Sewing With Nancy

The term "boutique" conjures up the thought of trendy stores with impressive prices. Add the word "serger" to boutique and change your vision to trendy styles made with ease using your overlock serger. Expert serger Barbara Goldkorn is with me once again to show you how you can create your own boutique-style projects with ease. Welcome back, Barbara Thank you, Nancy, I'm excited to be here again and to share some other projects that we haven't shown yet to your viewers. We're going to start with a really easy one. The first project that we're going to do if you purchase a child's t-shirt and coordinating fabric. Turn that boring tee into a boutique-style dress using your serger to gather and finish the edge of the ruffles. It's a easy serger project that we called "Ruffled to a Tee." "Serger Boutique" is coming up next on Sewing with Nancy. Sewing with Nancy, &nbspcelebrating30 years of sewing and quilting with Nancy Zieman

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Baby Lock, a complete line of sewing, quilting and embroidery machines and sergers. Baby Lock, 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, makers of sewing, knitting quilting and embroidery products for over 25 years. Experience the Clover difference. Amazing Designs and Klass needles. The ruffles on the "Ruffled to a Tee" boutique little top and dress have two serger treatments on it. The outer edges are finished with a rolled-edge stitch a very common serger stitch. Then the chain-stitch, with some special settings create the ruffles. I really think it's a great idea. I'm going to show you the simplest one. Barbara, when you created or designed this you cut ruffles a specific size. Right, I cut four ruffles for that size tee-shirt, 2-1/2", 3-1/2" 4-1/2" and 5-1/2". If it was a smaller size you would maybe only use two or three ruffles. Correct. The rolled-edge stitch, check your owners' manual on how to do the setup for this stitch. You'll find that you're using-- You'll get a very small edge. Trim off just a smidgen of fabric along the top and the bottom. It will take a couple of minutes for you to do this. Then you'll have that very nice edge. What a clean edge that gives you. We've taken some liberty of finishing the edges on your sample, Barbara. Now you're going to do that specialty chain stitch. The first thing you want to do is you're just going to thread up your machine for a chain stitch. If you need to use your owner's manual, do that. It's one chain looper and one needle thread. And one needle thread. You could put a heavy or a decorative thread in the chain looper because it's going to be stitched upside down. We'll add this little table because we want a flat surface. We're also sewing a little ways in from the edge of the fabric. We need this kind of setup and your manual will tell you what to do. We do not want to use the cutter. We don't want to cut that rolled hem off. Set your differential feed up to the highest number which will make the fabric gather more. Put your stitch length to the longest number. That differential feed makes the feed dogs bite more fabric. That's all it does. It really helps in the gathering area. Then there's that foot. The foot that I'm using is called a cover chain stitch foot. It goes with the stitch. Yes, it does. It has a little spring piece at the bottom of the foot which works in conjunction with your feed dogs. So as your feed dog is grabbing the fabric this will help gather even more. Takes a little tuck. It pinches it up and makes little tucks on there. That's the foot we're going to use. Sew with the wrong side of the fabric facing up because we want that heavy chain stitch on the top. If you want to mark your line for this you can do that if it will help you go straight. You just need to do one row of gathering. That will be enough. You can see how nicely that fabric is gathering. It's a lot easier than having to pull it up yourself. It's not adjustable. It's not adjustable, but you probably would have made a little test piece before just to make sure you have enough fabric to go around that tee-shirt. It's just a very easy technique. Do the rolled-edge stitch on the top and lower edges of all strips. You'd gather it with the chain stitch. As I said, it doesn't adjust. Then on the tee-shirt, here's Barbara's recommendation. Mark a chalk line two inches above the hemline. This will be for the widest one. The widest one will be at the bottom. Here you can see that I have pinned the ruffle along that marking. Now, with a traditional sewing machine straight stitch the ruffle into place. Straight stitch it on. Now notice, we didn't make any the right size. We just kind of get the size to fit at the end. Let me show you, here's just a seam. You just have to adjust it to go around. Here's the largest width, the second largest the middle size and the smallest. "Ruffled to a Tee" a shirt that can be made with two unique serger stitches. Our next stop on the "Serger Boutique" tour is to create a romantic cottage pillow. Vintage inspired, you'll use your serger to add ruffles and trim, and to create pintucks which are the focus of this "Serger Boutique" lesson. What we're trying to do in this series is to add techniques as we go along. The pillow that Barbara created features some of the techniques from earlier in this program and series. This ruffle is much like the ruffle you just created. It's done exactly the same way, down the center. Rather than finishing the edges with a rolled-edge stitch Barbara purchased bias trim that is already folded in half cupped around the edge of the fabric and stitched. Then you did that ruffling technique down the center. It looks totally different, but with the same technique. Correct. Then the ribbon is topstitched on. You could topstitch it on with a regular machine but since this is a serger program-- You've got to do it on the serger. We used that same foot. The foot is called the coverstitch foot. It has an opening and the ribbon goes through the opening. Then she just stitched it down with that straight stitch. It looks different, but the same settings. Now we're going to change the settings for the pintucks. We'll take a close-up look at these raised stitches that have straight stitches, it looks like a double needle but it's done with a serger. Barbara, that's a specialty of yours. Yes, I love to do that. It really does make a difference if you cord these pintuck. Add cording to the stitch. I'm going to tell you first how to set up for this technique. We're going to use a narrow coverstitch so we've got two needles going. You can use your decorative thread. You can use regular thread, but in pastel colors. We've used rayon thread for all three threads. It gives a nice sheen to that. Again, we have the set up with the table because, as you can see on here I am going to serge down the center of this piece of fabric. We don't want the blade working. Just the same set up as we've been having all along. A standard stitch length. No change of the differential feed. The pintuck foot I have on here has a little tunnel underneath it so that when the cording that we're going to use goes underneath the foot it has a place to stay in place. The pintuck foot has this cording guide that comes with it and it has a little hole on the top. You're just going to open up the front door put this in and close it back up. It's really easy to get it attached on there. Then you're going to put your cording through the little hole. You can really use whatever cord will fit through this little hole. If you want to use a decorative edge-- Sometimes these cords will sort of do their own little thing. If you just cut that off at an angle it'll be a little easier to get in. I think that's the trickiest part of this whole process. Yes, let me just get this. Our viewers at home will appreciate seeing us take two times! There you go. We've got that through and then you want to run this underneath the presser foot so that before you put your fabric in you can actually get the cord between the two needles. It goes in there pretty quickly. I'll just unwind this a little bit. We're going to do one pintuck with the right side facing up. You're just going to get two rows of straight stitching on the top side. If you'll notice how that pintuck really stands up because of the cord. It makes a big difference. We got that one out. You can see how nice that pintuck does look. It looks lovely. To do it with the cording showing on the right side we're going to flip this upside down and do the same thing. Your cording will give it a more decorative look on the right side. Because your cording has a little sheen to it it glistens a little bit. It sure does. You can see how pretty that looks. So, we have an accent a boutique look, with pintucks. The right side, and the other right side. Weaving strips of fabric together is nothing new in the sewing world but adding a fabulous finish to the strips prior to weaving earns this technique a place of honor in our "Serger Boutique" mini-series. Coined the "woven fab finish," this technique can be used for home decor, accessories and wearable art. When you take a close-up look at Barbara's pillow you'll see that there are strips horizontal and vertical and they have binding on both sides. I love this fabric combination. It's really arty and decorative. Thank you. The binding is the feature. Correct, that's what really makes it pop. This is an accessory that fits on a serger. It's called a single bias binding attachment. Correct. It's kind of an interesting configuration. You cut strips of fabric. It doesn't have to be bias for this one, right Barbara? It doesn't have to, unless you are going around curves. For this, you don't need bias fabric. You thread it through the opening. Grab it with your tweezers. You'd normally have this on your machine but I'm showing you how it feeds. It folds it under on the top side. The underneath side is just a single layer. Barbara has her machine set up for the chain stitch. We've been using that in this program. You've already begun. I'm ready to go. You could use a coverstitch if you want. You do have some options. As Nancy mentioned, the fabric is cut to fit this opening. It's attached onto the little front cover. I've already done one side. We're just going to bind the edge really quickly. It just goes really fast without you having to do too much at all. You just butt the right side of the fabric in the attachment. Right, you push it right up. The nice this about this single-fold binder because that bottom is single folded, it's less bulky. It really serves the purpose to this particular project. It's just really easy. You don't even have to look if you don't want to. You could do it without looking. That strip is done. I like it when it's easy and it looks like it's complicated. There's the strip all finished. Then Barbara created some strips with the dark on the outside binding and switched it around creating two components. Now, to do the weaving. The weaving is placed on a piece of fusible interfacing fusible side up. You'd lay down all your vertical strips or your warp strips, if you were a textile major. Then you would weave in and out the horizontal, or the filling, or weft strips. And lay it down. I had to use that knowledge, or that information, somewhere! You can see that I have it somewhat woven. This is good suggestion that Barbara gave to me and that's to use a pressing sheet. The Teflon works well because if you get your iron over onto the interfacing the iron will not have the fusible on the bottom. Lift it up and then it is fused into place just enough for you to make your own fabric. It's a very pleasurable process. It's very easy to do. If we look at this finished pillow as we mentioned earlier you're not limited to home decor. Try an accessory, a handbag, wearable art. It's a great "Serger Boutique" technique. Combine a basic four-thread stitch with an innovative binding and you'll have an eclectic mix. Barbara's trendy table runner showcases unique fabrics and techniques. That's why we call it eclectic serging. So often, you maybe just use one stitch on your serger. Well, throughout this program, I hope you've been encouraged to use many of the stitches that are available. On this sample, we have three different stitches showcased. They're subtle, but they're there. The ruffle is going to be created with just a basic four-thread stitch the most common stitch on the serger. You can adjust the gathers for this particular stitch. The ruffles on the edge have a rolled edge finish. We've done that earlier in the series. But now, we'll add the eclectic touch not only with beads and bobbles but with a double folded edge binding that's put on the edge with a coverstitch. So, three different stitches. That's all you need to work with this. Barbara will show you the double fold binding. It's an apparatus that looks very comparable to the one we just showed you. But instead of the underside being flat it will be folded a second time. So, both sides have this lovely binding edge. But I'm going to work with the basics. The four-thread overlock stitch. Barbara, you like sometimes just to ruffle and gather with that stitch. I love to gather on the serger because the edge is finished off and when you pull up your two needle threads to gather you never have threads breaking like you might have on your sewing machine. So I have the four threads, as you can see. It's a basic stitch. You can really go fast. Sometimes when you use a gathering attachment it doesn't pull up as tight as like you're going to do now. This way, it looks like that very basic seam. But we tie the threads together on one end. They're tied close to the fabric. Let me just show you on this end. They're tied close to the fabric. Then, on the other end I started by pulling just the needle threads. See if you can get the needle threads and pull. That way, you can get the silk dupioni which this fabric happens to be you can get it very close together. These threads don't break. They really don't. You can see how tightly you can get it and it lies flat. Yes, it does a great gather. When you put that to a flat piece, those gathers don't move. Yes, it's really a nice way of using that stitch. Right. A rolled edge, gathering but then the eclectic touch. So what we're going to do here is similar to when we bound the edge of those fabric strips for the pillow except this has got the double-fold binder. So, in order to have a strip of fabric to attach the beads onto you want to just serge out a strip of fabric first. Sometimes I'll put a pin where I think I need to start with the fabric in there. Your fabric has both the lining and the top fabric serged together. Correct. So if you have these two layers together it really helps keep them together if you do a narrow three-thread overlock over the edge and it'll be much easier when you put them in. One fabric won't slip away. I've already got that started over there. We're just going to put the fabric right up into the attachment just like we did with the other attachment. Then you're also going to have a tail. That's correct. Sorry, we don't want to put that in yet. As soon as I get to where I think we're going to have that tail finished... Kind of gauge that. You want to make sure you do this on both ends so you have a tail on both ends. This is pretty much going to run through without you holding onto it too much. You just place the fabric next to the inside of the attachment. Then when we get to the end of the table runner we'll have some fabric leftover to create the other side to attach the beads onto. I'll just keep going. The table runner is now bound. We'll just stitch this out. It's very clever. You have a tail now on both ends. Once you attach the beads you might want to trim it down a little bit. Here again is the final look, you saw it lying flat earlier. Here it is dimensionally, adding the cute accessory. So, a coverstitch, a rolled edge, a four-thread stitch. A great way of ending our "Serger Boutique" sewing segments to show you great ways of utilizing your serger to its fullest potential. When I asked today's Nancy's Corner guest how many fleece hats have been made by her organization she calmly said, "Oh, 26,000." She's one of a dedicated group of people who sew hats for causes and for those in need. Please welcome Nancy Daly, the coordinator and one of the enthusiastic hat ladies. Thank you, Nancy. Welcome. This is a charming story. It had a small beginning, and now it's flourished. Tell us how it began. Well, it started about 15 years ago just when my children were both quite young. I just started sewing hats. I sewed hats for my own children but ended up sewing for their sports teams, soccer teams and sewed for children in their classes at school. It really just grew since then. I'd be invited to sew for the entire class and then pretty soon, more children in the school. They're fleece hats. They are. They're all made out of polar fleece and clearly, multi-colored. The more colors the better in the hats. But sewing for a sports team is one thing. Now, what these hats are used for-- the wearers are a little bit different group. Right, we started, actually I think it was 2002, I had an opportunity. I was invited to sew for a Head Start class. I went in, there was just 17 children. I went in and I sewed hats for all 17 children. Then as I left, standing out in the parking lot with all the fleece and my sewing machine and I thought this was an ah-ha moment. I just thought that was something that really made me feel good. The children felt good and I realized it's a lot bigger than just a hat. It's bigger than a hat because they get something warm to wear-- We both live in a cold climate. But then, also they get introduced to sewing. And for many of the children we sew for now this is one of their first pieces of brand-new clothing that belongs just to them. Every single hat has their own nametag inside of it so each child is really reminded that this is their hat. It has their name, and there's no mistake about that. They write their name on this hat so they know. Tell our viewers how the hat ladies and there's a hat guy, too. We have a hat gentleman. You go into a classroom and you do the sewing. The children work with you. Yes, we set up our schedule in September of each year. We really spend the whole year cutting fleece out as you can imagine. There are some sample pieces here a sample band. A number of years ago, my son made a template of the two hat pieces that we use the triangles on the top and the band piece. When Nancy turns them around, you'll notice they're just made out of old no-parking signs. Easy to trace. Right, easy to trace, easy to duplicate. We cut out masses of fleece, hundreds of yards of fleece, continually, all year round. We have some hat ladies who do nothing but cut for us. Then we have a plan. We have about 45-50 hat gigs each season from the end of September into February. These will include every Head Start child in our community. We go to every single program and actually sew with the children. They don't do the sewing, but they watch. That's correct. They don't actually do it but they really are full participants. We say that they spend longer choosing the colors that they want than we spend sewing the hat. The fun combinations. I mean, they may not be exactly what we would choose but wow, they're fun. There's no doubt that kids have played a part in choosing the colors! Some of the hats, they take one band, six triangles, and three tassels on top. And sometimes children will pick 10 different colors so we'll get a little of everything. You notice, we do have some of them are patterned pieces and some of them are solid. Sometimes we will have ten different patterned pieces in there, too. And it's okay. It looks like a patchwork quilt. I say the point is to stay warm. Sometimes you make cute little ones to match, for dolls. Yes, and we are also able to size these hats. That's one of the beauties of the pattern. So if you have, you know, a larger child or an adult or if we have a very small baby or toddler we can also size the pattern to match the recipient. You say you just take it in or add more. It's not an exact science. It's not complicated at all. Fleece is a very forgiving fabric to work with so you can really adjust it on the spot. We also have a mirror at every table when we're sewing with children so that at the end of their hat they can hold up the mirror and admire what they have. You've introduced them to sewing. You've give them something new. You've kept them warm. If our viewers would like to know how to work with this you can go to nancyzieman.com. At nancyzieman.com, you can click under the "Hat Lady." We'll give instructions on how to make the hat and they can do that in their area as well. Nancy, thank you for being with us. Thank you. Thank you for being with us on Sewing with Nancy for this two-part series on "Serger Boutique." We'd like to thank our guest during the sewing segments, Barbara Goldkorn for sharing with us those great ideas. I thank Nancy Daly for being with us for this great idea of hats for those in need. And thank you for watching. Bye for now. Nancy and Barbara Goldkorn have written a fully-illustrated book entitled "Serger Boutique" that includes all the information from this two-part series. It's $14.99 plus shipping and handling. To order the book, call 1-800-336-8373

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sewingwithnancy.com/2618. Order item BK2618, "Serger Boutique." Credit card orders only. To pay by check or money order call the number on the screen for details. Visit Nancy's website at nancyzieman.com to see additional episodes, Nancy's blog, and more. Sewing with Nancy, &nbspcelebrating30 years of sewing and quilting with Nancy Zieman

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