10-20-2010, 09:41 PM
Hoo, a blanket stitch just to secure the cut edge for washing is bold! More than you'll need. If I weren't machine zig-zagging that, I'd just go with a whip stitch, it's much faster. Good practice, though!
There are no special shapes to cut for the arm holes, each piece of the tunic or chiton is a plain rectangle. Just do a folded hem around the hole itself. When you get down to the bottom where the seam starts, it might be necessary to make the folds for the hem smaller, so that both folds use a width of fabric equal to the seam allowance at that point. Basically, just fudge it! When it's done, you may be able to tell that the tunic is a half-inch narrower across the arm openings, if you measure carefully, but it certainly won't be noticeable.
In other words, when I sew up a tunic, I have a seam allowance of 3/8" to 1/2", meaning that's how far from the edge my line of stitching is. When I fold back the edge for a hem, I fold back about 1/4" or a hair more, then fold again, so the cut edge is completely hidden. Well, if my seam allowance got a little small and my hem got a little big, you can see that folding 3/8" twice is twice as much as a 3/8" seam allowance! So I'd have to fold more narrowly in the last couple inches above the seam, so that 2 turns of the hem equal the seam allowance. Then stitch it all flat. Sometimes I zig-zag the cut edges before I put the tunic together, sometimes I don't, but I never worry about getting complex and sewing down the seam allowance edges or anything like that. My methods run towards quick and dirty. Fudging at transition points comes very naturally to me, by now!
The ancients cheated, they simply wove each panel to the size they needed, and stuck them together. No hemming at all. Cheaters...
Vale,
Matthew
There are no special shapes to cut for the arm holes, each piece of the tunic or chiton is a plain rectangle. Just do a folded hem around the hole itself. When you get down to the bottom where the seam starts, it might be necessary to make the folds for the hem smaller, so that both folds use a width of fabric equal to the seam allowance at that point. Basically, just fudge it! When it's done, you may be able to tell that the tunic is a half-inch narrower across the arm openings, if you measure carefully, but it certainly won't be noticeable.
In other words, when I sew up a tunic, I have a seam allowance of 3/8" to 1/2", meaning that's how far from the edge my line of stitching is. When I fold back the edge for a hem, I fold back about 1/4" or a hair more, then fold again, so the cut edge is completely hidden. Well, if my seam allowance got a little small and my hem got a little big, you can see that folding 3/8" twice is twice as much as a 3/8" seam allowance! So I'd have to fold more narrowly in the last couple inches above the seam, so that 2 turns of the hem equal the seam allowance. Then stitch it all flat. Sometimes I zig-zag the cut edges before I put the tunic together, sometimes I don't, but I never worry about getting complex and sewing down the seam allowance edges or anything like that. My methods run towards quick and dirty. Fudging at transition points comes very naturally to me, by now!
The ancients cheated, they simply wove each panel to the size they needed, and stuck them together. No hemming at all. Cheaters...
Vale,
Matthew
Matthew Amt (Quintus)
Legio XX, USA
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.larp.com/legioxx/">http://www.larp.com/legioxx/
Legio XX, USA
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.larp.com/legioxx/">http://www.larp.com/legioxx/
