Shirt *Construction* techniques

[Gerry]

I'm actually more intrigued by their use of pallet strapping as an edge stitching guide.

It's mainly used to provide traction for the feed-dogs. You'll note that they use a compensating foot for the edge stitching. Because of the gapped 'step' to the left of such feet, there's not much for the dogs to push against when fabric is thin, hence the use of a strip. Strips are also useful when commencing sewing from the edge/start of seams (no need to begin a little further down, then back-tack). Again, they provide traction: something for the back of the dogs to push against, in this scenario. But, as you mentioned, they can also act as a guide. Pretty useful things all-round.

Things are less problematic with industrial machines, but I have a compensating foot for my old Singer and it's very temperamental unless I use pallet strapping for at least part of a run - there's a lot of 'jogging on the spot' by the needle, otherwise, and/or skipped stitches when layers are thicker (the strapping helps to compress them). I found a long strip of the stuff in a neighbour's recycling bin while out for a walk, gave it a bleach to clean it (just in case) and was good to go.

[Chanterelle]

A very clever use of silk organza to aid the shaping of rounded pocket-corners. About 2 mins in:

This is clever. I use a wide stitch to gather the fabric around the pattern piece before ironing...produces good results

[Gerry]

As a more personal request, I'm looking to hear/see/read side seam and shoulder seam for inset sleeves construction techniques--specifically re: lapped, felled, or frenched seams.

I dare say someone else has thought of this before me, but I came up with an alternative method of doing double-lapped seams and it worked perfectly first time. It's only suitable for straight/straightish seams, but the advantage over the conventional, single-needle approach is that both pieces are to the left to begin with; which makes it easy to do on a non-industrial machine where the arm isn't as wide. It also pre-forms the first fold with the initial stitch run, which makes forming the second fold a lot easier. Pasted from my notes:

A lapped seam requires 1.5 times the intended seam allowance. A quarter inch seam requires 3/8ths, for example, and we will use this. Right sides together, offset the top piece by a quarter and fold the under piece over it by a quarter. First, however, we must decide in which direction the seam's outer, raised edge is to face. It will go in the opposite direction to whichever piece is on top: front on top of underside creates a backwards facing lap; underside on top creates a forward facing lap.

Relax the tension on the top thread, increase the stitch length and sew a machine baste down the middle at 1/8th. Don't backstitch, this acts as a temporary, holding-stitch only. The stitching doesn't have to be that accurate, but the folding and alignment does. The human eye is very good at judging parallel lines, however, so this can be done on the fly (no need to pin/baste).

After securing the two pieces, fold the top one to the right, over the edge of the seam we've just created. Finger-press - or press the whole seam at the board for the neatest results. Return stitch length and tension to where they were and edge stitch each raised fold of the lapped seam on both sides. A compensating foot gives the best results.

Remove the machine baste from the middle of the seam. It will slip out quite easily due to sewing with relaxed tension. Optional: reach into the end of the seam and pull out the top thread, using tweezers if necessary. It should slide out as a single thread.

Finally, wet the seam and press to revive the cloth (it will probably be pock-marked from the baste-stitch we put in).