Learning to Love Basting

A senior's walking group hired me to install zippers into their new club jackets. A bit of a crappy job, especially since I underquoted them far too generously. Still, I think it was worthwhile, as it brought me and basting closer together.

These were kangaroo type hoodies, with a big patch pocket on the front. All I had to do, I thought, was cut them up the front and sew a zipper in. Foolish me.

First off, even though all the jackets were the same size, each of them was a different length. Only one was exactly 26" long. Also, only one (not the same one) was on grain. Complicating matters was that the hood had been sewn in with a bit of an overlap so I couldn't tell exactly where the centre was. Through careful measuring and marking I was able to slash the front quite neatly, but I did have to undo about 2" of the neck seam to do it.

I then zig-zagged the cut edges, folded them in and pinned in the zipper halves. Normally I would consider this enough and just have at 'er with the zipper foot, but considering the bulk of the fabric over the pockets and that I was working with a scant 3/8" seam allowance I took the time to hand baste the zipper.

It sure made sewing the zipper a breeze. Removing the basting thread the first couple of times was another matter, since I had basted too close to the stitching line. I did better with the rest of the jackets.

But then, re-sewing the neck seam was an unforeseen challenge. It originally had been serged and then cover stitched, so there was a lot of fussiness to get things to match after I tucked in the excess fabric from the neck edge of the hood. Basting saved unpicking of stitches, and probably a lot of swearing on my part.

The finished job is not beautiful, but it works.

Comments

  1. Anonymous11:55 AM

    yikes - sounds nasty! how many did you have to do?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Just five Jean, but that was enough!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ugh! I'd rather start from scratch than mend or refashion. And 5 of them? You just can't charge enough for that!

    I rarely baste anything else but I always baste zippers. Helps the wiggly little darlings to behave themselves.

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