- Today is Sewing Potpourri.

First, my friend Magda will show us how to care for our machines to keep them in great condition.

Second, we'll play with grain lines.

And we'll see the different effects we obtain when we change them up.

And lastly, some basic factory sewing methods that we will love, a welt pocket that's perfect every time.

And a fly front that is so simple, even a set-in sleeve that uses a man's necktie.

All today on Fit 2 Stitch.

(uptempo music) - [Narrator] Fit 2 Stitch was made possible by Britex Fabrics, Vogue Fabrics, Evanston, Illinois.

Bennos Buttons, Kai Schissors, Sew Steady, O.C.

Sewing, Buena Park, Fullerton, Garden Grove, and Irvine, California.

Richland Sewing Center, Dallas, Texas and he Metroplex.

Cynthia's Fine Fabrics, and Mike Gunther Industries.

- You know there's always little things that make such a difference.

And today, I've kind of picked up a few little things so we can just make sure we clearly know what we're talking about, like how do you pick a good machine, how do you keep it running.

Let's first join Magda at her repair bench to find out.

When I was first shopping for a sewing machine, I had no idea what to look for, what to buy, what to think about, I really want you to help us on this.

Tell me.

- When you don't want to spend a lot of money, I recommend to go to a place where there's sales representatives, where they could show you how the mechanism, or how your machine works.

If you go to a random store, you don't know what you're buying, you just think that it's pretty because it has a lot of stitches or the picture that's on the front or the bottom-- - So even if I, once I look at those machines, what would I look for?

- You need to actually see it with your eyes, so you can see how it works, and how it sounds.

- Show me these two.

Show me what you've got here.

- Like on this one.

- [Peggy] Magda explained to me the machine's case material is what's critical.

A metal case is built to last a lifetime.

A plastic case, though less expensive, will have a much shorter lifespan.

What are the most common problems that you see with the machines?

- The most common problems is you either mis-thread your machine, you use the wrong bobbin or you're using it incorrectly.

- So those are the problems?

So it's not with the machine itself.

It's actually just with the user.

- It's just with a user, yes.

- So, oil.

Do I even worry about oiling?

- You will have to worry about oiling 'cause all machines need oil.

There's no such thing that the machine doesn't.

- Right, right, right.

The home sewing machine, like I know with industrial they'll oil themselves, they're kind of self-contained.

But because most of us don't have those.

- Right.

- We have these, we have to at least learn care.

That will be in the manual?

- That will be sometimes in the manual, not all the time.

But what basic cleaning is you just get a cotton swab, you get your bottle of oil, you put a drop, one drop of oil here, and you just put it in your middle bar.

- So that's really what needs to be oiled, not necessarily around here?

- When you have this kind of machine that has this mechanism, you get your bottle of oil, and you just put just one drop in there.

But just one drop and that'll be good.

- So if I'm at home and I'm sewing away, and something's not working right, can I just go and grab my vessel oil and put a little dab in?

- No, you need regular sewing oil.

- Regular sewing oil?

- Yes.

- So I have to buy specific oil for it.

- Yeah because that western oil is gonna get your machine all stuck and then you're gonna have to bring it over here to repair it.

- Alright.

So, tell me what else.

I've got the, bobbins are not all the same.

Some are flat, some are oval.

When you have this kind of bobbin case, you need a flat bobbin that fits correct.

- Okay.

- 'Cause if you use the little other ones, it's gonna not gonna go correctly.

- Got it.

So, bobbins are not universal.

- No.

- So, another thing I learned that I thought was really interesting is the care for, just in general, when you cover it.

- If it's unfinished, let's say after eight hours of using the machine, I get the cotton swab and I put a drop of oil and put it there, and I get a plastic bag.

I open it up, and I put the machine in there, why?

'Cause that helps it keep its moisture and lubricant.

- Sure, it retains all that moisture.

- Mm-hmm.

- So, how did you get into this, like you don't see a lot of females doing this.

- No, not really, but there are a few, but it's just interesting.

I mean, I just like putting my hands inside the machine.

(laughing) - And knowing how it works?

- Yeah.

- That was fun and very informative and that's a great lesson we can all benefit from, whether it's for us or for somebody we know, we wanna share our information with everybody else.

You know grain line is the next bold topic I want to talk about, and grain line, it's amazing to me how, of course, we all know grain line.

Grain line generally follows center-front, grain line, we know when we put it at an angle, it becomes bias, all of those things we know.

But the next little step that so many of us don't know is how the grain line is placed on the fabric.

Because how it's placed on the fabric can determine lots of different things.

And I wanna do three examples so that you can clearly see all these choices are yours but I wanna point out the side effects from your choices.

(laughs) So, I just picked up a skirt panel.

And the skirt panel is fuller at the bottom.

Remember, we're gonna call that an A-line.

And in this case, the grain line goes to the center front and almost always, grains go to center front but I want you to really notice that when we put the grain at center front, what's over here is called the bias.

And bias equals fullness, so anytime we have bias, we're always going to get fullness.

So right now, the first example I want you to see is we're gonna take center front straight on the stripe.

We're gonna notice over here the stripe is going to go bias and that bias is going to equal fullness.

And that's exactly what we have here.

And if you notice, it's straight at the front but you see all the fullness at the sides over here.

And what that does is it takes a full skirt and even makes you look heavier because all the fullness is on the sides of your body.

Alright, next example, we can take the skirt.

We can actually put the grain on the side seam.

So that you can see now the stripe is exactly straight on the side seam and the center front is unbiased.

Center back, same thing, and so you're gonna see that all the fullness now is right at the center front.

And that's what you're seeing here.

The side seam is actually a straight stripe.

And all the fullness is at the middle.

And actually, if you think this is the worst, this has to be the best, it is and it isn't.

The negative of this is that when we walk, all that fullness in our skirt goes between our legs.

Not fun, because we're constantly, the skirt's between our legs when we're walking, and it's just not a comfortable feeling.

So, most manufacturers, what they do, and keep in mind, you can change this up however you want.

You just need to understand where the grain is.

And how the fabric reacts to it.

So, I'm gonna take it and put the grain now right down the middle of the panel so that you can see both center front and side seam, center back, and side seam, are just less bias, there's less fullness.

And if we go back to our third mannequin, this is the effect we get.

And you notice there's fullness a little bit throughout everywhere, this is the most flattering.

This actually uses less fabric because both of these take up quite a bit more fabric.

But again, when we sew, we even get to choose that.

We get to choose where our grain line is, and how our grain line lays on the fabric.

And what impact that has.

Now, a few sewing tips, this is the fun part.

So, we're going to go to the sewing machine, and we're gonna start sewing a few fun projects.

So, first what we're gonna go is we're going to take a tie.

This is a men's neck tie, I haven't cut it yet so you can see, clearly a men's necktie.

And if you go into your, somebody you know's closet, and cut off a strip about 20 inches long, that will do you.

I've actually cut it out of a necktie without even telling the person it was missing.

Except they can find out.

(laughs) After a little while, just tellin' ya, they'll know.

So then what I'm gonna do, is I'm gonna turn my machine to base, and I'm gonna turn it all the way to base, I'm going all the way to 5.56.

And what we're gonna do here is we're going to use the tie interfacing, kind of the common method that most of us know, is when you do those two rows of stitches, and what we all know about that method is that method doesn't really work well so we're not gonna do that.

We're gonna actually use the tie interfacing as an easing factor that's gonna pull on the sleeve.

So, watch how I do this.

This is a sleeve I haven't done.

The tie interfacing is gonna go from notch, over to notch.

So, I've cut my tie interfacing plenty long enough.

I'm coming to the inside, I'm laying it down.

And I'm actually going to stitch right on my seam allowance.

And the secret here is I'm gonna actually pull the tie interfacing as I'm stitching.

And the key is to kind of keep it taught the whole entire time, stay right on that seam allowance.

And keep that same pressure and just go, and go, and go, and remember, we're going notch to notch.

My tie interfacing, it's gonna be cut about one inch wide.

Once I get notch to notch, but remember, I'm still stitching on the seam allowance amount.

Look at what that tie interfacing did to that sleeve.

It just made a perfect sleeve cap.

It's just beautiful.

Now what's happened is because my tie interfacing is cut on the bias, I pulled the bias.

The bias will retract itself and it will take the sleeve with it, and you can see as that lays down, it's all ready to go and be fed into my sleeve.

And remember, it's a one-to-one.

Also, keep in mind that I want to reduce my seam allowances.

Don't use five-eighths because when five-eighths are concave and convex, they're concave on the arm hole and convex on the sleeve they're not gonna go together well.

There's too much seam allowance.

And one line, when the seam allowance gets wider, gets shorter, and one line gets longer.

So it's really hard to bring that wider seam allowance of five-eighths together.

So, I'm gonna recommend three-eighths on the sleeve, three-eighths on the arm hole.

And it's much easier to bring those two lines together.

It's gonna make a beautiful sleeve.

This is a one-to-one, when I do sew it in, I wanna put the sleeve side down.

And that's many foreign to many of you.

And I understand that but I promise, once you do it, you'll see what a magnificent sleeve it produces, and you're gonna be good to go.

Next, I wanna show you wall pocket.

There's a wall pocket that is just incredibly easy.

And I actually learned these years ago from a women who did nothing except make wall pockets.

And she'd take her kids to school, and pick up all wall pockets that needed to be done today.

She'd go home and make 'em, get 'em all done by 3:30 (laughs) and go back and get her children from school.

Love that, so there's a couple different kinds.

And I'm actually gonna show you a couple different kinds.

I'm gonna turn my machine back to just a regular stitch.

And I've done this in a couple steps so that you can kind of clearly see it while not falling asleep while I sew.

So, (laughs) we're just gonna show you a step.

The first step is I take two pieces.

Welts are generally one and two wide to start.

And they are eight inches long.

They are folded in half, wrong sides together.

And you can see, I'm gonna sew two parallel lines.

Starting and stopping, starting and stopping.

Starting and stopping, starting and stopping.

It's really important that these are right straight up and down from each other and that I have two parallel lines, when I have folded that welt in half, it's now a half inch wide.

And I'm sewing right down the middle, which is a quarter inch from each side.

And my first step is to make two parallel lines.

There's only three steps.

Every step is repeated.

Step one, make two parallel lines.

Then if you notice, and I'll turn it on the back, I've cut.

And I've cut right between them.

And then if you notice about an inch from the end, I've cut off two little points.

An inch from the end, I've cut off two little points.

Now this is something that I think is really important because it's done very differently then what it used to be done.

I had this little tiny triangle.

And those little tiny triangles were really easy to agitate back and forth, and I'd get a hole right in the corner, leave them longer.

See how long that is?

And the reason that is is because when I go to turn that welt to the inside, which I'm just gonna turn one welt at a time.

Turn that one in, turn this one in, you'll see those cut edges will come right back to themselves, and then what I'm gonna do is I'll take the pocket piece, which is the same length as the welt, and I'll cover the hole.

So you can see, there is the hole.

I cover that, my raw edges are together.

I can't stitch it on this side 'cause I can't see where I'm stitching.

So I'm gonna turn it on this side.

And I'm gonna stitch on that same line exactly again.

So, we're attaching the pocket.

And that's actually step two.

So, here what I've done, is I've attached the pocket here and I've attached the pocket to this side.

Same exact thing, twice.

Notice that it's loose.

And the pocket at this point, could really go either direction, it could go this way, it could go this, there's nothing that gives it direction at this point.

But what I love about this pocket is if you've sewn down the middle, in the very beginning, and if you've sewn down the middle, and you don't like that your lines aren't parallel, stop, because that's what will make your pocket beautiful.

And if it's not done right, I haven't hurt my fabric.

I haven't done anything.

Remember that that original step, those welts, they're on the right side of the fashion fabric, that's where I start.

And I could put a welt anywhere.

Point here, point here, I'm good to go.

So here, I'm gonna actually turn it to the inside, attach the pocket, and then the very last step is I just pull this forward, there's my big triangle.

And I have this side that I'm gonna close up.

And once I close it up, there's my beautiful welt pocket.

Just a note, all these fabrics should be the same fabric, they're not supposed to be different colors, I just did that for you all, so you could see how easy and how each step makes it a little bit different.

Alright, so, now we're gonna shift a little bit.

We're gonna go to a wider pocket.

Because that wider welt is just as easy and just as much fun, and they're sometimes on jackets, on coat pockets, where I don't want the dual welts, the double welt, I'll want a single welt.

The process is exactly the same.

The only thing I do different is I'm gonna pre-make my flap, and the flap, I'm just gonna stitch two stitches across the end, I'm gonna fold, and I'm gonna turn it to the right side.

And when you do that, watch that carefully again, because it's a wonderful little trick.

I've stitched across the ends, I fold it right on the stitch line, I hold there, I reach in, I grab the front two layers, and I literally fold that over the end and what you can see is that little corner pops right out.

It's incredible how easy that is and you can see that makes a beautiful flap.

So, when I sew the flap, I want the flap down now.

And to pop it up, I'm still on the right side of my fashion fabric, the flap is headed down.

It's sewn on the edges, this is up, I still cut the exact same, now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna push my pocket inside the garment.

And when I do that, voila, look at that thing.

Just flaps right up, push all these through the end.

That's just fun to do.

And then I'm gonna turn to the back side because what's gonna happen to the back side, the front side's almost finished.

But what's gonna happen to the back is I'm gonna come up, bring the edge of this pocket again.

Remember, cover the hole, line the edges up.

I can't stitch on this side because I can't see.

So, I'm gonna turn and I'm gonna stitch on that exact same line, except I'm gonna start before.

I'm gonna over-stitch that whole line.

And then when I open this up, there's my pocket going to be.

The last step again, I'll turn this up.

I'll stitch those triangles, again, on the end.

And then generally, when I do a pocket like this, I'll actually stitch right there on the edges.

And that will hold that pocket flat in place.

It's a beautiful pocket, this is a very simple method to get down, I remember visiting with her and she used to tell, I used to say, how long does it take you to make this pocket?

And she'd say, "Hmm, the usual one, "it usually takes about a minute."

I was like, (laughs) okay, it took me a minute to do the first step, it's not a rush.

You really wanna take your time.

The most important thing to remember is that accuracy of those first two lines.

Cut your welts, make sure they're straight, one inch wide, that's pretty much the average.

And your pocket will go together beautifully.

I wanna show you this fly front method.

This fly front method is used universally throughout all the factories.

I think it is the best thing going.

I've never seen one better since.

And I hope you love it as much as I do.

Practice down, it's got a few steps to it.

Each step is extremely easy to do.

I'm gonna change my foot, I'm gonna put on a zipper foot.

And I'm gonna walk you through this little step here.

I'm gonna put my needle position to the left, all the way through, and part of the way I'll know that I'm doing the right method is when I realize I'm gonna move it all the way to the left because in this method, if I leave it all the way to that left, it'll kind of be a little check for me, that I know it's going right.

Because the needle will be to the left all the time.

So, I have, lets go through the pieces.

I have the pants front.

Again, I don't know if many of us who wear half of our pants one color and half of our pants the other, so recognize that they're all the same color.

I'm just doing these for different parts so that it doesn't get a little confusing as we get closer to the end.

And then I have two pieces that are the length of my zipper, one is twice as wide as the other, so that I fold it in half.

I started with a wider piece, I folded it in half, wrong sides together, I put the zipper face up, I align the top there, and I just stitched it together.

This is called the zipper assembly.

And so, it's really easy to do.

A common thing that a lot of sewers do is they try really hard to get so close to the zipper, it's just not necessary.

I'm not sure where we learned that it was important to get close to that zipper, but clearly in this factory method, it is not, which is why I love this method.

I think you'll love this method for the same reason.

So don't worry about that.

So I did sew up the front of the pants.

And when I did that, I backstitched.

And where I knew that backstitching point started, was I laid the zipper down, whatever length my zipper was going to be, because in jeans, it's sometimes really, really short.

And I made sure that this backstitch point was above where my zipper ended.

It doesn't even matter how much.

As long as you get the function out of your zipper, it won't make a difference.

So I backstitch down there, so I'm gonna open this up, I'm gonna take this seam allowance, the same seam allowance, don't make it any less, don't make it any more, and I'm gonna lay it over exactly where I've stitched.

Again, I'm gonna line those tops up right there, evenly along the top, and I'm gonna stitch.

And I'm gonna stitch, this is what's called edge stitching.

I'm actually stitching right on the edge of the fabric.

I don't have to get close to the zipper.

I'm gonna come down here and open up the seams so I make sure it's open and flat.

And my only goal is to cover up the previous stitching.

And again, don't get close to that zipper.

As I get to the bottom, what I wanna do is I wanna make sure that the fabric is laying flat, that the seams are open.

And I'm gonna just literally come to the edge, it's almost like little stitching, a little dart.

Don't over -titch it, and then I'm gonna backstitch.

And I am, again, doing different colors.

I'm doing different fabrics.

I'm doing different thread colors because I want you to see exactly as that stitch is.

And you can see, it's coming right down the front Alright, the next step then is I'm gonna take this side, I'm gonna take my little piece, and I'm gonna do just these two edges together so that this lavender piece is on top of my beige and they are right sides together.

I'm using all three-eighths inch seam allowance.

You can do that same thing, it's a little easier if you do.

Again, don't make it any wider or any looser.

You actually don't have to meet these two stitches.

Because if you notice, when I go to do this, the stitch doesn't match, but as I turn it around to the inside, which is what I'm going to do, they don't have to match.

Here at the bottom, for instance, the lavender doesn't have to meet into the beige.

Because as I turn it back, it's gonna lay flat.

And that's what I want it to do.

That's where I am, when I press this, just fold that under just a little bit.

I'm gonna use two pins, I'm gonna pin right there at the bottom, and keep your pins vertical because you're gonna wanna access the backside of this.

And then I'm going to pin up here to the top.

Again, push that seam under just a little bit.

And then you wanna cover the original stitch that you did.

You don't wanna cover it too much because if you cover it too much, you're gonna loose circumference of your pant.

So just go all the way through, you're in good shape.

I wanna go to the back and now you're gonna attach the zipper to that lavender piece.

So that's why we made it so easy.

Remember that you're all closed up at the front.

Nothing's changing to the front.

But what is changing on the back is that in the original stitching, your zipper was attached to this side.

We just attached the zipper to this side of the pant.

Now the goal is to take this wider piece, and now attach it to the side.

When we do that, we've gotta move that fly out of the way.

If you don't move that fly out of the way, guess what, y'all?

You're not gonna be able to open up your pants.

And that is not the goal.

This is simply just a fly.

What I'm gonna do is come around.

I'm gonna curve it, I don't even know that I'm gonna do that, you guys get it.

Basically, I wanna show you the inside of my beautiful fly.

We're gonna take our pins out.

Make sure the fly's going this way.

And it is gorgeous, look.

(laughs) Keep this around, you're gonna pull it right in there.

And it's just the best fly front method you'll ever see, and it's really easy to make the repairs when we know how it was put together in the first place.

So if you ever need to make a living, you could simply replace Y-front zippers.

Well, I don't know about that.

I think it's easier to make them from the beginning, personally.

Than it is to take them apart.

But I'll let you make that decision.

Next, we'll learn all about the leather industry.

And all the options that we can do with those added trims.

Be sure to be here next time on Fit 2 Stitch.

(uptempo piano music) - [Narrator] Fit 2 Stitch is made possible by Britex Fabrics, Vogue Fabrics, Evanston, Illinois, Bennos Buttons, Kai Scissors, Sew Steady, O.C.

Sewing, Buena Park, Fullerton, Garden Grove and Irvine, California.

Richland Sewing Center, Dallas Texas, and the Metroplex.

Cynthia's Fine Fabrics, and Mike Gunther Industries.

To order your 4 DVD set of Fit 2 Stitch, Series Six, please visit our website.

(uptempo music winds down) (uptempo music)