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Part Six: With the silk shirt mostly assembled at this point, the reader may wonder what is left to do. The front and back of the shirt are together, the sleeves are in place, and overall, it finally looks like a shirt.
The raw edges of the cloth still hang at the sleeve ends, as well as around the neck and at the shirt bottom. Unless I get those ends properly tucked under and secured, the entire charmeuse shirt will disintegrate the first time it goes through the washing machine.
Any cloth edge that is left untreated will fall apart over time. The same process that happens to the ends of cut-off jeans and holes in your favorite shirt happen to any cloth. Fraying is the result, although different cloth types experience it at different rates.
The only way to stop the fraying is to double the cloth over, completely tucking the raw edge of the cloth under itself. Whether dealing with something as delicate as silk or as tough as denim, the doubled-over process is the same for finishing the seam.
I prefer to finish my hems with bias tape. I like using bias tape because it is quick, creates an even seam every time without a lot of plotting, and, when working with something as delicate as charmeuse, creates a strong hemline that will handle regular abuse.
But what is bias tape? It is neatly cut cotton cloth, with crisp, straight edges, and the raw edges pre-ironed into place folded over toward the center of the cloth. Different types of bias tape are folded differently, but I prefer to use simple single-fold bias tape for my hemming needs. This type of bias tape has both edges folded in toward the center with a small gap preventing the edges from touching each other.
Bias tape is available in dozens of colors, and often displayed in rainbow-fashion in stores. The tape varies from a quarter-inch to two inches wide, and is usually sold in lengths of three and four yards each.
I chose a light cream bias tape for my project. Unlike cloth, bias tape is ready-to-use as soon as it is opened. It doesn’t need to be washed.
To use bias tape for hemlines, one side of it must first be ironed open. I placed the bias tape on the ironing board with the folded edges facing up, and selected one of the folded-in edges at random. I unfolded it so that it lay flat, and began to iron it.
Doing this is almost as dangerous as working with a serger, which was what I used to sew the shirt to this point. During this ironing process, I had to keep my fingers out of the iron’s way while carefully unfolding the bias tape, all without keeping the iron in any one place too long so as not to ruin the original fold mark that I had just ironed out.
When one side of the bias tape was ironed open for the entire three-yard length of the material, I turned off my iron and turned to my shirt once more.
Finishing the neckline requires the least amount of effort. It is also the point of the shirt that will suffer the most from continued manipulation without being finished, thanks to charmeuse’s habit of fraying.
I located roughly the center of the back of the neck, then slid a pin through to mark the spot. Working with the correct side of the material toward me, I turned the bias tape so the side that was still folded over was away from the raw edge, and facing toward it at the same time. The unfolded side, which had been ironed flat, was pinned so that it was even with the neckline.
I worked my way around the entire neckline, carefully lining up the edges of bias tape and charmeuse and pinning in place, until I reached the back of the neck again. I overlapped the material by an inch and cut the bias tape with my scissors.
Finally, it was time to use my regular sewing machine. It isn’t a fancy machine of any sort, a simple box-store variety that set me back about $200. This was the first time in the entire project that a regular sewing machine had come into play.
When looking at the pinned-in-place bias tape, the original fold location that was ironed out still existed.
For sewers, this ironed-out fold location is called the ditch, because it resembles the depression on the side of the road that holds water. When sewing, the ditch needs to hold stitches instead of liquid though.
I carefully lined up my sewing machine with the ditch in the bias tape. I selected a simple straight stitch and began slowly sewing around the neckline. Like with the serger, I pulled each pin out before it reached the needle, so that I wouldn’t break the sewing machine needle as it passed over the pins.
Several minutes later, I had the bias tape secured to the neckline. As I neared the end, I carefully folded the edge of the bias tape over on itself before sewing it into place as well, which would create a finished edge on the bias tape when the sewing was complete. I cut the thread away from the sewing machine and tied the ends into a square knot.
With practiced fingers, I folded the bias tape over on the ditch, forcing it back down along the original fold line that I had earlier ironed out and then sewn along so carefully. The raw edge of the silk was forced under as the ditch was folded, and the crisp, finished edge of the always-folded side of the bias tape formed a perfectly doubled-over edge along the inside of the material.
At this point, I turned the shirt inside-out so that I could access the folded bias tape more easily. I pinned this in place and sewed around it, keeping as close to the edge of the bias tape as I could so that it would lay flat.
The neckline was finally finished.
Sleeves can always be shortened if needed, and bottom hemlines can be adjusted. But necklines are the one raw edge on a shirt that there is difficulty in re-cutting if they fray too much.
Finally, my project was mostly out of danger, and starting to look like a professionally made shirt.
Next week, I will explain bias tape finishing process on the sleeves and the bottom hemline. I will also teach you how to make the sleeves the same length every time and how to get the shirt to hang perfectly on any body type before the final hemline is put in place.
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Gretchen Richards is a reporter at the Parkersburg News and Sentinel. She is a fifth-generation artisan, skilled in numerous art forms. She enjoys sewing her own clothing and custom purses, making quilts, and weaving. She is skilled in knitting, crochet, embroidery, counted-cross stitch, and working with cloth of all types. Gretchen also paints with acrylic, practices calligraphy, and is skilled in metal-working and book binding.