Pacific Northwest
Needle Arts Guild
Wearable Art Study Group (Evening)
Edge Finishes & Closures with Amy Gerson
April 27, 2001
Amy showed some example edge finishes & closures
from her closet and from books & magazines,
then demonstrated piped on-edge buttonholes.
MISCELLANEOUS IDEAS for...
...Edge Finishes
- Piping - multiple rows, stripes, prints; combine with rickrack
- Chenille yarn - whip stitch to edge by hand, or use your machine's
overcast, buttonhole, or blind hem stitch
- Cording - make your own with a spinner or your machine's bobbin
- Bias Binding - make your own
- Bird Ross' unfinished squares, folded over the edge and secured with
free-motion stitching
...Closures
- Custom fimo buttons by our Jane Schreven - give her a design motif
- Chinese ball buttons, frogs, etc.
- Prairie point button loops - extended or triangular, learned from
Dana Bontrager
- Bound buttonholes - triangles or other shapes, lips from contrasting
fabric, ultrasuede, etc.
- In-seam buttonholes
- Machine embroidery near the buttonhole, learned from Dana Bontrager
- Lois Erickson, "Opening and Closing"
- Decorative snaps
- Found objects as buttons, learned from Betty Jensen
- Piped on edge buttonholes
Examples from Amy's Closet
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Bias Piped On-Edge Buttonholes with end of piping flipped up
& secured by an orange loop
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Straight-Grain Piped On-Edge Buttonholes with custom buttons
by Jane Schreven
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Bias Piping cut from wrong side of lining fabric; decorative
snaps from Clotilde
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Cording made by twisting purple chenille yarn & pink metallic
ribbon; whip-stitched to edge
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Beaded loop closure at center back of collar;
chenille yarn whip-stitched edge finish
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Examples from Heidi's Closet
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This tassel closure conceals a large plastic snap.
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Stuffed fabric tubing
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Example from Candy's Closet
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Cords, coins, and beads
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Suggested Reading
"Fast Continuous
Bias Binding
", #A5 in Dana Bontrager's Instructional Series
"Prairie Point
Button Covers
", #A6 in Dana Bontrager's Instructional Series
"Opening
& Closing
" by Lois Ericson with Anne Charles
"Couture:
The Art of Fine Sewing
" by Roberta Carr (edited by Pati Palmer)
"Fine Embellishment
Techniques: Classic Details for Today's Clothing
" by Jane Conlon
"Dressed
by the Best: Wearable Art Projects by 10 Well-Known Designers
" edited by Kerry Smith
Detailed Instructions for Piped On-Edge Buttonholes
for a lined jacket with facings and a band collar, such as "
The Kerbau Ride
"
made from PAW Prints
Pattern 1007, "Kimono Jacket and Vest"
for the 1996-97 WASG Round Robin
- Assemble jacket, collar, facings & lining as separate units.
Create cuff facings & hem facings from pattern pieces if not provided
with pattern.
- Choose buttons.
- Plan placement, number, size, and spacing of buttonholes.
- Plan where to start & end piping (ends inside
seam at underlapped corner, ends overlapped at inconspicuous location off
to the side, ends inside seam at conspicuous location by design, ends extending
into garment or hanging free, one end inside seam & one flipped up &
secured with a loop, etc.).
- For cord & fabric strip length, measure edges
you intend to pipe (usually front opening all the way around neck, hem, and
armholes or cuffs), add extra for buttonhole slack, add extra if you plan
any overlap, then add 15% margin (at least one inch)
- Choose cording of diameter & firmness for desired
effect and for compatibility with garment. Tape the ends.
- Choose piping fabric - bias curves the best, can
be contrasting or subtle / solid or print, crosswise stripe; choose a hand
compatible with the garment.
- Cut fabric strip(s) to the length(s) determined
in step 5, with width = twice the desired seam allowance + the circumference
of the cord + a hair.
- Mark desired buttonhole locations with chalk or
pins. Allow an inch extra on the end to be turned first.
- Fold fabric strip lengthwise, right sides together.
Sew on seam line between marks, reversing at beginning & end of each segment.
- Turn the tube right side out & catch the cording
at the same time:
- Insert Fasturn cylinder into fabric tube.
- Fold end of fabric over cylinder opening.
Hold in place.
- Insert Fasturn wire, then pierce fabric.
Twist handle to right until wire pigtail is completely through fabric.
- Pull handle of wire without twisting, pulling about
1/2" fabric inside the cylinder.
- Jam one end of the cord 1/4" down into the center
of the fabric in the cylinder.
- Ease fabric into the cylinder by sliding fabric
up along the cylinder with one hand, and pulling on the wire with the other
hand, with both hands working at the same rate. Make sure to catch
the cording, pulling it along as you go.
- When the pigtail emerges from the cylinder, twist
hook handle to the left to release the wire.
- Continue to ease the fabric until the whole tube
is turned, pushing & pulling at the same rate. Pull on the
cord a bit to make sure there's a little extra sticking out each end.
Tape ends & trim. Now you have a strip of piping with some intermittent
finished sections (equivalently, you have a spaghetti strap with some raw-edged
tabs sticking out).
- With a zipper foot, just outside the seamline,
baste the piping seam allowances together to cover the cord.
- Baste the collar to the garment. Pin the
piping to the garment with raw edges aligned, keeping buttonholes free.
Baste the piping to the garment.
- Sew the facings to the garment.
- Grade the seam allowances: cut each layer
slightly wider, with the layer closest to the body trimmed closest to the
stitching. Notch & clip curves.
- Turn, press, strike with clapper.
- Sew on the buttons.
- Sew in the lining.
- Wear with pride!