- When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change.

Ruffles, seams, and stripes.

What do they all have in common?

Today we're going to learn how to add these classic, yet trendy, embellishments to give our garments texture.

We'll add the most contemporary ruffles, create seams anywhere, everywhere, and take those fashion stripes and turn them in all directions.

These techniques will be a lot of fun, as long as we follow a few rules.

The tee shirt and the tank top from our capsule wardrobe will be our base.

Today, on Fit 2 Stitch.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] Fit 2 Stitch is made possible by Pendelton.

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(piano music) - Sewers, what we know is that we have this tool chest, and in our tool chest, the more tools we have, the better off we are.

And some of our tools, the ones we're gonna talk about today are the ones we can use with our patterns.

We so much talked about those base pieces and getting them to fit, and how important it is for that fit to happen.

We all know we don't like to sew and put it on and have it not fit well.

And it doesn't matter how well it's sewn if we don't like the way it fit.

So we're gonna take those base pieces.

We're gonna take the tank top and we're gonna take our tee shirt.

And why do we have those two?

Let me just separate the differences for you.

Our tank top is what we generally use when we're doing a woven fabric.

And typically in a tank top, the dart is going to be coming in, not perpendicular exactly, but a little more perpendicular from the side seam.

When we do a knit top, we can use that French dart, because generally a knit piece is all one.

And so that dart is completely out of our vision, our line of vision.

And whenever we talk about darts, those are what we call fit lines.

I'm gonna contrast fit lines with design lines.

They're two different things, and so I don't even wanna talk about fit lines, other than to clarify what they are, 'cause today we're gonna have so much fun with design lines, not even changing those fit lines.

So let's just, let me say it again, that our tank top is generally, not always, but generally is for our woven fabrics where the dart is really we need it.

We need it, but it's not gonna be in our clear line of vision or our knit top, or tee shirt, where we can have that French dart and it comes up from the side.

So we've got a great woven base and a great knit base and we can accommodate that base for when the fabrics that we're using.

Remember, the fabric always comes first, and when we find that great fabric, what we decide to do with it will be dependent on the fabric itself.

That's not hard and fast, but those are general rules.

Remember our glass, and remember our perspective.

So my goal today is to just give you a completely different perspective, because we're going shopping.

And we're all gonna go shopping together.

You all ready?

All right, we're gonna shop on Mannequin Lane over here.

And the first thing that we're gonna see on Mannequin Lane is a tank top that I actually saw on TV.

I loved it, I just loved it.

I thought, I gotta have that tank top.

And so I Googled the person's name and the show that they were on, et cetera, et cetera.

And sure enough, up popped this tank top, because it was current.

It was the one they had on, I think it was, that day.

I found that the tank top was over $500, which how can a tank top cost $500?

That's just silly.

But the worst part about it was is the person who had it on, it just fit terribly.

It just fit terribly.

But what I wanna point out to you is this is our tank top.

This is our tank top because it's a woven fabric, and there's our bust dart just literally right there.

So what you see is the line that is cut angularly, the line that is cut across.

All of these are simply what we call design lines.

And all we do is cut the pattern.

We add seam allowance, and we sew it back together.

And I think once you understand that concept clearly, you'll be amazed at how many garments out there are cut apart, seam allowance added, and put back together.

So in every garment that you see, when you look at it, and if you like it, you ask yourself, are these fit lines or are these design lines.

And once you determine which ones they are, you're good to go.

Keep in mind that this one I know is a design line, because it's too far away from the bust to have the dart incorporated.

And because if this was, there's no way to make this side a design line as well.

So the fit lines are in the darts.

They're left there.

And then I'm free to cut and sew and do whatever I want.

Now a lot of times, what makes that garment more expensive, if you wanna somehow justify those $500, we know where the designer, the designer names, and this, the detailing on here, it shows that the top stitching, it changes.

And what I did is I actually, once I saw the tank top, I saw where it's sold and all that kind of stuff, I actually went to the store and saw it because there are some things you might not be able to see.

But even on our computers, we can get close up and we can really see a lot of detail.

If you notice down here, the top stitching changes from the color of the fabric below it.

So there's not one color top stitching throughout all of that.

So where the orange, there's orange, where the white is white, where the blue is blue, et cetera, et cetera.

The detail work is there, no question.

But I'm not sure it still warrants that $500 price tag.

You guys'll be the ones to decide.

I also wanna show you the back because what you see when you get to the back is that it's just a knit back.

And so I can use my woven body and I can switch it up to a knit back.

And it's a great alternative and we're seeing that a lot in ready-to-wear.

If we look at our next mannequin, what we do with, again, a design line this is, it's been cut, seam allowance added, and sewn back together.

We can create a really cute little focal point.

And of course, zippers are trendy.

They're just super stylish, and we can put 'em all over the place, because we can cut, add seam allowance, sew it back together.

But one thing, just be aware that you need to know, is when you do something like this, it definitely wears.

You know, you'll have a tendency not to be a great base, because you'll tire of it a little more readily, if that's fair.

But then I wanna show you this one.

So again, all great ideas, none I created, all I went out there in the shopping world and kind of borrowed.

And this one, what we know about velvet is we know that velvets have a knap.

And in this case, what we should always do is you have to sew the knap the same direction, 'cause if you don't, you get exactly what's here.

But in this case, what I thought was amazing was they took the center panel and flipped the knap the opposite direction, and of course they did that in both the front and the back.

So it's just a beautiful, I guess it's a mistake done purposely, and I just always loved that, when you take a mistake and do it on purpose so that it gives it a completely great design.

Another thing I want you to notice, and this is a knit.

This is a stretch velvet.

So we used our knit tee shirt pattern as our base, as opposed to the tank top.

The tank top, remember, doesn't have a sleeve, and this has a sleeve.

So when we want a sleeve and we have a knit, we automatically go to our tee shirt.

I want you to notice the center panel, because remember that vertical lines always make us look our thinnest.

And if I put my tape measure here, you see that it's six inches across here, and when I put it down here at the bottom, you notice it's only five at the bottom.

So when I cut that and I went from the center, I went three inches out at the top and only two inches out, two and 1/2 inches out at the bottom.

Then you flip the panel the other direction.

So you can see that it's such a simple thing to do to create these design lines.

And just to look at fun again, this is my, I'm gonna just do one layer here.

That's my tee shirt.

You go three inches out here.

There's my line.

Two inches out at the bottom, and you draw a straight line.

Notice that you're completely free and clear from the dart.

It doesn't enter it at all.

I think a lot of you as you sew, you're just real nervous about these darts.

Darts are there.

They're part of the function of the garment.

Don't think of them as anything you have to worry about.

Like I said, they're just a function of the garment.

All right, so now I wanna start playing with some straight lines.

We learned a little bit ago what great things straight lines can do.

And I've heard women say, I'll never wear a tank top.

Well, we're gonna change this tank top up to where I hope you will just absolutely love it.

And you're just gonna take some straight lines and you're gonna add, you're gonna add some sleeves kind of.

I guess you can call these sleeves.

They hang over the arm, can they be called sleeves?

We'll say yes.

All right, so in this case, I took my tank top pattern, and it's always helpful to have like a dress form, because you can see visually some things.

I don't necessarily use my dress form for fitting, especially once you get your base pieces fit.

I use it more for draping.

I think it's helpful to see where am I at, where am I going, et cetera, et cetera.

So I first started with a border print.

And border prints to me are just the end all.

They just create such a specialty look that I really like them.

And notice that I put the solid at the bottom so that it brought the eyes up to the face and that you had more focus up here and less down here.

So I also wanted to do that with the sleeve as well, or with this straight piece.

And when I say this straight piece, really what I want you to see it as, is just literally a straight piece.

Now what I did is, again, I copied it from the store.

So what I did is, I copied from the shoulder, how far down it was to the side, and I got that number to be 16 inches, and then I copied the width.

And I got that number to be 10 inches.

So what I did is I made a little pattern, and I would recommend that.

Because, you know, sometimes we think we're right and we're just not.

So I just measured it 16 inches down, 10 inches out.

Then what I did is I just curved this around, because, again, I was seeing something I had liked.

I had tried it on.

There's such an advantage.

You know, when I talk about shopping, the reason I do that is because if you just created and tried to think about how good it would look long, that just takes a whole lotta time.

Whereas if you go and find something you like and try it on, you can just measure it.

And the reason I did this, is I wanted you to see how cute that is and how that's just gonna go to the side.

All right, so now what we're gonna do is because I'm doing the border print, I've got the sizing, I've got where I want it to be.

I wanted the fabric to tie in to this same alignment.

So I wanted it a little more solid up here as we look at this fabric.

You can see that it's solid at the top, it goes into a border, and then goes away.

So this is the portion I put right through the top portion of the garment.

So what we want is this piece, this sleeve we're gonna call it, to match, because the border print, solid up at the top, then the print, and then the solid.

So when you are doing the fabric and when you're doing an idea like that, you just wanna think the whole thing through.

So, for instance, when I was doing this, I ran into that means that this piece, my little pattern, can't actually all be in one piece.

I'm going to have to seam it at the top, otherwise I can't get my print to be where I want it here and where I want it here.

But if I were doing just a normal solid piece of fabric, I could.

But in this particular case, I seamed it, laid it right through the fullness of the fabric, so it'd match in the places that it was going to, and then made the little ruffle.

And it's actually not a ruffle.

I call it a ruffle.

And the reason I'll make this distinction later when I show you how to do ruffles, is because the outside edge and the inside edge are the same length.

The only difference is this outside edge here is cut at a curve.

But it's really just a straight piece of fabric, and we're gonna contrast that to ruffles and see quite a bit of difference when we go to ruffles versus just this straight piece.

But really what I wanted to show you is how you can just take a straight piece of fabric and make something adorable with it, like sleeves on a tank top.

As we go on, there's a couple of things I want you to notice on this.

I purposely used a fabric that was dark that had a white background to it.

Because when it has that white background, you're going to see that white background as that cascade comes down.

And I personally don't like that.

So it's a very easy solution.

Typically now, you'll cut another whole sleeve, or you could just take a black fabric, but you wanna make this double.

You double this portion and you can just seam it down at the bottom, leave the edges raw here, and attach it here.

I'm gonna show you how to attach it, because there's some things to think about when you're attaching it.

But first what I wanna do is I'm gonna just turn this to the front, and I'm going to copy this side to attach this side, so that you attach both sides evenly.

You can just measure out from the neck edge, or you can eyeball it just to make sure they're the same.

I use my fingers a lot.

I already hemmed the neck edge, just because I wanted that to be finished, and I kinda wanted to see what it looked like on.

And then notice the point.

If you'll notice here at the sides, what I did is, I don't wanna take this piece into the side seam.

I wanna leave that side seam free to sew.

But I did pin this closed, just so that you could see that that's what we're gonna do.

But we're gonna leave it open so we can take it to the sewing machine so we can sew it.

But if you notice where it is and how far away it is from the side seam, you can measure up and then do the exact same thing on here.

There's many times I've talked about dress forms and advantages of dress forms, and you know, disadvantages of dress forms.

And I think the biggest advantage for me isn't the fitting.

I can do the fitting on myself.

And it's hard to get a dress form to be exactly like you.

But generally, designers, what they use dress forms for, is they use dress forms to visualize.

And it's a really important thing.

So as I'm pinning this to make sure that the two, that the front and the back end at the same place, if I were to just go sew it and one end would weigh down and one end would weigh low, it would just look really silly.

So this whole concept of this dress form, mannequin, whatever you wanna call it, really does help visualize what's going on with the garment, and how it's going to look at you, especially from a distance.

Years ago, I did fashion shows and, boy, I'll tell you something, when I'd take a garment and put it on the fashion show stage, it'd look so differently, and it really trained me to kind of look at things more from a distance rather than close up.

I think sometimes as sellers we get so close up on things, it's hard to see.

So let's go sew this.

We're gonna take this off, and the reason is, is there's a couple things I just want you to consider.

Remember this is completely flat, which is what I want.

I'm gonna put it under the sewing machine.

Now, if I'm, again, depending on my fabric, if I'm using a really thick fabric, I'm not gonna wanna finish that seam because there's just gonna be too many layers.

It's gonna be too heavy.

Because this fabric was going to be finished, I decided to go ahead and just use a surged edge, and I surged it just the same color as what the fabric itself was, because it's kind of a black base.

I went ahead and you can see it.

I'm using this as a guide.

I know exactly where to pin it because I pinned it on my mannequin.

And that's it.

It's that easy, and I can just go all the way around.

And once I've done that, then I come back in and I'm gonna do my side seam.

Let's put it back on the mannequin and just kinda see what it looks like.

It's just adorable.

And keep in mind that I did not change any of my fit lines.

The only thing I'm changing are my design lines.

I've still got my darts in place, and I just close it up.

So there what I've done is added a sleeve, though it's really not a sleeve.

I've added a sleeve to my tank top.

I just absolutely love it.

I remember the first time I saw that, I thought, oh, everybody'll wear a tank top after this.

All right, so let's now move on to a ruffle.

What is a ruffle?

And by definition, let's kind of look at some ruffles.

One more thing though, about a tank top, we showed you those wraps in a couple episodes ago.

We showed you so many wraps.

And the greatest thing a wrap needs underneath, so many of them, is a little tank.

I can do fun, glitzy fabric, and these days we're wearing glitzy fabric with jeans.

It's not like I'm only wearing these to fancy places.

You can wear 'em just with jeans to go out, and then do the back, again, in a knit, in a solid.

So the whole thing just has a little bit of uptick to it and it's just really easy and casual.

So let's look at a sleeve for just a minute.

And look at a ruffle.

Again, when you're shopping, what you wanna do is pay attention to the difference between this line, it's called the inside the ruffle, and the outside of the ruffle.

And what you're gonna find in ready-to-wear, in women's ready-to-wear, that the outside edge is one and 1/2 times longer than the inside edge.

So this is a great one.

This is a test.

And we're gonna see how good you guys do on this test.

So in this particular case with this ruffle, I'm now using the knit top.

And why am I using the knit top?

Because it's a knit.

And so I'm gonna use my tee shirt pattern as opposed to my tank top pattern.

Also what I did is I did a vee neck.

Just because that was the style of the garment that I was copying.

And, again, when I'm gonna copy, you guys know I'm gonna copy high end, I put my French curve down and what I can see is I'm 11 at the shoulder, and I'm 19 at center front.

So the very first thing I can do is I can put 11 at the shoulder, and when you take those two numbers, it can only go between two points.

That's the beauty of the French curve, once you have that shaping.

So that's what I know my new neckline's going to look like.

Then I decided that my ruffle was gonna be asymmetric, which means it's only on one side.

And I decided how wide it was going to be.

So again, this is just so easy because once I like it, I say, hey, I like that.

I'm just gonna copy it.

And all I'm doing is giving you the tools to copy it.

So that ruffle is going to be three inches wide.

Notice this part actually has no ruffle at all.

It's this part is where the ruffle actually starts happening.

So as a standard, all the way across the board, you can use, it's one and 1/2 to one.

So I'm gonna cut my pattern and then I'll show you how to create the ruffle.

The other thing I want you to notice is the back side of this fabric.

Again, it's ugly, or, you know, it's white.

So we wouldn't want that back side to show.

So this ruffle is actually doubled, and then sewn in.

And I created a center front seam so that I could anchor that ruffle right into place.

So all you wanna do is take it and just layer it all together.

So it's three inches wide, that ruffle is.

And so it goes from three inches here, three inches around, and then three inches all the way down center front.

And I'm actually gonna cut a pattern for it.

Again, because I'm a pattern person.

I have a tendency, I wanna cut a pattern to make sure it's right.

And if you didn't have an extra tissue, all you have to do is copy it, and then I think this is just the easiest way to do it.

This part, you're gonna discard.

So this part, what I'm going to do, is this is the outside edge, and this is the edge I'm actually going to lengthen.

So this is where I'm gonna start cutting.

Before you start cutting, measure what that edge is.

In this case, 18 inches.

So 18 and nine, half of that is 27.

So I'm gonna just cut, and you're just gonna cut, just continue to cut evenly.

And the reason being is because when you spread this edge, you'll see that as you spread it, you'll have an even connection between all of those.

And all the way around here, what you'll wanna do is reach until you get to that 27.

And then you know when you pull it back up, that will give you the ruffle.

It's just that easy.

Can I show you really quick some stripes?

Look at this.

Cut apart, seam allowance, put back together.

The fringe, we'll show you that later.

Cool stuff.

Seam allowance, cut, put back together, and changed around.

Stripes are probably the most common fun thing you can find today.

And, again, I can put 'em on my tank top base.

In this case, I sewed them all.

Got rid of the stripes, and then I laid them on top to make sure that my fit was already done.

So I didn't have to redo the fit.

So exciting.

This one you can really change directions.

Stripes going across the bottom, so I just cut that, add seam allowance, and sew it back together.

So what you understand is the ruffles.

Here they are.

All I'm gonna do is spread that outside line.

All you need is a measurement for the inside line, a measurement for the outside line, the contrast of the two.

Typically it'll be one to one and 1/2.

Only in women's apparel, not in children's, that's something else.

And once you get that, you can put a ruffle anywhere.

How you sew it on, you can see how easy it is to just sew it together.

When you do a ruffle, the edges are different.

When it's a straight seam, it's the same.

And that doesn't make as much ruffle as what it does.

So here's some of the things I like about it is it's got extra but it's not so much that it's too much.

A common frustration among sewers, is they cannot find the ideal fabric they're looking for.

Next time we'll learn to find fabrics, and it's going to be so much fun.

We'll explore getting fabrics from some unusual places, and I'm confident you'll be happy.

Join me right here on Fit 2 Stitch.

(gentle piano music) - [Narrator] Fit 2 Stitch is made possible by Pendelton.

(piano music) Vogue Fabrics.

(piano music) Bennos Buttons.

(piano music) Kai Scissors.

(piano music) OC Sewing.

(piano music) Mike Gunther Industries.

(piano music) And Sew Steady.

(piano music) To order a four DVD set of Fit 2 Stitch series eight, please visit our website at fit2stitch.com.