Thanks, @Lynx !
Yes, it’s very comfortable.
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It looks great and thanks for the info on the Tailors Tack or Looping. I still haven’t gotten up the courage to sew apparel, but that tip is very helpful for when I do.
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Sewing clothing is not as difficult as it seems! Definitely worth a try. There are tons of people here that can help you if you get stuck.
After seeing this project I’ve decided that I’m going to use tailor’s tacks for the knit T-shirt dress that I just cut out last night. I usually only do tailor’s tacks on the most difficult parts of the project, when I’m doing a simple project I just try to cut my seam allowances really even and use the edge as my guide. It’s just pure laziness and it’s not how my mum taught me.
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I am very curious about this, it seems different from what I know.
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What part of it is different? Using tailor’s tacks? I wouldn’t know how to mark patterns on the fabric any other way, I’ve seen people use chalk but that only shows up on one side of the fabric.
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Thanks, @gozer !
My mother worked for an old fashioned tailor in the five years before her marriage (back in the sixties most women stopped working when they married).
When I was a child, she was always sewing at home for us and for many customers (family members, neighbors, church members, etc.). She even sewed lots of brides dresses.
Even though I did not want to learn it at the time…, I am sure I picked up a lot, just by being around her. Like using tailor’s tacks.
I later learned how to sew just by buying sewing magazines and following the instructions.
I’m sure the memories of seeing my mom sewing did help me understand those.
By the way: when I’m sewing denim, or squares of cotton for those baby quilts I made, I don’t use tailor’s tacks, but instead draw lines on the fabric with a ballpoint pen.
I bet my mother would consider that a crime, LOL.
You could use tailor’s chalk instead.
The advantage of tailor’s tacks though is that you can give two pieces of fabric the exact same measurements. Or make one piece exactly the same on both sides, with the fabric folded in the middle. And you can use it to mark the pieces’ matching points and darts that are indicated on a pattern. It gives you the best accuracy.
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I took fashion design in college which included pattern drafting & garment construction (& fabric science, marketting, etc etc). We never, ever marked anything on fabric, that simply was not ok to do at all. Darts were indicated by a small snip cut into the seam allowance & a hole worked with an awl a scant 1/2 before the point. Aligning straight or curved edges was also indicated by snipped notches. Pattern slopers were used for drafting, drafts traced onto a semi-translucent paper them seam allowances added. A muslin was cut & assembled then adjusted on a dress makers dummy. Changes would be recorded to the original pattern, retraced & retested in muslin before cutting the fashion fabric.
We did a lot of fussy hand finishing but never a tailor’s tack. I think that might have been part of suit construction but I didn’t take that course.
I’m very interested in the how & why of it, I hope you’ll share your progress!
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Really interesting! I also learned working with tailor’s tacks from my mum and grandma. My mum is a bit older than @madebyBeaG but same generation in the same country. She learned pattern drafting and sewing in school and so did my grandma. Mum sewed from magazines in the 70s and 80s and got back into pattern drafting in the 90s. I am mostly self-taught from her 90s books. The ladies in my family always insisted on using tailor’s tacks around every single edge of the pattern piece. It was really drilled into me. I’m also in a sewing group and our teacher also went to college for fashion design, like you, and she is also a tailor’s tacks fanatic. Maybe it’s just the mainstream method in this country & not elsewhere? I have heard of the awl method but it seems more difficult than tacks.
I usually draft my patterns on A4 paper, if I’m happy with the result I copy them in full size on translucent paper, then I pin them on the fabric. I have a little seam allowance tool (this one: hand gauge that I lay on the pattern piece and use as a guide while cutting. Then (in an ideal situation) I would stitch the tailor’s tacks around the whole pattern piece. In real life for a simple pattern I usually only do them in darts, around the top of the sleeves etc. Then I sew the garment together making sure I line up the tailor’s tacks everywhere.
I have made muslins in the past but not for simple items of clothing, only for really complicated patterns. Since I draft the pattern to my own measurements so there should not be a lot of adjustments to make. When I only really need a marking on one side of the fabric I usually use a frixion pen or a pencil. I’m not a fan of chalk. I’m clumsy, it gets everywhere except where I want it to be.
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I never learned pattern drafting.
Neither did my hobby-seamstress mother. She used, like I do, commercial patterns from sewing magazines, but was quite handy adjusting them, since most of her ‘customers’ were women with ‘difficult figures’, who could not find fitting clothes in retail shops.
I bought a book on pattern drawing a couple of years ago, but found it quite daunting, because I’m not good with math. I never used it.
@Magpie, I understand why some (expensive) fabrics are not suitable for tacks or even pins. But the fabrics I use can take them without a problem.
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Thank you ladies, this is such an enlightening discussion! I wish we could meet up for a sewing bee together to trade tips & tricks, it would be an amazing learning experience I’m sure. When home I’ll look up some tailor tack videos & try it out, I’m so curious to see how it goes for me!
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When I watch the tv series ‘The great British sewing bee’, I am always surprised at how little time the candidates get for sewing a piece of clothing. I would need ten times as much…
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