Well, I confess, this is truly slow fashion. So many things have conspired to keep me away from my sewing room this week and today is the first time I have had the chance to turn on my overlocker (serger).
Having decided that I certainly need to pre shrink this lovely Japanese cotton fabric I needed to do a little pre-prep before throwing it into the washing machine. It frays, hence the overlocked edge.
I'm washing it at 40deg c. Although 30deg would be fine for something that does not actually need washing I am thinking of what might happen to the dress in the future. There is no division of labour in my house, since we no longer have small children at home, washing is done on a need to wear basis (by which of us has run out of socks or underwear). This means as often as not there is a man doing the washing in our house and although his sorting skills are second to none (no jeans washed with white shirts for him) he washes everything at 40deg and I don't want further shrinkage to occur.
I have readjusted my schedule a little and, having checked my measurements against the pattern hope to be cutting out on Sunday.
I have a physical pattern rather than a download but 'bglad' in the comments on my last post asked if anyone had tried taking the pdf to a print ship and printing off on a continuous sheet. Well, yes I have, when I was involved in the Titanic Project this is what I did and it worked very well, though I needed strong pins as the thinest paper in my local shop was still quite thick. It was also quite a novelty for the guys in the printers, I don't think they had had a similar request before.
xx
C
I never used to pre-wash, but in my recent forays into sewing I have started to do that, as I was using linen. I bought some Japanese double gauze and pre-washed. Still waiting for it to turn into something!
ReplyDeleteI love that material. You are very wise to "husband proof" it. As for pdf patterns, they can often be harder to put together than the actual garment. :-)
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