Making Fabric Behave

On a recent visit, Pattiwagon brought a dress she had purchased from a deep clearance rack. It had an uneven hem on the chiffon overlay (which is why it was probably on clearance) and she challenged me to fix it with my serger.

Now I’m no expert in serging, but I knew this chiffon overlay was going to cause problems. Nancy Zieman recommends PerectSew spray, but my sewing store didn’t have it in stock, so I improvised.
I used this recipe for solvy soup and dipped the hem of the dress in it then hung it to dry overnight.

The next day it was dry. It was pliable, but stiff enough not to cause bunching problems.
I marked and cut off the excess hem.

And serged a 3 thread rolled edge with Polyarn in the upper and lower loopers. It worked like a dream.   $5 dress transformed from peculiar looking to very wearable.

I have lots of the solvy soup left over and I’m thinking about making some of the scarves  I’ve been seeing in stores this year that have two layers, a lightweight knit and a chiffon.

Mug Rugs

I have had so much fun making these little gems. I wanted to make a gift for each of the women I’ll be meeting in Jamaica in January. I had some leftover strips from a Kate Spain jelly roll, and they turned out to be just enough for these mini quilts.  The mug rugs measure about 5” square. I serged the edges and added a layer of stabilizer as well as batting to give them extra body.