Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been experimenting… rather like this…
Not sure which one is me…
So what lead me to this? This…
Sew Bossy package from Leila of Three Dresses
Yup, that 100% silk business scared the heck outta me. Until this point I have avoided slippery fabrics like the plague. In fact… I probably would have preferred the plague…
Once confronted by the Sew Bossy Challenge there was no running away from my sewing demons… they had come to live in my sewing room (shacked up with my drunk monkey, eating popcorn and throwing their empties at the wall – it was mayhem!).
While freaking out, and naturally, tweetin’ about my sewing angst, Leila, my Sew Bossy Boss told me (nicely) to go forth and bathe my silk in gelatin.
Exactly. What the???
So I checked out Leila’s post about this. Then Google lead me to the Couture Academic’s post. Then Threads. And finally Ms Gelatin Bath herself via Google search and Twitter… drum roll please…
Lena Merrin of the Sewing Space right here in Down Under Land aka Australia.
Let me tell you – this is genius. I bathed that silk and cut out that Grainline Archer - and sewed it up like the boss (until the collar but that’s another post – patience).
I was so impressed that I tried again last weekend with some seriously wafty, floaty, super sheer, very temperamental poly chiffon (yeah, I know, I know! Polyester! What the?? BUT the print is glorious and if that project works you will be sagely noddin’ your heads and saying “that Lizzy might be the fruitcake of the bakery but that fabric is all shades of awesomesauce,“ Patience people, that’s another post too.).
I used the mixture from the Sewing Space which you can find in greater detail here – go read it for the instructions, I’m no guru I’m more Beaker-like - in a nutshell you need:-
- 3 teaspoons of gelatin (powdered stuff from the supermarket, I think mine was about $3)
- a cup of tap water (which I heated up in the microwave after its 30 minutes of brewing with the gelatin)
- a bucket
- 3 litres of water.
That is all.
Oh… and
- a defiant, slippery fabric of course (that needs a good punch in the chops to let it know who is boss)…
… and then, without a Muppet Beaker-like explosion (which would be kinda fun but not very productive), your sewing life will be transformed FOREVER.
SERIOUSLY.
Go tame those slippery fabric beasts and let me hear you ROAR!
Just keep your sewing area dry (so no crying about a wonky seams now!) and rinse it out at the end. Your fabric is not super stiff, the gelatin just gives it enough body to make cutting and sewing so much easier!
Thank you Lena & Leila! This is liberating stuff, a few more of my sewing demons have been evicted from my sewing room, never to return. Jump over and check out Lena’s free files - there is a great file of how much fabric you need for different types of garments and a croquis file – now I can really stash and sketch… *rushes off to sewing room*)
