Clothing Triviality Daily

[Russell Street]

Look at the stitching on your underwear. One side has more thread than the other! There's a single line of thread on one side, and two or more on the other.
It is not the basic lock stitch. It is a chain stitch, just like granny crochets, except penetrating the fabric. Whereas the lock stitch is two interlocking threads, the chain stitch is a single thread, looping around itself.

See how it's all loose on the bottom? I guess that's where the give comes from. The point of this all is that the stitching has to stretch, not break, with the elastic.
The downside, as you may have discovered, is that when the thread breaks, you can easily unravel the whole thing.

 

[Russell Street]

Today I will just cite others to describe "the turn of the cloth."

Place two identically sized fabrics one on top of the other, then roll, bend, or fold them. The top layer appears shorter than the bottom layer and once identical edges no longer match. This is because of the turn-of-cloth- simply put, an outer curved layer is slightly longer than an inner curved layer. To compensate for the curve, you need to adjust the size of the fabric layers before you start sewing...many parts of a garment can be influenced by the turn-of-cloth- center front edges, cuffs, pocket flaps, to name a few- but it's most obvious in rolled collars and lapels...
Every fabric has different turn-of-cloth requirements. The heavier the fabric, the more turn-of-cloth is required.
On a beautifully sewn collar and lapel, the enclosed edges turn neatly under to the wrong side, and the seam is not visible from the "public side" (the side that shows when the garment is worn). If the turn-of-cloth isn't taken into consideration, the upper collar and lapel area of the front facing "steal" some fabric from the under collar and lapel, causing the seams to curl back to the public side.

Read more: http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/5139/understand-turn-of-cloth#ixzz3eXbOLZUO
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Let me know if this image disappears...

 

[fxh]

I tried to look at my undies but they were too dirty to see any stitching.

 

[Russell Street]

I tried to look at my undies but they were too dirty to see any stitching.

I didn't say you had to use the pair you were wearing. You can examine your clean pair.

 

[fxh]

People have a spare pair?

 

[Russell Street]

I'm busy today so I'll just say that if you look inside a garment and can find an unfinished seam (the cloth edge is visible) that the thread that finishes the edge to prevent unraveling is called serging.

 

[Russell Street]

Oh yeah, greetings readers?
This here is called a bound button hole. It's a pain to make.