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Ti's Sew Easy TV Show 2003: Terrific Tank Tops

3/27/2021

Tank style tops are a popular garment style. I love layering them with a sweater, jacket, or even a hooded sweatshirt! In this show you'll see one that's made for a knit and one made with lace! Both these styles can add so much to your wardrobe and make great pieces for transitioning through the seasons.

Segment 1
Knit Tank with Tube Trim
Angela Wolf

Angela Wolf starts by demonstrating two details you can add to a tank. She starts with ideas for adding cups for a sports bra style knit tank.

Next, you'll see her create tubes to trim the back with a lattice style accent. I love the look of this on casual tops, athletic wear, and even swimwear. Watch how easy it is to make tubes using the serger!

In a future episode you'll see Angela take these pieces and create a sleek tank top.

Segment 2
Lined Lace Top - Serger Style
Joanne Banko

Would you believe the top shown below was sewn almost entirely on the serger? I started with ordinary lace yardage and selected a lightweight blouse fabric for the lining.

You'll want to pay close attention to the video and then follow along with the detailed steps and photographs in my instructions when you CLICK HERE.

The serger is idea for stitching the lace seams. Simple color match your serger thread to the lace and the seam will virtually disappear. The method I developed for putting this together leave only the neckline and hem to be finished with regular machine stitching.

Now, if your pattern has darts, you'll also want to sew the darts with a standard sewing machine. You'll find tips for stitching lace darts when you watch the video.

I hope you enjoy this show! I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Visit www.itsseweasytv.com to watch show 2003. It currently airs for Free until Noon EST
April 3rd.

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IT'S SEW EASY TV SHOW 2002: Details Make The Difference – Finish it Right!

3/20/2021

4 Comments

The right finish makes your custom crafted garments look more professional.

Segment 1
Channel Stitching and Pintucks
Joanne Banko

In this segment you'll see my blouse decked out with perfect pintucks, plus a topstitch technique I call channel stitching.

Simplicity 8297 proved to be the perfect pattern! View D has a flirty peplum with just enough flair to be figure flattering, with just enough fullness to be pretty without adding "fluff" where you may not want it. The cool coral fabric is rayon challis purchased from Fabric.com.

After explaining the pattern hack for pintuck yokes, you'll see me demonstrating corded pintucks with the seven groove pintuck foot.

Combine this foot with a cording guide, and a 2mm twin needle for delicate tucks on soft fabrics. In this show, you'll learn some twin needle threading techniques and see my trick for guiding cord straight into the underside of the tucks.

Pintucks are the perfect way to perk up a blouse and add decoration to other wise plain yokes, collars, and cuffs.

The next technique I used for my blouse embellishment was what I call channel stitching, accomplished by stitching multiple rows of straight stitches close together.

For this technique, I featured a snap-on Brother foot called the Stitch Guide or Stitch Alignment foot. You may find generic versions of this foot on the market but if you have the opportunity to purchase the one with red lines, I would highly recommend it. This handy foot has prominent guidelines that come in handy for spacing one or multiple rows of stitching. It's great for many other stitching situations and works as a built-in seam guide. CLICK HERE and you'll find out more about this foot.

Take a close look at the finished cuff you see in the photo above. It's stitched with thread that is a couple shades darker than the blouse fabric. Using the special foot means you can achieve exact spacing with the finished result giving your garment a very high-end look!

The cheerful coral color of this blouse makes me smile! I enjoyed adding accents that compliment both the pattern style and the fabric. I hope you'll try one or both of these techniques on a future garment yourself! CLICK HERE for complete instructions for each of the techniques from this show.

Segment 2
The Perfect V-neck Top
Emily Thompson

Once again, Emily shows how take a simple style and not only streamline the sewing process, but add a few extra, easy to sew details.

Her idea for pattern hacking to make the V easy is cute and clever! It looks a little messy mid-way but watch it come together into a nice finish at the end.

Emily's V-neck top technique can be applied to commercial patterns or one of her free pattern downloads from her site. CLICK HERE for a link to the instructions.

Visit www.itsseweasytv.com to watch show 2002. It currently airs for Free until Noon EST on March 26th.

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It's Sew Easy TV Show 2001: Stylish Athletic Wear

3/13/2021

3 Comments

The 10th anniversary season of It's Sew Easy TV continues with season 2000 featuring a wardrobe of athletic or everyday wear with presented by Angela Wolf. Many other guest instructors will delight you with unique and special projects, showing you that there's always something new to learn!

Segment 1
Sleeveless top with Lace Inserts
Angela Wolf

Watch as Angela pattern hacks a T-shirt pattern and turns it into an exercise top with mesh color-blocked inserts.

She'll show you how easy it is to draw new lines on a plain pattern and create a whole new look. This is a very basic color block technique. Don't be afraid to give it a try, it's a fun way to expand your pattern collection.

I found a wide variety of stretch mesh colors at FWD, the Fabric Wholesale Direct website, HERE.

Stretch lace will work too. They have that fabric in many different colors HERE.

Segment 1
Flirty Skirt with Shorts
Emily Thompson

In this segment, Emily Thompson has the perfect pattern for a kid-sized skirt with shorts underneath. Modest, comfy, and cute! what a great combination. Emily offers an adult size version as well. Use her child sized or adult sized FREE leggings pattern as a start.

She'll show you some options for the waist, as well as how to connect the circle skirt to the leggings. CLICK HERE to download Emily's instructions for the leggings and her circle skirt tutorial. Add the two together and top it off with a waistband for a comfortable skirt that blends two beauties together for a great look!

By the way, Emily suggests using double brushed poly spandex for the leggings. I recently ordered some from califabrics.com. My order came a few days ago and the piece I selected looks like a winner! This fabric is soft, stretchy, and comes in some pretty prints as well as solids. No affiliation, but you may want to check out what they have HERE.

CLICK HERE to visit the It's Sew Easy TV website and watch the show. It currently airs until March 19th at noon EST.

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Welcome!
Each week at noon a new show airs online at itsseweasytv.com.
This blog features a preview of each weekly show.

Author:

Joanne Banko
Brother Ambassador

Inspiring Sewing Enthusiasts to make the most of their machines!

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Ti's Sew Easy TV Show 2003: Terrific Tank Tops

IT'S SEW EASY TV SHOW 2002: Details Make The Difference – Finish it Right!

It's Sew Easy TV Show 2001: Stylish Athletic Wear

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