S P R I N G 2 0 1 6VOL.XXI, NO.2

A P U B L I C A T I O N O F T H E A M E R I C A N S E W I N G G U I L D

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

2National Notes

3Sponsor Spotlight

4Chapter News and Views

16Sew ‘n Tell: How toOrganize an Out-of-Control Fabric Stash

18Sew ‘n Share: Surprise!You May Be a Petite

22Sew ‘n Share: You CanSew Activwear

24Sew Young

26Sew for the Gold

28Book Beat

29Book Briefs

31DVD Corner

33Product Previews

34Industry Insider

41Chapter Calendar

43Advertiser Index

44ASG Conference 2016Highlights

46ASG Conference 2016Calendar

48Members Only

Sew. . .You’re Traveling!

A re there travel plans in your future? Maybe it’s a voyage to a dream destination . . .a family reunion . . . a road trip to visit college campuses . . . or you are attending

ASG Conference 2016 in Indianapolis . . . or participating in one of ASG’s Sew Much FunTours. No matter what is on your travel agenda, you’ll probably be packing a suitcase.

No one’s idea of a good time involves dragging around excess luggage or paying airlines’extra baggage fees. So, to smooth your way, here are some expert tips on travel wardrobesand accessories. Marsha McClintock is the travel and packing expert, having shepherdedmany ASG members on her special sewing excursions, including the ASG Sew Much FunTours to New York City. Cheri Dowd is a sewing teacher who has been exploring the cre-ative possibilities of reversible clothing. She can guide you to a different way of thinkingabout your wardrobe options. Both of these talented ladies will be teaching at ASGConference 2016.

CREATING REVERSIBLE GARMENTSby Cheri Dowd

When assembling a travel wardrobe, onepossibility is frequently overlooked—reversible clothing! A reversible garmenttakes the space of one item in your luggageand offers twice the wearability. In this eraof carry-ons, why not take something thatwill do double duty? You’ll have morechoices when it’s time to select an outfitand if you have to do laundry, there will be

less of that—which is always a bonus.One of the best things about doing

reversibles is working through thestep-by-step procedures which will

vary from normal pattern sewingdirections. It’s good for the brain and

makes you a more flexible sewer!

Choosing a PatternSimple shapes with moderately straight

seams work best. For your first venture, you might consider a pattern specifically designed as a reversible garment. Saf-T-Pockets patterns offers several, including

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PLANNING A TRAVEL WARDROBEby Marsha McClintock

Preplanning your travel wardrobe makespacking simple and your journey moreenjoyable. It removes the guess work asyou know exactly what goes into the suit-case. But how do you decide what to takeand what to leave home?

First, identify where you are going, thelength of your trip, the climate, your activ-ities, and your figure type. This list will dic-tate what kind of

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36 ASG Notions • Spring 2016

Planning a Travel Wardrobe(continued from page 1)

wardrobe you will need. A trip toRome for a month will require a dif-ferent wardrobe than a snorkelingtrip to the Bahamas. Next, you needto decide which garments youalready have and which you’ll needto make or purchase. Spend your timemaking items where fit is an issue orthat are more expensive to purchase,such as pants and jackets. A pur-chased T-shirt or top will usually fillthe bill unless color matching a partic-ular outfit is a consideration.

Your Color PaletteIt’s easiest if you pick two base colorsfor your wardrobe. Darker colorswork best as they don’t show dirt.You want garments that don’t soileasily as you will be wearing the gar-ments numerous times. Colors likeblack, brown, navy, taupe, or charcoalwork well in the U.S., but are espe-cially good choices when travelingabroad. In the world we live in, it’sbest to blend in and not draw atten-tion to yourself. When traveling in theU.S., I like to make one of my outfitsfrom a fun color. Plan to use a colorthat makes you look and feel great. Ifyou choose a darker color, you canadd color through tops or accessories.

The Essential Garments Plan the wardrobe around two outfitsthat consist of a jacket, vest, or cardi-gan sweater, and a matching pant orskirt. They can be made from thesame fabric or fabrics in the samecolor family. Next add five tops thatgo with either of your outfits. Solidcolors are most practical but I like tomake two of my tops prints. Printsdon’t show spots and, if they bothhave your base colors included in theprint, they will go with either outfit.Select tops made from wovens orknits, with different sleeve lengths soyou have options if temperatures riseor drop.

Next add two neck accessories. This

Best Travel FabricsHere are my recommendations forfabrics that will travel well. No matterwhich ones you choose, be sure topreshrink before construction.

Cottons. This fiber breathes, so it’sgood in warmer weather, but wrin-

kling can be a problem. Blendingwith polyester or spandex

lessens wrinkling and adds tothe garment’s comfort.

Knits. There are manywonderful knits available.

Rayon/spandex, cotton/span-dex, ITY (which stands forInterlock Twist Yarn—a methodof putting a twist in yarn used forknit fabrics resulting in a morenatural elasticity and a soft feelinside), polyester, or blends.They are comfortable and wear

well for travel. Choose single knit jer-sey for tops and double knit ponte forjackets, skirts, and pants.

Linens. There are many washablelinens and linen blends that are soft,comfortable, and keep wrinkling to aminimum. Because linen breathes, itis excellent for warm weather.

Wools. Great for cooler weathermade into jackets, vests, or pants.

Rayons and Tencel. These fiberscreate fabrics that are soft, drapable,and comfortable to wear. Pick fabricwith texture to help hide wrinkles. Ifyou want the look of denim, a Tenceldenim is lighter weight than cottondenim, which makes packing easier.

Silks. There are many crinkled anddistressed silks that make great tops.Raw or matka silk can make lovelypants or jackets. Underline with silkorganza and wrinkling is cut to a min-imum.

Microfibers (Polyester). Very littlewrinkling but not great for warmweather. Better for spring or fall.

Travel TipsPut your clothes on plastic hangersbefore packing them in the suitcase.When you arrive at the hotel just pullthem out and hang them right in thecloset.

can be a beautiful scarf or necklace.Scarves are great as they take very lit-tle space in a suitcase and can beworn many ways. Saf-T-Pocket’s SewAccessorized pattern features foureasy-to-make scarves plus a Vest-S-Cape (right) that can beworn as a vest, cape, orscarf. These itemscome in very handyfor changing upyour look whentraveling. I alwaysthrow in a few extraaccessories as theytake so little space. Iftraveling for one ortwo weeks, I pack apair of panties foreach day and twobras. Put them inone-gallon plastic bags, squeeze outthe air, and seal. This gets placed inthe bottom of the suitcase along withmy pajamas or nightie.

By packing two outfits (two jackets,vests, or cardigans and two matchingpants or skirts), five tops, and twoaccessories, you can mix and match toachieve 30 different looks and it canall be easily packed into a 22" roll-aboard suitcase. Be sure the outfit youwear while traveling will also tie intoyour color plan and this will expandthe wardrobe considerably. And ifsome of these garments are reversible,you’ve automatically increased thenumber of looks without packingmore garments. One last but veryimportant thing to think about whentraveling is footwear. Always wearyour heaviest and most comfortableshoes the day you are in transit andpack two more pairs in the suitcasethat will go with your outfits. Don’tbring new shoes; bring ones youknow you can wear all day. There isnothing worse than aching feet whenyou are touring around. Bonus piecescould be a skirt that goes with eachjacket or a swimsuit (for warm cli-mates). Any bonus pieces you tuckinto your suitcase only enhance thenumber of looks you can achieve.

37ASG Notions • Spring 2016

Creating Reversible Garments(continued from page 1)

#2013—Cheri's ReversibleJacket, which I designed.

Choosing FabricSewers have a greatadvantage when itcomes to getting the rightreversible. We don’t haveto rely on designers andmanufacturers; we only need to beaware of our own wardrobe require-ments as we shop for fabrics in ourstash or elsewhere. As long as yourfabric has two compatible sides, youare “good to sew.” Compatible is thekey word here . . . compatible withyour wardrobe and, if you are joiningtwo fabrics back-to-back for yourreversible garment, compatibility incolor, weight, and stretch.

Single Layer ConstructionThe simple solution to the compatibil-ity issue is to use a single layerreversible fabric—one fabric thatlooks good—and preferably different—on both sides so you have morewearing options. Double weaves canoffer this option. Decorator fabricscan be surprisingly different on bothsides. Sometimes there will be atweed look on the back side of a print.Most denims have a dark and lightside and embroidered pieces can havea shiny and a matte side. Once youstart looking, you'll be surprised athow many options you find.

One of the best reversible fabricsI’ve used has an ombré blue palettewith shiny embroidery stitching onthe “right” side. The reverse side is asolid navy that has a matte finish and

light cottonstitching

To prevent wrinkling, place a plas-tic dry cleaner bag over the garmentbefore packing.

Add hidden pockets in your jacketsor pants to keep money, credit cards,and cell phone safely tucked away.Saf-T-Pockets offers a selection of gar-ments that include from three to 11pockets.

Photocopy the opening pages ofyour passport that show your nameand number. It will make replacementeasier, if you lose your passport. Besure to keep the passport and yourcopies in separate places.

Marsha McClintockis a dressmaker andteacher as well as theowner of Saf-T-Pockets Patterns(www.saf-t-pockets.com), where shedesigns patternswith hidden pockets

for carrying life’s essentials. Along withMarla Kazell, she leads the ASG SewMuch Fun New York Tours. She is amember of the ASG Portland, Ore. Chap-ter. At ASG Conference 2016, Marshawill be teaching classes on SensationalScarves, Flippy Gored Skirt, Fast n FunCircle Skirt, and Fast n Fun Circle Jacket.

Editor’s note: Marsha always gives ASGmembers 10% off everything on her web-site. Right now through May 30, 2016,she is offering ASGers a 25% discount.For details, visit Special Offers on theASG website (www.asg.org).

that gives it a denim appear-ance. It's a great travel jack-et because it is dressy on

the embroi-dered sideand perfectwith jeansand a T-shirt onthe mattes i d e —i n s t a n tday tod i n n e rwith just aflip!

If you canʼt find that single fabric,you can unite two fabrics with just abit of stitching. In this case, I wonʼtcall it quilting, but you can feel free todo so! You may use a lightweight fab-ric as “batting” between the two outerfabrics, but stay away from anythingweighty unless you want to look likeFrosty! Once the fabrics are cut andthen united with stitching, you cancut and sew them into a garment asyou would a single layer reversible.

Reversible FinishesThe seam and edge finishes and fac-ings you choose will affect the designaesthetic of your finished garment.

Single layer reversibles require fin-ishing on all seams. Before you beginyour project, make some samples to

see which effect you prefer.Flat-fell seams and

French seams. Theresult is a seam thatlooks the same onboth sides; there isno visible contrast. Bound seams and

Hong Kong seams.With both these techniques,

the edge of the seam allowance isencased in a bias strip of fabric. Youcan, of course, match the binding tothe fabric, but where's the fun in that?

Plain seam with turned-underedges. This seam is pressed open,

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38 ASG Notions • Spring 2016

Faced Edges. Same-fabric facings can beapplied so the fac-ing matches or con-trasts the side it ison.

Bound Edges. Thesework on all types ofreversibles. Consider woven foldoverbraids, self-fabric or dec-orative bias bindings,and newer to themarketplace, thelovely, elasticizedfoldover edge fin-ishes. These come ina range of beautifulcolors. On my black andwhite rose jacket, I used cranberryelasticized foldover braid to cover theraw seam at the waist and to createbutton loops on the center front.

Double Layer ConstructionWhen thinking about reversible gar-ments, most people think of two ver-sions of the garment, each one con-structed separately. Then they aresewn wrong sides together with anopening for turning right sides out.This method is commonly called“bagging.”

Bagging is not my method of choicefor several reasons. For one thing, itrequires the most compatible fabrics.A rayon fabric paired with a less fluidfabric will result in a mismatch that isnot recoverable. The fluid fabric willtend to float out from the bottom evenwhen your cutting and sewing havebeen exact. This single issue mayhave caused you to give up onreversible sewing. Lesson: Chooseyour fabric types carefully with this

type of construction.A second challenge with the bag-

ging method is how to connect theinternal seams. If these seams are leftunconnected, they will roll whenlaundered; smoothing them flat againcan be a major pain. The layers canalso shift when the garment is worn.

If one side of your “bagged” gar-ment is a printed fabric, here's an easy

Creating Reversible Garments(continued from page 37)

and then the seam allowance edgesare turned under and topstitcheddown along each folded edge. Theresult is a decorative seam on one sideof the garment and a plain seam onthe other. Note: You may want toincrease the width of your seamallowances to make the turning-under process easier. Test before youcut out your garment.

Piping. Although not technically aseam finish, you can maneuver it toconceal seam allowances. For exam-ple, when I was creating a black-and-white rose print jacket, Iused extra-wide biasstrips of fabric tocover custom pip-ing. Once the pip-ing was insertedinto the seam, I usedthe wide lips to coverthe seam allowances onthe side opposite the piping.Sometimes, you just have to think itthrough and be creative!

The garment edges on single layerreversibles offer many design oppor-tunities.

method to join the seams. Turn thegarment right sides out. Then work-ing from the solid side, pin the lay-ers together along the seam lines,and machine stitch in the ditch of

the seam. If you accidentally wanderoff the seam line on the underside, thestitches will disappear into the print.

If you are bagging the two sides,you will have a finished edge. Thatedge may need to be topstitched aftercareful pressing. Use a heavierweight thread or a double thread ifyou want the stitching to show as adesign element. Another way to sta-

bilize the layers at the edge is to adda fabric band.

A favorite finish for double layerreversibles is piping inserted into the

edges. While this maytake more time, it is

worth it if you areconcerned aboutfabric compatibili-ty. The piping willconceal any droop-

ing when one fabric isheavier than the other.

And, of course, bound edge fin-ishes are as appropriate for doublelayer reversible garments as for singlelayer ones.

Pockets If pockets aredoubled intwo-fabric con-struction, thatarea can becomebulky and thedouble pocketbags can shiftduring launder-ing. It is not anattractive look! Onepocket with a bag made of lightweight fabric combined with a patchpocket on the other side is less bulky.The best look of all is a faced slit witha lower welt that turns up to cover theslit. The slit facing edges are finishedwith lightweight fabric and that iscovered with a patch pocket on thereverse side. The blue ombré single

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39ASG Notions • Spring 2016

fabric jacket has this treatment. Another pocket

option is to set azipper into aseam, then coverit with a patchpocket on thereverse side—

one pocket that canbe accessed from both

sides of the garment.If you choose patch pockets you

can make them single-layer by bind-ing the patch with bias. With thistype of pocket, you can put them onboth sides. Patch pocketswith a lining and fac-ing look too heavywhen placed backto back. If this isthe type you wishto make, youshould use them onone side only or put oneon each right front so there will beone outside and one inside pocket.

Closures Ahh, the icing on the cake. Thatʼswhat a great closure can be. It can geta bit complicated when making areversible garment. Having a closurethat will work effectively on bothsides of the garment is essential. Ofcourse, you can skip the closure onsome garments, but who wants tomiss out on the icing?

Buttons are the mainstay ofreversible closures. Use them sewnback-to-back on your reversible witha single buttonhole, a loop, or ties.Just be aware that when you reverseyour garment the buttons will be onthe opposite side to what you areaccustomed to.

If you want the buttons to be on the“correct” side, make the buttonholeson both left and rightedges of the garment.Sew your buttons toa detachable stripof grosgrain rib-bon. That way, youwill be able to move

them from one side of the garment tothe other.

Loops with ties or buttons makegreat decorative closures. Myfavorites are the ones I create for myreversible, fulled sweater vests. Theloops are made from the shrunken

sweaters seams. They areshaped into a loop with

the ends on each sideof the garment. Ihand stitch theminto place usingheavier threads and

add beads as I go.The same

type of clo-sure can be madewith coveredcording or twistedyarns.

If you need abreak from

bu t t on s ,use spaghetti tubesto make fabric ties.Attach them whereyou would put abutton on each side

and tie them througha loop. Use multiple ties

to form a spaghetti cascade.Add beads and your garment has itsown jewelry.

Reversible zippers have tabs thatwork on either side of the garment.They are usually separating jacketzippers, but if you sew them togetherat the bottom, they could be used onthe back of a reversible dress.Exposed zippers continue to be in thedesigner shows. Buy a decorative onewith stones or painted tape and workit into a reversible project. Rememberto plan how you will finish the seamedge where the zipper is inserted.That seam may need to be wider soyou can turn its edge under or it mayneed a matching facing or binding.Yes, it's all in the planning and flexi-bility as you work. Take joy in yoursewing adventures.

Retirement from a30-year teachingcareer in publicschools opened thedoor for Cheri Dowdto pursue her cre-ative design passion.Her motto is sten-ciled on her sewing

room wall: “Imagine, Create and Grow.”She enjoys sharing her knowledge withstudents in her Aiken, S.C. home (www.designsbycherid.com), where she is amember of the ASG Central SavannahRiver –Aiken Chapter. Her work has beenpublished in Threads and Sew Stylishmagazines. Join Cheri at ASG Conference2016 in Indianapolis where she will beteaching her Chanel Jacket Shortcut,Reversibles with Style and Versatility,and Vests from Fulled Sweaters classes.