Filling Wardrobe Holes

I love knits. They´re so easy to handle and fast to sew. My last makes are kindof seasonal transition, filling wardrobe holes and partially using deep stash. The white fabric I bought 3ys ago and never had any idea what to do with it - until now. It´s somewhat sheer but I´m wearing most of the times camisoles anyway.

The red one is a viscose-wool blend, very light fabric with a nice drape. Next time I might make a deeper waterfall neck and shorten the bottom.

Self drafted pattern

Rain Pants with Sealed Seams Part II.

The fabric is a coated nylon - you need some kind of a coated material otherwise the tape wouldn´t stick. I used a serger for some the seams. Reason being is the width of the tape wouldn´t cover a normal seam.

Problem was to iron the tape on the seam itself - it got remarkable harder with the thread in the seam. Also the iron is not producing heat very evenly - when it started to heat up to the level I set it was always easier.

The freezer paper helps a lot but after a while I found the tape was melting on the paper on the same heat level as before. I found out that it´s a sign that the paper needs to be replaced. Pretty often, actually.

When I got to the seams between the legs (i.e. the curved ones) it even got trickier. I realized that when ironing flat the other side of the seam will melt away - so I needed to get my armboard out to make sure there´s no contact between the front and back side of the legs. Ironing in the crotch takes time as you can only do a few cm-s in one go without ruining the rest of what´s already done. I also ended up using more layers for more protection.

I taped everywhere except the waist seam - I think it´s pretty useless there - that part is always covered by a jacket. Using a regular sewing machine with straight stitch is a much better choice than a serger - it´s much easier to apply the tape on a flat seam. Be careful with huw much your seam allowance is - make sure you choose the right width for the tape. You won´t need a serger anyway as the seam will be closed by the tape - means no fraying.

Serger

Straight stitch

Here´s how the final piece looks. Pretty simple - no pockets, no extra seams just the bare minimum.

Rain Pants with Sealed Seams Part I.

In Germany kids need 2 sets of rain clothes -jacket+pants - for kindergarten and for home. We live in a wet area - rain is a usual accessory in spring, autumn and winter so you  can´t really make it with 1 set for a season.

It´s relatively easy and cheap to get these but I figured I have the fabric and managed to get the seam sealer tape I might just give it a try.

So here´s the full documentation on how it worked.

The seam sealer tape came from Aliexpress and since I was sewing for kids and light fabric I chose the 20mm version. 50m-s came in a plastic ziplock bag. Finding the end was impossible so I just cut at some point.

Next up to see how it sticks. As per instructions it melts at about 150 Celsius so you have to be careful with the iron. I tried first with a piece of fabric over but it didn´t work.
As it didn´t work with the fabric I thought I might give it a try with a hair dryer. Don´t ask how it turned out. My hairdryer overheated, blew the whole place all away and the darn thing would not stick either. Now it´s a question of time if my hairdryer is really dead or just pretends to be.

Sure none of these worked. I didn´t read the instructions completely. For some reason I keep thinking I am smart and don´t need to read. It keeps turning out I´m not as smart as I think.
Anyhow, the correct addition is freezer paper on top. So, start again, shiny side of tape on the wrong side of by fabric, paper on top, iron. Note the temperature should be a little under ´wool´ setting. And what a miracle, all works fine.

Freezer paper

Result

Now off to work on the pants.