So, with my 'innards' post from yesterday, a commenter named Natalie (P.S. Natalie, I'm from the 'ville!), asked me to better explain the funky stitch that B did on the back pieces of my gown.
Of course, I'm more than happy to oblige.
First, let's do a quick run down of lining in 18th century gowns. Normally, you cut the lining and the outer fabric from the same shape, fold in 1/8-1/2 inch seam allowance, baste, and then slip stitch the lining to the outer fabric, thus making the lining and outer fabric one piece. Ok? Clear? Clear. Fabulous.
The purpose of this "Weird Running Whip Stitch Thingy" stitch is to skip that basting and slip stitching and just do everything in one stitch, thus making the process, over all, much quicker. (Baste x 4) + ( Slip stitching x 2) + Connecting stitch = 7 different stitches to complete (?...I date an engineer...he does my math usually, so if this is wrong, please correct me). When, with this slip stitch, if you're good...or lazy (depending on how you view your lack of basting, I'm more lazy) you only have to do one stitch. Brilliant...no?
B & I found this stitch on 3 (or more?) gowns in the Liverpool costume collection in the UK. All were quarter back gowns, and all had this funky stitch. Like B said, you run the risk of losing the entire seam if it breaks, but, at the same time, these 3 gowns have lasted quite nicely with this funky stitch. So, when constructing my gown, she opted to give it a try. It works a treat. Ok, here we go with the photos:
Step one: cut out the 2 pieces to be stitched together and the lining. Fold in 1/4 -1/2 inch (do 1/2 if you are going to add spiral boning). Place the folded lining ontop of the outer.
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| The light green is the outer fabric and the muslin is the lining |
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| Seam allowance |
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| The two pieces facing each other edge to edge |
Step 2: Pin outside to outside, so that when laying the pieces on top of eachother, all you see is the lining.
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| Pinned together |
Step 3: After getting the end started (however you like to do that) you should bring the needle out through the lining of one side.
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| You can already see some of my stitches I'd done |
Step 4: With barely any travel, stick the needle through the 2 outer layers and through the lining (just the top, don't make it deep) on the opposite side of where you started.
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| See how it is NOT going through the lining? |
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| Now you can see it! |
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| But it did go through the lining on the other side. |
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| See what the stitch looks like? ...kinda? |
Step 5: Repeat x however long it takes you to finish the seam.
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| Repeating.. |
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| Repeating... |
Step 6: Once finished, as always iron the silly thing and move on to the next seam. The other beauty of this weird seam/stitch is that there is barely and ridge in the seam, it lays quite flat and when ironed it's almost impossible to see the stitches, unless you use bright thread like I did to provide better visuals for ya'll.
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| The finished seam |
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| From the outside, no stitches visible! |
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| Stitches shot |
There! That's it! I hope that helped clear up any confusion there might have been with the oddly described stitch. It worked a treat when I was sewing up this example for you all, and I'm really impressed by how strong the stitch seams (Note: when I wrote this, I meant to write seems...ha) to be...even with my less than par sewing.
<3 <3
