The Learning Continues

Caveat: I started writing this entry last Thursday so 'tonight' = Thursday and 'tomorrow' = Friday.

I progressed some more tonight, cutting out the lining and interfacing, trimming the interfacing, and then ironing it to the lining.  And a very educational experience the latter was, yes sir.

Remember, I've never worked with Taffeta before now.

The pattern is very vague, in an universal international way, as to what type of interfacing to use. The package has this cute picture of an iron and the dimensions 36" x 20".  Okay, iron-on interfacing, and wouldn't you know, 20" is the generic width of interfacing.  Cool.  But what weight?  The instructions are no help: "Cut interfacing a illustrated and iron on the wrong side of the fabric pieces."  Doing a headdesk comes to mind about now.

At the store I found lots of lightweight interfacing but I decided to go for a middleweight and bought Pellon 931TD Fusible Midweight.  My reasoning was two-fold.  One - taffeta is a heavier than what I'm used to.  Two - This bodice is holding up the whole dress.  I figured it needed as much support as it could get.  It will also have boning in the bodice seams, but as I've never used them either, I have no idea how they add to the structure of the garment.  New things to learn.

Back to the interfacing.  Tonight I actually read the directions that come with the interfacing, something I haven't done for decades.  Hey, give me a break!  I've been sewing clothes for myself and my kids for quite some time.  This is what the directions said about its intended use:

Sportshirts, Jackets, Active Sportswear all permanently retain their flexible or controlled shape.
For wovens and knits.
Designed for corduroy, terrycloth, velour, chenille, velveteen, suede cloth, poplin, duck, denim, sailcloth, chino, linen types, hopsacking, garbadine, double knits.

(Hopsacking??  Isn't that an event in an 1800's town fair or something?  You know, that contest you do right after the three-legged race, in an burlap sack.  Right?)

Uh-oh.  Those are all NOT the type of material I have here.  And I read further:

Has lengthwise grain for stability, support and control,  Has crosswise S-T-R-E-T-C-H for flexible shaping.

Pits.  That's going to affect placement of pattern pieces.  And, sure enough, pattern recommended yardage is no longer correct.

*Headdesk*

Oh well, I can get the extra I need tomorrow.

Taffeta is a polyester material.  It's man-made, a synthetic, and therefore takes only a cool iron.  Iron-on interfacing must use a hotter setting, wool/steam in this instance.  (Oops, I missed that part.)  The steam is generated by placing a damp cloth on the interfacing and pressing for 15 seconds.  Use your ears during the pressing.  When the sizzling of wet cloth as it goes from damp to dry stops, REMOVE YOUR IRON!!

 ~ Pardon me while I take a small interlude for definitions: When ironing, the iron is moved across the material.  Pressing is when the iron is pressed in one location on the material for a specified amount of time, then lifted and placed in another location, usually adjacent to the previous one.  Wrinkles are ironed out, interfacing is pressed on.  Thank you. ~

I mistakenly had my iron set to "Cotton", hotter than recommended by the interfacing company.  Consequently, my damp cloth stopped sizzling much sooner than I thought it would.  I found that actually pushing down on the iron, probably in conjunction with the hotter-than-needed iron, left an impression of the iron face on the material.  

Thankfully, the interfacing is attached to the lining and will not be seen.  But I played around and found that placing the iron for only 6 seconds at a time without pushing down worked well.  If the interfacing wasn't quite stuck, I repeated the 6 seconds and it looked wonderful, no impressions of holes from the faceplate.

I bet you thought there wasn't going to be a picture.

~ Hannah's Mom


P.S.  According to Dictionary.com, Hopsacking is:
1. bagging made chiefly of hemp and jute.
2. a coarse fabric made of cotton, wool, or other fibers and similar to burlap, used in the manufacture of wearing apparel.

So one could potentially run a sack race in a sack made of hopsacking.