Sewing Tips & Tricks: How to Avoid Pressing in the Round

Today, I would like to show you my trick to avoid pressing in the round. Pressing in the round is when you sew fabric together to form a circle or tube, then you need to press a hem or casing. To press, you would need to fit the circle around the end of the ironing board. For the end of a sleeve it becomes even more complicated by the tight circle. I try to avoid all of that as much as possible!!

I am using a waistband casing for this example, but the same technique is true for hems and sleeves.

For a waistband, sew the two rectangles together at one short end. Finish the seam and press to one side.

Now, press your casing in place. In this case, press 1/4" to the wrong side. Then, again 1" to the wrong side. See how nice and easy it is to press it all flat instead of in the round!

Now, unfold the pressed ends and stitch the short ends right sides together completing the circle.

Finish the seam.

Refold the casing at the seam and press at the seam only. The rest is already done!

Sew the casing per your pattern instructions. 

Here you can see how I applied the same method to the hem of the skirt.

For this tutorial, I used the Modkid Katie Skirt pattern without the flounce and pockets.

A few more patterns where this method would come in handy are the Lily Skirt (waistband and hem), the Keagan Shirt (sleeves), and the Josie dress (sleeves and hem).

Sewing Tips & Tricks: Gathering

Today, we are starting a new series on the blog giving a few of our Tips and Tricks for sewing. These posts may include everything from gathering to embroidery. In fact, we would love to hear from you about any techniques you would like us to shed some light on!

   Gather: to draw (cloth) up on a thread in fine folds or puckers by means of even stitches.

The following steps guide you through the process of attaching a gathered piece of fabric to a flat piece of fabric. In this case, I am attaching a gathered skirt to a waist band. This process would be the same for attaching a gathered skirt to a bodice or a ruffle to the bottom of a dress.



First, mark or notch the center front and back of the skirt pieces and the waistband or bodice. You will use the center markings and the side seams as guides to help distribute the gathers.

Using the longest length stitch on your machine, sew two rows of basting stitches around the fabric to be gathered (the skirt). Sew one row 1/4" above the seam allowance, and one row 1/4" below the seam allowance. This way, when you sew the skirt to the bodice or waistband, you will sew down the middle of the basting stitches. I also overlap the basted rows at the beginning and end. Do not backstitch at the beginning or end, and leave tails of the threads to pull.

Begin to gather the fabric by pulling the two bobbin threads on the same side of the basted rows at the same time. Pull half of the gathers from the beginning of the basting rows and half of the gathers from the end of the basting rows. Continue pulling the bobbin threads and adjusting the gathers until the skirt width is roughly the same as the waistband or bodice width.

Pin the skirt to the waistband with right sides together at the side seams and at the center points you marked earlier. Adjust the gathers as needed between these points. You can secure the basting threads by wrapping them in a figure 8 around the pin.

Once adjusted, pin the rest of the way around the waistband or bodice. The more pins you use, the more likely your gathers will stay in place as you sew.

Sew the skirt to the waistband or bodice at the seam allowance. Go slow and make sure the gathers stay even.

Finish the seam with a serger or zig-zag stitch.



Remove the visible gathering stitch.

Refer to your pattern for pressing the seam allowance and topstitching.

For this tutorial, I used the Modkid Katie Skirt pattern without the pockets and flounce.

A few more patterns to apply this method would be the Wrap Skirt, Avery Dress, Olivia Dress and many more!

Katie Skirt Downloadable PDF Pattern

I guess we can say we are addicted to these PDF patterns now. heehee. This is our third one since I returned from Quilt Market in November. However, it's our first garment pattern in downloadable format, so we're pretty excited about this!



Our Katie Skirt Downloadable PDF pattern is now available through Craftsy, You Can Make This and Fat Quarter Shop and it is $9.95 no matter where you purchase it from (choose your favorite site!). A little bit about this pattern:

Katie is a super full, twirly skirt with a flirty flounce and adorable circle pockets for girls sizes 2T to 10. An elasticized waistband means it is just as easy to sew as it is to wear. Even the youngest of girls can easily pull on and take off this sweet skirt. What a wonderful addition to her boutique wardrobe!

This pattern comes as a 39-page downloadable PDF document. You won't need to print all pages... choose the size skirt you are making and print only those pages (a page guide is located on page 2). Print it at 100% (no scaling) right to your desktop printer. No need to enlarge the pattern... it has been tiled so all you have to do is print, cut, tape and sew! Step-by-step sewing instructions, detailed diagrams and tons of photos are also included in true MODKID fashion.

How about some inspiration images??

One of my pattern testers, the amazing Bridgett Wright, made this version out of Heaven & Helsinki. Isn't her daughter adorable? I love this picture so much!



Here is my birthday girl (yes, it's Sophie's 11th birthday today!!) sporting a more tween-sized version of the skirt. This is the size 10, but luckily she can still wear it... with some leggings and boots, of course.



And finally, a couple of super fun pictures I captured of my girl, Sydney, in her new favorite twirly skirt...





In case you didn't catch it before, this pattern is available through:

Craftsy
You Can Make This
Fat Quarter Shop

Let me know if you make this adorable skirt for the Holidays! I would LOVE to see a picture!!