How often do you sew? Do you feel productive when you barricade yourself in your sewing area? If you’re anything like me, some days are full of efficiency while others… well, 3 hours later and you’re still staring at the pattern….
With our limited time and very busy lives, it’s hard to feel productive when each step takes SOOOO long.
So we procrastinate. We distract ourselves.
Soon we lack the simple motivation to get anything done. If there were ways to speed up our sewing once we DO get there, I think we’d be all over them. Right?
In my youth I considered myself a fast sewer. I could knock out a dress in a weekend. Of course, my seams were pinked (sometimes) and my hems finished by machine. And I had yet to learn the power of grading seams thoroughly.
Yet… as I’ve delved more into Victorian dressmaking and recognized the sheer task of completing a full-blown gown, my sewing has slowed. Perhaps you’ve noticed this in your own sewing: the better your skills get the slower you sew.
I may not do *everything* historically correct because, geez, I want to make lots of costumes! I don’t want to spend years making them either.
Below are a few tips I’ve developed into my sewing regimen to help me be faster at completing garments. These are not necessarily short-cuts. Simply tasks I’ve found to quicken my pace.
A. Grade your seams first before clipping
Have you ever clipped your curved seams in those neat little V’s then discovered you had to trim your seam allowances? Yeah…. Isn’t it FUN to try and trim all those little sections? Not.
To make this process faster (well, as quick as you can get), trim all your seam allowances first into the tapered rows. THEN go back and clip your curves. Here’s a tutorial on grading if you need a refresher.
B. Try the assembly line method
If constructing a skirt or bodice, don’t sew each seam then press. Pin ALL the major seams at once. Take it to the machine and sew them all in one sitting. Then get to your ironing board and press each seam flat and either to the side or open – all in one session. No need to go back and forth between machine and iron so much.
C. Wash and iron fabrics for several projects at once
Do you find yourself coming home with new fabric only to wash one piece at a time? Why not wash several fabrics together to save time? Or even better, throw in a new piece with your regular laundry washed at the same temperature as you want to wash the fabric. Be sure to pin a bit of muslin to the washed fabric marked with the width, yardage and note that it’s pre-washed.
D. Machine apply bodice boning in pre-made bone casing
Really, don’t spend the time to hand tack all your boning to your bodice seams when you can machine them instead. AND it is period correct to use the machine. So don’t hesitate to use this time saver. Flip back the bodice, pin your casing to the seam allowance only and sew. Repeat for the other side of the casing and seam allowance.
Also, buy bone casing. Don’t make your own from lining bias strips. One, it’s bias and some people have real issues with bias; two, purchased bone casing is thicker so bones are less likely to poke through; three, you don’t have to spend the time to make your own; and four, casing comes in black and also white that can be dyed other colors if you want it to match.
E. Save all your hand tacking to finish the raw edges for the end (if possible)
When finishing the raw edges of your bodice – neckline, hem and sleeve hems – machine sew bias tape to all the edges and save the hand tacking for the end. This will be faster than machining the neckline, tacking, machining the bodice hem then tacking, etc.
Same goes for your skirts. Sew in your hem facing but hold off on tacking until you’ve set on your waistband. Then move from machine to hand sewing and do both. Saves you time from setting up each work area more than once.
F. Finally, don’t sit and think and think and ponder and wonder how a particular method will turn out
This is a huge time waster! Of course, some projects will demand you think out how to figure out a technique before you sew. That’s ok. But don’t analyze it to death. Figure it out then get to it! The more you think about it instead of taking action, the bigger your lack of motivation becomes.
Do you have special tips to make your sewing go faster? Please share your methods below!
I keep a tabletop ironing board (the little ones you see at the store) behind where I sit to sew, and the iron off to my left, which… I have on a step-on Christmas tree switch! I have a sewing-and-ironing pad under my machine which allows me to press quick things right in front of me (it’s heat resistant but not perfect, I still use the board for bigger stuff). I also made a quick hem guide out of some thin cardboard (the kind that a box of juice pouches would come in), and marked out my favorite hem depths. It allows me to quickly press up over a foot at a time without stopping to measure.
I love the Christmas tree switch idea!
I admit I don’t do a lot of reproduction sewing. I’m in clothing manufacture and I’ve also done theater costuming, so I sew to keep ahead of deadlines and bills. But I had some ideas. Some of these tips might not work in every situation, but it may give you some more ideas. Cut in layers as often as you can. Mark match points in your seam allowances by small clips. We mark the pointed ends of darts as well as pocket placement points by punching a small hole. We can punch through multiple layers at once, and the mark can be seen from either side of the fabric. Downside: raveling. We make punch marks when we machine cut, but this can also be done by hammering a small, sharpened screwdriver just inside the dart’s endpoint. Just make sure you sew past that point, and that it’s really where you want the end of your dart. Use the sharpest cutting tools you can afford, and don’t use your good scissors on paper. When you get ready to sew, wind two bobbins if you know the job is going to be a big one. Then sew as much of one color as you can before you have to change your thread. When you do change your thread, clip the old spool off, tie the new spool on and pull your thread through, as you would with a serger; you’ll only have to rethread the needle. Cut down on your trips to the store by stocking the things you use a lot. I use a lot of black and white thread, 14″ invisible zippers, and fusible interfacing, so I make a large order of those online. Make muslin mock ups when you need to fit a new pattern or learn a new construction or sewing technique. Learn how to shorten zippers; if you don’t know how long of a zipper you need, you can usually buy a longer one and shorten it. Heavily starch/use tear-away stabilizer to help sew flimsy fabrics more easily. Making batches of garments takes less time than making garments one at a time from start to finish. If you are making a one-of-a-kind garment, this is not practical, but perhaps batching sections like ruffles would be. Sometimes it requires some thought, but if you think about the steps you need to do beforehand you can make yourself a plan of attack to make your sewing process a little smoother, and identify areas where you may have problems (this is where you dig out your muslin). Always wax and press your hand-sewing thread (unless you are basting– then only use unwaxed white thread). Also, don’t be afraid to outsource or trade projects around. Everyone has likes and dislikes in the sewing world. I like matching plaids and doing cartridge pleats, but I hate doing buttonholes and invisible zippers. So, in our shop, we tend to give zipper installation to the one lady who doesn’t mind doing it and does it consistently well, while I can sit happily for three days getting parts of a plaid apron to match to the thread. And always talk shop. Praise good work when you see it. And love what you’re doing.
So many great ideas all at once! Thank you!
I especially like the idea of outsourcing/project trading, and I can already see where it could help me and a friend. I’m pretty good at embroidery, and hand sewing in general. My friend hates hand sewing, and has an industrial machine and a serger. I’ll gladly do her decorative fussy bits if she’ll stitch the stuff that’s too heavy for my home machine to handle, like leather. Win/win!
!!!I was so happy to see the jumper — I’ve had that fabric before !! I love it — even still today! so nice to see it 🙂
hehe… it was a beautiful floral cotton!
This might not matter so much for costume work, but something that really helped me to be more productive was getting the books that teach you about how industry professionals and couture professionals construct and finish garments. The steps in most patterns and from home ec classes are the equivalent of recipes for people who need instructions to boil water. Love this page and love seeing all your beautiful work!
I don’t sew very fast either, but I have find what makes me more productive is to make sewing schedules- I just posted one just before I read this post and to make sure I sew a little every day. I had a huge back-log of not completed sewing projects when this year started and this has really helped me getting a lot of them done.
I don’t nail down my schedule too hard, though and I try to not have deadlines- I hate to stress sew.
The last part is so true for me. I learnt that when making my victorian gown.The majority of my time was worrying about messing up.
Great post Jennifer. It’s funny how sometimes time gets away from us on certain sewing projects.
I actually do have a question about grading the seams. I tend to prefer to French seam everything, even if it is a bit more time-consuming. How does grading work with that? Or should I only grade seams on things that are lines, where the seams are going to be encased inside the finished product anyway?
Well, in the process of actually doing a French seam you do grade. In my research mainly only sheer fabrics were French seamed; all others were finished in another way, if at all. Most of my graded seams are on enclosed edges – waistbands, necklines, etc.
Lots of great tips! Thanks for the reminders. 🙂
I’m finding I have more things I want to sew than time to sew them. Especially as I’m doing proper seam finishes and actually having a fitting process rather than the whole ‘that’ll do its closer than RTW anyway’. That and tracing off patterns to make the fitting adjustments. Oh and doing a basted fitting.
I used to laugh in the face of toiles…but now I’ve fallen into that trap.
I used to hand sew EVERYTHING but I’m finding my sewing time taken has doubled so I’m having to resort to using the machine. (its borrowed machine its my mum’s. I really need to get my own but not sure what one to buy on a limited budget). I still hand baste first then use the machine to finish off.
I do always cut a paper pattern as soon as I buy it, then put it back in the envelope so its ready to use when I need it.
I hand baste as well. It ends up being a huge time saver. Although I machine sew almost everything, basting my garments first allows for little adjustments throughout; as well as preventing mistakes that need to be ripped out and redone. And ruffles that are hand basted rather than just pinned are so much more even.