Think Couture with Charles Kleibacker: Cutting the Fabric, 1979

we're ready to cut these pants could I give you my way of thinking about cutting I first of all do an initial rough layout with my muslin pieces to see how much fabric I need this is that red silk taffeta that we will be using for the entire garment that you saw on tawny which my workroom is cutting right now so I have not divided this fabric so to speak yet in other words I'm preserving grain remember that trouser is completely on the bias this is my pattern and notice please how with bias I always leave a selvage and a cross grain so I know exactly what I'm doing when I place that muslin on to my fabric for the initial tryout that is the center front of the trouser this is the center back and of course I keep adjusting the pieces until I get the best layout to have the most advantageous use of the amount of the fabric and if I move this way I'm able to fit this back piece in and at this time I would and notice again please how I am lining up the salvaged grain with the salvage now here on the front piece we may have to piece a little bit but I don't think that would ever be seen this bias trouser does have a third piece and of course unfortunately I can't get that out so we're going to have to think of more fabric somewhere along the line I do remember that I have my waistband pieces and of course I place those where it will work very advantageous ly for me now here for instance is an area where you might be thinking those little skinny spaghetti straps all right now that's giving me an idea of how I'm going to place this pattern the next thing I do is to take that pattern off and I divide these equally so I have given myself a cut here and when it comes to woven's I never ever think of ripping that fabric of tearing it and I wish you wouldn't I pull a thread and I very carefully cut to me pulling that fabric tearing it is a sin and I don't think you should do it because you get these fibers very what will I say so heavily concentrated that for to my way of thinking a good inch of the fabric is ruined so take a little bit more time won't you when you're working with a good woven and pull that thread until you're all the way across remember I'm not thinking of fast sewing in this Couture session here at Iowa State University we're doing it very very much the pure cooter way another thing you noticed before I finish cutting there that I had folded this over to get the rough layout but please be very careful you don't want to think of placing your pattern on that fold so to speak in other words in my work room in New York we are always cutting in the same direction and I always give myself some kind of a mark on such a fabric as the silk taffeta which has two sides looking the same to know invariably what is the right side we use a different colored thread with a knot that indicates our right side now what I'm trying to say to you is I've got all of this going in one direction so that I've given myself another knot here so that I don't get mixed up and have two different up-and-down you may not think that's always important but I feel it is certainly if you're working on a velvet or a satin you can ruin your garment if you are turning that back so please won't you do what I do always keep it going in one way all right now by pulling this thread we are finishing and the next process which I would like you to remember with whatever fiber you're working with silk cotton wool linen especially the wovens especially the naturals excuse me especially the naturals but even such a fabric at fiber as Keanu I always go to the ironing board and it's high time I got rid of this jacket I'm in the workroom am I not I go to the ironing board and I give these two pieces of equal length fabric what I call a steam bath I've left the sleeve board here I feel to do a great garment you must have a sturdy ironing board a good steam iron a very sturdy sleeve board and am it not a ham what identifies the MIT is this pocket omit that with that pocket you can slip onto the end of that sleeve board and we can work sleeves we can work bust areas where we're holding in the fiber of those necklines that I talked to you about that we hold in we work those on round of this hand and you can shrink out all of that ease of course easier in the natural fibers now this is what I mean by a steam bath with this fabric on grain right side down yes right side down wrong side up to me I give this what I call a steam bath I get all of the steam I possibly can and people I'm not working above I'm working directly on that fabric now notice I am moving all the time so don't dream that is indeed when you might burn but you're not going to burn this with steam if you will really keep moving and in this way you got out all of the wrinkles and more important you get out the shrinkage and there will always be some in natural fibers I don't feel it necessary that you washed this beautiful silk but I indeed feel it necessary that you give it this steam bath notice how I am directly on this fabric moving all the time I do let it dry momentarily before I move it to the next section in this way doing this initial process should you send a garment to the cleaner or should you wash it if it is a washable fiber if you have not done this the cleaner it's certainly going to use the heavy steam iron and that is when that garment will start pulling up and it really is not his fault then if you have not done this so please again thinking the cooter way will you give the fabric this heavy steam bath now let's say that I have done both of these pieces I come back to my very flat working surface and there people it must be flat or you're not going to get a good garment and here I'm thinking of those trousers and they are on line so it is important that you bare with me that we're thinking an unlined trouser as we are cutting I line up my selvage with the edge of my table I forget the cross grain invariably it's going to be a little bit off don't force it back remember with this piece I'm right side up to me wrong side down I take my second piece and I have my knot to show what is the right side and I'm the knot here and of course I want the knot here not reversed this way I know I'm going in one direction and again I line up very very carefully thinking always of that selvage your cross grain I ignore it no matter how expensive the fabric I find that cross grain is usually a bit off one time when I worked on 7th Avenue we would try to force that fabric back with the steam iron on the cross grain I feel that that's not right flat flat flat please huh and as you notice I'm in a rectangle so everything at the moment is grain and that's where I want you to concentrate I now take my pins if he knew what he did with them and I very carefully pin those two pieces of fabric together all the way around I'd say about an inch and a half apart and for the sake of time I'm not going to go all around but you're going to think please that I am all the way around I'm going to just put a pin now and then but as I said to you I should be not more than an inch and a half apart with these pins around the edges not in the center at all but I am impeccably flat now with all of that pick around the four sides I take my tracing papers and I don't quite know what happens here at Ames and Iowa State University but in New York you can buy these large pieces of tracing paper you can get them in red which is ideal for muslin you can cut them in yellow again ideal for muslin and you can get them in navy again ideal for muslin or you can get them in white which is what must be used for your fashion fabric please don't ever mark your fashion fabric with one of the colors it stays in forever a cleaner can't get it out now having said that will you bear with me because somewhere along the line I'm on a tour and somewhere along the line I have lost my other sheet of white so I'm doing what I asked you not to do but I'm only giving you the method here can we think of this as a white sheet and I get those sheets very flat under me remember they're called tracing paper in new york city i buy them retail for 30 cents a sheet so you're not breaking the budget and if you will keep them flat they really can stay with you a long long time so here I am remember pinned all the way around with these two layers and I remind you we're thinking an unlined garment in this instance a trouser and I placed my pattern pieces exactly the way I had them again aligning them with these selvages so that I'm not thinking bias at the moment I'm thinking grain meaning Salvage with selvage here in this instance I've left the selvage and the cross grain and I'm asking you again to think in terms of inch and a half seam allowances everywhere not 5/8 of an inch I don't feel that's enough if you will do inch and a half's if we need to let out we have that fabric after I have fit stitched pressed then I trim those seam allowances to say 1/2 inch I find this tracing wheel the ideals that you raishin for me remember please I'm not thinking of the tracing reel that has those long spokes that's only for very very heavy wools this one has a very fine what will I call it indentation so that you do not cut into a beautiful silk because you must be pressing rather hard and watch my fingers how I have learned to put three of them down so this fabric does not move under me cooter takes time but where I can save time I save time I don't find it necessary to pin in here if I've got these three fingers holding with me and I never pick up my eye as I am wheeling and I'm very very careful to see that I move the fingers along with me and as you notice I use muslin as my pattern I wish you would go from paper to muslin meaning that if you want to do a Couture garment via a vogue or simplicity or Butterick or macaw pattern that you would trace that first on to muslin fit it and use one half of the muslin as your pattern that you could keep for years and it would be to your Anatomy I find muslin a great great help I'm hoping the camera can pick up that dart which I explained to you in the semi fitting on Tony this is the back part of the trouser and this is that very important little dart it is in the back part it is parallel with the inseam which is right here it is about an inch from that inseam and it is about three and a half inches long whether you are doing as I said a pants for a man or a woman I feel that little dart is going to do everything in the world for you now I'm perhaps juggling that table when I shouldn't have but I want to reveal this and of course you realize that with the tracing paper under me I'm picking up all of the marks on the other side and of course I'm pinned right sides together with the wrong side up to me now will you visualize please that I have done the the front of the trouser in exactly all of this wheedle manner because now I picked up my pattern pieces and on this side I now have all of those marks showing very very definitely I leave the pins in and I turn over to the other side and again I line up my selvage with the edge of my table and now I see all of the wield marks on this side remember please forget the yellow you should be in white and I'm now ready to wheel those marks on to the other side of the garment I find this the surest the quickest way to cut you see this is bias but I have not cut into any of that bias grain because the minute I do and I start handling it it's going to stretch by preserving the grain doing it this way with this rectangle I do preserve the grain and I preserve preserve that bias now whether it would be a skirt or a trouser and you have to visualize please as though I have wheeled all of this it is it it is at this time before I cut into the any of the fabric that I am ready to do my thread tracing and we're going to halt right for a moment and let you catch your breath while I do some more threading of the needles and we'll come right back remember please that we have marked this bias trouser I'm now right and I'm remember I'm still pinned all the way around I'm removing the tracing paper these large sheets and I'm ready to hand baste that by a seam you see I feel you must hand based by essenes if we're going to do a very decent Couture job you simply cannot stretch which I want you to do with the bias seams once you're at the Machine you cannot stretch if you have pinned you cannot pull those pins through the through the machine so I'm hand basting I do start with a knot and if I were doing a skirt or a dress with a long bias seam in the front sight I would exactly be doing this same process I start with a knot I go just a few stitches in this instance we can go up to the dart because we would not be doing too much stretching until they are I cut my thread and I no longer use a thread for that bias seam because remember in this long muslin say of this dress as I said to you I want you to stretch that seen like mad once you're at the Machine this shows you why you must have hand basted these two together so that you can stretch like that as you're stitching at the machine and that there are no knots to hold you so that is the reason why I hand baste these bias seams in sections remember I'm on the back of this trouser and I'm at the crotch area so I can hand baste this before we even cut into the fabric and in that way I have preserved the grain and I would say I usually based about oh four or five or six inches and I then cut my thread and you notice I'm basting hand basting right on the stitching line I cut that thread no knots and I go over a couple of the threads so that as I am stretching at the machine all of these unknotted threads give with me and let me stretch that bias most comfortably notice to please that I'm not doing very long stitches I'm doing more like an enlarged eighth of an inch here sometimes in the seminars such as I'm doing here at Iowa State University for the clothing and textile department or the textile and clothing department I believe is the correct way I find the participants giving me very long half to quarter of an inch basting Zand that drives me up the wall if we're thinking Couture please no more than these enlarged eights and again I'm going to be cutting my thread and doing another section and you see how I try to hold my fingers firmly on this fabric so it moves as little as possible although you can do a number of stitches in this instance if you're putting in a zipper by hand I beg you not to do the number that I'm doing here one stitch at a time but here you can do a few more now when I get to the very top of this seam there I do want you to go over a number of times just as I'm going to show you in a second so that we hold the fit right there go over it anchor it very very firmly you see with all of these unknotted hand basting x' once you're at the machine they're all going to give with you as you stretch these bias seams and of course as I see it all of this sewing and designing and construction is common-sense and remember that on the body where there is no seam that bias is going to stretch with you on this woven and that's why when you're doing long bias seams I feel at the machine you must stretch them bias I find it the most fascinating of all cuts and people so often ask me what kind of fabrics do what does one use for bias cutting I find most of them you