22 December 2010

Hungry Zombie Tip of the Day

Do you hate finishing the edges of facings as much as I do?  Folding down that teeny tiny little hem on the curved edges of the facing is mucho annoying.  So, I handle the whole situation another way.  Check it out below.

1.  Cut out the facing in your fashion fabric and in your interfacing just like normal.

2.  Pin each fashion fabric piece to an interfacing piece, right sides together (this means that the right side of the fashion fabric and the non-gluey side of the interfacing should be together).

3.  Sew a 5/8" seam on the edge.

4.  Trim the seam to 1/4" in width.  This makes the next step easier.


5.  Turn the interfacing over so that the wrong side of the fashion fabric and the gluey side of the interfacing are together.  Carefully iron the interfacing to the fashion fabric, ensuring that the interfacing does not show on the good side of the fashion fabric along the curved seam.


6.  Stand back and admire your handiwork.  You now have a fully enclosed seam that is finished beautifully and cleanly!  Hungry Zombie says, "Sew smart.  Use your braaaaains..."


The facing in the pictures above is for view B of Butterick 5567, which I have making out of a wool/polyester blend gabardine (which is behaving like a royal PITA, but, that is a story for another day). 

17 comments:

Nancy K said...

I've been doing it that way for years. It's the best. It looks so much neater too, doesn't it?

LakshmiRP said...

Nice Tip. I zig zag my facing edges mostly but on fabrics which are unforgiving i follow this step.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!

Elaray said...

Love this technique!

Trudy said...

Oh, thank you! I had not heard of this tip before.

Shannon said...

That edge looks great. I can't wait to try this out!

Uta said...

Brilliant! You would need fairly stable interfacing though; it wouldn't work with the wisper-thin interfacing I'm currently using :-(

Unknown said...

Genius! Now why didn't I think of that?

AllisonC said...

Brilliant! I feel a bit silly for not having thought of this myself, it seems so obvious now!

Jen said...

Brilliant!!!

Faye Lewis said...

Wonderful tip! Now if I can just remember it! That's going to be a great jacket.

Lisette M said...

I have been doing this for a while, it does look nice...I'm liking this pattern very much!

Sewingelle said...

Oh so clever! why didn't I think of that??!

Carol said...

Oh, what a clever idea. I normally bind it with bias binding, but this is so much neater. Thank you!

Summerset said...

This is a technique that works great! It looks so nice and you don't even have to think about the curves. I think I learned this back in high school, when I made a suit for myself out of cream and pink woven checked linen like stuff. The pattern was, believe it or not a It's So Easy kind of pattern and they had this in the directions.

Ruth said...

Thanks for the wonderful post. I need to remember this next time a pattern calls for facing.

amber said...

That sure is a handy little tip - thanks!

SEWN said...

I am thrilled that you posted this tip. I love it! Great idea!