Sewing With Nancy

A jeans jacket is one of my go-to wardrobe basics. They're casual and comfortable but basic. Today's guest took that wardrobe staple and gave it options-- many options. Welcome back, Lorraine Torrence, who's a fashion sewing expert, again, is going to give us ways of updating our fashion to the next level. Thank you, Nancy. Good to be here. I always like to add personal creative touches to any garment that I sew, and my version of a jeans jacket is the perfect palette to showcase unique fabric combos. The first version of the Jambalaya jacket combines African and Guatemalan fabrics. It's a jacket with a global influence. "Fashion

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Plain to Fabulous," that's what's coming up next on Sewing with Nancy.

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For the love of sewing. Madeira, specializing in embroidery, quilting, and special effect threads, because creativity is never black and white. Koala Studios, fine sewing furniture custom-built in America. Clover, making a difference in sewing, quilting, crafting, and needle arts for over 90 years. Amazing Designs and Klass Needles. The first technique of personalizing a jeans jacket is to choose different fabrics. My jacket has one fabric, but our featured global influence jacket has three dramatic fabrics, Lorraine. Yes. This has two African fabrics as well as what I believe is a Guatemalan fabric, which I found at a thrift store. I like to choose fabrics that have a different scale. We have a larger scale up here, one with these embroidered motifs, and a solid. This is a longer jacket, and as you can see, I've clustered the buttons into pairs. There's no definite way to treat buttons or fabric, and we'll show you some other options. This is the jacket style that I'm wearing, and it certainly looks a lot different when you've chosen three different colors. Fabric can make all the difference. A seersucker... - And two other stripes. And the bottom band is cut on the bias, which is a great way of showcasing...

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A stripe. Yeah, take a close look at stacking buttons. Lorraine, you taught me this many years ago. It's a great way of maybe using two unalike buttons, but, boy, they blend, they help fold-- Right, and it's a way to bring back-- and in this case, it's a darker value of the green that just... Pop--it pops. - Accents. Yeah. Now, this is the traditional jean jacket length that you're wearing and two fabrics instead of one, and the panels, really, are where you're looking, your eye goes. Right, and this is a hand-dyed specialty fabric. And sometimes, you can cut specialty fabrics in different places to create the look of three different fabrics instead of two. Here, you can see in one fabric, the more salmon color in the yoke, and then in the lower portions, the blue shade of the garment, so it's really quite lovely, and we can just turn this around to the back, and you can see that patchwork look again. That's very personalized, and, to think, this is one fabric. And this actually is pieced because I didn't have a big enough piece for the back yoke, so I planned this transition at the seam. You know, every challenge gives you an opportunity, right? - Right. And this is a fabric combination that's quite traditional. You see these on a bolt in a fabric store. Two coordinates, and then this flange, the little touch of color goes a long way. Right, picking up something that's in the print and then repeating it in the buttons. The vertical line, very slimming, wider to narrow, and then plus a band, so you can see, with just a touch of time-- I don't know if "touch of time"-- but a little time to plan coordinating fabrics together, you can change something very plain, like I'm wearing, and subtle, as you're wearing, Lorraine, to something very dramatic by changing the fabrics, and next, we're gonna show you some different texturing that you can do throughout the jacket. You might think of cording as a mundane accent added along an edge or inserted in a buttonhole. Cording can be anything but routine when you add free-form, meandering stitching to fill a space. Not only does this type of stitching add interest, there's an added benefit of creating texture. We call this technique Strike a Cord. I think this is such a tasteful jacket, and when you look at it up close, you may think, "Oh, three different fabrics," but far from it. No, that's actually just one fabric. I've used the front of the fabric, the back of the fabric, and then the same fabric, textured. With heavy cording for the yoke, front and back, and then down the sleeve, as you can see here, and they're random. You didn't measure. No, I wanted the cords not to be exactly parallel. I wanted them to get closer together, farther apart. And as you look across the back, there's even more--you can see the random--randomness. Easy for me to say, right? And then the seam doesn't have to line up with, like, stripes. You kind of distribute the bulk of the seam that way. Now, you can't just cut out the pattern. Oh, no. You have to start with a piece of fabric that's a lot bigger. And then you texture the fabric with the cord, and then you cut it out. So whatever dimension is perpendicular to the cording-- for example, in this instance, the width of the yoke, you'd cut it double the width, and in the sleeves, it's perpendicular to the length, so you'd cut the length of this insert double. Right. And you have your machine set up just for that. Yes, I'll show you how to do that. The first thing you do is put a zipper foot on, and because you're potentially able to see both sides of this cord, the top and bottom thread are usually made to match the fabric. So I'm wrapping the cord in the fabric. I like to start on the right side of the fabric so I can see what I've done. We're using a zipper foot so you can sew close to the cord. If you want to curve the cord, you can pull it away, then pull the underneath side toward you, and you end up with a piece of cord that's curved a little bit.

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And then you can just add some additional rows, as close together or as far apart as you'd like. Right, and that will determine how much of that double length of fabric is used up. Sure. Notice, she's not-- Lorraine isn't even measuring. She's just kind of arbitrarily placing that cording on the underside and doing the stitching. And you're doing some curves, a little slight shaping. So to do that, you would pull the cord and let the fabric underneath get narrower. I've got the cord really close together there at the bottom. And to show you just another sample that we did using the fabric that was left over from my jacket, you can see it's not even at all, but it's--at this point, it's kind of like an accordion. Right. So you need to do some pressing to press it flat and to work from the wrong side and press, perhaps, the tucks all in one direction, just to get that flattened out, but it will retract into its more relaxed position, so again, this is just a sample, but to show you, you'd use a piece of fusible interfacing and fuse it so that it stays stable, and you can see the tucks from this side. Well, Lorraine, there are other options to use, and that is, you don't have to use the same fabric. Right, if you want your cord to be a contrast color, some color that pops the whole thing, then you have to cut the background into strips and insert the contrasting color piping into the seam in between those strips. And then the piping would be sandwiched between the two fabric colors, the seams stitched, which, you can again use a cording foot or a zipper foot, and you'd have that great contrast. This is high contrast. Yes. But if you'd like to have contrast that isn't quite as definite, let me grab my sample here, and this is more subtle, elegant-looking. Right, and the background of that sample uses two different fabrics, so you could do it the way I did-- two strips and then two of the different strips, or you can alternate. So you can strike a "cord" by simply using piping and a zipper foot. Jeans jackets and denim are a dynamic duo, but what about the iconic ja cket style made with organza? Sheer fabric and this structured pattern at first seemed like Unlikely Partners. In reality, they make a testimony to the power of sewing, where creativity is only limited by your imagination. When Lorraine first told me about this idea of using organza in a jeans jacket pattern, I thought, "Okay..." But I'm impressed. Well, it is an unlikely combination. And if you take a close-up look at this, you'll see the dichotomy of fabric and style. I wanted to use the stitching techniques of a flat-fell seam and plain utility buttons with this elegant fabric to help contrast the style with the fabric to make that unlikely partnership. So what I've done here is textured the front panels, the yokes, and the sleeve tops with tucks. These are about 3/8-inch tucks that were created on a longer piece of organza, pressed, and then the pattern pieces were cut out. So to start with, like the cording technique, you're needing more length of fabric, and you would stitch using white thread, but we didn't use white thread. You wouldn't be able to see it. Right. If you stitch these parallel-- exactly parallel lines, and then you, at equidistant intervals-- That's about 3 inches here. Then you have a nice edge to guide your pressing. Mm-hmm. So what we've done here is folded the fabric. Pressed it. And if you have white thread, you wouldn't have to take that thread out. Right. And then stitch along the edge the presser foot width, so that you get a nice tuck, as we can see right here, and, Lorraine, you were adventuresome and topstitched in black thread. Right, I wanted to-- for us to see those details. Uh-huh. So that's one element of surprise for this fabric, but then the other is using flat-felled seams. Usually, you think of sheer fabric and perhaps a French seam. Not so. - No. You met wrong sides together and stitched the seam allowance width, which, in this instance, happened to be 1/2 of an inch, and then trim one of the seam allowances down to 1/4 of an inch. So we're sewing the seam allowance on the outside of the garment. Right, and it would be good to trim it evenly. There we go. That's a little bit better. And then pressing, on this sample-- this is a hint that Lorraine gave me, to press the seam allowances toward the wider width, the remaining width, and then fold once to the stitching line and fold a second time and then finger-press to the fabric itself, and because this is so sheer, I'm just having this one already pressed for you. It's been pressed and pinned into place. Here you can see us topstitching or edgestitching along that fold so that it is complete. It's gonna take a little time. This is not, 10, 20, 30 minutes to sew a sheer blouse, but let's look at the flat-felled seam one more time. Sure. It is all enclosed, yes. - This is an example. And it really blends well with the tuck detail. Now, in the pattern that accompanies today's program, Lorraine has given you some of these tips. Right, there are some instructions for doing all of these techniques. And it's in addition to what we're telling you, but just so you can get the full detail of working with a sheer in a jean jacket. It's a great way to show your personality when sewing. Small lengths of decorative thread and random stitching are the centerpieces of Lorraine's next creative technique. No need to measure or worry about being accurate. This carefree type of couching-- topstitching a heavy thread on fabric-- is an ideal way to add an accent without a great deal of planning. Now, Lorraine did some planning on this, I must say. The planning, Lorraine, was to coordinate some fabrics. Right, I first started with the color of the cord I had available-- one of the colors I had. Sure. - I wanted that cord to show up. And it does. - So I put it under... Put under it a contrasting color base. Then I repeated the color of the cord in the side panels and body of the jacket and chose something that was related in color for the front panels. Very, very tastefully done, and you have all the accent near the shoulder area framing the face, and so it's quite a fun thing to do, and you'll see, it'll be an enjoyable stitching technique. Now, the setup of the machine-- there are two ways you can set up the machine. One is with a specialty foot, and one is just with a zigzag foot. First, we'll do the specialty foot. This is a couching foot. It's a free-motion couching foot, to be exact. The cord--it requires a fairly thick cord. It enters through this little guide on the side, and then it goes down in a hole in the center. You can see how it's fed. And then the needle stitches a straight stitch right in the middle of the cord. So I always try to match the thread color with the cord. And for that reason, you do need a fairly thick thread-- or not thread--cord, otherwise your thread-- The needle won't hit it. - Right. Now, the setup of the machine is common for free-motion quilting or free-motion embroidery. So the first thing you have to do for free-motion cord couching or any kind of free-motion is to drop the feed dogs on-- Wherever it may be on your machine. Right. In this one, it's this button. Then we make sure it's set up for a straight stitch, and we also want to set it so that every end-- the needle is down every time it stops. So the needle-down position is highlighted in orange, so if you have a lever, a button, whatever the case may be, those are the three settings that you need. Now, the fabric needs just a little bit of reinforcement. - Yes. Even though this fabric is a heavy cotton twill, it still needs some beefing up, a little more stability so that I can move it easily. So we're... Dropping the presser foot and ready to go. And you keep your shoulders relaxed. -

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Move it as if you were drawing a line. A curvy line. Yes, a curvy line, and you want to change the direction of the curve so it doesn't look the same all the time. This is a great precursor if you're thinking about free-motion quilting. A quilting project, you'd have it closer together here; you just have big loop-de-loops. Right. And unlike free-motion quilting with regular thread, if you have to stop and your foot is still on the gas, it just makes more stitches in the cord. It doesn't mess anything up. It's rather therapeutic. I find it really relaxing instead of stressful, really. Now, not all of you may have this foot. Even though it's quite common, you may not have that foot. You can get some of the same effect-- maybe not as many loop-de-loops as Lorraine is putting in her sample-- but you could use a zigzag stitch, and I'll show you the sample that I made with contrasting thread. This just shows that you could randomly lay the cord down on this interface fabric, with--instead of contrasting thread, you use the same color thread to zigzag it in place. A different look but still has some texture, and the thread-- extra cording is on top. So, Lorraine, unlike our other techniques where we had to allow extra fabric, this one... No extra fabric. No extra fabric, just some meandering of the stitches, some doodling of the thread, to add highlights in portions of this jacket. So, today, we've done sheer fabrics, we've done heavy cording, loop-de-loop, and working with many colors of fabric to give your jacket-- your jean jacket-- some personality and style. While attending the Quilt Expo in Madison, Wisconsin, I learned about a rather new and novel technique to stencil or paint on fabric. The key element is something that I doubt you have in your sewing room. It's shaving cream. I hope you'll be encouraged to give this a try after watching my Nancy's Corner interview. Often, we think of quilting working with pieces of fabric, sewing it together to create a design. Well, with me today is Thomas and Joyce Teng, who works with interesting stencils, mediums such as shaving cream and gels, and interesting ink from Japan to create beautiful designs. Welcome to Sewing with Nancy. Thank you. - It's a great honor to be here. Well, my pleasure to introduce you, and when I look at your designs, I'm amazed at the softness and the beauty that can be created just on a solid piece of fabric. So, Thomas, could you give us a little demonstration how this goes? How this works? Great. Okay. Yeah, it's very easy. We're just using any kind of shaving cream from any store. Sure. And then you put a little bit of shaving cream on a tray. -

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Okay. Flatten it, like, with a squeegee, just like ink. Like you're frosting a cake. - Yes, frosting a cake. And then you drop your ink on it. Just randomly. Sure. It's beautiful so far. And then you're marbling it with sticks, tool, or any kind of sticks. Lovely. Drop your fabric on it. The beauty of this ink is, you can use any kind of fabric, from the cheapest muslin to silk to polyester to paper to wood to leather... Wow. - To any kind of fabric. Pick it up. Oh. Presto. Get rid of the excess shaving cream. -

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Bingo. Got a beautifully printed marble fabric. In an air-conditioned room, take about 20 to 30 minutes. It will dry, and then you'll iron it, and it's permanent-permanent. Permanent-permanent, without setting it, and then-- Yeah, you need to iron it. Heat-set. - Iron it. Yes. Traditionally, many people used this on paper, or they drew directly on silk.

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Yes. So it's really phenomenal. Now, Joyce, you like to work with stencils as well. You could also create it with stencils. Am I correct? Yes. - Okay. Here-- And the most important thing is the leftover ink. Yes. - You can still use it. Pick it up, the leftover ink, with the shaving cream. You pretend this is old T-shirt. Let your kids, grandkids play with it. Let them randomly dab it on there. Now you have your own style of tie-dye. Oh, my. Wow. Fast. And then the leftover ink-- I mean, this part, I left it blank to show even the third time, fourth time, fifth time, just do a zigzag; you create your own designed fabric. Make your own fabric. And then the stencil part. - Sure. You put a stencil on top of your fabric. Any kind of fabric again. Use a finger dabber. Drop the ink... You can directly dab the ink on it, or you can tap a little bit of shaving cream on your dabber, squeeze up a little bit-- that's a red-- excess shaving cream, and then dab the ink on it. This way, the shaving cream acts as a carrier. It transfers the inks to your fabric and make this printing job simple, easy, smooth. Oh. Lovely. Lovely. And then... - Look at it. The shiny part is just brush up a little bit of metallic ink... You will instantly create this shimmery-looking fabric. Joyce, you like to teach this, and I bet people are just amazed. Yeah, I have a class this afternoon. Three-hour class. I teach all my nine techniques. Oh. - Cannot wait. This is phenomenal, how this is done... That's how simple, how easy. Simple, easy. - It really is. With working with silk, a great way of creating a quilt pattern, a quilt design. As featured in your booth, you have big pieces, small pieces, wearable art. Mm-hmm. - Yes. Well, I want to thank you for sharing this technique, working with shaving cream or gel or many different mediums... - And the different tools. As we're just touching the tip of the iceberg. Thanks for being with us. Thank you. You're welcome. I would like to extend my special thanks to Thomas and Joyce for being my guests during our Nancy's Corner interview. Also, thanks to Lorraine Torrence for sharing her wearable art techniques in this two-part series on "Fashion

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Basic to Fabulous." Remember that you can watch many seasons of Sewing with Nancy episodes at NancyZieman.com. Don't forget to join my blog or be part of my Facebook community. Thanks for joining us. Bye for now. Wearable art specialist Lo rraine Torrence transforms fashion to fabulous with the versatile Jambalaya Jacket. This pattern features fo ur variations on the classic jean jacket, providing opportunities to un iquely personalize your fashion sewing. The Jumbalaya Jacket pattern is $17.99 plus shipping and handling. To order the Jumbalaya Jacket pattern call 1-800-336-8373 or visit our website at se wingwithnancy.com/3024. Order item number GG1520 Jumbalaya Jacket pattern. Credit card orders only.

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