabric, same thing, and we're gonna use 3/4 of a yard.

So notice that our yardages don't really change that much.

It's really just a matter of almost how we cut them and how we do them.

And in this particular case, I'm not even gonna finish the edges.

So I found this great fabric I was in love.

Can you tell I like orange?

Anyway (laughing) I was really in love with this fabric.

And so what I did was I had a couple yards of it, but I had enough that you can see that I could lay it out however I wanted it to be, which I did.

And so, this is, again, I only used the width of the fabric.

It's 60 inches wide, and then this right here would be your 3/4 of a yard.

So then I'm gonna bring selvage to selvage.

Selvage is just, you're talking your edges.

So these edges here don't even need to be finished because they're kind of already finished.

So I just left them.

And now what we're gonna do is, remember, we're just gonna sew one neck edge.

And this is gonna be the neck edge here by the fold is where it came over.

And here we're gonna do, oh, again, we're gonna leave 11 inches open, 12 inches.

Just enough where you can get it over your head, and you like the width of it on your body, whatever that is.

And then this is the portion we're going to sew together.

And again, when you sew this together, keep in mind there's so many variables.

I don't have to do right sides together.

In this case, I'm not going to.

And I say matching thread, it doesn't have to be matching.

This is the fun part of sewing is you really get to do whatever you want.

So let's sew this little section.

Because in this particular case, this turns out so cute, this whole print.

And I want you to see that a lot of times you can use prints, and you can create lots of different angles and illusions with those prints that you create.

So let's do this.

And remember, I said, you don't have to put right sides together.

In this case, I'm actually going to just leave the raw edges to the outside.

And a lot of times I think as sewers, we think to ourselves, oh, we can't do that.

My mother told me I couldn't or whoever, but I think that's again where the shopping will really help us because it allows us to break out of, I think some stereotypes that we're put into or some molds that we're not allowed to do because if you see a thousand dollar garment and they did it, you think, oh, well, I can do it.

They're charging that much for that.

The other day I was shopping and I saw a white zigzag on a navy pant, and I remember thinking to my, and the pants were $1,200, and I remember thinking to myself, wow, I would have never thought I could do that.

Alright, so all I'm doing is sewing this all the way down.

And that's it because of the kind of knit this is, this is what's called an ITY.

This is my neck opening here.

That's what's gonna make that little cowl.

Now, just an FYI, the more neck you leave open, the more cowl you'll have.

So you can see that it's gonna hang at an angle like that.

Is that so cool?

I love it, I just absolutely love it!

Let's go make a T-shirt because, remember, last season, we had this T-shirt, and we got it to where we absolutely loved it.

Now, we wanna expound it to be lots of different garments.

I'm gonna show you first on the actual garment, and then I'm gonna show you on the tissue.

So we'll have both.

I'm gonna take the shoulder seams and put those together.

And then I'm gonna lay this out on the table.

And what you're gonna see is that this section, 'cause I want you to see on the garment, here's the side seam.

This section has just been extended.

That's all that's going on here.

French curve, great little tool to have.

You can see that from the shoulder seam I come down using the French curve.

See, this is all just a rectangle.

There's a seam here at center front, but this is all just a big rectangle that's been added to the front of the T-shirt.

So this starts at 21 and just comes right into, just use your French curve to make a nice smooth blend into the basic square, a rectangle of the front T-shirt.

But this is so awesome what's going to happen.

I'm going to show you different fun things to do with it.

But first let me show you the tissue, because again, this is my base tissue.

And that 36 inches, that yard to the front is going to be simply with from center front.

Don't go from the side seam.

Go from center front where that 36 is added.

So you can see, it's gonna come way out here.

This portion right here is where I was talking about blending it.

There's no wrong.

You can't screw this up.

It can't be too low because I'm gonna show you in a minute, the neckline's not even gonna make a difference.

So the neckline's gonna come down.

You're gonna blend it, and it's all just gonna come out straight just like that one I showed you.

But let me show you a couple things on this that you'll wanna pay attention to just as you're sewing it.

Once you have got the pattern, and you're just gonna add to the front of your T-shirt.

And I guess you can do this, really, you can do it with a tank top.

You could do it with just about anything.

What you're gonna see here in a minute is what happens is notice that that's the back neck edge, and I just surged this and turned it under.

Remember, that with nets, they're so good.

You could leave them raw.

You don't even have to feel like you need to finish them if you don't want to.

So top and bottom again, I'm going to hem all of that.

I would hem the bottom.

The good news about hemming the bottom is that in many fabrics, it'll just give it a little bit more weight, and that little bit of weight is a positive.

So let's go look and see all the different ways I can wear this because it is just fun.

In this particular one what I did is I did a sheer.

So here's my T-shirt.

In this case, look, I did it sleeveless.

I did it short sleeve.

Really fun to do, and I put a seam right at the center.

And the reason that seam is really good is because it's so much easier to manipulate if you've got the seam that's marking the middle.

So the first thing I can do is just take that and put that right behind the back.

And you see what it does is it just folds out.

Then the next thing I can do is I can take it, I'm gonna give it one little twist, just one little twist, and put it back behind, and you can see how beautiful that is.

Now, either way, whether you're wearing it twisted or just behind your neck and straight, let's go back to the straight way, rather than having it all bunched up around the neck, I can bring it out to where it comes over the shoulders and creates a shawl.

And this is just so pretty.

There's just so many different fabrics to do it out of.

The only thing you wanna look for is what kind of fabric you wanna do and what kind of fabric to use and what kind of fabric drapes well.

But the beauty of sewing is all of these things are up to you, and you don't have to buy what's out there.

You just take those ideas.

Also, when I come here and I twist it in the front, I'm gonna twist it.

I'm gonna come back, and again, instead of wearing it all up there, I'm gonna shape it over the back.

So you can see it just folds beautifully there.

So there's one other thing I wanna show you with this same wrap.

We've done four wraps.

That's amazing that we've gone through that many that quick.

But I do wanna show you this particular one because what I did right here at center front is I put in a zipper.

So we've got this long addition added, and this long addition is, I put in a separating zipper.

So the reason you wanna do that is because once the zipper separates, and I've got this two separate pieces, now I can actually wrap it around the body and I can tie it in the front, and that is just such a fun option.

You can even tie it in the back.

So it takes this T-shirt and puts a self tie right at the front.

And that's just a really fun option.

Let's go show you.

And then I wanna show you just a real quick way to sew on fur to really make it easy.

In this case, I've got, I'm gonna put this arm up here 'cause I think with the arm, you can really see it a lot easier.

So we're gonna take a minute and make sure it's on the arm.

So now what I've got is I've got these two separate pieces, and that's what I was talking where I can go around and actually you can get the zipper to come back together and zip in the front.

It really makes a completely different look.

And what you wanna do, when you added this originally, you added one yard.

So depending on your size obviously, you can actually figure what two times around is and then add a little bit more or add a little bit less if you don't need all of that.

But it really makes again, a completely different look.

And I love the fact that it's all so simple, that you're just adding, taking away, and a lot of it is just folding that fabric a little bit different.

I wanna sew this fur just briefly just to make sure you understand how to do that.

I'm gonna take those two pieces that I pinned, and let's go to the sewing machine and just sew that real quick.

Again, I think for many of us, we feel a little insecure about sewing.

So we're just going to go ahead and sew that little portion right there.

(sewing machine thumping) It'll make it nice and clean.

I've got all the fur tucked away.

So fun and easy, and then we'll bring it back to the table and take a look at it so we can see.

Alright, so there we have it.

And again, it doesn't even have to be finished on that inside.

I think so many of us, we just get a little more interested as to how it has to be or frayed, but let's take a look at it and see what we can see on the back side.

So there it is on that side.

We can fix anything we need to.

Don't be afraid of fur.

I think I love working with fur just because you can create so many different patterns and illusions based on how you do those seams and what you do with them.

So you're ready, all four wraps?

That's your homework assignment.

Next time, we're gonna have more fun.

We're just gonna take it up a notch, and that's exactly what I'm saying.

So the goal hopefully is that you find that you love working with fabric.

I meet so many women who say they love fabric, but they're not sure they wanna sew.

But this could all be done by hand.

You wouldn't even have to hit the sewing machine.

We'll just get you tangled in a little bit at a time.

Coco Chanel said, "Beauty begins the moment "you decide to be yourself."

Next time, we'll show you a great way to be yourself because I need to learn this, too.

We have a guest to explain the method.

So we'll both learn together.

Join us next time here on "Fit 2 Stitch".

(gentle piano music) - [Announcer] "Fit 2 Stitch" is made possible by Pendleton, Vogue Fabrics, Bennos Buttons, Kai Scissors, OC Sewing, Mike Gunther Industries, and Sew Steady.

To order a four-DVD set of "Fit 2 Stitch Series 8" please visit our website at fit2stitch.com.

(upbeat music)