The perfect match: sewing with stripes

When I first started sewing, stripes always sounded good in theory. Then when I would start cutting, my project would go so wrong! ARGH!

But overtime, and after many garments that ended in the trash pile, I’ve come up with my own tips and tricks for matching up stripes.

Surprisingly, I haven’t found many tutorials on it, so I hope that I bless someone with these nuggets of knowledge.

1. Avoid cutting on the fold. Always cut on a single layer of fabric.
2. Make notes and be intentional about your garment.
3. • Do you want your stripes to be horizontal or vertical?
4. • Do you want your stripes to all follow the same direction throughout your garment?
5. • Have you accounted for seam allowance and how that impacts your stripe pattern? (for example with sleeves, you’ll want to make sure you cut along the same stripe for both sleeves so that if the bottom of your sleeve is black, it will be black for other one too).
6. • Is your fabric straight, ironed and perfectly aligned to your pattern piece?
7. Mark your stripes (I did it blue ink) on your pattern paper so that as you place your paper on top of you garment, it will always match. (see below).
8. Measure twice and cut once.
9. Cut slowly and on a flat surface.
10. Pin and line up your seams perfectly.

A perfect example of my methods put to work will be in this skirt that I made recently.  You can refer to the post here.