How to Sew 4 Professional Techniques for Luxury Fashion

Hello my friends and welcome to today's video. If you're new here my name is Alexandra, I am a professional fashion designer, pattern cutter and creative consultant. Very long-winded introduction but I'm the founder of Digital Pattern Library where I help you build your dream wardrobe through my signature Create, Cut, Construct framework where I teach you the entire fashion process from design through to pattern drafting and of course This is actually the first draft of my blouse design which is this little thing here and I'm already undecided on the collar and that's kind of what happens when you in the DPL Atelier we do a very structured optional framework cycle where month one we create and design, month two we cut and pattern draft to our measurements and month three we construct and sew it at machine. However we are in month two at the time of filming meaning we are drafting our designs but even though these are kind of segregated and categorized it just goes to show how intertwining these constructs are and these pillars are because now that I am drafting the pattern and twirling it up even though it's a wearable twirl um I think I've changed my mind on if I want a collar or not I'm not sure so let me know in the comments what you think but I'm kind of enjoying the simplistic simplicity of the neckline just being clean. Anyway this video is not a therapy session over what to do with my designs it's actually going to teach you how to finish a woven garment in high-end ways and techniques because I've done years ago I did a high-end luxury sewing tips video that you all really really enjoyed I think it's my most viewed at the moment and a few comments were like okay but if I don't overlock wovens how do I finish them because in high-end fashion the goal is to make the inside of your garment as beautiful as the outside and even though overlocking the edge of a woven isn't technically incorrect and of course anything I say in this video is yours to take with a pinch of salt at the end of the day you're the designer and it is your discretion what look you like but having been trained professionally in luxury women's wear overlocked woven edges which it's just a big no-no it's a sign of cheap construction if you have a look at your wardrobe items that you've bought from the high street you may often find that the woven edges are overlocked this is just a cheaper route of production whereas if you have any designer pieces in your wardrobe or any pieces that you yourself have made you might find flat felled seams welt seams bias found edges something that takes a little bit more labor but obviously produces a more professional finish so I'm actually going to go through a few options with you today whilst I'm constructing my wearable twirl this is all just pinned together at the moment on the stand and I'm going to show you different ways on giving a professional finish to your woven garments so let's jump in and I will take you along at creating this I have actually been a bit naughty and couldn't wait I got very impatient and I started digging through my fabric stash to make it hopefully a wearable twirl but just because I am using final fabrics doesn't mean that I should use low standard or low quality construction techniques so I'm going to do it justice I have no doubt I'll probably make a few amendments to the pattern following this but this is me trying to take you along on the journey and teach you a few valuable tips along the way let's start by destroying all your trust in me and doing exactly what I've just told you not to which is overlocking the edges but this is my side seam here okay and I need a hole in it because this is going to be a wrap front blouse so I need the wrap part of the blouse to be able to go through this and tie around the waist you'll see what I mean at the end of the video it will all come together trust the process but what I'm saying here is there's nothing technically wrong with this okay you're also going to notice me create this garment with two colour threads black and white again you kind of know that I like I like to call it sustainable but maybe it's just lazy both threads complement this textile so I'm just going to stick with it but given this is a twirl and I'm just sampling up I did just want to show you what an overlocked edge looks like on a woven now you would absolutely overlock the edges on a knit that is the purpose of an overlock stitch is to give it that little bit of stretch and move with the fabric so that you don't have any snap threads and it allows you to retain the but on a woven it really is unnecessary or it's just the really quicker way of producing clothing which is why it is lower cost and a cheaper finish what I would do here on my final garment is I would probably bias bind these edges rather than overlock them so my first choice of construction for the shoulder seams is actually going to be a french seam now unlike others or the way you may be familiar with we actually start by pinning this wrong sides together opposed to right sides together now when you're doing a french seam or any other enclosed seam just ensure you have the correct seam allowance you're looking at about 1.5 centimeters and above it's not impossible to do it with a centimeter seam allowance but of course understandably it is more fiddly so I'm actually going to align my shoulder seams accordingly wrong sides together people get really concerned with french seams it's essentially just doing a straight seam twice and being brave at the iron you can do french seamed armholes you can do french seamed side seams necklines anything like that you can absolutely french seam around any curve it's just a case of taking your time and befriending the iron so over at the machine I'm going to stitch a centimeter seam allowance I'm then going to trim away the excess I'll flip it round press it and stitch again to enclose I have a normal foot in my machine I have a needle that is 80 slash 12 because this is a thinner fabric this by the way is a viscose twill and my stitch length is going to be set to about 2.5 millimeters I'm going to put my needle in my work before I start sewing back tack accordingly a back tack is just a reverse line of stitches don't really have to do more than one or two some people do really big chunky parts of back tack I would only do that if you're totally confident you don't have to unpick it and or if you are reinforcing a certain stress point on a garment two bits of back tack is absolutely fine and back tack at the end to secure that as well so here's my shoulder seam what I'm now going to do is be careful to trim down as close to my stitch line as possible just be careful not to cut through your stitches I'm then going to flip this over at the iron and using my thumb and my finger I'm actually going to roll this right to the edge so that the seam line there once I flipped it over comes right to the edge I don't want this to be down here and be sewing like so this is going to totally alter your seam allowance and throw your construction off so you want to make sure that when you are pressing this and rolling it that line there is perfectly on the edge like so and just press that down at the iron I personally like to just flip that and make sure I'm doing it from both sides so that it hasn't rolled one way or another I did actually show how to do a French seam before in a really old video on YouTube but it looks like I filmed it on a turnip so hopefully this is a little clearer for you to understand depending on your textile you may want to use a pressing cloth but just give that a good press and now at the machine what I'm going to do is I'm going to sew a line of stitching 0.5 centimeters from the edge meaning that one centimeter to begin with plus this 0.5 is my 1.5 seam allowance in total and because this is now right sides facing with the fabric right sides facing each other this is going to enclose that seam and give a really professional neat finish the smaller your French seam the more delicate and more high-end it looks so you don't really want to be going bigger than half a centimeter see how much you can challenge yourself on this and how narrow you can make it it is perfect for translucent and sheer lightweight fabrics or something quite delicate and drapey like this here if you feel more comfortable to do so you may also pin your fabric in place but if you've given it a good enough press at the machine and you're maintaining your work being flat on your sewing machine bed here you should be able to get away without pinning and then here is your French seam sewn across and when we turn this right sides out it's enclosed everything it's a really beautiful finish a nice enclosed seam on the inside there's no raw edges there we've really captured it all in this I will push my seam allowance to the back now and so that will be a really nice high quality shoulder seam it's also great to reinforce because obviously there is two line of stitches there two lines two lines of stitches there if I can get my words out I'm going to do a rolled hem finish around the armhole this design actually has a layered drop shoulder with a sleeve that protrudes from underneath it so now that I've done my shoulder seam here which is an enclosed French seam I've got my side seams here which are naughty naughty slap on the wrist overlocked I'm actually going to do a rolled hem finish around the edge of this armhole and I'm going to do that with a machine foot now there is a tutorial on how to do it by hand over in the DP Alatilia alongside how to do it by machine but this here is a rolled hem foot if you have a look at that in comparison you will be able to see the difference so with a rolled hem foot you have this little killed loop underneath and what this does is it turns the fabric over and secures it in place I'm just going to fix this to my machine I actually find hand sewing a rolled hem one of the most therapeutic um hand sewing processes and it's very satisfying because as you pull the thread it um pulls everything in and it's such a beautiful way to finish silk scarves or anything delicate like that but I'm just going to I haven't put my needle through my work if I zoom in on this or take that out you can see as I slide it in I'm tucking it up and under this loop and the foot will take over from there now I'm actually putting this in at the wrong area on the garment I'm putting this in at the top of the shoulder what I would do is I would actually start at the underarm because that is where it's least likely to be seen so where you start and finish your stitch line just in case there are any discrepancies or it's not the neatest of seamless finishes then under the arm is where it's less likely to be seen when the garment is worn so I wouldn't actually start right at the top on the shoulder point because that is probably the most visible part especially on this design where the drop shoulder is a feature so I'm going to start by popping my needle in my work my stitch length is still 2.5 and I'm just going to allow this foot to take the fabric and feed it round it's really important I keep the rest of my work as flat as possible I don't want to get anything caught under here like so so I'm just going to take my time with it and work my way all around the armhole notice how the foot is is the wrong side of the fabric so this is going to be rolling it into the wrong side of the fabric and securing that down essentially it's going to do a very micro double roll or double hem perfect for delicate finishes on fabrics if your bobbin thread thread who's Fred if your bobbin thread is different to your top thread then it's really important to know that it's the bobbin thread that will be seen on the outside so maybe just make sure you're happy with that color check your tension all of that try on a bit of sample piece of fabric before attacking your final garment hello future Alex here I just wanted to say as I'm continuing to construct my sample that it's a really good idea to trim away your seam allowance excess as you get to the bulk using a rolled hem foot just so that when you're feeding this through it doesn't actually jam or jar this is overlock because it's the facing that I'm adding so this won't be seen from the right side that doesn't matter at all but yeah future Alex over and out and it's also really important that as you're feeding the fabric into the foot you maintain the same amount of fabric all the way around so if you're feeding this much in make sure that you are keeping that consistent and not making it narrower or wider at any given point and you can have a look there at how this is tucking everything under and stitching it in place and then from the right side the same going on so it's really delicate it's less than half a centimeter and it's such a perfect dainty finish for garments like this there we have it here is a rolled hem finish around my armhole so yet again it's like a micro double fold that has just enclosed those frayed edges in really pretty really delicate next up we're going to do a bias bound finish now there's so many reasons why I like bias bound finishes firstly because it's an amazing use of scraps this is from a pair of trousers I made it was leftover fabric so to make your own bias binding you just cut it 45 degrees to the straight grain so it would be something like this you would be drawing on strips like so and you'd cut out a load of strips you then sew them all together you fold it in like so and you've got bias tape so it's a really amazing use of scrap fabric you can create really pretty colors and designs you can actually buy it pre-made in different sizes in different colors in different textiles and how you can bias bind edges one way which I won't be going through today but I'll show you and you'll understand what I mean is you simply sandwich the raw edge between the bias binding so this 45 degree strip of fabric here has been folded in twice so we fold one edge in the lower edge the upper edge so this already has given us a nice folded edge either side you would then place your textile in and you would fold that up again and so both sides of the textile right and wrong have been sandwiched by a bit of bias binding and then you would just secure that in place with a you take your time would also secure it this side as well that is one way of finishing with a bias bound edge and if we revert back to my side seams on this design that have been overlocked this is actually the method that I would prefer to use and of course I could do it in color matched here or like match my textile I've got a load of scraps here that I could kind of go through and or as I say if you find it easier you can buy pre-made there's also nifty gadgets and this isn't a bias making or bias tape making tutorial so I'm not going to go through it but you also get these nifty gadgets and you feed textile through here and it will fold it pre-fold it for you and come out this end I hate these please let me know in the comments if you love or hate them because I feel like it's a divided camp a lot of people love them because they're meant to make it easier but I really hate these I genuinely no matter how delicate it is just prefer folding it by hand at an iron obviously the larger the bias tape the easier it is to fold and press which I guess is why people take these or take to these um but my gosh I really dislike these they actually make the job so much more tricky than it needs to be maybe I've just bought dud ones I don't know I really don't know an alternative way to use bias binding as a finish is one that isn't seen from the front because the way I've just shown you sandwiches it meaning that the bias tape is seen from the both from both the right side and the wrong side but this way the bias tape is just going to be on the interior and what I'm actually going to do is I'm going to start by unfolding one edge of this bias tape I'm just going to run my thumb along it like so so that unfolds that's it folded over and I'm actually unfolding just the one edge and running my thumb along I'm then going to pin this to the edge of my sleeve and I'm going to stitch along that fold line and just secure this bit of bias tape to the edge of my sleeve and then I'm just going to trim away any excess and I'm going to sew a line all along here about half a centimeter along the hem of my sleeve now that is having half a centimeter hem allowance in mind okay now at the iron what I'm going to do is I'm actually going to turn this down and flip that to the wrong side and give that a really good press and so from the right side you actually can't see the bias tape but from the wrong side it's got a really nice finish to this edge now if you weren't enclosing elastic you would simply stitch along this edge here to secure that in place meaning you would have visible stitches from this side unless you chose to slip stitch slip stitch slip stitch I've always got a Sean Connery cameo in these videos do a hand stitch along the edge here you would be picking up just a couple fibers at a time and that would give you a really nice invisible finish if you didn't want a visible line of stitching what I'm going to do is an added extra to this design is I'm actually going to enclose a little bit of elastic running all the way through this bias bound trim so that the base of my sleeve gathers for the design before I go ahead and do this I just want to say in addition to this and pressing it under you could also under stitch to help with the fold so what that would involve is pressing your seam allowance into the bias binding like it is here and just edge stitching along the edge on the bias binding that is going to help your work roll under and keep that really nice and secure because I'm doing this little elastic feature I won't be doing that today but I hope that that makes sense in terms of improving your sewing projects so I'm just going to stitch this closed I'll stretch this at the machine as I do it and then once that's secure this should gather the bottom of solid bits of fabric often cut in the same textile as your outer shell but you can absolutely be the designer here and play around with it a contrasting textile just like the bias bound finish can be a really fun detail and basically you're just going to use it to stitch right sides together around your raw edge so here we've got my neckline and opening and here we've got my facing which is basically a replication of the pattern it's just smaller I'm not doing the entire bodice I'm just going to be facing part of it and so what we're going to see is it will be lining the inside almost like so you can see that I have rolled edge finished the facing piece you would fuse this with iron-on interfacing whether that's lightweight medium weight or heavyweight depending on your textile I'm really being lazy today and just cutting corners I want to see how this design looks I want to make amendments to the pattern and then I obviously want to sew up my final one your facing would be reinforced and stabilized with a little bit of iron-on interfacing and what I'm going to do is I'm actually going to pin it up along my neckline and opening right sides together and then I'm just going to sew with a centimeter seam allowance and turn it over and press it in now as you're going to see all of these raw edges once we sew that along and turn it through are going to be nice and enclosed on the inside as well with this edge being rolled hemmed and neat great for curved edges great for kind of if you're doing a scallop neckline or something like that you definitely would be doing a facing we have tutorials on how to draft facings over in the dpl atelier adding facings to a garment when where why what and how but this is going to be my last high-end finish to this woven sample today so let me get started pinning all the way around once I'm happy with that I'm going to stitch all the way around this edge at the sewing machine making sure that you don't snip through your stitches it's really important that you clip a concave and you notch a convex curve I'm going to trim away at the points this is just going to relieve the tension and make your garment lie nice and flat trim away any excess remove bulk and I'm going to take this over to the iron and I'm going to press that the right way round what I can then do is I can under stitch this and this is going to help my facing kill under like I mentioned with the bias binding as we come to the points by here you're not going to be able to get your under stitch right round the corner so I would under stitch as far as you can all the way down this edge there would be a break in my stitching and then I'd have a look at under stitching all the way around the facing there before pressing it again at the iron so let's do that so to under stitch my facing I'm gonna have my work spread out like this this is my facing this is my main garment if I pull this up you can see that my seam allowance is pushed towards my facing in towards my facing what I'm going to do is I'm going to get my foot and my needle as close as I can and I'm actually going to edge stitch all along my neckline and making sure as I go that I'm pushing my seam allowance in towards the facing and this is going to help everything roll round sampled this design for the first time there's definitely already some changes that I'm going to make i.e lengthening the bodice I think I'm going to introduce more volume into the sleeve and I definitely want to make the drop shoulder feature more prominent just so that it lengthens the shoulder line and comes off a little bit more to really highlight that that is a little design detail as I was constructing this I also thought that finishing this armhole with the contrast bias bound edge would be really cute as a little peekaboo effect highlighting that design detail even further but it's very unlike me to twirl up and put so much effort into it usually I am twirling in calico just doing generic generic open pressed seams but I really wanted to hopefully inspire you on how to elevate your sewing projects creating high-end finishes on those woven seams so let me know how you get on comment down below what design changes you might make to this I know the neckline might be a little bit daring for some but your girl is a member of the itty bitty titty committee and there will be no spillage from me I assure you it's like two mosquito bites or two peas on an ironing board um so I'm pretty good I'm pretty chilled with having that much chest on show but again let me know your thoughts on adding a collar or not adding a collar I think I will keep it quite minimum because there is quite a lot going on here but I really hope you enjoyed this style of video I really hope you found some tips tricks and techniques to implement in your next sewing project and of course let me know in the comments what you're working on so that I can cheer you on and support you if you want that to be the case even further come and join us in the DPL Atelier my affordable fashion membership where I give you hand-holding support to build your dream wardrobe for now I will catch you on the flip side