Month: July 2016

This is the second part of the dart construction story and this deals with the sewing and tying off of the dart. Once you have prepared the dart by marking it, pinning and/or tacking you are ready to sew.  Remove the tailor’s tacks at this point.  It is very important to start at the widest…
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This is a stitch used to transfer information from a paper pattern to the fabric. On a commercial pattern you will see little circles within the pattern piece. These mark where a tailor tack should be made. You can use tailor tacks as a temporary way of marking fabric to show dart positions, pleats, pocket…
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Constructing a dart Part 1   Constructing a dart is a wonderful, useful and dare I say, essential, technique to master.  Many garments will feature some form of fitting and darts, as well as pleats, tucks, seam shaping and gathering are used to create shapes.  There are a few tricks I can impart to make…
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Mrs Bowden’s top tip – removing tailor tacks I am just off on a short break to the Latitude Festival and have been busy making plenty of lovely vintage style dresses for myself and friends.  I have been inspired to write this week’s top tip as have spent considerable time removing the dredges of tailor…
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One of the reasons we often are drawn to Vintage fashion is the lovely silhouette often seen on dresses from the 1950’s.  There is no better feeling, in my opinion, than swirling about in a full skirted dress.  I think we sometimes overlook the foundation garments worn at the time to help achieve that nipped…
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