Spent a full day trying to get a double-faced wool blend to drape right

The fabric kept bunching at the shoulder seam no matter how I adjusted the pattern. Ended up taking 8 hours to figure out I needed to hand-baste the seam allowance before machine stitching. Anyone have a better method for handling tricky, thick fabrics?

4 comments

4 Comments

andrew_baker918d ago

Wait, a glue stick? For fabric? That's wild, I've never even heard of doing that. I would have been too scared it would gum up my needle or leave a weird residue.

finleym373mo ago

Hand basting for eight hours sounds like a special kind of hell. I once had a thick tweed that just would not behave until I gave up and used a walking foot, it was a total game changer.

jamesc793mo ago

Eight hours is a serious chunk of time to fight with fabric. That shoulder seam issue sounds so frustrating. A walking foot can be a huge help for thick stuff, like the other person said. Sometimes you just have to go slow and use every trick you can find. I've been there with heavy wool and it really tests your patience.

gray_hall43mo ago

Man, does this remind me of my friend's coat project last winter? She was sewing a thick wool melton and had the exact same bunching problem at the shoulders. She tried everything, even clipping the curves, but it just wouldn't lay flat. Her final fix was to baste the seam with a glue stick made for fabric, let it dry, and then sew it. It held everything in place without any pins shifting. She said it saved her sanity after a whole day of fighting it!