Do you remember Linda Lee?
Of the Sewing Workshop Patterns?
Well she was nice enough to put together some kits for me to make a silk scarf. So I went ahead a taught a class on how to make a silk scarf. The class covered things such as how to sew on different types of silk, and I demoed how to do a variety of seam finishes such as the Hong Kong and French seams.
I had some lovely ladies sign up for the class and we had a wonderful day of sewing.
But the best part about the class was that everyone finished and at the end of the day we had beautiful scarves such as this one.
Which looks even better when modeled.
Georgia got fancy with her scarf and added a little decorative detail to the cuff.
She also has some fancy smanchy super cool looking Hong Kong seams thrown in.
And she threw in some finge to add variety to her scarf.
LOVE IT!
There was also a kit in lime green which made beautiful scarves like these.
Which look lovely on.
They also have super fancy smanchy cool looking Hong Kong seam finishes cause all my students are exceptionally talented.
Bonita I say!
For those of you who are interested, here are a few tips for sewing on silk!
Use very sharp cutting tools - When cutting silk, make sure you are using very sharp cutting tools. A nicked blade can cause pulls and picks that will ruin your fabric. If you use a rotary cutter, use a fresh blade with each new project. When using shears or scissors, test them out to make sure there are no nicks in the blade before cutting in to your fabric. If there are, have your scissors or shears sharpened.
Use a paper underlay for very slippery silks - You can minimize fabric movement and distortion when cutting out chiffon, crepe de Chine or other very slippery silks by placing a layer of Kraft or butcher paper on your cutting surface and then laying your silk over that. The paper has enough "grab" to prevent the fabric from sliding while you pin and cut.
Use polyester or cotton thread for stitching - Once in a while, a student will ask me about using silk thread to sew silk fabric. It may seem like the logical thing to do, but you will get better results from good old polyester thread. Silk thread is frequently stronger than the fabric, and it can cut through your fabric at stress points.
Use the smallest needle you can - When stitching your fabric, use the smallest needle you can get away with. If you would normally use a 70/10 needle on a similar weight cotton or wool, take it down to a 60/8 with silk. I use a Microtex needle.
Lengthen your stitch – I take my stitch length up to 3 or 3.5. If you use smaller stitches you will punch too many holes in the fabric and weaken the seam.
Happy Sewing
Melisa & Cordelia
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