Costume Making Part 4 – Cutting And Sewing

Ok so we have our base pattern and our design.

First let’s make sure we have the tools we need.
Things I recommend you purchase even if you’re new to sewing

• Rotary Cutter
• Self Healing Rotary Cutting Mat

These Items will make cutting so much easier and are well worth the investment .. As if you give up sewing they can be used for a number of different things.

Cut Fabric On cutting mat

Now for the sewing machine.

You don’t need a $500.00 electronic machine nor do you need a specialty machine like a Surger, do they make life easier? ABSOULTLY! But you can still complete this project without any issues without them.

The two most important factors in the machine are

1. ZigZag Stitch … this is a must as it is a stitch that will stretch with the fabric when its being worn
2. Adjustable Pressure Foot tension … another must because sewing stretch fabrics is very difficult if the top layer of fabric is stretching due to the foot pressure and not moving as one with the bottom layer

Now a word of caution some of the more expensive electronic machines available don’t have the adjustable pressure option,

An example I have a nice Electronic Singer machine with 130 different stitches programmed in it that I paid about $350 for… I can’t sew stretch fabric on this machine to save my life, so I had to buy a cheep $110 Mechanical Machine that just does what I want basically the only thing this unit is good for is the 2 items up top, zigzag stitch and adjustable pressure.

Practice

That being said I also have a 4 thread Surger which makes quick work of seam sand elastic work. These things can also be accomplished with a zigzag stitch on a regular machine it just takes a couple minutes more.
Now I have all my fabric cut and I’m ready to attach it to the main front leotard piece, I highly suggest you assemble the design on the front and back before you join the 2 together. Since I had never done anything with such curved stitching before I decided to practice with some scrap fabric I had lying around. This helped me get a bit more comfortable with how things were going to work and let me fine tune the foot pressure, and yes I have a dressform, I am a tool nut and it’s just another tool in my sewing toolbox. Really it saves a lot of stress from trying to get the girls to try on things 30 times while I’m making them and was worth the money in stress relief alone.

This Practice one went very well so on to the real ones =)

One Done

One thing that is very important whether your doing overlays or sewn in designs … Pinning … pin everything you don’t want things moving while it’s in the sewing machine.

The only thing left is elastic and Rhinestones.

The elastic is super easy with the surger, I have a special foot that holds the elastic in place and puts a bit of tension on it as it sews leaving me with perfect leg, arm, and neck holes every time. Once the elastic is in just flip it to the inside of the garment and zigzag stitch it to produce a professionally finished seam.

Two Done