Working with stripes

Sewing School

Simplicity produces all your favourite brands and has decades of experience in pattern drafting, helping you to sew garments that suit your size and style. If you decide to give sewing with stripes a try, don’t forget to share your finished projects with us over on Instagram by tagging @sewhq and @simplicitymccallsuk

Choosing a pattern

Matching stripes is a fun technique to introduce to your sewing repertoire. The most popular project for dipping your toe into this discipline is the classic Breton tee, but if you prefer, you can make a dress, skirt, or pair of trousers. When working with stripes, you can also take your pick of woven and stretch fabrics.

Here are some of the key places that you need to match your stripes:

● Side seams

● Sleeve side seams

● Across the centre back

● Across the body and sleeves when your arms are by your sides If you make a dress or skirt, consider the shape of the design. Straight skirts, rectangular gathered skirts and classic shift dresses will create a very neat stripe match at the side seams. A waist seam on these designs will be relatively straight and may use darts for fitting. Bust darts will create an angle in the stripes extending under the arms. Trapeze style dresses or any design with a flared or circle skirt will make horizontal stripes appear curved as they travel towards the side seams – a slight chevron will appear at the point at which they meet. A waist seam on these designs will be very curved and unlikely to use darts to fit.

Don’t be afraid to play with the placements of your stripes. Try cutting a crossgrain striped fabric on the bias or vertically, using the lengthwise grain for a skirt or part of a dress. Just be prepared for the fact that this will make your fabric behave differently. Bias cut fabrics are extremely stretchy and prone to dropping, and a lengthwise grain often has less give than a crossgrain. These factors will create an extra challenge when you are matching your stripes.

Laying out your fabric

A t-shirt, for example, has a front and back bodice cut out on a folded edge. As a result, layplans will often tell you to arrange your fabric to have two folds. The selvedge will be in the middle or slightly off centre. The important thing is to make sure the stripes on the top layer are placed exactly on top of the stripes on the bottom layer. The trick is to insert a pin along the edge of one stripe, then lift the fabric and check underneath, making sure the pin is positioned along the same edg