Hello sewing friends! It’s Tamar from Tamar Hope Designs, and it’s that time of year again! Time to sew up those special occasion dresses for our loved ones! It’s so much fun to take gorgeous patterns and make them extra special with special fabrics, overlays, trim, embroidery, etc. Chiffon is a fabric that always takes a dress up a notch. It can be really challenging to sew, but I’m here to show you some tips and tricks to make sewing with Chiffon easy!
Chiffon is a very thin, slippery fabric. This makes it challenging to sew on. But just remember a few simple tips, and you’ll be sewing chiffon like a pro in no time.
1) Use a straight stitch with a short stitch length (around 2)
2) Decrease the presser foot pressure
3) Use a sharp needle (such as microtex or embroidery) size 70
4) Use a silk finish cotton thread
5) Use lots and lots of clips to avoid shifting. Clips will also avoid accidental snags.
6) Don’t be afraid of the fabric. It can smell your fear. (I’m serious, you will have far more success if you sew the seams with confidence.)
The easiest way to make a chiffon dress is to simply attach a chiffon pattern piece to a cotton pattern piece. I like to use glue or hem tape in the seam allowance. This adds stability to the chiffon and keeps the seam allowances on the inside of the garment. (instead of being able to see the seam allowance through the shear fabric.)
Then simply treat each chiffon/cotton piece as a normal cotton pattern piece and assemble the bodice.
If you want to sew something without a cotton backing, you will need to use a french seam, as the seam allowance will be visible through the shear fabric. For a french seam, sew the two pieces wrong sides together using a ¼ inch seam allowance.
Trim the seam allowance to ⅛ inch.
Fold the seam back over so the right sides are together. Sew with a ¼ inch seam allowance.
Turn right side out and you have an encased seam with a lovely finish.
Hemming chiffon fabric can be dicey. There are several methods, but I just discovered a new way to hem chiffon that will be easy for any beginner! It uses ribbon to finish the edge. The ribbon gives the chiffon some stability which makes it easy to avoid bunching and waviness.
To hem chiffon with a satin ribbon, sew the ribbon to the wrong side of the chiffon along the edge of the fabric. You will line up the ribbon with the edge of the fabric and sew along the edge of the ribbon that is farthest from the fabric edge.
Trim the chiffon edge to ⅛ inch. You just need to make sure that the chiffon edge is below the ribbon edge.
Flip the ribbon around to the right side of the fabric. Sew along the top edge of the ribbon.
And there you have it, a simple hem with a lovely finish.
For this special occasion dress, I used one of my favorite dress patterns, Rose. For the skirt, I cut out a circle skirt on the double fold for the lining layer. Then for the chiffon, I also cut a circle skirt on the double fold but instead of cutting it out as a circle, I cut it out as a square. The square hemline really compliments the ribbon detail. And my daughter approves. She was begging to wear it to church the day after I finished it.
Happy sewing! Go forth and tackle that chiffon! I can’t wait to see what you create!
-Tamar