Tuesday Tip #2

My tip for today....

Trace around your pattern pieces on the fabric.

This is a tip that my lovely boyfriend Mick gave me about 6 months ago. It is something that his home economics teacher taught him all the way back in year 7. (making those lovely, shapeless shorts that we all make in early highschool!) We wont tell him he has been so influential in my sewing... he will get a big head... hee hee.

So first... Just lay your pattern on the fabric. These photos were taken for the purpose of the tip, so the bodice pattern piece isnt actually on the fold as it should be... :-p

Trace around your pattern piece with chalk, a pencil or one of those fancy fabric pens. Anything that washes out is perfect. There has been times when I have used a texta and had to soak the newly sewn item before it has been worn to remove the ink stain... haha silly lady! I generally now use a piece of chalk that I stole   aquired from my daughter's sidewalk chalk set and sawed into manageable sized chunks. whenever they go blunt I just get a new piece out.

This would be the point in time when you mark your notches etc, onto the fabric.

Okay! So now you are ready to cut. Your fabric will be much closer to the pattern as cutting on a line is far easier ( and alot more accurate) than cutting around a pattern piece. It also saves stacks of time!

Hope you all find this helpful! I appologise for the dim chalk, You could see it really well in real life, somehow something is lost when I take a photo! LOL!

Head over to Solomon's Sewing to see who else has joined in on the Tuesday Tip this week!