Tailor Tacks

[AnnRowley]

Ann,  Thank you for agreeing to share your knowledge with us!  This is really a unique opportunity, probably for most of us.

I remember that at one time you had discussed how to Thread Trace a pattern, with a link to the photos you took during the process.  I think that would be a very valuable addition to this, and I for one could use a refresher course!  TIA.

Because of my initial couture training I always use the stitching/fitting lines on a pattern as the guide for stitching. I never use the cut edge as a guide.

Why?  Basically because it's more accurate and I don't have to be so precise when cutting out - although I usually am.
I If I think that I may need extra in an area - hips usually! - I can just cut with a wider seam allowance (s.a.) and still have the original line clearly marked.

This does mean that this line has to be marked on the paper pattern.
On a commercial pattern mark 5/8"  from the edge, being very precise at the corners.
On Burda WOF, my current favourite, the line you trace is the stitching line,  just add the s.a. to that - doesn't need to be precise.

I use thread tracing to transfer all this to the fabric. Usually just  basic tailor tacks.  I use soft cotton thread, double, and take a small stitch, leaving a loop at each place I want to mark, and clipping the thread between each stitch.  Mark every couple of inches on curves; further apart on long seams and precisely at each corner.
[I used white cotton here because I knew I'd be taking photos. Normally I'd use beige; any tiny threads left are less visible. I also usually use black on black]

Remove the pins and carefully remove the pattern. The thread slips easily through the paper and remains in the fabric.
Next carefully separate the fabric layers and snip the threads so that a "tuft" of thread remains in each one.

That's it!  If you click on through these photos you'll see more marking that I did for this particular project.

I do this on absolutely everything I make - including my latest instant gratification tee where I marked the neck band and neck edge into quarters - easing was totally stress free!  It also means that everything you need is right there on the fabric; you don't need to keep referring back to the pattern.

Yes, it takes time, but to me it's worth it for hassle free sewing.  Try it!       

ETA new photo links

[fzxdoc]

Thanks, Ann, for the wonderful description and photos.  You are a natural-born sewing teacher!

[redhead]

I always use tailor tacks as well, because even if you put a project down for months, those thread tacks will still be there.  I haven't become so exacting that I mark seam lines yet, but I think that day may be coming.  I can see how it would save a lot of frustration in the long run and result in a more precisely-made finished product.  Thanks for the photos!

I am editing to say that I just realized that discussion hasn't been invited in these threads.  Sorry for the breach of protocol so early in the game.  Discussion elsewhere is a good idea.

[New Zealand girl]

I posted a question regarding this on another thread regarding 'Ann's pearls of wisdom' - Ann you truly are generous to share
so much of your extensive knowledge with all of us.

My question was actually to do with the great description with photos you did on SW for thread tracing, which I still have and
refer to.  The question I have is this.  Obviously you know your body so well that you do not need to do a muslin - what if
you don't do a muslin and use the thread tracing for the seam lines as outlined in your description, and then you have to
make alterations - the tracings may no longer apply - would you recommend doing muslins then.

I know you don't care to make the same thing twice as you have said before, but some of us don't mind using the same
pattern several times - would you suggest a muslin for the first try, get the alterations right and then use the thread tracing.

Mostly I am ok, with skirts, blouses and pants, but with jackets, I always seem to make my usual alterations and then have
to make others, and that renders my thread tracing useless in some areas.

Fran

[AnnRowley]

Fran, I think that tracing of some sort is even more vital when making a "muslin". I know that lot of people make a so called wearable muslin; which I would call a test garment. This concept is new to frugal old me - when/if I make one it's indeed in muslin.

I would start by making any usual alterations to the flat pattern and then  I'd mark with a tracing wheel and carbon and baste it together accurately on these lines.

After fitting I'd use a marker pen to draw the new seam lines, darts etc on the fabric.

Then I'd take it all apart, align the fabric and pattern using the original marks and in a different colour trace anything new onto the paper.

This is the pattern I'd use to thread trace the final garment, or store for future use.

Does that answer your  question?

I'm not sure how I'd deal with a wearable test garment  - perhaps just eye-ball the alterations, easier if you have a line to work from, and transfer the new line to the paper...

[New Zealand girl]

Thanks Ann, there is a very interesting article in the previous threads magazine, on using your dress form to test fit the
pattern on, I think if I recall, they had you cut off the seam allowances, then do any alterations necessary - so then you would
add back the seam allowances with a tracing wheel and carbon paper I would assume, and go a head an mark your tailors tacks,
or thread tracing.

I think my problem is that I do not have a dress form, I know many people don't have one, Claire Shaeffer I think does not have them, but I can see, that if you are to be successful at this, then the pattern must really be going to fit before you you start, and
if you have not, either fitted the tissue pattern to yourself ( I usually end up ripping something) or on your dress form, you are either
left with making a muslin, which in my opinion, is only really satisfactory if you use a similar type fabric to what you are working
with, or doing your usual alterations, and measuring all areas, and then just hoping for the best, with the marked tailors tacks
in place.

I find as I get older, I don't wish to guess and hope for the best, I want to have it right before I start sewing - so I think
I might just have to invest in a dress form.

The article in the threads magazine was interesting, it covered the various dress forms, making your own, and then tissue fitting
the pattern, I think it was called drape and fit - it did make a lot of sense to me.

It was also interesting to me to find that you do this with everything you make.  I do think it makes a huge difference, especially around sleeve fittings and collars and lapels, and any curves.

Well Ann since you have absorbed more 'pearls of wisdom' than most of us, and are so generous with your knowledge, do you mind telling me when you first started doing this method, or have you always done it.

I really appreciated all the work you went to to put that great detailed description up for us.  These are truly the things on
this thread and others that make your sewing so worthwhile, and actually by the time you print all these things out, you really
have a very full book of all manner of things, that are often only touched on in so many books.

Fran

[AnnRowley]

Well Ann since you have absorbed more 'pearls of wisdom' than most of us, and are so generous with your knowledge, do you mind telling me when you first started doing this method, or have you always done it.

Fran

I was taught to make tailor tacks as a child, by my mother, and used that method until I went to college. There I had a rude awakening - no more easy tailor tacks! Everything had to be thread traced, i.e. a line of 1/4" basting stitches along every stitching line on every piece. I won't go into details here of how to do it, except to say that for an 18 year old it was pretty tedious! - And still is.

So I went back to my tailor tacks...

Although I do have a dress form it's not accurate enough for fitting.  I do what most single-handed home dressmakers have to do; try on in front of a mirror, make an educated guess, re-baste, check again before final stitching.
But I love fitting other people.. and wish that the dear friend who used to fit me was still around.

And I hate tissue fitting - doesn't work for me, I can't see beyond all that screwed up paper, so I never do it. But I admire those that can; it's just that we all have different ways of solving a problem

[AnnRowley]

Thanks for the thread on seam treading.  I have seen you explain this before over at SW and at the time I wondered why you bother with the seam allowances on the pattern - particularly WOF.  Wouldn't it be easier to trace the pattern without seam allowances, thread trace around the edge of the pattern but then cut the fabric with an appropriate seam allowance?

I really like the flexibility that having spare paper at the edges of the pattern gives me. I find it much easier to align lines rather than edges when I'm doing pattern adjustments and adding *balance marks. And I may need to add to the edges after fitting and I just hate sticky tape.  I also find it much more accurate to work through the paper, it's difficult to keep an edge exactly in place.

(*Balance marks are like notches; exact points to be matched during construction.)

Also I would never dream of pinning into the body of the garment, only the turnings.  I know, I know, it doesn't usually matter, but old habits die hard!

And please remember that this is what I do - no one says you have to do it this way. Anyway that works is good...

[Vicki]

Thanks Ann!  I will give your method a go on my next project.

[Armchair Sewer]

Ann,

Fabulous description and great photos!  I am trying to pluck up the courage to try this method, maybe with a really simple skirt. I am so used to matching cut lines to sew that trying anything else seems scarier than bungy-jumping.  which is a good sign that I need to try it before I get even more set in my ways. 

If you are still checking this topic, I wonder if you (or someone else who also does this?) could answer a couple of questions for me.

1) how far apart do the tailor's tacks need to be - do you do lots and lots where the seam is curving a lot, less where it is straighter?  how close for example on a front princess seam around the bust.
2) with this method do you find you HAVE to hand baste seams before machine sewing, to match up those seamlines, or can you just match, pin and machine sew?
3) with the rough-cut out, then fuse, then mark sequence, do you ever find that the fabric changes shape before you get to the marking piece, eg on those curved bias edges - is that a problem? do things end up off-grain or distorted? (or do you only do this on reasonably stable fabrics anyway)

Thanks

[AnnRowley]

Armchair Sewer,

My apologies for taking so long to reply - I've been away and am just now catching up.

I've never tried bungee jumping - much too scary for me! - be reassured that tailor tacks do not fall in the same category!  Now your queries:-

1) How far apart?   5 or 6 inches on long ,straight seams and closer on curves. Front princess seams perhaps every 2" depending on the curve. Whatever gives you a line that your eye can easily follow.

2) Do you have to hand baste?  I always do because the whole object of accurately marking the stitching lines is to faithfully duplicate the precise shape that the designer intended. I mainly use Burda WOF patterns which have very subtle shaping which it's very easy to lose if not stitched accurately.
If you are a skilled machinist then just pinning might be OK on all but the complex areas. I myself pin and then hand baste; I can't remember when I last had to rip out any machine stitching.  Try and see which works best for you.

3) I don't actually "rough-cut" out. I cut both the fusible and the fabric accurately. I keep it all absolutely flat and have never had any problems with distortion. If I suspect that the fabric may be lying slightly off-grain before fusing I simply lay the pattern  on top to check that all is "square". This works for all fabrics, their stability isn't a problem.

Ask again if any of this isn't clear.

[Armchair Sewer]

I don't actually "rough-cut" out. I cut both the fusible and the fabric accurately.

ah-ha! the penny drops!  this is much easier to get my head around than what I was imagining, which was putting the pattern down, tailor tacking around the edges to mark the cutting lines then slicing away at an approximate distances from the tacs. (I think I had seen this in a Roberta Carr video?).  I had been struggling to see how I would survive without cut edges as my guide.  I see now that with this technique, I would have cut edges still, but with the tailor's tacks as an extra bit of assistance to keep me on track.  That would be very helpful in tricky situations.

re-reading your original post and pictures, I see that should have been obvious to me.  I must have had that old image too strongly in mind.  there is a slow learner in every class and this time it was me    Thank you for taking the trouble to come back to the thread and explain.

I use Burda WOF and use my tracing wheel to determine seamlines and I know it's not very accurate.  This way I can vary seam allowances as you describe (leaving a bit extra where it might be needed and less where it definitely isn't eg collar edges) without forgetting where the seamline should be.

I'll try it on the very next project I cut out!

[AnnRowley]

Glad to have helped. 

[BeeBee]

Ann:  Do you leave a loop on both sides of the fabric layers or just on the top?

[AnnRowley]

Ann:  Do you leave a loop on both sides of the fabric layers or just on the top?

Just the top.  Much too complicated to try and leave loops underneath!