Confession time….I’m a lazy gal at heart. I’m always looking for quicker and easier ways to do things. As you probably know if you read this blog regularly, I’ve taken to using hole reinforcers on my tissue patterns in a bid to prevent the tearing that can occur when I tailor tack through those little dots that mark dart points and the like. It occurred to me on my most recent make (finished today but yet to be blogged) that I could take this one step further and use them to mark my dots on the fabric itself. Thus dispensing with the need to tailor tack at all. Yay for that!
So here are my dart point dots, marked with the hole reinforcers. Passing a pin through the centre of the dot (below right)….
Shows me exactly where the corresponding mark should go on the reverse of my fabric. Now for the clever bit! Slip a hole reinforcer over the pin….
….and stick down! When it comes to assembling the dart, (or joining any other dots) pass the pin through the centre of the hole reinforcers that now mark each dart point; and then simply slip them off the ends of the pin before pining the dart as normal.
No need for tailor tacks or chalk or markers of any kind. I used this method to mark all of the dots (not just the darts) on this make and it was super quick and worked like a dream. The two key things to remember are to always place the “markers” on the wrong side, (avoids sandwiching them together between layers when they are placed RS together) and remove them before sewing. (I had what looked like a polo sticking out of the side seam at one stage, doh!). I’m definitely getting value for money out of this pack of hole reinforcers. Turns out they are quite a handy place to mark down the names of the pattern pieces too. The waistband on this make consisted of 8 separate pieces; and marking on them which one was which, helped me ALOT!
Which brings me onto this make. My first pair of “from scratch” trousers! All I’ll say for now is that I am seriously impressed with the fit of this pattern. What’s more, I have a copy to give away to one lucky reader. More on that once I get some pics done 😉