How to work with stripes

I have been sewing and learning for more than 7 years now and to me it seems like it was yesterday when I first started.  My grandma has been sewing her whole life but once her grandchildren came along she stopped sewing to give us her unique and most beautiful time. 

I personally appreciate her so much for everything that she did specially for being a wonderful Christian example that you don’t find very often around anymore. So sewing is in my veins like we said in Colombia.  My grandma, aunts and mom own a sewing machine so when I was decided to learn, I had that tool handy.  So I got a book and start learning how to make my own patterns, my grandma started telling me her story of how she learned, how far sewing took her in life and why she quit; all the ladies ( my mom, aunts and grandma)  started giving me support and tips to succeed.  My grandpa was my first bait ajajajajaj yes, he was the first one who trusted me his pants to replace the zipper and I have never changed a zipper before, so I felt the pressure but it got so much worse when my grandma came to my mom house and told me: “be careful with those pants, are the only pair of pants that he owns” the story of my life, I felt like a character coming out of Gabriel Garcia Marques book.

Well, I am very careful still now but I did treat his pants like a jewel and change his zipper and everyone was very happy with my job.  I think that worked out great to earn the trust of the women that has sewn clothes her whole life and the respect as well of others.  After that I made my first strapless dress and wore it for Christmas, (the dress was self draft) I need to find a picture of it.

Now I can tell you that sewing for me is not about making something very fast but about the little details that make a garment home made from made in home,  and here it is one example and tip that I would like to share with anyone interested.

how to match perfect stripes from piece to piece to make your garment?  

I am working in this Kwik Sew K3150 Pattern, with raglan sleeves, jersey fabric for summer  and stripes fabric. 

First:

I put together front and back shirt pattern by the seam allowance of ¼” and write a line from back to front pattern pieces in the chest and in the sleeve area.

second:

I will match the sleeve to the shirt by the curve and I pass the line from the shirt pattern piece to the sleeve one.

These are the very important steps to have a stripe garment with perfect match, this tip will work for pants and skirts as well.

Here you will find a simulation of how it will look once you sew together the shirt.

Now you have to decide which stripe do  you want your lines to match, the white or black stripe? So you are going to make sure when you place your pattern on the fabric that all of your lines fall in the same color stripe.

Make sure that you sew it slowly making sure that your stripes are matching because it is very easy for them to move and the reason behind is that when sewing 2 layers of fabric the bottom fabric has tendency to stretch a little bit more because of the tension of the machine; you don’t need to adjust the tension of your machine to sew stripes, you only need to be careful.

I hope you enjoyed the tips and the story of my life, don’t forget to subscribe to my blog and follow me in the social media to keep up with my posts.

God Bless You all!xxoo