What is Ponte Di Roma? A Fabric Guide
It seems that the knit fabric ponte di roma (also known as punto-di-roma, but I’m going to call it ponte roma for short) is all the rage at the moment and much credit must lie with Tilly Walnes and her wonderful Coco Pattern. And what’s not to love? It’s an easy knit to sew, it doesn’t crease, it doesn’t cling to your lumps and bumps like some knit fabrics, it’s an all round good egg. The fabric was developed in Italy (the clue is in the name) and I’m very glad they did (to think they gave us this AND pizza – praise be for Italy!)
We’ve just had a lovely delivery of this scrummy knit so I thought I’d get tapping in case you were wondering what it was. I love these houndstooth prints… I’m reliably informed that houndstooth is the new chevron, don’t you know.
Construction of Ponte Roma
The fabric is a double knit , which means it’s a double layer of fabric knitted with a 2 sets of needles on 2 needle beds most probably on a machine that looks like this which I think it looks like the Tardis controls… I’m glad we just sell fabric and don’t have to operate scary looking machinery like this.
The fabric can be knitted from all sorts of different types and weights of yarns and elastane is often included to increase the stretch. It’s a firm, stable knit which holds it’s shape well in a garment, great news for the longevity of your lovingly made creations helping them to look great for longer. Being a double knit means that it’s a two faced fabric so it can often (but not always) be used for unlined or reversible items.
Sewing with Ponte Di Roma Fabric
As far as knits go, ponte is a good fabric to start experimenting with. It’s nice and stable, doesn’t have a huge amount of stretch and won’t curl too much either when cut. Try sewing ponte roma with ball point needle in a 70/10-90/12 size. Stay tape might be useful for ensuring your seams don’t run away with you under the needle. Stitch length works well at 2-2.5mm It requires nap layout when cutting out your pattern so bear that in mind when calculating fabric requirements,
I hope you found that helpful. What have you ben making with ponte recently?
How To Restore Plush (Minky) Remnants
Plush, minky, cuddle fabric… whatever you like to call it! (For an update on why we don’t call the fabric “minky” in the UK like the rest of the world does see this post) There’s no mistaking the lusciousness that started me on the road to our online shop. The trouble is (for us) the last 50cm-75cm of every bolt we have can only be sold as a fabric remnant. The pile near to the centre of the bolt gets brushed up the wrong way and crushed when the weight of the rest of the fabric piles on top of it. Then it’s stored by the manufacturer for a while and in that time unfortunately the pile goes a bit wayward and no amount of stroking it puts it back to it’s former glory. The fabric isn’t permanently like this as the pile isn’t damaged per se, it’s just got a bit of bed hair so needs a little coaxing to restore it.
We finish a lot of plush bolts each week which means we have a lot of remnants being created all of the time, in fact we are drowning in the stuff. We have a whole corner of our warehouse dedicated to plush remnants! There are just too many for us to list for sale individually so we also sell bundles at a reduced price. I thought I’d share this quick guide on how to breathe the life back in to the end of roll plush fabric. It’s perfectly good, and a bargain too so it’s worth considering having a go at this if you are a plush lover.
Everything I’d ever read about plush or minky fabric told me never to iron the fabric, not surprising when you think that it’s 100% polyester so liable to melt! I first discovered this technique completely by accident, I was experimenting with some plush remnants to see if I could iron on Bondaweb to the reverse of the fabric and run it through our die cutter machine to make some plush appliqué shapes. Low and behold, not only did the Bondaweb stick, and I could, but the pile on the plush was completely restored.
Restoring Smooth Plush (Smooth Minky Fabric)
1) Set your iron to low and turn off the steam and iron the reverse of the fabric
Often that’s all you need to do! It very much depends on the extent of the issue and will vary each time.
2) If you find this hasn’t worked try increasing the heat slightly. I’d recommend never getting any higher that the wool setting on your iron, any higher and you risk melting the fabric.
3) Sometimes the higher heat still doesn’t fully do the job and some bed hair remains, if that’s the case then flip your fabric over and iron the right side, making sure that the iron passes in the same direction as the pile.
How to Restore Dimple Plush (Dimple Minky Fabric)
Now dimple is a different beast, whatever you do don’t go ironing dimple as otherwise the dimples will disappear. For ages I didn’t think anything could be done to restore dimple without a wash but then I had a brain wave and had another little experiment… and it worked!
Here’s a before picture…
All you need to do is pop your dimple plush in the tumble dryer for 10 minutes (mine was on the highest setting). Don’t leave it sitting in there to cool or it will crease more. Remove it and smooth the pile down
And here’s the finished result, perfect!
Most cuts will restore as good as new using these methods, but some are stubborn and just won’t completely disappear this way, but the pile will always restore after a launder in the washing machine as these bad hair days are not a permanent thing.
If you have discovered a different method then I’d love to hear it.
Happy Days!
Beginners Guide To Reading a Dressmaking Pattern
Please note: there is an updated and improved version of this post here
If and when you decide to venture into the world of creating a garment to wear for yourself or a Santa suit for your pampered pooch this guide will hopefully answer some basic questions. Many of us have learned how to use patterns and sew from a family member or a close friend, and there are many different techniques and shortcuts that people use to make it easier. If however this is not the case for you, pulling out a pattern to create something special can seem very overwhelming. We hope this will help see you through your first simple steps and will make life a little easier.
Fabric choice is important
When you choose the fabric you are going to use, pay close attention to the fabric repeat. This is the way the pattern or print on the fabric is laid out, for instance whether the pattern is large or small scale and also the direction the pattern is running. For instance if you choose a stripe that runs from selvedge to selvedge you may end up with a long skirt with horizontal strips, this may not be the look you’re going for so you may want to choose a stripe that runs the length of the fabric giving you a vertical stripe on your skirt.
Cutting out the pattern pieces
Many patterns will come with multiple sizes printed on them and you will need to cut along the same size line for all of your pieces or the result could be quite interesting. Often you will also be instructed to place the pattern along the “grain line of the fabric“, this is to insure the stretch of the fabric is correct for your project. The placement of the grain line on the pattern is indicated with an arrow along the pattern piece like this
and this will need to be placed on the fabric running parallel to the selvedge.
When using a manufactures pattern it will also give you information on how to lay your fabric out in order to be cut dependent on the size of your fabric. This is generally the best method to follow as it usually makes the most efficient use of the fabric.
Some key information to watch out for when placing pattern pieces before you cut :
1) How the fabric is folded (it’s usually right sides in)
2) Where the selvedge edge lies
3) Whether the right side side of the pattern faces up or down
4) Whether and the right side of fabric faces up or down
To determine these points look for a diagram that looks something like this in your pattern instructions
Looking more closely at the diagram above you will see that pattern piece (2) needs to be cut twice as it appears twice on the cutting diagram, once on the right side of the pattern and again on the wrong side (turning the pattern piece face down). Can you see where this pattern piece is shaded by the dots? This indicates the pattern piece should be laid face down on your fabric. This also shows us its on a folded piece of fabric, but not on a fold, so we will end up with four cut fabric pieces. Pattern piece (1) is placed on the fabric fold so we will end up with only one piece of fabric that’s double the size and mirrored of pattern piece (1). Looking at the second diagram pattern piece (4) shows us to cut it only on one thickness of fabric, once on the right side and once on the wrong side giving us two cut fabric pieces. Your pattern will also contain a guide and a key as to what all of these mean.
Some common pattern marking symbols
Notches
Notches look like this
and often appear on the cut line as single or double triangles (they can be filled or unfilled triangles) and need to be marked on your fabric. Notches will be used to line up two or more separate pattern pieces when constructing your garment. If you have just 1 notch it will line up with another single notch on a separate piece of the pattern and 2 notches with 2. Notches ensure you are sewing 2 separate pattern pieces together at the right point so the garment has the right shape. The best way to mark pattern notches are to cut a reverse notch out of the fabric edge like this:
Fold Line
A fold line marking looks something like this
You will need to place the pattern on the fold line of the fabric so when the fabric piece is cut it will be one piece when un-folded a mirror image of itself. Do not cut along the fold!
Markings for construction details, such as placements or gathering
Often there are small circles marked on the pattern these can be open or filled circles like this
and can indicate a dart position, button placement, bust lines, waist lines or where to lengthen of shorten a pattern. These need to be marked somehow on your fabric pieces and the quickest and easiest way is to use some dress making carbon paper, or you can mark by hand stitching some loose threads through the fabric that can just be pulled out after you have finished.
When we completed the cutting and transferring of the markings from this pattern piece we end up with a result below. You can see we have our notches cut out around the edge and have used thread markings for all our matching points and because we used the fold line you can see how we now have one piece of fabric.
We hope this will give you a basic foundation when it comes to using ready-made patterns, and take some of the fright out of it. There are many different “tricks of the trade” out there but with trial and error you will find your own.