Tag: basics

  • Spring Fabric You’ll be Excited to Sew With!

    Spring Fabric You’ll be Excited to Sew With!

    The last of the winter frost is starting to melt away. And you realize you’ve been living in a flannel, oversize sweater for months on end. Like a groundhog, you rub your eyes, peer outside, and wonder what day it is. And will it stop being cold… please. 

    Before you know it suddenly tulips are popping up everywhere, the sunshine feels warm on your face, and Spring is fully upon you: ITS EXCITING

    As someone who sews, the next question is… what’s your wardrobe looking like for the changing weather?

    What dresses and blouses are you going to make with pretty spring fabrics, now that you can wear something more free and fluttery?

    Bianca Santori from the pinup and retro sewing blog, Vintage on Tap

    If you’re browsing online right now, there are so many options to choose from for your spring fabrics, that it can be a bottomless rabbit hole. 

    This post focuses on breaking down a few of the most commonly used spring fabrics. You’ll know what to work with in your sewing, whether it’s vintage or more modern pieces you want for your wardrobe. 

    As I wrote this post, I looked for spring fabrics which had the following qualities:

    • These fabrics are frequently recommended in spring sewing patterns.
    • With layering, these spring fabrics can be used as transitional pieces.
    • They have a consistent quality, from fabric store to fabric store (which is super important if you’re shopping online during lockdown!)

    Spring Fabrics You Should Sew With

    Fabric #1: Batiste

    It’s light… it’s airy… it screams spring!

    The quality of the fabric is instantly perfect for warm days and a cardigan on top. It’s lightweight, transparent, and with it being a plain weave, is easy to sew with!

    A beautiful spring fabric to work with is Batiste, which feels cool and smooth against the skin.

    You’ll usually find this fabric used in garments such as blouses, camisoles, and simple cover ups. To ensure the garment is opaque, double it up!

    Fabric #2: Chambray

    Chambray fabric is a lovely spring version of a heartier shirting fabric, being tightly woven and soft.

    This cotton fabric is fantastic because it can be dressed up or down, depending on the application! 

    Chambray tends to be more in the blue/indigo color range, with its warp and weft yarns being dyed in different colors (one yarn blue, one white) Sometimes it’s seen in reds or (more rarely) other specialty colors. 

    A great spring fabric to work with is Chambray, specifically because it's lightweight but also works with structured garments.

    You’ll usually find this fabric used with shirt dresses, button up tops for all genders, and sometimes as shorts and lounge pants. With interlining or backing material, I’ve also spotted it in cool, cozy jackets!

    Fabric #3: Cotton Poplin

    Cotton Poplin is one of my absolute favorite fabrics! It has a crisp hand that is perfectly perky as a spring fabric. 

    Poplin is fantastic as a spring fabric because of its medium weight and structured hand. Also due to its tight plain weave and finish, it tends to have a little bit of a sheen on it, which feels super soft.

    Fun and mid-weight spring fabric, cotton poplin! Super beautiful prints are available in this type of sewing fabric.

    You find this fabric used over a bunch of different applications, including dresses with structure, tops which tend to be more fitted, and shorts and slacks which are more snappy, but still casual.

    Using Spring Fabrics is a LOT of fun!

    The three fabrics I outlined are barely the tip of the iceberg in terms of what’s available in online stores. Spring fabrics are plentiful, but using the woven fabrics I’ve listed will provide tons of options for potential garments. 

    If you’re looking to start gathering ideas from the fabrics I’ve listed, or are looking to try other spring-specific fabrics, I highly recommend creating a swatch book with them!

    Fabric Swatch Book, Free Download | Vintage on Tap

    What’s your favorite spring fabric? Is there one you keep going back to again and again?

    Spring fabrics are beautiful! Learn which fabrics to use to sew a beautiful spring wardrobe.

  • The Top 5 Sewing Beginner Problems

    The Top 5 Sewing Beginner Problems

    What was the first mistake you made when you first started sewing? Let's talk about it.

    You’re a sewing beginner, excited to make your first dress (or top, or skirt!) You have the most gorgeous fabric painstakingly picked out. You have a brand new sewing machine. A vision of what you want it to look like… and you’re ready to go.

    But after that first snip into the fabric… it’s a disaster.

    The garment fits like a giant sack, the stitch lines are wobbly and crooked. As you try and take it apart to start again, an accidental cut into the fabric! The whole thing ends up in the trash. 

    Sound familiar? 

    As sewing beginners, we have ALL been there.

    For me, it was a 1930s-style dress I was making for Halloween when I was a young teenager. Dark green, black fringe, and when I took the scissors to it, it went downhill.

    The dress was atrocious and a waste of money. I’d cut into the center front seam, the fabric was bedsheet quality, and the seams puckered and didn’t lay flat. Not knowing what I was doing, my Beginner energy was crushed. 

    I knew I wasn’t the only one who had gone through these learning woes as a sewing beginner. So I posed the question to my fellow Vintagettes on Instagram, to learn more about their early sewing days. 

    I wanted to know…

    • What were the range of problems people experienced?
    • What was their approach to sewing?
    • Where did their Beginner Enthusiasm run into problems?

    From those conversations, I distilled the following list, to support your sewing journey.

    THE TOP 5 PROBLEMS YOU’LL FACE AS A SEWING BEGINNER

    Expecting perfection from your sewing problems is expected, but not always helpful. Even life's little adventures (like a cat jumping onto your workspace) can impact your sewing projects as a sewing beginner.

    Problem #5: Expecting perfection… from the jump!

    Sewing is a practice in which skills build on each other. It’s difficult to make successful garments which don’t acknowledge that learning one or two things just isn’t enough.

    Sewing skills compound.

    Expect and account for your first several pieces to be straight garbage as you learn. And that’s ok. 

    Each piece is a learning experience, and even after 20+ years sewing, no garment is perfect. Even with hundreds of skills under my belt.

    The stress and heartache from early-stage learning can be enough to turn a lot of people off from sewing. I recommend not planning for the first few garments being worn to a party or to a special event.

    It’s important to get your feet wet in a way that makes the learning experience fun. Putting undue pressure on yourself to make a PERFECT _(insert garment)_ here is not going to do that for you.

    Expect imperfection and lean into it!

    Not coming through the instructions in a sewing pattern or your sewing machine manual can cause problems as you're learning how to sew.

    Problem #4: Not combing through and analyzing the pattern directions or learning your sewing machine.

    Sounds straightforward… but something easily overlooked and dismissed!

    Take time to look through every diagram in the sewing pattern . Do Google searches for phrases you don’t know.

    Similarly, spend time learning your sewing machine. Each machine has its own quirks. This includes how its threaded, how the bobbin is loaded, and where buttons live (or don’t live!) on the machine.

    Doing this simple review will save you a lot of frustration as a beginner. 

    Spending time up front is important. Do Google searches for specific techniques mentioned in the instructions. Read the sewing machine manual. All this decreases the amount of simple errors you can run into as a sewing beginner.

    Learn how to sew with Vintage on Tap Youtube videos! Full tutorial walkthroughs to make a wardrobe at home! | Vintage on Tap

    Problem #3: Underestimating the Power of the Iron

    Shouting this one from the rooftops:

    An iron in the sewing world is NOT OPTIONAL

    Most of us live comfortably in knitwear or wrinkle-proof clothes, the Power of the Iron is REAL.

    With heat, pressure, and steam, irons are an invaluable tool to manipulate individual fibers in fabric. They coax fabric to mold around a curve, lay flat, and encourage thread to meld into fabric.

    It’s easy to be distracted by the sewing machine, with all its stitches, bells and whistles… and completely ignore the iron. 

    Prioritize your iron!

    Pressing seams open and using steam and a tailor’s ham go a long way towards elevating your sewing. Lining things up as you sew them, encouraging seams to lay flat against the form makes your garment look professional. 

    Learn about how to pick fabric for clothes in this video tutorial, walking you through the steps. | Vintage on Tap, Pinup Sewing Blog

    Problem #2: Not Understanding Fabrics  and Choosing the Wrong Fabric for the Job

    Knowing and understanding fabrics is absolutely critical, but also one of the more challenging skills to learn with sewing. For a lot of people, this skill comes with time and experience.

    It’s one of the biggest reasons I’m such a proponent of starting your own fabric swatch book as a beginner. Understanding the different fabrics on the market and how they compare to application, especially in relation to ready-to-wear is vital.

    Looking at as much fabric as possible, feeling it and observing how its used out in the real world. It makes it easier and easier to see what fabrics are more appropriate for what purpose. 

    A pretty floral print might look gorgeous, but is it printed on fabric good enough for what you want to make?

    Fabric Swatch Book, Free Download | Vintage on Tap

    I’ve created a free swatch book template to start building your fabric swatch collection. A swatch book is an important part of the learning process. 

    Print out a few pages with simple information, noting fabric information. This practice develops a solid understanding of how to pick out material.

    By doing this, your skills as a sewing beginner will be more fine tuned towards making more beautiful garments!

    Fabric Swatch Book, Tutorial | Vintage on Tap

    Problem #1: Ready to Wear Sizing =/= Sewing Sizing

    The sad fact is, Ready to Wear clothing sizes are completely different than Sewing Pattern Sizes! A Size 8 from your favorite dress brand will be completely different from Size 8 in a sewing pattern.

    Why is that? Each brand uses their own “block” or average measurements for their audience, which influences the fit for their brand. This also extends into sewing pattern companies, who also develop their own sizing matrix.

    Also, sewing patterns tend to have more ease (or extra “space”) in their measurements, usually based on the design itself.

    The main lesson is that your real-life measurements (when you wrap a measuring tape around your waist, etc.) should be the basis of what size you pick from the sewing pattern envelope. Not what you buy off the rack in a store.

    Using your own measurements as the source of truth– not the number on your clothing label– will lead you to picking sizes which work better for you.

    Video tutorial for how to understand a full bust adjustment! | Vintage on Tap, Retro and Sewing Youtube Channel

    You *will* run into problems as a sewing beginner and that’s totally normal and ok! 

    “[Babies] ability to be bad [at walking] and have everyone be ok with it is how they get good.”

    Tom Vanderbilt, Beginners: The Joy and Transformative Power of Lifelong Learning

    A positive, self-accepting Beginner Mentality (like babies learning how to walk) will do wonders in accepting the ups and downs of sewing.

    Being OK with being bad at sewing and trusting that the more you sew the better you get will lift undue pressure from the process.

    Leave me a comment down below, letting me know how long did it take for you to feel like you were a confident beginner sewing?

    What “clicked” for you to feel more comfortable in the learning process? When did you no longer feel like a Sewing Beginner?

    The Top 5 Problems you'll encounter as a sewing beginner and how to overcome them.

  • Completed: Dirndl Skirt

    Completed: Dirndl Skirt

    Dirndl Skirt, 50s retro style | @vintageontap

    Dirndl Skirt with Goorin Brothers Hat | @vintageontap

    Dirndl Skirt, hand picked zipper | @vintageontap

    Dirndl Skirt, pattern pieces | @vintageontap

    Dirndl Skirt, 50s Fashion | @vintageontap

    Dirndl Skirt, 50s Inspired | @vintageontap

    Dirndl Skirt, self drafted 50s style skirt | @vintageontap

    The dirndl skirt is a wardrobe staple.

    Using fabric I had in my stash (one of which I picked up in the LA garment district)- I sewed up a couple dirndl skirts to continue filling the holes in my closet. Silhouette 1 for The Colette Wardrobe Architect is complete!

    Happily, the dirndl skirt is a pretty straight forward design; I was able to draft the pattern in less than an hour and sew both skirts super quickly. Basic rectangle waistband and gathered rectangles. Lots of hand stitching at the waistband, hem, and handpicked zipper help give these skirts the little construction details I love to admire.

    It was also very nice to make pieces like these, because they were a nice break from longer, more complicated projects which, while rewarding, can be a time suck! Both skirts were whipped up casually over two evenings and a few episodes of The Walking Dead. Now that the pattern pieces are drafted out, I’ll be making more for daily use. I may lengthen the skirt, though– as these hit me just slightly above the knee; I could go with a little bit more of a tea-length.

    For the photos I wore the Astoria sweaters I made a few weeks back which are coming in handy all the time. These sorts of skirts the sweaters tuck in really easily which helps give that small-waist visual effect.

    The petticoat I used for these photos was from The Black Ribbon and is MAXIMUM poof. Designed for EGL, it made me feel like a cupcake (which I loved.) The chiffon used to make it is amazingly soft and light weight, and packs really well. I haven’t ever had a problem with this loosing its poof and its super easy to wash. Highly recommend if you’re looking for a workhorse petticoat! And for size reference, I’m 5-foot 2-inches tall.

    I have a couple more versions of this dirndl skirt I want to sew, but those will come when I have time!