CUTTING A KIMONO SLEEVE GARMENT. Often in cutting a garment with kimono sleeves the material will not be wide enough to cut the pattern without piecing. This piecing seam can be made to appear part of the design by trimming it to match the trimming of the garment. The seam can be hemstitched, fancy-stitched, piped, machine-stitched, and, in the case of thin materials, trimmed with lace insertion, etc., so that the seam will really add to the effectiveness of the sleeve.
HANDLING VELVETS, SILKS, AND CHIFFONS. In using velvets, plushes, corduroy, or silk be very careful about using pins. Use fine steel pins or needles, so as to mark the material as little as possible. Ordinary pins make holes in silks and chiffons and scar velvets, plushes, etc.
A fine needle and silk thread should be used in basting velvets, etc., and also in basting silks, for cotton thread leaves a mark.
When stitching velvets, plushes and corduroy, loosen the tension on the machine and lighten the pressure of the presser foot by holding the linger under the presser liar lifter.
Clip your bastings ever four or five inches or even closer when you are ready to take them out. Pulling long basting threads from silks, velvets or fine thin materials is likely to make a bad mark or tear the material.
In stitching sheer materials like chiffon, silk crêpe, crêpe de Chine, etc., that are likely to pucker while the stitching is being done place a narrow strip of tissue-paper under the material where you are going to stitch it. After it is stitched tear the paper away.
When using materials that fray easily allow an extra quarter of an inch on all ordinary three-eighths of an inch seam edges. This extra one-quarter of an inch allowance must not be overlooked when you baste up your garment. No extra allowance is necessary on the outlet seams. (Marked by large single perforations.) As soon as you have cut out the garment overcast the armhole and neck edges.
In silk materials like taffeta, crêpe de Cliine, charmeuse, satin and materials of similar character the selvedge edges are often used as a finish. Of course this is only possible when the edge of the pattern is straight as in the case of a straight-edged tunic, straight- edged flounce, etc.
