This post is about unraveling the differences between underlining, interlining, interfacing, and lining, and how these invisible underlayers can transform your clothing into something that looks smooth, maintains its shape, and can be worn for years.

What Are Inner Support Fabrics, and Why Do You Need Them in Sewing?

New sewists often ask if they can skip the inner support fabrics. You can skip them; fast fashion often does. However, there are consequences. For example, if your jacket lacks interior structure, it will resemble your T-shirts after a few washings: a soft pile of fabric with no real shape. The same will be true, to a greater or lesser extent, for all your creations.

The structure of a garment depends not only on the seams and the shapes of the outer fashion fabric pieces but also on the fabrics underneath that support the fashion fabric. Interfacing will give your collars their crisp edges, wash after wash; even a simple lining can reduce stretching of your fashion fabric as you sit, stand, and walk.

Underlining vs. Interlining vs. Interfacing vs. Lining: What’s the Difference?

Sometimes used interchangeably, these terms are not the same. Below, I give the most common definitions for each word; these definitions can change depending on

Underlining is a lightweight fabric which is cut exactly like the garment pieces, hand-basted to the fashion fabric and thus treated as one throughout construction.”(1) It “reinforces open weaves, prevents transparency in light colors, and adds support.”(2)

Interlining is a layer between the lining and underlining which adds insulation (2), although some sewists insist on using the term interchangeably with “underlining.” (3) Heavier than underlining, it is often taped or trimmed to keep seamlines free of its bulk.

Interfacing is the layer between the garment and the facing. Its function is to stabilize collars, cuffs, vents, lapels, waistbands, and other shapes.”(2) Interfacing is a fabric specifically designed to give a degree of stability or stiffness. Interfacing can be woven or non-woven, and sew-in or fusible. (1)

Lining is a fabric used to cover the inside of the garment. Lining protects the inside of the garment from wear, tear, and perspiration. (4) It makes the inside more attractive by covering underlining and interfacings. Unlike underlining, lining is only attached to the garment in a few key areas.

1. Roberta Carr, Couture: The Art of Fine Sewing. Palmer/Pletsch Inc. 1993.

2. Helen Joseph-Armstrong, Patternmaking for Fashion Design, 4th Edition, Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2006.

3. Including Kenneth King, who says, “I’d like to clear up come (sic) confusion surrounding the terms underlining and interlining. They’re the same thing, and the terms can be used interchangeably.” Threads Magazine No. 135, The Taunton Press, March 2008, p. 41.

4. Susan Khalje, Linen and Cotton: Classic Sewing Techniques for Great Results, The Taunton Press, 1999.

Your Mileage May Vary: Why these terms are inconsistent

The language of garment construction developed simultaneously in countries around the world. After all, everyone needed clothing! Since regional clothing was based on available fabrics, different countries gave similar techniques different names. Through conquest, trade, and reputation, some countries’ vocabularies spread farther than others. Therefore, we often use British terminology for men’s tailoring, but French terminology for women's wear. If your country uses different terms, please share them in the comments!

Leave a comment

How to Tell Which Inner Fabric (Lining, Interfacing, Underlining) Your Pattern Needs

It can be challenging to determine which interior structures you need and how to apply them to your particular creation. The use of interior structural elements is almost completely ignored in pattern instructions. While some instructions may indicate which pieces to interface, they often fail to mention key areas. A few patternmakers provide separate pattern pieces and instructions for lining, but underlining and interlining are almost never even mentioned.

It takes experience to know which internal structures are applicable to a particular design-fabric combination. In some countries, skilled dressmakers and tailors pass this knowledge down to their proteges; in others, these techniques are taught in fashion trade schools. In the United States, most patternmakers matriculate from design schools, which focus on the steps required to mass-produce profitable ready-to-wear clothing; these programs do not teach the –less profitable– techniques for creating high-quality, long-lasting garments. Other patternmakers –particularly those who sell online– are self-taught using only ready-to-wear clothing as their examples.

All is not lost. Trial and error is an effective, though expensive teacher. You can also learn these techniques, as I did, by working alongside skilled teachers, by immersing yourself in books and articles, and by experiencing museum exhibitions (or behind-the-scenes videos) that show the beautiful work of hands from the past who created clothing meant to last.

Combining Inner Fabrics: Can You Use Interfacing, Underlining, and Lining Together?

Absolutely! Here are two examples:

A bespoke tailored jacket. Generally, men’s jackets are not underlined; however, women’s jackets may be underlined if the fabric is translucent or needs additional structure. The jacket front and the top of the jacket back are interlined with canvas, and the under collar is interlined with canvas and interfaced with additional canvas below the roll line. Lining is felled stitched along the front facing and collar edge; the lining is loosely attached at the hemline with a jump pleat and catch stitching.

A ballgown or wedding dress. The fashion fabric is underlined not only to provide support for any boning but also to add opacity, a subtle color change, or additional body. Interfacing may be applied in areas which require fortification or stiffening, such as under buttonholes or in collars. Finally, lining is used to cover the interior structure and give the wearer a soft, smooth, absorbent layer against the skin. In full skirts, the lining is often hemmed separately and attached to the outer garment with French tacks.

Mastering Couture Garment Structure: What’s Coming Next

I hope this post has clarified the separate roles of underlining, interlining, interfacing, and lining in your projects. In the next few weeks, I’ll explore each type of inner support in depth.

In Part 2 of this series, we are diving deep into Underlining—including step-by-step flat-basting methods and the best fabrics to use for your garments. Bookmark this page, share it with a sewing friend, and leave your specific underlining questions in the comments below!

Leave a comment

Too shy to comment? Message me!

While it might seem like an extra step, taking the time to press your seams as you sew is a game-changer for achieving a polished finish. In this guide, we’ll tackle the most common questions, myths, and essential techniques for pressing garments like a pro.

What is the difference between ironing and pressing?

Ironing is the process of dragging a soleplate back and forth across a piece of fabric to make it smooth and flat. Examples: ironing wrinkles out of a linen tablecloth or a cotton handkerchief.

Pressing is the process of using steam, heat, and weight to lift and set pressure, shaping the fabric into place. Examples: steaming a curve into a collar, shaping a jacket’s roll line, or easing a sleeve head.

Why Press?

Sewists have only three ways to shape two-dimensional fabric around three-dimensional bodies:

1. Darts

2. Seams

3. The heat, pressure, and steam of the iron

Think of pressing as sculpting your fabric: bypassing the iron means forfeiting nearly a third of your power to shape the garment!

Common Objections & Hesitations

Won’t it just get crushed in the wash anyway?

Pressing is a core structural step, not a temporary cosmetic quick-fix. When you press after sewing each seam, you mold the fibers into a permanent shape before they are stitched into place. Pressing flattens bulky seam allowances, creates crisp style lines, and ensures precise seam intersections that survive laundering.

Why can’t I just iron everything at the very end?

You simply cannot reach every seam once a garment is assembled. Construction is cumulative; internal seams are enclosed, and darts are locked into place. If you wait until the end, those hidden internal structures will remain unpressed, leaving the finished garment bulky and ill-fitting.

Isn’t ironing while sewing going to double my project time?

Pressing as you go actually saves you time overall. Leaving all your pressing to the end causes major headaches:

• Wrinkle Warfare: Pre-sewn seams trap fabric memory, forcing you to fight stubborn creases later.

• Bulk Buildup: Unpressed seam allowances create awkward bulk, especially at complex cross-seams.

• Wasted Effort: Unpressed seams lead to misaligned patterns, ill-fitting collars, and costly seam-ripping.

Frequent Technical & Practical Questions

Won’t the hot iron scorch, stretch, or ruin my delicate fabric?

Pressing your project shouldn’t damage your fabric. First, check your heat settings; most irons recommend temperature ranges for different types of fabrics. Next, use scraps to check whether your fabric can be pressed safely. If you suspect that your fabric will be challenging, use a press cloth. I prefer cotton batiste or silk organza press cloths because the natural fibers disperse the heat and they are thin enough that I can see what I’m pressing.

Of course, there are some synthetic fabrics that will melt or burn, even with delicate handling. For these, it may be necessary to use a clapper, or even a hammer, to flatten seams.

Should I press my seams open or to one side?

There isn’t really one rule about this. Whether you press your seams open will depend a lot upon the garment, the fabric, the construction details, and your seam finish.

What specialized pressing tools do I actually need besides an iron?

Another difficult question! The tools you need depend on what you are sewing. If you aren’t sewing velvet, then you don’t need a velvet board!

The most common and versatile pressing tools are:

• Press Cloths - I prefer silk organza and cotton batiste, as they are thin enough to see through, but cotton muslin will do in a pinch. Don’t use a synthetic fiber press cloth which might damage your iron and your project.

• Tailors’ ham and ham holder - if you purchase no other pressing aid, a ham is the one to purchase. Tailor’s hams are densely packed, curved shapes which are indispensable for creating shaping in your projects. While you need a means to hold your ham so the curved edge is up, you need not purchase an expensive ham holder; a coiled cotton towel or other prop can do. As you can see in the pictures, my “ham holder” is actually an old football tee!

• Sleeve board - a sleeve board is flat, like an ironing board, but it is skinny which allows you to press open seams of sleeves and pant legs.

• Sleeve roll - The sleeve roll is constructed like a tailor’s ham. My long time sewing buddy’s younger brother used to call it a “French roll” because he thought is went with the ham… In any case, it is useful for steaming a curve into sleeves and other narrow places.

• Wooden clapper or clapper with a point press - these tools are used to apply pressure to steamed fabric without applying heat. I find the point press to be a bit more helpful, as the point press acts as a handle with which you can apply leverage to the clapper.

In addition to these items, I also use a yoga bolster to press side seam pockets and a towel or piece of corduroy if I don’t have access to a velvet board. If your iron doesn’t generate lots of steam, a water sprayer is also extremely useful.

How do I press three-dimensional curves on a flat ironing board?

You don’t. If you are creating dimension, you need to press your fabric over a curved surface. Bust darts, sleeve heads, princess seams, and collars are all shaped on a tailor’s ham. If you don’t have a tailor’s ham, you can wrap a cotton bath towel around a nonflammable, curved, solid object, such as a leather softball.

Tips for Efficient Pressing:

1.Invest in a good iron: A reliable iron with adjustable heat and steam settings makes pressing a breeze.

Some of our ASGLA Couture Group members recommend:

Chi Iron

Laurastar

Oliso Mini Iron

Rowenta Steam Station

Even if you use a good old Black & Decker iron, you can create steam with wet press cloths and spray bottles or plant misters.

2. Set up a Pressing Station: Set up a dedicated pressing area where you sew, with an ironing board and all the items you need for shaping your fabric: pressing cloths, ham, clapper, point press, and sleeve board or sleeve roll. If it’s all set up in one place, it will be easy for you to press after sewing each seam.

3.Press as You Go:This tip is the most important one, and bears repeating: press as you go! After sewing each seam and removing the basting, take a moment to press it open or flat before moving to the next step. This way, you incrementally build shape into your garment as you sew.

Embrace Your Iron!

It is tempting to bypass your iron, especially when you want to finish the job! Here’s a confession: I didn’t like ironing. However, early in my sewing journey, my wise home economics teacher imparted this nugget of wisdom: “If you don’t spend as much time in front of the iron as you are in front of the sewing machine, you aren’t doing it right.” While it felt like an exaggeration at the time, her words still ring true. Careful and frequent pressing is critical to getting good results in sewing. By incorporating pressing into your sewing routine, you’ll be amazed at the difference it makes. Your projects will look more professional, fit better, and give you that extra satisfaction of a job well done. So, ditch your fear of your iron and press your way to sewing success!

Share your favorite pressing tool or tip in the comments!

How Does a Sewing Machine Work? (And Why Stitches Jam)

Sewing machines are amazing devices. They are carefully engineered so that, as the needle descends, the bobbin hook passes in front of the needle, catches the needle thread, and passes the needle thread loop over the bobbin thread, forming the stitch.

This process is the same whether you have a bobbin case below your machine’s work surface (e.g., Bernina machines and vintage machines) or whether you have a “drop-in” bobbin on your work surface (as with many of today’s machines)

You can watch the mesmerizing process of stitch formation in the video below:

Sewing Machine Needle and Thread Chart: Choosing the Right Combo

When using a sewing machine, it is important to select the correct needle and thread combination for your project. Sewing machine needles vary in both size and shape. Threads most notably vary in diameter, which is measured by weight; they can also vary in stretch and in fiber content, all of which can affect your choice of needle. With all these variables, where should you start?

How to Choose the Right Sewing Machine Needle Type & Size

Choosing a sewing machine needle type

When choosing the proper sewing machine needle for your project, the needle's shape matters, and your fabric will be your primary guide. Needle manufacturers have developed different needle shapes which are optimized for various uses. Below, I have provided a simple primer. Note that different needle manufacturers may use different names for their needles, and I have omitted many specialized needles currently available. In most cases, I have provided more than one option; you need to make samples to decide which needle yields the best stitch for your project fabric.

Knit Fabrics: Ballpoint, Jersey, or Stretch needles

Woven Fabrics: Sharp or Microtex needles (also, Quilting, Topstitch, and Embroidery needles)

Stretch Woven Fabrics (i.e. woven fabrics that contain spandex): Stretch, Sharp or Microtex needles.

Specialized Materials: note that there are many specialized needles available. For example, Leather needles for sewing leather, and Teflon-coated needles for sewing vinyl and faux leather.

You’ll notice that I have not included the ubiquitous Universal needle anywhere in my primer. That’s because the so-called Universal needle has a ball tip paired with a sharp point. When used on knit fabrics, the point is likely to cut the fibers, causing runs and holes. When used with woven fabrics, the sewing machine must apply additional force to push the ballpoint through the weave. This results in larger-than-necessary holes and crooked stitches. Arguably, Universal needles might work for stretch woven materials, but I’ve found that Stretch needles provide more consistent results. Neither beast nor fowl, Universal needles aren’t well suited for any task.

Choosing a sewing machine needle size

Once you have chosen the best needle shape for your fabric, you need to choose needle size (diameter). Again, your choice will be influenced by the fabric you choose. Light silk chiffon will need a small needle, and heavy denim will need a large needle. Your needle size may change over the course of your project, depending on the techniques that you incorporate. While a size 14 sharp is sufficient to sew two pieces of most medium-weight denim together, you will want a larger needle to sew multiple layers of that denim in flat-felled seams or narrow hems.

👍Rule of thumb: When in doubt, go smaller—a too-large needle can bend imperceptibly and damage your bobbin case/hook. It is better to break a needle than to bend one.

You can find a helpful needle guide at the Schmetz Needle website.

When to Change Your Sewing Machine Needle (Audio & Visual Signs)

Don’t wait until your needle breaks before changing it! As soon as you hear a change in sound (such as thumping or popping) or notice a decrease in your stitch quality, change your needle. It’s not an expensive investment, but it can save you hundreds of dollars on sewing machine repairs.

How to Choose Quality Thread for Your Sewing Machine

When choosing thread for your project, two general rules apply:

Choose High-Quality Thread: Stick to 100% polyester or 100% cotton thread from a well-reputed source (e.g., Gütermann, Mettler). Avoid dual-duty (cotton-wrapped polyester core) thread. These threads shed excessive lint that clogs internal gears.

Match the Weight of Your Thread with Your Needle. Even with the appropriate needle, some home sewing machines cannot accommodate heavyweight or even medium-weight threads.

Should You Use the Same Thread in the Bobbin and Needle?

In a word, maybe. For general sewing, match your needle and your bobbin thread types.

For heavy topstitching: use heavy thread in the needle, standard thread in the bobbin, and adjust your thread tension. Test your stitch length and tension on scraps of your fashion fabric before committing to a combination.

For machine embroidery, use bobbin-weight thread in your bobbin and machine embroidery thread in your needle. Adjust tension and stitch samples before stitching out your entire design.

Why Does Sewing Machine Thread Nest Under Fabric? (And How to Fix It)

Thread nests, or bird’s nests on the bottom of the fabric are almost always caused by issues involving the top thread tension or threading path. They can be virtually eliminated by following this Golden Rule:

🌟Raise your presser foot before threading!

Raising your presser foot before threading disengages your tension disks. If your presser foot is up when you thread your machine, your thread will seat properly between the disks. Therefore, if your bobbin thread is nesting, the first thing you should do is re-thread your machine with the presser foot up.

If you have an automatic needle threader, make sure that your thread tail is long enough to thread the needle without pulling additional thread. Most automatic threaders lower the presser foot to provide access to the needle eye. If you pull additional thread while the presser foot is down, you can cause tension problems. Therefore, pull a thread tail long enough to thread your needle before engaging your automatic threader.

How to Wind a Bobbin Correctly to Prevent Thread Tangles

If you have chosen the proper thread and needle combination, threaded the upper part of your machine properly, and are still experiencing problems with your stitch quality, then your problem might be with your bobbin. Hidden away under our machines, we don’t think about them–until they run out of thread!–but bobbins are responsible for half the thread required for each stitch. It is important to wind them properly.

A properly wound bobbin has an even distribution of thread. If the thread is loopy or has been loaded asymmetrically, the bobbin can’t feed it out evenly.

Here are a few helpful tips for winding bobbins:

• Avoid winding at full speed. Load your bobbin at 60% speed for even distribution and uniform tension. Use 30% speed for Seraflex and other stretchy threads. If you are using elastic in your bobbin, it is best to wind your bobbin by hand.

• Use your hands. Many machines, particularly inexpensive ones, don’t automatically load bobbins evenly. When I wind bobbins, I pinch the thread with my fingers before it goes onto the bobbin. I hold the thread with light tension and guide it evenly up and down the bobbin.

• Replace loose, bumpy bobbins. You shouldn’t use loose or bumpy bobbins in your machine, but don’t need to throw the thread into the trash! Instead, place the bobbin on your spool pin, secure it with a spool cap, and feed its thread onto a new bobbin.

Many modern machines have automatic cutters which cut the thread in the bobbin area. In theory, these machines can start sewing without bringing the bobbin thread onto the throat plate, but this isn’t always the case. For best results, especially while topstitching:

• Turn your handwheel (always toward you!) to uptake the bobbin thread. Pull the bobbin thread up onto the throat plate.

• Leave long tails on both the needle and bobbin threads.

• Hold both upper and bobbin thread tails firmly for the first few stitches while starting slowly.

Step-by-Step: How to Fix a Bobbin Thread Nest Quickly

If you follow the tips above, you should avoid most bobbin thread nests. However, if you are sewing and find that your machine is sewing in the same spot without progressing, follow these steps:

1. 🛑Stop Sewing.

2. ⬆️Raise your presser foot.

3. 🔃Gently turn the handwheel toward you to raise your needle.

4. 🧵Remove your bobbin and bobbin case.

5. 🪺Gently ease the nest out of the throat plate. Use a pair of tweezers – don’t force or yank your fabric.

6. 🧹Vacuum and brush out your bobbin area.

7. 🪡 Insert a fresh needle and completely rethread with the presser foot UP.

DIY Sewing Machine Cleaning & Maintenance Routine

Your sewing machine is a mechanical device, just like your car. You don’t expect a car that’s sat in your driveway for 5 years to start up perfectly and run smoothly; you would ask your mechanic for a tune-up before driving on a long road trip. Similarly, your sewing machine also requires maintenance by a qualified professional. The frequency of your tune-ups will depend on how much you use your machine. Before I had students using my machines, I had them serviced once a year. Now, I service them even more often. That said, there are a number of things you can do to save on expensive repair bills:

• Clean your machine after every project.

• Use mini vacuums, Q-tips, and long-bristled soft paintbrushes to gently lift out lint. NEVER use canned/pressurized air! (It blasts moisture and lint deeper into mechanical parts).

• Deep Clean Inside the Housing. Use the included manufacturer’s wrench to open the upper door/access panels and clean hidden lint traps.

• Clean and oil your hook. Oil your machine according to your machine’s manual.

• Schedule an annual professional tune-up. Don’t wait for problems before you go to the shop!

Sewing Machine Troubleshooting: Test Scraps & Tension Checks

Finally, I can’t stress the importance of sewing samples enough. Use scraps of your project material to test your needle, thread, and stitch combinations. If you are experimenting with a new technique, try it on scraps before using it on your project. You have a limited amount of fabric: take your time to ensure that your results will be perfect.

👉Pro Tip: If you take a break—even for a coffee—re-test on a scrap before resuming, especially if you are sewing buttonholes!

Good Habits Make Great Results

If you adopt these habits of regular cleaning, needle replacement, proper needle and thread selection, and sample creation, you will prevent most of your stitch issues. Your projects will look better, and on those rare occasions when you need to rip out stitches, they will be easier to remove. I hope this blog post helps you keep your machine sewing at its best.

If your sewing machine is new to you and you’d like help getting acquainted with it, please schedule a private sewing consultation. I’d love to show you how to use your machine!

Schedule a consultation with Elizabeth

What’s your go-to habit before starting a new sewing project? Let me know in the comments below!

Leave a comment

There is a seductive mystique to muslins. Let’s call it the “Muslin Myth”—the dangerous belief that if your cotton toile fits perfectly, your final wool, linen, or crepe pants will, too.

A number of years ago, I participated in a week-long, Palmer/Pletsch Pant Fitting and teacher training workshop in Portland, Oregon. During the week, I sewed three pairs of pants. I purchased the fabric at Fabric Depot: black, grey, and navy “Downton” weave (a rayon, nylon, and spandex fabric by Telio Manufacturing). I used the same pattern for all three pairs: McCall’s M6571 (out of print, but re-released as Butterick B6851). Even though I sewed all three from the same pattern, for the same body— I swear, I didn’t gain any weight over the week! —each pair had to be fitted differently.

Why?

Even though the fiber and the weave of my fabric were identical, the dyes’ chemical reaction with that fiber and weave can change the hand of each color fabric. Therefore, it was possible for me to make three pairs of pants from the same pattern, for the same body, and still have different fitting issues.

Once we spend time and energy tissue-fitting and muslin fitting a pattern, we want to use the pattern more than once. We naturally turn to different fabrics. After all, who wants to make a dozen pairs of identical pants? Therefore, it is necessary to fit each pant as it is sewn.

If you are new to this series, welcome! In the previous posts, I have explained how to determine the style of pants you want to make, choose a pattern, measure proper your size, tissue-fit your chosen pattern, and fit a single-leg muslin. If you haven’t had a chance to read those articles, click the highlighted words to be taken to those pages.

How Do I Use My Muslin to Create My Pants?

Your altered muslin is your pattern for your pants. Before laying out your fabric, “true” the pattern pieces that you did not use when making and fitting your muslin.

Steps for truing your pattern pieces:

1. Mark seamlines on all your additional pieces, such as fly protectors, fly facings, pocket facings, pocket linings, and cuffs.

2. Check each piece against the seamline where it is to be sewn.

3. Adjust the piece to match the length of the seamline where it is to be sewn. If the piece is curved, use your tissue alteration to inform your approach.

4. Redraw seamlines and add seam allowances. I prefer seam allowances of at least one inch, and I use at least two-inch seam allowances at the side seams.

5. (Optional) If you plan to use your pattern frequently, it may be worthwhile to create muslin pieces (left and right) for each piece, as tracing wheels and tracing paper tend to wear through tissue patterns. A full set of pieces can assist with pattern matching and can be placed more efficiently, minimizing fabric waste.

Example: If you lengthened or shortened your crotch, pocket pieces, fly facings, and fly protectors will need to be altered to match. You can make muslin versions of these pieces or use tissue ones.

Once all the pieces have been trued, press your muslin with a hot iron and spray starch. This will help it to lay flat on your fabric.

Lay out your muslin pieces on your fabric. Cut your pieces generously. I leave the following total seam allowances from the cut edge of the fabric to the marked seamlines of your pieces:

1. Inseams, waist seam and crotch seam: 1 - 1.25”

2. Side seams, including side seams of pocket pieces: 2”

Transfer your seamlines from your muslin (or tissue) pattern pieces onto your fashion fabric using the best marking method for your fabric. If you mark with a material other than thread tracing, baste along your marked seamlines on each piece. This allows you to see your seamlines from both sides of the fabric, which will streamline your fitting and construction.

What Does “Fit As You Sew” Mean in Garment Construction?

Most pants patterns base their instructions on the order of construction of ready-to-wear (RTW) pants. This isn’t a bad thing if you are simply constructing the pants without a desire to fit them on an actual person. As I’ve said from the beginning of this series, every single body is different, and none of them are the same as the dress form for which RTW pants are made.

If your goal is to fit pants to your unique figure, you need to construct pants like a bespoke tailor, not like an RTW factory worker.

With this in mind, you need to take multiple opportunities to check the fit of your pants during the construction process.

What Are the Essential Fitting Checkpoints When Sewing Pants?

Pants construction order is addressed in detail in Pants for Every Body by Pati Palmer and Marta Alto. In addition, the construction order for fly-front pants with topstitching is addressed in Fit and Sew Custom Jeans by Helen Bartley. Both books have revised pants construction orders to include opportunities to check the fit along the way.

Some of my students have commented, “With all these fittings, shouldn’t I just sew while I’m naked?!” No, not naked. You should be wearing the shoes and undergarments that you plan to wear with your finished pants, because your underwear will affect the drape of the pants, and your shoes can change how your pants fit from the hip to the floor.

Read more

At the Fit Sew Beautiful® Sewing Studio, we believe:

• Every body is unique—and worth honoring.

• You deserve clothing that fits, flatters your natural shape, and builds your self-esteem every time you put it on.

• Garment fitting takes time, so the clothes you make should be built to last. By combining custom fit with time-tested couture techniques, we craft garments that feel extraordinary and stand the test of time.

If you’re wondering where to begin among all our tutorials, guides, and studio reflections, use this roadmap to jump straight to what you need most.

We organize our publication into four main pillars. Click into any section below to explore the full library:

1. 🪡 Garment Fitting

Commercial patterns are made for a theoretical average—not your unique body.

If you’re tired of gaping necklines, diagonal drag lines, or commercial patterns that feel like a gamble, start here. We break down tissue-fitting alterations, muslin (toile) fitting, and fitting as you sew, step-by-step.

Explore Garment FItting Articles

2. ✨ Couture Techniques

Slow down and sew for heirloom quality.

Couture isn’t about complexity for the sake of it—it’s about structural integrity, hand-stitched precision, and clean inner finishes that make garments look as stunning on the inside as the outside.

Explore Couture Techniques Articles

3. ✂️ Tools & Gear

The right tools for the right jobs.

From evaluating dress forms and marking tools to navigating sewing patterns, color analysis and resource lists, we test and review so you don’t waste time or fabric.

Explore Sewing Tools & Sewing Gear

4. 🧵 Studio Lessons & Inspiration

Reflection from the cutting table.

Behind-the-scenes insights, creative problem-solving, design process notes, and honest lessons learned from real studio experiments—failures, breakthroughs, and triumphs included.

Lessons from the Studio

☕ How to Get the Most Out of Fit Sew Beautiful

1. Check Your Inbox: As a subscriber, tutorials arrive directly in your email with high-resolution photography and step-by-step instructions.

2. Bookmark the Archive: Search past articles anytime via the search icon at the top of the site.

3. Join the Community: Leave comments on articles! Whether asking a fitting question or sharing your own studio experience, the comment section is a supportive space for makers.

Ready to dive in?

Pick a section above, grab a tape measure or a cup of tea, and let’s make something beautiful together.

Happy Sewing!

Fast fashion has groomed two generations of sewists to power through their sewing projects as quickly as possible and create a wardrobe in a weekend. Their methods, though, often leave home sewists with disappointing results for their time and effort: clothing that is as poorly fitting and short-lived as what they would buy in the store.

There is an alternative approach to garment-making: couture.

In this post, I’ll explain what “couture” really is and what that term means when applied to our own creations. I’ll discuss the hallmarks of couture, and why you want to add those techniques to your sewing repertoire.

What is Haute Couture? (And What It Means for Home Sewists)

Couture is a term that gets slapped on everything these days. Couture sunglasses. Couture jewelry. Even couture dog collars. What does it mean?

In French, couture simply means “sewing” or “dressmaking”. Haute couture, or “high sewing,” is a term regulated by the French government. The most important qualification for a couture house – aside from the possession of an atelier in Paris – is that it designs made-to-order garments for private clients, with one or more fittings.

When you think about it, this is exactly what home sewists do! Few home sewists produce large volumes of garments for public sale. Instead, most of us make made-to-order clothing for ourselves, our family members, and our friends.

Fast Fashion vs. Couture: The Fit and Quality Crisis

Fast fashion optimizes its entire garment production pipeline for profit, above all else. Maximizing profit means cutting costs at every step:

Fast fashion is made to fit no one. Fast-fashion garments are designed to meet arbitrary quality-control standards, not to fit real people. Nowhere along the path from design to finished garment does the manufacturer attempt to fit clothing to a particular body. In fact, in some cases, clothing is designed to look its best when folded flat on a display case!

Fast fashion reduces the cost of labor. Not only are most garment workers poorly paid, but manufacturers also instruct them to use time-saving shortcuts, such as those “tricks” shown in YouTube videos. Many of these weaken the garment, causing it to wear out prematurely.

Fast fashion reduces the cost of materials. Fabric quality in ready-to-wear clothing has decreased measurably over the last 60 years. In addition, manufacturers incorporate tiny seam allowances, which use less fabric, weigh less to ship, and wear out quickly, reducing garment life and ensuring purchases of replacement garments. (And even more profits.)

Haute couture is the polar opposite of this approach: made-to-order clothing focuses on the wearer. The couture house doesn’t make its profit by selling large volumes of custom-made clothing. Rather, it builds its relationships with its wealthy, famous clients over the course of years. To cultivate this relationship, the designer wants to create clothing that flatters the client and lasts over time. A client who is paying thousands of dollars for a garment will expect it to fit perfectly and be comfortable, and to have the couture house alter it if necessary. After all, what do the clients who sit in the front row at Paris Fashion Week shows wear? The garments that they have purchased from the house in previous years.

Why Home Sewists Are Actually Modern Couturiers

Home sewists expect that the clothing we create will look better, fit better, and last longer than clothing we can buy. Why would we use garment industry techniques that run counter to those goals? Instead, we can learn techniques from the couture houses of Paris and improve our results.

Three Couture Sewing Secrets You Can Use Today

Elevate Your Wardrobe with Quality Materials

It is hard to produce high-quality results with poor quality materials. If you are upcycling, select quality pieces; don’t waste your time and effort on garments made from cheap materials. If you are sewing from yardage, use the best quality materials you can.

Not sure where to obtain quality fabrics? Check out my resource list.

Master the Art of a Perfect, Custom Fit

Beautiful fit and attention to proportion is arguably the most visible aspect of couture clothing. You can learn the alterations you need to make to your patterns so that your clothing fits your unique figure. If you are particularly asymmetrical, you can improve fit by learning the proper way to create and use a toile/muslin.

There’s a common misconception that garments with a lot of design ease don’t require fitting. Loose designs can overwhelm your figure if they are not properly fitted. Rounded backs and forward head/forward shoulders in particular will throw off necklines and sleeves. Good fit and attention to proportion are as important in a loosely fitting design as in a fitted one.

Upgrade to Couture Construction Techniques

Couture houses employ a wide range of construction techniques to create beautiful, long-lasting clothing. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list, rather a short list of places to begin your couture sewing journey:

Focus on the seams. Couture houses mark every seam for accuracy. They don’t use the edge of their material to guess where a seam will go. Instead, they baste seamlines on each piece of fabric, then baste the pieces together along those basted seamlines.

Bonus: focusing on seam lines makes both fitting and sewing easier and more accurate. It also makes setting sleeves a dream!

Add big seam allowances. Couture houses know that large seam allowances help stabilize seams, provide room for alterations, and improve the overall drape of a garment. Instead of limiting yourself to a measly ⅜- or ⅝-inch seam allowance, cut a bit wider and see how a 1- to 2-inch seam allowance improves your results.

Don’t be afraid of sewing by hand. Sewing machines are a great invention. However, if you look at images of a Parisian couture atelier, you won’t see many sewing machines. Most of their work is done by hand. Sewing machines have flat beds; hand sewing allows us to shape fabric into three dimensions as we sew.

Resources to Start Your Couture Sewing Journey

🎬 Ready to Look Inside?

If you’d like to explore couture construction techniques from the inside out, I highly recommend starting with these incredible visual resources:

• The “Fashion Unpicked” Series – Victoria & Albert Museum (London)

• “The Making of...” Collections – Christian Dior (Paris)

• “Couture Inside Out” – The Fashion and Textile Museum (London)

• The McQueen Rose Dress Masterclass – House of Alexander McQueen

🪡 Take Your Next Step Toward “Slow Sewing”

Thinking like a couturier is a journey, and you don’t have to walk it alone.

• Subscribe to Fit Sew Beautiful on Substack for weekly, step-by-step masterclasses delivered straight to your inbox.

Subscribe now

• Want 1-on-1 guidance? Message me directly to book a private, personalized Zoom

Message Me

Why Make a Pants Muslin?

You’ve spent hours tissue-fitting, do you really need to make a muslin, too? No. After years of fitting gingham pants on their students, Pati Palmer and Marta Alto decided that paper patterns were faster and easier for beginners to alter than fabric. Today, most Palmer/Pletsch pants fitting classes progress to cutting fashion fabric pants directly after fitting the tissue pattern. However, I find that students benefit from creating muslins for a variety of reasons:

1. A muslin provides insight into how fabric will drape. While even a well-fitted muslin cannot entirely eliminate the need to fit as you sew your fashion fabric pants, your muslin will provide much more information about how your pants will fit your crotch than a paper pattern can. Since most people’s figures vary quite a bit from standard patterns, tape and tissue from multiple alterations will obscure their understanding of how their pants will hang.

2. A muslin gives confidence. Many of my students are experienced sewists who come to me for pants fitting after taking group classes that failed to result in wearable pants. Other students come to me with limited sewing experience, but with a strong desire to create pants for their non-standard figures. Both types of students gain much-appreciated confidence by creating muslins. For the former students, a muslin assures them that their altered pattern will fit when they cut their precious fashion fabric. The latter students benefit from the low-stress opportunity to practice sewing machine and construction techniques.

3. A muslin is a permanent pattern. Your muslin will become your permanent pattern. Unlike tissue patterns, which wear out after multiple uses, muslin can be used, marked, and reused for years.

Unlock the Single-Leg Fit Method

Upgrade to a paid subscription to instantly unlock the rest of this guide, including how a single-leg muslin saves fabric while making crotch adjustments, wrinkle reading, and waistband fitting incredibly easy!

Subscribe now

Read more

So, what’s the solution? Tissue-fitting your pattern before making your muslin is fast, cheap, and addresses most major figure challenges before you fine-tune the fit in a muslin. In fact, in some circumstances, it obviates the need for a muslin. This week, I’ll walk you through tissue-fitting, step-by-step. Next week, I’ll address the need for, and fitting of a pants muslin.

If you are new to this series, welcome! In the previous posts, I have explained how to determine the style of pants you want to make, choose a pattern, and measure proper your size. If you haven’t had a chance to read those articles, click the highlighted words to be taken to those pages.

Why Tissue-Fitting Is Important for Sewing Pants

Tissue-fitting allows you to easily make length, width, and back adjustments, subtly alter inseams, all without wasting resources; all you need are scissors, tape, and paper. By contrast, muslins require fabric, and any alterations need to be sewn precisely into place. Tissue-fitting is perfect for making major alterations with ease. In fact, after tissue-fitting patterns for culottes, palazzo pants, pajama bottoms, or other loose styles, you may not even require a muslin at all!

How Do I Prepare a Pants Pattern for Tissue-Fitting?

Successful tissue-fitting builds on a foundation of accurate pattern preparation. If you are precise and intentional when you press, trim, mark, and tape your pattern pieces, you will have good results. If not, your mistakes will multiply, and your results will be less than optimal.

Preparing your pants pattern for tissue-fitting is similar to preparing bodice patterns. After determining your size, follow my step-by-step instructions for preparing a pattern for tissue fitting. Instead of taping and snipping the neckline or armscye (armhole) curves, you will tape and notch your crotch curve. If you choose your pattern size based on the stretch profile of your knit or stretch-woven fabric, you also need to add strips of tissue down the front and back side seams.

After your pattern is prepared, pin it together along the seamlines, wrong sides together. Pin darts to the outside. If your pants have slash front pockets, attach the side front piece (sometimes called the pocket back) to the main front piece of the pants with pins or tape. Since the side front/pocket back piece is part of the total pattern width, it must be included during fitting. Pocket lining/pocket facing does not need to be included.

👉 Pro Tip: Since tissue doesn’t stretch, if you are working with a knit or stretch-woven material, you will need to pin the side seams of your pattern parallel to the seamline, but far enough into the tissue strip to allow you to slide the pattern onto your leg.

What Is the Correct Fitting Order for Pants?

As with bodices, the order in which alterations are made matters. It is easy to make one alteration to your pants pattern, only to realize that you have undone your previous alteration. This leads to frustration and away from the joy of sewing well-fitting pants.

Pants Fitting Order, Step-by-Step

Below, I will walk you through the Palmer/Pletsch tissue-fitting process step by step. For clarity, I will provide photographs and describe the indicators of alterations; I won’t provide step-by-step instructions for specific alterations. For these, I refer you to Pants for Real People by Pati Palmer and Marta Alto. If you are confused or not sure whether you require a particular alteration, schedule a one-on-one Zoom or in-person consultation, and we can work through it together.

Read more

After determining the style of pants we want to make and choosing a pattern, your next step is to purchase the pattern in the right size for your body. Beginning sewists often buy their first patterns using their ready-to-wear size, usually with very disappointing results. In the second part of my series on fitting pants, I’ll explain how to measure yourself so you can select the pants pattern that best matches your actual body size. This will put you on the road to perfectly fitting pants.

What Measurements Do I Need to Take for Pants?

You only need to take one measurement to determine your pants pattern size. I had a hard time fitting pants until I learned the Palmer/Pletsch tissue-fitting method. Many of the resources I used required dozens of difficult measurements, all with disappointing results. In their landmark book, Pants for Real People, Pati Palmer and Marta Alto teach us that there is only one measurement that we really need to fit pants: the full hip. If you take this measurement accurately, you will start with a pattern you can alter to suit your unique figure.

How Do I Measure My Hips Accurately for Sewing?

You should always choose your pants size based on your hip measurement. If you purchase for your hips, you can alter for your waist; altering the hip is more challenging, as this alteration often involves pockets and other design details.

Pants patterns are drafted from a pattern block where the full hip is 7-9” below the natural waist. Even if you want your finished pants’ waistline to fall above or below your natural waistline, it is important to use your natural waist as your landmark when measuring your full hip measurement.

To determine your full hip measurement, follow these steps:

1. Dress in the undergarments that you plan to wear under the pants. If you plan to wear shapewear, you need to wear it when measuring for size and throughout the fitting process, as it will change your measurements and body distribution.

2. Place a piece of elastic around your true waist and secure it with a safety pin or Velcro®. The elastic should be tight enough to cling to your body, not so loose that it moves independently.

3. After you have pinned the elastic in place, measure 7” to 9” from the elastic down your side. In this vicinity, you should be able to feel the upper part of your pelvis. This is your “hip bone” where you will measure your hip circumference. (If this bone is less than 7” below your true waist, that’s okay! You will probably shorten your crotch length later in the fitting process.)

👉Pro Tip: Your true waist is the place where your body bends when you do a side bend. In the studio, I sometimes sing the old nursery song, “I’m a little teapot…” to demonstrate the correct location!

👉Pro Tip: Do not measure higher than your hip bone, even if your abdomen is larger than your hips. Similarly, don’t measure at the top of your femurs; even though this may be the widest place on your body. This location is slightly below the separation between your legs, and the measurement changes when you move your legs closer together or farther apart.

How Do I Choose the Right Pants Pattern Size?

Read more

This week, I walk you through the structural differences among four classic pants shapes and how each shape affects fit. I’ll also provide a resource to help you determine which style will flatter your unique figure.

What Is the Difference Between Trousers, Slacks, Jeans, and Culottes?

... and why should I care?

In her classic patternmaking textbook, Patternmaking for Fashion Design, Helen Joseph Armstrong defined four basic pants shapes. Each shape has a different ease, fit, and crotch geometry. Generally speaking, the looser the pants, the easier they are to fit on the body. Below are the different types of pants, from loosest (easiest to fit) to most fitted (most challenging to fit).

Culottes: Culottes are wide-legged pants that mimic the silhouette of an A-line skirt. They feature a dropped crotch and significant volume starting at the waist.

Trousers: Trousers are fitted at the waist and drop straight from the seat and abdomen to the floor. The crotch curve is designed to sit gently against the body without clinging.

Slacks: While we often think of ‘slacks’ as casual, loose pants in our everyday closets, Helen Joseph Armstrong states that in pattern drafting, the slacks foundation is actually more fitted than the trouser foundation. Slacks are fitted through the waist and hips. Slacks also cup slightly below the abdomen and seat.

Jeans: Jeans are cut to fit very closely to the body, hugging the waist, hip, seat, abdomen, and (often) thigh. This close fit makes jeans the most challenging pants to fit.

It is important to know which style of pants your pattern is drafted to create, and to fit the pants to that convention. It is impossible to make a pair of jeans from a pattern drafted for trousers. Similarly, it isn’t possible to alter a pair of trousers into a pair of slacks without re-orienting the entire crotch seam, for which there might not be sufficient fabric to accomplish.

Which Pants Style Is the Easiest to Fit?

The Easiest: Culottes & Trousers

I encourage students who are starting their fitting journey to start with culottes or trousers. Because of their generous design ease through the seat, abdomen, and hip, culottes are the easiest pants to fit on most bodies.

Trousers have less design ease than culottes, but more ease than other pants. Trousers are designed to drop completely straight from your seat and abdomen to the floor, leaving a column of air and ease around your legs. Pajama bottoms, which are essentially elastic-waisted trousers, are a fantastic place to start a pants-fitting journey.

The Hardest: Slacks & Jeans

Slacks and jeans are designed to hug or closely frame the body, making them more challenging to fit. Of the two, slacks are easier to fit than jeans.

Slacks are designed to contour and cup slightly below the abdomen and seat. Because slacks skim closer to your actual curves, they require a more precise fit than a straight pair of trousers—making them a bit trickier to nail down on your first try!

Jeans require an even closer fit through the abdomen, buttocks, and thighs, often with negative ease; this makes them the most challenging pants to fit. I recommend that students fit a few other styles of pants before embarking on jeans fitting.

What Are the Most Flattering Pants for My Body Type

Determining what shapes flatter what bodies is the subject of many books, and too much to cover in a single blog post. My favorite reference for addressing this question is The Science of Sexy: Dress to Fit Your Unique Figure with the Style System That Works for Every Shape and Size by Bradley Bayou. Bayou considers not only basic body shapes (i.e., triangle, inverted triangle, rectangle, and hourglass) but also height and weight when determining the best clothing proportions. It’s an excellent, detailed reference for determining flattering wardrobe contents–down to the size and placement of pockets!

That said, I think many styles can be flattering on an individual's body, so long as they are in proportion to that figure. Pattern alteration is key to refining those proportions.

Your Next Steps in Pants Fitting

You don’t need a dress-form-shaped body to sew perfect pants; you just need to understand the structural blueprint of the style you’re fitting. For a little homework this week, flip through your pattern stash or browse online at Simplicity.com or StyleArc. See if you can spot the difference between their trouser and slack drafts by how the fabric drapes in the listing illustrations. Start brainstorming which pants might look best in your summer wardrobe—but don’t click buy quite yet! Next week, I’ll teach you exactly how to measure your body for a flawless pattern size selection, including the critical differences between measuring for stretch fabrics versus stable wovens. Jump to the measuring article.

Let’s chat in the comments: Which of these four styles are you most eager to fit for yourself? And which one has historically given you the most trouble? Comment below:

Leave a comment

Next week, we’re moving from theory to practice. I’ll help you determine the exact pattern size you need, including the secret to measuring for stretch versus stable woven fabrics.

Ready to fast-track your pants sewing progress? Let’s skip the wait! Click the link below to schedule a personalized one-on-one pants-fitting session today.

Let's Fix My Pants Fit

In this post, I’ll show you what changing sizes actually entails for clothing manufacturers and sewing pattern designers alike. You’ll learn why larger sizes aren’t as useful as you may think, and how grading works against good fit. Finally, you’ll learn when you might want to grade and how you can grade your sewing patterns.

1. What is Pattern Grading? (And Why It Matters When You Sew)

Pattern grading is the process of turning a base size pattern into additional smaller or larger sizes. The object of the pattern grader is to increase or decrease sizes proportionally, without changing the original style, proportions, or design details.

Grading is something applied to the entire design. When a sewist cuts between the size cutting lines of a pattern, cutting on a size 10 line for the bust and moving outward to size 14 line for the waist and size 16 line for the hip, they are not grading. In fact, in this rough attempt to adjust the pattern, they may be ruining the scale of their pattern and creating additional fitting problems.

When a sewing pattern is drafted, it is drafted to fit a dress form that has specific relationships between length and circumference. When that pattern is graded, it is graded proportionally by cutting it into relatively equal quadrilaterals. To make a larger pattern, these little quadrilaterals are moved the same distance apart from each other. To make a pattern smaller, each quadrilateral is overlapped by the same amount. (Actually, commercial pattern graders now use fancy computer programs to do this, but the programs are developed using the same mathematical principles.) In the picture below, you can see a sloper which has been graded. Note that when a pattern is graded proportionally, it gets longer as it gets wider. Herein lies the problem.

2. Why is grading a problem when you sew or alter garments?

Grading is a problem because real people aren’t shaped like dress forms. Proportional grading simply makes a pattern fit a taller, broader dress form or a shorter, narrower dress form. Grading doesn’t make the garment fit other figures. People come in all shapes and sizes, and their lengths and widths aren’t related the way dress forms are. Tall people can be short waisted. Short people can be long waisted. Plus-sized people can have small frames. These are differences in proportions, which a change of size cannot address.

If you look carefully at what the proportional grading process did to the pattern pieces above, you’ll see that a shift from size 10 to size 14 makes the pattern wider, yes, but it also makes the pattern longer. You can also see this by comparing the back waist length (the measurement from the back of the neck to the waist along the spine) for different sizes in the expanded size chart below.

I don’t know about you, but when I get wider, I (regrettably) do not get proportionally taller. I just get wider.

Why is this important? This means that when your body’s frame size is really a 10, but you use a size 14 to get around your D cup bust, the bodice will be too long. The armscyes will be too long. And the back will be too long and too wide.

When you use any sewing pattern, it is important to:

• Choose the pattern size which is the best fit for your frame size. Learn how HERE.

• Systematically evaluate the pattern and alter it to fit your unique figure. Learn how HERE.

3. When to Grade a Pattern vs. When to Alter It

Since grading itself can introduce a multitude of fitting problems, we need to know when it is appropriate to grade a pattern and when we just need to alter it.

Read more

Welt pockets. The words can strike fear into aspiring sewists: “Fastest way to ruin $200 worth of beautiful material,” I heard one sewist mutter under her breath. Welt pockets can elevate a garment from “homemade” to “tailored” and back to “homemade” again with one slip of the scissors.

In this installment of the Pocket Series, I will help take the fear out of making welt pockets. Step by step, I’ll walk you through a fail-safe method for making welt pockets so you will be confident when you cut your “Y-snip”.

Preparation for a welt pocket

Position the pocket.

Your sewing pattern will usually indicate locations for your welt pockets. In the studio, we don’t finalize that decision until we have basted or pinned the garment together for the first fitting because pocket location will vary according to each wearer’s figure and preference.

Cut a strip of painter’s tape the width and length of your pocket welt, and locate the best location for it on your body. You may want your pockets closer together, further away, more slanted, or more level than the pattern markings. Choose the position that best flatters your figure. Mark the position with pins; this will indicate where you need to interface. You can finalize the exact location of your pockets after interfacing.

Prepare the pocket opening

Interface the pocket opening

Read more

The Mystery of the “Pocket Ear”

Whether you call them slash pockets, slant pockets, or Tasche all’Americana (Italian for “American-style pockets”), these diagonal openings appear in everything we wear: jeans, chinos, casual skirts, and tailored pants. But despite being a wardrobe workhorse, this pocket is notoriously temperamental. You’ve seen it: linings that peek out, the corners that are too tight on the hip, and gaping openings. These last two are so common that they have a name: “pocket ears.”

There is a name for this phenomenon because it happens so often in both home sewing and ready-to-wear. In fact, I first discovered the term while scouring forums for a fix to my own frustrations. What I found was that there isn’t a single magic fix; instead, perfect pockets result from a specific sequence of professional habits. Today, I’m sharing the step-by-step workflow I use to tame the slant and achieve perfectly flat, crisp pockets that lay smooth against the body.

How to Prepare Slant Pockets

A little note on terminology: slant front pockets are created from three pieces, which, like the pockets themselves, can have a variety of names that can be sources for confusion:

Front - this piece is the front or side front of the garment and has either an angle or curve cut out for the pocket opening. In this post, I will use the term “front”.

Pocket facing or pocket lining or under pocket - which is attached to the front along the angle or curve and forms the part of the pocket bag which touches the front of the garment. In this post, I will use the term “pocket lining” even when it is not cut from lining fabric.

Side front, pocket back, pocket facing, or top pocket which forms the back part of the pocket bag and touches the wearer. In this post, I will use the term “pocket back”.

The Secret to Fit: Increasing Side Seam Allowances for “Turn of the Cloth”

When you lay your pattern pieces on top of each other, your pocket lining, pocket back, and front pieces match perfectly along the side seam line, but in fabric, they don’t.

Why not?

Fabric is thicker than paper, so the “turn of the cloth” requires extra room. Consequently, your front piece will be “shorter” than your pocket back piece at your side seam. Because each fabric you use with your pattern can vary significantly in thickness, I recommend adding 1-2” to your side seam allowance on your pocket lining, side pocket, and garment front pieces. This extra insurance provides enough fabric in all layers to curve over the hip.

Blocking Pocket Pieces to Prevent Distortion

Pocket pieces are curved, which means they can easily distort. After you cut your fabric, mark your seamlines with tracing paper, and baste along each seamline, use your pattern or your muslin to “block” the fashion fabric pieces back into their appropriate shapes, using the heat and steam from your iron.

How to Stabilize Slant Pockets

Whether your pocket is a diagonal slant or a cut-in curve*, a portion of your pocket opening will fall on the bias, and will be prone to distortion. To prevent this, stabilize the opening. You can accomplish this in one of two ways:

Read more

Wide seam allowances are a hallmark of couture sewing. They are the secret to professional-looking garments that are more durable, more sustainable, and beautifully fitted. Here is why you should go wide:

1. Counterintuitive Ease of Sewing

Hard to believe until you try it, but it is actually easier for you to ease a princess seam into its curve or a sleeve into its armscye when you have larger (at least 1”) seam allowances.

• The larger seam allowances provide weight, which helps the garment drape better as you work.

• Larger seam allowances can be eased and manipulated without fear of fraying or distorting.

2. Basting: the Path to Success

Using the edge of the fabric to determine your seam line is inherently inaccurate. It’s subject to your cutting accuracy and your ability to match the curved fabric edges to your machine's straight face plate groove.

• The Couture Method: Mark and hand-baste your seamlines. Not sure how? Read my posts on Marking and Basting.

• The Result: Basting creates a line that is easy for sewists—even beginners—to follow perfectly.

3. Superior Durability

Wide seam allowances make your garments much more durable.

• The Science: The stitches are well seated into the fabric. It is much more difficult for your stitches to pull through your seam when it is 1” wide than when it is a measly ¼”.

4. The Fitting “Circle of Hell”

Wide seam allowances give you room for adjustments, especially with difficult fabrics or new patterns. Even if you use the same pattern twice, different fabrics behave differently: they will have more loft, thickness, or stiffness. As I like to remind my students:

“There is no special place in heaven reserved for people who leave bigger scraps on their cutting tables, but there is a circle of hell filled with people who cut with ⅝” seam allowances and couldn’t get their garments to fit.”

5. Obvious Ease of Alterations

It’s almost too simple: you can’t let out a seam if you only have a ¼” seam allowance. Time and gravity will prevail, and your figure will change. Wide margins allow you to alter your finished garment as your figure changes.

6. A More Sustainable Wardrobe

Taken together, wide seam allowances make your clothes truly sustainable:

• Clothes Last Longer: Because their seams are more durable.

• Clothes Stay Wearable: Because you can alter them rather than replace them.

• More Creative Remake Potential: You have extra fabric to play with if you decide to remake your garment later.

But wait, there’s more...

Beyond those six pillars, wide allowances also help you:

• Create a more forgiving seam allowance when sewing curves.

• Make it easier to press and manipulate your seams.

• Add extra stability.

• Give yourself more room for decorative details like piping or topstitching.

The Trade-off

Yes, wide seam allowances take a bit longer to sew—but their benefits outweigh their drawbacks. If you’re new to sewing, I encourage you to experiment with this. You may be surprised at how much it improves your projects.

If you’re ready to move past basic quilting shortcuts and master the art of garment fitting, join our community of sewists. From beginner basics to advanced couture refinements, I’m here to help you sew with confidence and precision. Click below to never miss a stitch.

Let’s Sew Beautifully Together

When you sew couture-inspired skirts or sleek trousers, sometimes the best waistband is no waistband at all. In the professional sewing world, we call this a waistline facing or a faced waistline. It allows the garment to sit perfectly flat against the body, creating a seamless transition from your blouse to your hips.

Most sewing patterns instruct sewists to create self-fabric facings with side seams; these can be bulky and uncomfortable to wear. Today, I will share two ways to achieve this professional finish: the classic petersham facing (the couture standard) and my “secret weapon” for comfort: the elastic facing, using lingerie elastic or stretch petersham.

Common Questions about Petersham Waistline Facings

Why use a Petersham facing instead of a standard waistband?

Standard rectangular waistbands and contour waistbands are made of garment fabric and interfacing. This construction can result in four or more layers of structured bulk around your midsection. A petersham facing is a single layer of specialized ribbon that:

• Reduces bulk for a “flat” stomach look.

• Conforms to the curves of your body better than straight-grain fabric.

• Doesn’t emphasize the abdomen like a contour waistband.

• Provides a high-end, designer finish inside the garment.

What is the difference between Petersham and Grosgrain ribbon?

This is a common mistake! While they look similar, polyester grosgrain is stiff and has a straight edge; it cannot be shaped around your waist. Petersham, which is usually made of rayon or cotton, has a scalloped or “picot” edge. This unique edge allows you to steam the ribbon into a curve to match your body’s shape.

Can I make an invisible waistband comfortable for all-day wear?

The classic petersham method is elegant but has minimal “give.” If you want that couture look but need to breathe after a large dinner, I recommend an elastic facing. By using stretch petersham or 1” plush-backed lingerie elastic, you get the same invisible look on the outside with a hidden “expanding” feature on the inside.

What width should I use for my waist facing?

• 3/4” or 1” petersham: Standard for most skirts and pants.

• Wider widths: Best for high-waisted styles or those with a long waist and a flat midsection.

👉 Pro-Tip: If you have a curved abdomen, stick to narrower widths (1” or less) to prevent the facing from “digging in” when you sit.

Step-by-Step Tutorial: How to Sew a Faced Waistline

Read more

Why aren’t there more pockets in women’s clothing? In-seam pockets take more time, fabric, and skill to install, and–if they are large enough to be functional–they eliminate the wearer’s need to purchase a purse or other carrying accessory. Overall, inseam pockets are a loss of income for fashion manufacturers. All is not lost, however, because you are a clever sewist who can not only install pockets on your own creations, but also can add them to thrifted clothing.

Today, we’ll explore the two types of in-seam pockets, learn how to install them, and see if today’s ready-to-wear can be retrofitted with pockets.

What is the difference between cut-on side seam pockets and side seam pockets with separate bags?

The earliest form of side-seam pockets was actually slits in the side seams of skirts, through which the wearer could access bags tied to her waist. (Modesty was maintained by numerous petticoats between the pockets and the wearer’s body.) As skirt silhouettes became narrower, pocket bags were either cut on to the garment or sewn on.

Cut-on Side Seam Pockets (also known as Grown-on Pockets)

Definition of a cut-on pocket:

A cut-on pocket is one in which the pocket bag and the garment are a single pattern piece.

Disadvantages of cut-on pockets

These pockets seamlessly transition from the garment to the pocket, which makes them easy to cut and sew. They aren’t seen often in sewing patterns anymore, in part because of their many disadvantages:

• They require an inefficient fabric layout. Cut-on pockets increase the distance between major pattern pieces and waste precious fabric.

• They tend to rip at the pivot points. The pivot point or turning point of the stitching, where the seam begins to sew the pocket bag, is a weak point with these pockets.

• The leading edge of the pocket is undefined, so it often collapses after repeated washings, making it difficult to use.

• Cut-on pockets are constructed of garment fabric. The pocket can become very bulky, even when using medium-weight fabrics.

Best fabrics for a cut-on pocket:

These pockets are best suited to light- to medium-weight fabrics that tend not to wrinkle. Very lightweight materials tend to collapse, becoming wrinkled bulges in the garment’s side seams: equally unusable and unsightly. At the other extreme, cut-on pockets made from very heavy materials will be overly bulky and disrupt the garment’s drape.

Side Seam Pockets with Separate Bags

Definition of a side seam pocket with a separate bag

A side seam pocket with a separate bag is constructed from independent bag pieces that are sewn into the side seams. The pocket bag can be cut from fashion fabric or from a lighter-weight fabric, such as lining fabric. This pocket is the one most often included in sewing patterns, and it is the one you can use to retrofit pockets into ready-to-wear garments.

Advantages of Side Seam Pockets with a Separate Bag

While these pockets can be slightly more challenging to position, they have several advantages over cut-on pockets:

• The seam that attaches the pocket bag to the garment creates its own reinforced opening, stiffened by the seam itself, for ease of use.

• The pocket bag can be made from lightweight lining fabric (for reduced bulk), fuzzy flannel (for warm fingers), or any other fabric that the sewist desires.

• Offsetting the pocket slightly from the garment’s side seam means the pocket bag is never visible.

III. Step-by-Step Instructions: How to sew a separate pocket bag into a side seam

Before you cut your fabric:

Read more

Patch pockets are most often flat pieces sewn to the surface of the garment. The capacity of these pockets is limited by the flat piece and the tightness of the clothing to which the pocket is sewn. If you are searching for more and bigger pockets, there are many ways to add depth to patch pockets. In this post, we will explore patch pockets that can expand: gathered pockets, pleated pockets, and bellows pockets. The sheer variety of expandable patch pockets means you can always have a pocket for your cell phone!

👉Pro Tip: While you can always draft your own pockets, the ones pictured in this article are from the Pocket Pack 1 Sewing Pattern - Kea Collection and Pocket Pack 2 Sewing Pattern - Tui Collection, available at Twig & Tale. Twig & Tale provides full instructions and video tutorials for their pocket patterns.

I. The Search for More Storage: Choosing Between Gathers, Pleats, or Bellows Pockets

A pocket is both a container and a structural addition to a garment. When deciding which type of pocket to use, you should consider:

• How do I want this pocket to expand?

• Do I want it to grow from the center, the sides, or the bottom?”

• Does the pocket’s “expansion style” match the specific objects I am likely to carry?

• Is my garment fabric strong enough to support a full pocket?

• Does the pocket style match the style of my garment?

II. Gathered Patch Pockets: Adding Soft, Fluid Volume

Read more

In Part 1 of this pocket series, I deconstruct the patch pocket. Together, we’ll explore the different types of patch pockets, and I’ll provide step-by-step instructions for your own unlined and lined patch pockets. In future posts, I’ll show you bellows pockets and accordion pockets, side-seam pockets, and welt pockets.

What is a Patch Pocket? Anatomy and Uses

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a patch as “a small area of something, especially one which is different from the area around it.” A patch pocket is a pocket sewn onto the surface of a garment; the term "patch pocket" shares its name with patches, which are applied to repair garments.

Like the patches after which they were named, patch pockets come in a variety of colors, shapes, and materials. They can vary in shape: rectangular, triangular, or square, with rounded or pointed corners. They can even be circular! While they are often made from the same material as the garment, patch pockets can also be made from other materials to provide contrast. This variety makes them a great choice for covering stains, rips, or flaws in ready-to-wear and thrifted clothing, where matching fabric is unavailable.

Different shapes, fabrics, and embellishments make patch pockets a major focal point, and an opportunity for your creativity to run wild!

Lined vs. Unlined Patch Pockets: How to Choose the Right Style

Patch pockets can be lined or unlined. Unlined pockets are best for casual garments made from firmly woven materials, such as the back pockets on jeans. Lining is your secret to managing tricky fabrics – like loosely woven boucles – because the lining protects the fashion fabric’s ravelly edges and adds structure without bulk.

Step-by-Step Guide: How to Sew an Unlined Patch Pocket

Step 1. Pattern preparation and cutting the pocket.

The first step for creating a beautiful pocket comes before cutting your fabric. Many pocket patterns have tiny ¼” (3mm) or ⅜” (1 cm) seam allowances; these are too small for easy manipulation. If your pattern pieces have small seam allowances, add extra seam allowance to the edges of your pattern pieces: for jeans and other top-stitched pockets, 1” (1.5 cm) is sufficient at the top edge, for shirt breast pockets, 1 ⅜” (1 cm) at the top edge will give you enough to turn under and still leave a standard 1” (2.5 cm) top hem. Your pocket side seams should be ⅝” (1.5 cm) to give you enough room to manipulate the fabric without excess bulk.

Once you have cut your pockets, place a 1 ½” (4 cm) wide strip of stabilizer along the top edge of your pocket, where your pocket opening will be. The strip should overlap the fold line to reinforce the opening during use. I prefer a lightweight fusible, such as Palmer/Pletsch’s Perfect Fuse Sheer or Perfect Fuse Light. If you prefer an unfused alternative, you can baste an (on-grain) strip of silk organza along the fold line.

The inner edges of many ready-to-wear pockets are unfinished. However, if your fabric is prone to raveling, you can pink, serge, or otherwise finish the sides and bottom of your pocket.

Step 2. Prepare the pocket for attachment.

Whether you choose to finish the edges or not, you should stay-stitch the sides and bottom of your pocket along the fold lines with a 2.5 straight stitch.

Press the top edge along the foldline, using a clapper to make a sharp fold. Turn the raw edge up, and topstitch in place.

Next, fold the side seam allowance, folding the stay stitching towards the back of the pocket. Fold the bottom next and then the other side, working your way around the edge of the pocket.

👉Pro Tip: For jeans pockets, fold up half of the pocket hem and topstitch; this will create a strong ½” (1.3cm) wide edge. For a shirt breast pocket, fold up ⅜” (1 cm), leaving a 1” (2.5 cm) hem which can be top-stitched by machine or slip-stitched by hand.

Step 3. Prepare the garment

The corners at your pocket opening will experience significant stress when you use your pocket. In addition to stabilizing the top edge of the pocket, you will also need to stabilize the inside of the garment.

👉Pro Tip: Interior interfacing is less critical for decorative pockets on underlined garments, as the underlining will help stabilize the pocket corners. However, when it is likely that your pockets will experience heavy use, such as large pockets on a jacket, you should either fuse interfacing to the fashion fabric or add additional patches of underlining at the pocket attachment points.

Step 4. Place the pocket and topstitch.

Pin your pockets to your garment and try it on; if you are checking patch pockets on pants, you will need to pin or baste your pants together. Your pattern may suggest pocket locations, but this is your opportunity to place them in the most flattering position for your body.

When you are satisfied with your pocket position, topstitch the pocket in place. Use a narrow edge foot or a zipper foot to sew precisely on the edge of your pocket.

👉Pro Tip: If you want your topstitching to be more visible, try lengthening your stitches and putting contrasting thread in only your needle; your bobbin thread should match your garment. This makes those stitches “pop”!

For added strength, sew a small triangle or a bar tack at the corners of the pocket opening.

Unlined vs. Lined Patch Pockets: Which Should You Choose?

While unlined pockets are best for casual garments made from firmly woven materials, there will be times when you prefer a lined pocket:

• Loosely woven fabrics

• Decorative fabrics which are prone to pulls

• One-sided fabrics, when you want to hide the wrong side from view.

• Delicate fabrics, which require extra reinforcement

• Patch pockets on lined jackets, for professional polish

How to Sew a Self-Lined Pocket (The Cut-On Method)

Read more

A Common Misconception: Muslin vs. Test Garment

It is a frequent, though irritating, misconception that a muslin is simply a “test garment” or a disposable mock-up. Not so. A muslin is a working pattern. Unlike a test garment, a muslin is a technical tool. It is fit directly to your body, adjusted until perfect, and then deconstructed to serve as the precise pattern for your underlining, fashion fabric, or lining.

Why You Should Use a Working Pattern:

• True Accuracy: A muslin accounts for your three-dimensional curves and fabric drape in a way that a paper draft cannot.

• Identify Asymmetries: A muslin address left-right body differences before you touch your “good” fabric.

• Refine the Style: A muslin allows you to experiment with proportions, necklines, or hem lengths without risking expensive fabrics.

• Create a Permanent Template: Your deconstructed muslin becomes a durable, custom-fit pattern that you can use over and over without wearing it out.

What You’ll Need to Create Your Muslin

Before you begin, gather the following supplies:

• Muslin fabric (or a similar weight fabric appropriate for your project)

• Iron and ironing board

• Paper pattern

• Seam gauge

• Fine marker or pencil (for marking seam allowances)

• Pins

• Fabric shears

• Tracing paper and tracing wheel (wax tracing paper is best)

• Sewing machine and thread (in a contrasting color)

• Sharpie markers (for marking alterations)

Step-by-Step: Creating Your Working Pattern

Step 1: Prepare Your Pattern

1. Measure for size: Download our Fitting Guide to determine your starting pattern size.

2. Prepare your pattern: Rough-cut the pieces from the tissue and press (on the back side) to remove wrinkles. Trim to your size—just outside the cutting line. Most importantly, mark your seam lines. Check your instructions for the correct allowance; the seam line is your true guide.

3. Tissue-Fit: If you are trying to fit a muslin on yourself, save time and frustration by tissue-fitting your paper pattern using the Fitting Order in our Fitting Guide. Tissue-fitting addresses major fit issues so you can focus on perfecting your fit with muslin.

Step 2: Prepare Your Muslin Fabric

1. Shrink and Press: Wash, dry, and iron your muslin fabric to pre-shrink it.

2. Square the Grain: Rip a straight line along the cut edge. Straighten and square the fabric by pulling it diagonally until the torn ends are perfectly square to the selvages.

Read more

I recently spoke with Nancy Nix-Rice, a fellow Palmer/Pletsch CSI, Image and Wardrobe Strategist, and author of Looking Good: A Comprehensive Guide to Wardrobe Planning, Color, and Personal Style Development (Palmer/Pletsch Publishing, 1996). We discussed how a wardrobe consultation isn’t just a “getting your colors done”—it’s the starting point for building a handmade wardrobe that actually makes you look your best, feel your best, and stop wasting time, effort, and money on fabrics and styles that don’t work

1. Stop the Wasted Effort: Why Sewists Need Color Analysis

Time and resources are precious, whether you are working outside the home or inside it. Nancy argues that a professional style and color analysis is the ultimate shortcut for the home sewist.

“It saves the time that would be wasted sewing an item that—when it’s completed—doesn’t really showcase the wearer,” Nancy explains. “Also, because a woman’s optimal colors align with the temperature, value, and intensity of her own coloring, those colors will naturally relate to one another. This creates an astonishing degree of coordination among garments even without conscious planning.”

2. Is the Fabric Wearing You?

We’ve all been there: falling in love with a vibrant print on the bolt, only to find it feels “off” once it’s a finished garment. Nancy notes that we often fall into the trap of choosing what we think we like rather than what will flatter our own inherent coloring.

“Ironically, people will often comment favorably on a garment that is absolutely not great for the wearer—because they notice the garment so much that they aren’t actually seeing YOU,” Nancy says. “We need to tune into the difference between ‘Wow, I love that bright orange dress’ and ‘You look wonderful today.’ Especially in high-value interactions, you want to be sure your clothes aren’t wearing you, but rather guiding the other person’s attention up to your eyes—your communication zone. Facilitating eye contact in that way automatically creates a feeling of connection, comfort, and trust.”

Nancy’s clients receive decks of their optimal colors, which help them select clothing and fabrics. Nancy also provides recommendations on core colors that will create the backbone of a coordinated wardrobe.

Nancy says, “Having a physical set of optimal colors is so helpful in keeping us on the right track. The “but I really like it” mentality drives most sewists to have way too many prints in their wardrobes (not to mention their fabric stashes) Especially now that so much of our fabric shopping is online, a solid color just isn’t as exciting as a print. But if we have too many prints/plaids/patterned fabrics, we seriously limit the mix/match potential in our wardrobes.”

3. The Fabric Store “Drape Test”: A Quick Hack for Sewists

While a full analysis is ideal, Nancy shared a quick trick for your next trip to a fabric store. Before you head to the cutting table with that expensive cashmere suiting, wool boucle, or 4-ply silk crepe, try this:

1. Drape the fabric across your shoulders.

2. Look in the mirror (most fabric stores have one, even if you have to search!) and ask: “Does my eye move smoothly from the garment to my face, or do the two appear separate and unrelated?”

3. Check for “Separation”: If you notice the color or fabric more than you notice your own face, it’s a sign the choice is fundamentally wrong for you.

4. How Fabric Texture and Sheen Affect Color Intensity

Did you know the texture of your fabric changes how its color interacts with your own coloring? Nancy tells us that the brightness, saturation, and intensity of a color should balance with the intensity of the wearer’s personal colors.

• Matte surfaces (like crepe, suede, or challis) tend to minimize or reduce the intensity of a color.

• Shiny surfaces (like satin) make the very same color “read” as much more intense and saturated.

• Sheer surfaces (like chiffon, georgette, or organza) reveal the color underneath, and soften the actual color of the sheer fabric.

“Without professional advice, the majority of women choose colors that are overly bright and overpowering,” Nancy warns. “That brightness is further exaggerated by a shiny fabric surface.” And choosing the wrong color for yourself is not your fault. Retail and fashion magazines promote over-bright colors because they are so eye-catching in the store that women are drawn to them, even though they aren’t the optimal choice.

5. Choosing Your Best Neutrals for a Capsule Wardrobe

Neutrals are the foundation of a capsule wardrobe; they are the colors you use for basics like pants, skirts, jackets, and cardigans. With a handful of basic pieces, you can mix and match with blouses, tanks, tee shirts, and scarves in more exciting colors from your palette. Nothing beats a professional color analysis, but Nancy shared a few quick tricks for choosing your best shades:

• Dark Neutrals: Choose a color that relates to your hair—the overall color, a highlight, or even the darkest “lowlight.”

• Pale Neutrals: Avoid stark, optic white. Instead, look for pearl, winter-white, or a pale version of your eye color to facilitate eye contact.

• The “Glow” Secret: For Caucasian skin tones, a pale blush (between pink and peach) is often the secret to a healthy glow. For women of color or Caucasian women with blonde hair, a pale sandy color is a sophisticated alternative to white.

6. Love at First Sight: What to Do with “Wrong Color” Fabric

What if you fall in love with a fabric that isn’t in your palette? Is there a way to wear it successfully?

Nancy notes that when we have high-quality, accurate, personal color information, we quickly see the huge difference it makes, so we are less likely to succumb to the temptation of a lovely fabric in a “wrong” color. However, she shared a few tips to help us look better in less-than-optimal garments we have already sewn:

Break up the black: Connect black separates by adding elements of your hair color to the outfit. Example: add a blouse or shell, and the leather accessories, plus a scarf that contains both colors to “link” the combo.

Bridge the value divide: If you have a garment that is in the right color direction but either too dark or too light, you can balance the item to your own color value by adding a scarf at the neckline to either soften or strengthen the effect - creating a “bridge” between your own coloring and the garment color.

Give it up for costumes: When your clothing is chosen for a specific impact - not necessarily to flatter you - then it’s a value judgment, as to which objective wins out. Examples: sports fans’ bright team colors; actors’ costumes chosen to reflect period accuracy; and cosplay characters.

7. The Wardrobe Audit: Organizing Your Closet and Fabric Stash

If your closet feels overwhelming, Nancy recommends a radical “Style Audit.”

1. Get up-to-date information. Start with a high-quality, professional, up-to-date color analysis. (If you have pre-made “seasonal” color swatches or if your coloring has changed since you were last analyzed, it’s time for an update.)

2. The Rack Test: Take everything out of your closet and put it on a garment rack.

3. Keep the Best: Only put back items that are in your colors, fit, and aren’t worn, stained, or uncomfortable. Keeping your focus on what to keep rather than on what to discard is psychologically far less trauma-inducing.

4. The One-Week Trial: Store the “rest” elsewhere for one week. You’ll be amazed at how many outfits you can make when every piece relates in color and intensity.

“Clients are nearly always amazed at how many great-looking outfits they can make when every garment is a great choice for them, and all are related in color temperature and intensity,” she says.

8. Rescuing Your Stash: Overdyeing and Upcycling Tips

Nancy encourages sewing enthusiasts to approach their fabric collections in the same way as their closets. She explains, “Of course, sewists will eventually buy or sew additional pieces, but with an informed viewpoint, each new item will work right into her overall wardrobe.”

What if you have a favorite garment or fabric that isn’t a flattering color? Nancy offers a fun option for fabrics or garments that aren’t warm-toned or dark-valued: over-dye them to new, more flattering colors. She cautions, “It is easier to make a color warmer or darker. Cooler and lighter are harder to accomplish.” If you are trying to rehabilitate a sheer fabric, try changing the underlining fabric; it’s easier than redying and is often overlooked.

Can you share a quick success story of a client whose confidence shifted once they aligned their wardrobe with their natural coloring?

Your fitting and sewing student is certainly one shining example. She wanted to make major changes in her life, including getting in shape and revitalizing her work, performance, and casual wardrobe, but wasn’t sure where to start. When you introduced her to me, she had never enjoyed shopping and wasn’t especially confident in her appearance. Still, whatever she lacked in style savvy, she more than made up for in determination. After we defined her optimal color range and chose patterns to complement her figure, purchased our gorgeous ponte knit in her optimal neutrals and started bringing her new wardrobe to life. In just a few weeks of sewing with you, she created 18 new garments. Because her best colors automatically harmonize with one another, she soon had literally endless mix/match combinations. And the compliments started rolling in. Nearly every time we talked, she had another story to share about friends, colleagues and even random strangers commenting on how great she looks. It was like those TV makeover shows, only better, because she learned how to do it for herself!

About Nancy Nix-Rice

Nancy is an Image & Wardrobe Strategist who helps women navigate their color journeys through personalized consultations (both in-person and virtually). Her process involves selecting a custom palette from over 1,700 possible choices to create a personalized color fan and workbook. The personalized workbook details how to interpret and implement the recommendations and provides wardrobe development guidelines. Video training sessions supplement the workbook with real-life examples and teach the client to evaluate color in print fabrics. Through the magic of ZOOM, clients can work with Nancy to implement their color information, weed out their closets and/or fabric collections, and find items to mix and match with their garments and accessories.

Ready to start your own color journey? You can find Nancy’s book, services, and video training at NancyNixRice.com.