Please help! 2 basic newbie questions.

[the_professors_assistantKeymaster]

First off, wow I love your videos! You’re the Queen of sewing, thank you so much for the excellent tutorials! Secondly I have some weird questions I’m hoping you can answer for me (thank you in advance).

1. How important is it to do interface, underlining and lining on the same dress and can I skip out on the lining/underlining and just use an interface? I am using a butterick pattern (b6131) for a strap less dress that requires boning, interface, layered with, underlining and lining! I’m wondering why so many layers are important?

2. Secondly, a pattern tells me to trim my seams to a scant 1/2 inch, what is scanting in terms of the sewing world? I tried googling it but nothing comes up.

Thank you so much again for your wonderful videos!

[the_professors_assistantKeymaster]

Interfacing is meant to stabilize an area or make the fabric more stiff. Underlining is usually done when one fabric is transparent, such as the top layer is made with lace. Lining is usually done as a means of finishing raw edges and make the inside look more finished. Usually, you don’t see underlining and lining in the same area but since this dress looks a little more formal they could be taking the extra steps to make it look as nice as possible. Besides if you have a sheer type fabric and then do a lining, skipping the underlining, you’re going to see those seam allowances on the right side of the garment which would not look great. If you’re using a fabric that is opaque, and not sheer, then I would say you can probably skip the underlining of these pieces and just do the interfacing and lining. I wouldn’t skip the boning on a strapless dress because you’ll definitely need that support.
When I read “cut seam allowances to a scant 1/2″, I interpret that to just cut to the 1/2″ mark, but I just eyeball it as I cut it. I don’t know if that’s exactly what they mean but if you just cut to a 1/2” you’ll be fine.
Good luck and please post a pic when you finish your dress! 🙂

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