Answering QuestionsJuly 19, 2024 Going back a couple of weeks, I had some questions about how to solve my ponte problem with my jacket.
One question was adding backing to the jacket. And I had some
questions about that, and how to do that.
Most often, this is what you find in the 50s and 60s clothing that makes it last and last. I find this almost always in a lot of the heirloom wedding gowns that I remake. If it weren't for the backing, the dress would literally disintegrate in my hands. But because the dress has been backed, it saves the silk for another wearing.
ARMO WEFT - click the photo to learn more
This is my favorite all-purpose backing. It's bondable and woven so that on
the straight, it's sturdy and makes the hang beautiful. On the weft weave, it's very limber and almost drapey, which means it doesn't have a hard, crisp feeling like what you might see in a heavy linen jacket. At the same time, it offers softness and is not as stiff as something you would use for a tailored shirt or jacket, which requires a lot of body (stiffness) in the fabric to accomplish the look you're after.
This is an extremely tailored look, the fabric is literally sculpted, and you need something much stiffer and more body than Armo Weft.
You will often see loosely woven fabric - like with Chanel-type jackets. It's
elegant but doesn't have enough body in the warp weave to drape and hang right. The tweed or woven fabric droops more than hangs correctly.
Chanel jackets are characteristically soft, and the Armo Weft is perfect for them. Of course, backing this jacket in bondable interfacing is not the "quilted" version, but it makes an excellent faux Chanel jacket without the weeks of time-consuming work that the
quilted version requires.
Backing Different Fabrics
You can back almost any fabric you like - even a chiffon with a sheer organza. The rule is that you can make nearly any fabric have more body, but you can't make any fabric that have more drape. The other rule is that you can make any fabric act like
a woven, but you can't take a woven and make it act like a knit or jersey. This sounds basic and a little nonsensical, but think about it: How many times have you thought about doing a woven technique on a knit fabric? My bet is not that often. Think about it sometime: when you have a drapy knit fabric, and you would like to do a woven-type collar, simply back it with some woven interfacing, and boom - you're done.
In the case of my fabulous peach jacket, this isn't that hard. Actually, the hardest part is taking it apart. Removing stitching is always more demanding and time-consuming, but it will be worth it. And taking the seams apart in the peach jacket convinced me that I'm really not only doing the right thing, but this fabric is so fabulous,
that it's a pleasure to work with. I don't have anything in my closet this color, and it will be elegant to wear once I finish. Back
sounds so hard - cut out the garment, then cut out a whole garment again out of something a little stiffer or has body. The truth is that, at least in my case, I will be so much more excited about not only wearing it but how it looks on me. The thing to remember about backing is that you are manipulating the fabric to do just exactly what you want.
In this case, I'm using some organdy that I had in my stash. Organdy is translucent, not quite see-thru, but a little, and very stiff. It's a little heavier than Organza, so it will be perfect for this tailored jacket.
Here's the layout of my left side, front and back. You can see that I've already interfaced the facing, so why put backing on it too? The idea here is to make the whole garment look the same as if I had purchased it this way. If I don't
add backing to the pieces that I'm interfacing, then those pieces will look funny - drapier, softer, and not like the crisp tailorness of the jacket parts that are backed. So you must back every piece, even the interfaced pieces.
After I've finished pinning the backing to all the pieces, I sew up the pieces as if they were just one fabric. One thing about using a backing is that I will have to finish the seams on the inside of the jacket. Most ponte knits don't really require
any finishing on the jacket as they hardly ravel at all. The organdy will not only ravel, but it will show on any shell or top I wear, and I plan to show off the inside of the garment, so it will have a more finished look. Even if you don't plan to show off the inside of your garment (I'm always looking for a teaching moment, so the inside needs to be pretty clean and nice), you should finish the seams as the organdy and silk organza will ravel, and will be messy and unprofessional looking
on the inside. If you want to use Hong Kong-type piping finishing on all the seams, that's one look. I'm going to serge the edge of this
jacket with some white thread, and that will make for a nice, finished look.
That's all there is to it. Cut out another whole garment in a backing fabric, pin it to the fashion fabric, and sew it together like it was one piece of fabric, finish your seams, and you're done. What you will also do is create a garment that will last for decades.
There are cases when backing a fabric may not work. For example an extremely stretchy fabric, like a mechanical knit that doesn't have very quick recovery, might look droopy in the middle of the pieces of a garment. And truly there is no way to
prevent that. Probably by the time you get into the 75% on up stretch percentage, then you're not going to have very good luck with backing the fabric to make it act like a woven garment. The only option you could have there is to have a bondable interfacing/backing or something that you would have to quilt, like the Chanel jacket technique. My thinking is that by the time you've gotten to a very drapey jersey knit or even a jersey with some Lycra and lightweight, it would be extremely hard to make that look woven. You would be better off working with either a fabric with less stretch percentage or keeping to a
pattern that requires 75% plus stretch percentage.
For different backing types, I recommend Armo Weft, for a softer backing look, but organza and organdy are excellent choices. Usually, I use silk organza and cotton organdy. Both are 100% natural, wick well, and breathe easily, so you're not adding a
thickness that will cause you to sweat or feel uncomfortable. I particularly like silk organza for this, cause if one layer isn't enough, I can keep adding layers till I get the thickness/body that I'm looking for. I also love using silk organza in my silk blouses.
Silk is a natural animal fiber and doesn't naturally come in white. Its natural unbleached color is a warm white-ivory color. The same is true of wool, another natural animal fiber.
That's why you see wool and silk in warmer white colors. Linen and cotton are plant natural fibers, and they have almost a blue-white tone to them. If you use silk organza for your backing and your fabric is slightly sheer, the warmth of the silk organza will come through. Even though cotton organdy would have a little more body, if the fabric is sheer and you do not want that warm white color, the cotton organdy would work as an excellent backing for this garment.
Solving Other Problems with Backing
Backing doesn't solve every problem, like the problem of a 75% percentage stretch fabric. It's also not very good with extremely draping fabrics that may not have stretch, but act a lot like a stretch. Fabrics like very light-weight chiffons, and
sheers that have a lot of drape to them. Even layer after layer of organza can't help the drape to hand like a more tailored garment. They are literally a nightmare to back.
This was my niece's wedding gown and it was made with a sheer satin-faced chiffon, but it was entirely too sheer for the only fabric, so it required backing. Adding stiffness isn't the only reason to back a fabric. So I backed this in a lightweight,
very opaque crepe de chine. It was a nightmare but look at the delicious result. Her friends all called the dress liquid cause it hand such a fluid, soft hand but was totally non-see-thru!
This backing business is all about getting the right hang or drape on a garment. Sometimes, you just want a little more shape; sometimes, you want a lot. In the case of my peach jacket, I needed a lot. This jacket that I've made up many times in a woven or a stretch
woven, and works well in those types of fabrics. I wouldn't have even tried this fabric, but it is the perfect color, and it has almost a pearlized sheen. So it's a very elegant look, perfect for a jacket, but it's way too fluid. You can also use this on a poorly made fabric, but a look, a color, or a type that you really love (as in the case of my peach jacket), and literally make the jacket for decades, all because you took the time to back it. It prevents major warping or even cutting on the wrong grain. So if you have a stripe that's going widthwise on the fabric and it would look better hanging up and down
on your body, with a little backing the fabric won't warp as badly as it will without the backing.
Backing is one of those techniques that can add huge value to a fabric that would otherwise be something you might wear a couple of times and it's gone. It can add enough body to a fabric to hold remarkably detailed tailored techniques. It can prevent
draping or drooping in a hang or drape of a fabric. It can add needed opaqueness to a garment and yet keep a beautifully fluid look. It can prevent the weakening in seams that require a lot of stress (back, shoulders, or any area that might fit close to the body). But my favorite reason to back is that I can change a knit or stretch fabric into a totally beautiful piece to tailor or sculpt. This means I have a whole other class of fabrics I can sew without having to
depend on just wovens. |
The SewingArtistry Resource Library is designed to contain information to not only make your sewing better, but to aid in you fitting and flattering your shape, size and style. Check it out.
Look for future classes coming in 2024
The Core Pattern Shirt, (one of my favorites for woven core pattern that you can make into a myriad of different
garments),
Basic Knit Top (core pattern class for knit basic tops, shells, tees, dresses, and tunics)
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