Hi guys 👋!
I really love flowy and airy fabrics like georgette or chiffon, they make such amazing summer garments!
However, they have a life of their own and just the idea to cut the pattern pieces gives me a cold sweat!
So, here are a few tips that will help taming your silky fabric. Remember that kind of fabric is very tricky to cut and sew right, it's just that with my tips it'll make it a bit less trickier!
First of all, you need to prepare your fabric before even considering ironing it to cut it. You can either starch it with ready made solutions in supermarkets, or prepare it with gelatin like so
Take your sachet of gelatin, put it in a glass of lukewarm water, stir and cover and let it rest overnight.
You will find a glass with a very wobbly jelly in the glass, and some kind of bloc. You want to empty all that in a pan, and heat it very slowly, stirring constantly until it gets clear and homogeneous again.
Then it's ready to go in the bucket with 3 litres of cold water , stir again, and your fabric is ready to go in the bucket with the gelatin solution.
You want to move the fabric in the bucket and make sure that every fibre is imbibed with the solution. Leave the fabric in the bucket for a couple of hours minimum, don't forget to stir it every now and then.
To dry it, avoid direct sunlight and ideally you want the fabric to dry flat.
Now your fabric has a bit more body to it!
But we're still far from done with it.
Some people like to trace their pattern pieces on some freezer paper. Then lightly iron it on your fabric to get it to stick to it.
To cut your fabric easily, you need to place either some paper tissue or some cotton fabric under your tricky fabric to help with the grip. Then, avoid cutting on the fold, and if you really have to do so, you need to add a sheet of tissue paper or a layer of cotton fabric between your fold, once again togive it some grip.
The choice between scissors and a lot of pins, or a rotary cutter with a very sharp blade and lots of weights, will mainly depend on you. I don't like using scissors but it seems to help a lot of people so give it a go if you're struggling cutting your fabric right with a rotary cutter.
When sewing, decrease the strength of the feed dogs and be careful to not get your fabric sucked in the machine by placing a bit of tissue paper under your fabric. To finish the seams nicely, you might want to try French seams, it's perfect for light weight fabric!
Please let me know how your project went using these tricks, or share yours by @ me @seweasypeasy on Twitter and Instagram using #seweasypeasy, @seweasypeasyblog on Facebook and I'm also on Pinterest,
Happy sewing,
Claire xx
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