I published my review of The Sewing Revival Fantail top recently and since then I’ve made a second using an alternative finish which I thought I would share with you.
the first Fantail top
This second version uses a ribbing finish on the neck, cuffs and back hem instead of hemming or elastication. I’d bought some Art Gallery viscose from Sew Me Something with an interesting graphic design and then my fellow @SewOver50er Kate @stitchmeayear generously offered me some grey ribbing, she had more than she needed. It turned out to be the perfect match and I couldn’t have planned it better if I tried.
There are separate pattern pieces for the ribbing cuffs, neck and hem and, although the same front, back and sleeve pieces are used, there are very slightly different cutting lines for the sleeve.
I had bought 1.5m of the graphic print and it has a fairly distinct one-way design which meant I needed to place each pattern piece carefully to try and get a reasonable match whilst not wasting too much fabric. I was able to do this by folding over one selvedge by just enough to position the front and back pieces along the same fold. This left a good sized piece from which I could individually position and cut a pair of sleeves whilst still just about getting a good match.
Sewing the Fantail with ribbing is very slightly different to the woven version. First, the deep ribbing band is sewn on the back in place of the narrow hem [I’m not sure if there’s a small discrepancy in the pattern or my cutting out but on both my versions I’ve found there to be about 5mm too much fabric in the back compared to the front when joining the side seams]
Like the first version I sewed the ribbing band onto the neck after joining the raglan seams and before sewing up the side seams. As I probably explained in the previous post, I always find it’s easier to put a facing, binding or whatever neck finish on whilst everything can still be laid out flat unless there’s a technical construction reason for doing it later.
The main reason for writing this second post is because I want to show you the way I turned the band at the hem-I forgot to take photos as I was making the first one! It’s a really neat way of of finishing the bottoms of the side seams and can be a useful technique in other places when you’re sewing different hems or edges together because it gives a crisp and level finish to an edge with the seams enclosed. The photos will help make more sense.
Pin the side seams together like so first, the raw edge of the deep elastic casing for the front is already pressed up by 1cm and the bottom of the ribbing is lined up against the notch for the casing.
Next, fold up the front so that it sandwiches the ribbing like this, pin in place. Now sew the seam starting at the fold on the hem. If you haven’t used this method before you may want to sew one side first and check it to make sure you’re happy with it, it can be a little confusing initially but it’s worth persevering.
Turn the hem to check it is level and, if you’re happy with it, neaten the seams however you wish. This is before I neatened the side seam but it will look like this on the inside.
The outside will look like this, so neat!
One other slight change I made was to the width of the ribbing cuffs, I cut the UK 12 pieces but they were much too baggy for my wrists so I shortened them by 5cms so they aren’t so wide and gapey.
At the moment I haven’t edge stitched any of the ribbing like I would do normally on knit garments. Because this is a combination of woven and knit fabrics I don’t want the woven fabric, at the neck especially, to end up puckered where its attached to the band so I’ve left it for now [and I don’t want holes if I had to unpick it]
The ribbing is currently not edge-stitched in case it causes puckering
I don’t normally post two of the same thing in such quick succession but I wanted to share the hem tip more than anything. I fully anticipate making a knit version of the Fantail at some point, or a short sleeve one in something really light and pretty…That’s what I enjoy about Sewing Revival patterns, so many possibilities if you have the imagination.
It’s been almost a month since I was loaned a Pfaff Coverlock 3.0 to try out so thought I would give you a ‘half-term report’ on how I’m getting on with it.
First thing to say is that it’s quite a beast! It’s a very substantial piece of machinery and so is fairly heavy as a result. That being said, this is normally the case with coverstitch machines because they are generally bigger than overlockers so the weight isn’t unusual. It does have a good-sized and comfortable carrying handle though.
Ok, so, the Coverlock 3.0 is a combination machine in that it is both an overlocker and a coverstitch machine. I’m sure you already know that an overlocker will trim and neaten raw edges and often sew the seam as well if you have 4 or 5 thread version. What you may not know is that a coverstitch machine doesn’t trim any edges, it will sew two or sometimes three rows of top-stitching on the outside of a garment whilst covering the edge of the fabric on the inside with loops of thread to ‘cover’ it. It has the advantage of being stretchy too. If you’re still not sure what I’m talking about have a look inside the hem or cuffs of a RTW jersey garment and you should see.
The first thing I had to do was not only rethread the machine as it didn’t arrive pre-threaded but I also needed to change it’s function from coverstitch to overlock. A major part of what I want to assess for you is how quick and straightforward it is to go between the functions. This is partly why I didn’t plunge in with a review as soon as I got it because I didn’t think it would be balanced or fair. Indeed, I will certainly write another review in due course after a decent amount of time and usage has occurred.
Yay! I threaded it successfully!!
Because the machine was merely delivered to me without any demonstrations I’ve needed to use the instruction book a fair bit. If you have difficulty following written instructions and/or diagrams this may not be ideal for you but there is a (silent) DVD included with very clear animations of exactly what you need to do for each of the stitch variations possible. [I didn’t find this straightaway though so I muddled through with the booklet! I’ve also since found a few very helpful You Tube videos which were useful]
I’m not going to lie, it does take a bit of time to make the changes because you’ll need to remove and reinsert the needles to different positions as well as thread the machine in different ways depending on the function. This will eventually take me less time and I’ve added Post-it notes to the relevant pages in the book so that I don’t have to keep searching for the two I’ve favoured most. The machine is capable of up to 23 stitches using 2, 3, 4 or 5 threads and up to 3 needles. So far I’ve only used the 4-thread overlock and the coverstitch but I will endeavour to use more, including the flatlock, and report back.
I decided on making a hacked version of the Tilly and the Buttons Nora top which I’ve made a couple of times before as I didn’t want any nasty complications by attempting an unfamiliar pattern with a new piece of machinery!
The beautiful jersey with an amazing ‘tie-dye’ print is from Lamazi fabrics and was my choice as a July/August maker of the month [it could be you if you tag them on Instagram] I cut the sleeve to approximately 3/4 length and also cut two cuff pieces which were again approximate, initially about 20cms in length and then my wrist measurement at one end and my mid-forearm measurement at the other. I added a couple of centimetres for seam allowance to all sides.
I’d definitely say you need to do a bit of forward planning if you intend to use both the overlock and coverstitch functions on a project because of the swapping between the two. For example, on my Nora I needed to coverstitch just the cuffs and the hem, everything else could be sewn either directly using the 4-thread overlock or on my Quilt Ambition 2.0. I opted to sew the top together first and complete the hems at the end, in the usual way although there may be times when it’s better to hem first, we’ll see.
I’ve been very impressed so far with the quality of the different stitches.
If you’re merely changing the thread colours it can be done in the same way as regular overlockers by snipping the threads near their spools, tying on the new colour and pulling each of them gently through, plus rethreading the eye of the needles. On one occasion when I altered the function I completely rethreaded but the stitch was much too loose-what had I done? It was all done correctly and yet it was way too loopy. I checked the manual for hints on troubleshooting but it didn’t make much difference. I was starting to pull my hair out when I realised I had threaded the machine without lifting the handle out of the way-the threads MUST go under it or they don’t sit in the tension discs! (Had I watched the helpful YouTube video first I would have known this…) Another thing I learnt the hard way was when the spool holder kept falling off the back of the machine and I was ready to chuck it out of the window I noticed it has to be slid sideways to click securely in position-doh!
The next two projects I made I didn’t use the coverstitch function as both the sweatshirts had cuffs and waistbands but I constructed much of them using the 4-thread overlock stitch. I used fabric provided to me by Minerva and they will appear on their blog in the new year. One of the patterns I used was the gorgeous Maxine sweatshirt given to me by it’s designer, Dhurata Davies. I’m going to make another one soon so I’ll write an individual blog on it then. [I got both tops out of 2.5m of fabric!]
Maxine sweatshirt by Dhurata Davies
Simplicity #8529 which is also the Toaster by SewHouseSeven
For the final project I want to talk about here I took a different approach. It’s an Amy top by Brilliant Patterns and which I’ve made a couple of times before. I had a 1m remnant of loop-back cotton sweatshirting which I bought from Sew Me Something at a show for £8 and by shortening the sleeves very slightly, cutting the neckband in two parts and joining it I got a WHOLE sweatshirt out of the one metre!!
This time I set the machine up with a wide 2-needle coverstitch and I used my regular sewing machine to sew most of the seams. What I did at each stage of construction was to press the seams flat and top stitch them using the Coverlock. This meant that there would be two rows of top stitching on the outside and the raw edges were covered on the inside. This was generally OK although as I’ve yet to ‘get my eye in’ with lining up the foot against a seam or other visual marker a couple of them do waver more than I would usually like. It turns out there is a large removable flat bed included to increase the working area (it was tucked down inside the box and I’ve only just found it!!) this will support your work while you sew but it does take up a bit more room.
I like the two-part upper back of the Amy.The hem is level at the front and a dipped curve at the back.
So to sum up (for now) I’ve been impressed with the quality of the stitches I’ve used so far on the Coverlock 3.0 and I will definitely look for opportunities to try others whilst I have it. I’ve yet to be convinced about swapping between the stitch-types but obviously, as I get more familiar with it, I should get faster at changing between them. There are few processes which have to be gone through to make the changes but I’ll probably work out an order or procedure to follow to speed it up. If you are short of space a combination machine might be useful, they aren’t cheap though. You’ll almost certainly use the overlocker stitches more of the time so possibly changing occasionally to coverstitch will be sufficient. I would definitely say you should have a thorough demonstration of the machine so that you know what is involved and what it is capable of. Unlike washer/driers which don’t do either job very well this machine does both functions to a very high standard.
Thank you to Pfaff for giving me the opportunity to try out their machine and if you have any questions about my experience so far then do ask.
Susan Young Sewing 