Sewing seams with padded pieces

[chargirlgenius]

The doublet has eaten me – I’ve had no computer time or time for anything else! I’m at work, so I’ll keep this really brief. I continued the quilting last night. After finishing up the butt portion, I had to mark the quilting lines on the back torso. I drew with the chalk on the inside, but again, I really need to work from the outside to keep the lines straight. I figured I’d do what I did the other night, run it through the machine, but without the thread.

Maybe I need a bigger needle, but just running it through the machine without the thread doesn’t really leave holes for marking. Others might have better luck with this, but I probably just don’t keep big enough needles around.

Instead, I set it at the biggest stitch possible, and messed with my tension so that the thread on one side was essentially flat. That makes it a lot easier to pull out.

Some people asked about sewing the seams on a quilted/padded piece. I’ve been cutting the padding away from the seam allowance to do that. I’ve sketched up a quick diagram – let me know if it doesn’t make sense.



Red is the hemp outer fabric
Green is the inner most lining
Blue are the stitches
Orange is the padding. It’s actually made up of several layers of fabric, but it could be anything

Note that I’ve included on lining layer sandwiched with the outer fabric. That gives that seam a bit more strength, since the hemp is a heavy but loose weave.



Also see the album for more info:
http://www.mathildegirlgenius.com/gallery/ArmingCote

Comments

[spikywheel.livejournal.com]

2 possible ways to mark:

1) very large hand basting stitch in a contrast color (each stitch 2" or so). Use a long needle and you can hold a lot of stitches per "pull".
2) put a heavy thread (hymark) in the bobbin of your machine and sew on the longest stitch. It is easy to pull it out but you have to be careful to not gather the material as you sew.

[chargirlgenius.livejournal.com]

#2 is essentially what I'm doing. I'm sure I have some heavier thread around.

I'm not too worried about the gathers when I sew. It's just on the lining, and I pull the whole line completely out before I hand stitch it anyway. I haven't noticed any crookedness from the gathers. Yet. :-)

[ladybirdkiller.livejournal.com]

have you ever tried a bar of soap to mark lines? Then you could mark on the front.

I've also been known to use one of those water soluble quilting markers to mark on the front but check to make sure it really washes out first.

[chargirlgenius.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to avoid marking with anything on the front, since this garment is probably not going to be ever washed. Does soap brush off *really* easily? With this many quilting lines, even just a little marking left over is going to look cruddy.

[ladybirdkiller.livejournal.com]

soap comes off pretty easily and what doesn't brush off a damp cloth could take care of, but different soap and different fabric is going to act differently. I'd grab a scrap and a bar (one you've used down to a sliver works best) and just test it out.

[jljonsn.livejournal.com]

I'm not even sure we HEVE a bar of solid soap in the house. Henry was puzzled by a bar when we went to the hotels a couple of weeks back.

[msmcknittington.livejournal.com]

Have you considered marking your quilting lines on a piece of tissue paper and basting that to the front of the piece? Then you can stitch through the tissue paper and it just tears away when you're done. koshka_the_cat used this method a while ago when she was sewing soutache in a curvy design down on an 1860s coat, and it seemed to work really well.

[chargirlgenius.livejournal.com]

Hm, interesting. I'll have to try that if I do a more complicated design. I think the tissue paper would get pretty torn up on this piece, as I go, though.

[sutragirl.livejournal.com]

I do use chalk on the front of things, just use a tooth brush to brush away the chalk if any is left after you are done working the line.