Interfacing: 10 tips
Posted by Kathleen Fasanella on Aug 15, 2005 at 3:12 pm / Sewing, Tutorial / Trackback
For a change of pace, last week I lurked in one of those online chat sessions with an expert from the home sewing side of things. The questions and comments from participants weren’t what I expected; nobody asked any of the kinds of questions I would have. No matter but I did notice that home sewers seem to have a perseveration with interfacing and it just boggles my mind. What’s the deal with interfacing? I counted the questions, fully half of them were about interfacing. Good thing I wasn’t the expert offering advice, I would have gone nuts.
Nobody’s asked but here’s my default advice about interfacing:
1. My default choice in interfacing is that knit fusible stuff. It works great anywhere and on nearly everything.
2. Use more of it, home sewers don’t use enough. Put it this way, manufacturers are cheap-skates so if we’re using a lot more of it, there’s a reason for it.
3. Skip the stay-stitching on necklines and use interfacing instead. Stay stitching only stabilizes a very thin line -that which contains the stitching itself and fusible will stabilize the neckline area, greatly reducing creep when attaching collars and the like.
4. In jackets, you want to fuse the entire fronts. Yes, the entire fronts, no matter how heavy the material is. Also fuse the back neck shoulder neckline and armholes. Fuse all hems (sleeves included; that was in the bagging tutorials). If you doubt that professionally manufactured garments are made in this manner, you obviously have never disassembled a suit coat. Buy one at a thrift store and take it apart.
5. Fuse all outside edges. If you’re making a vest for example, you’d fuse all armholes, vest edges and center fronts. It makes a dramatic difference. All facings -always- should be fused as well.
6. When you’re fusing a line that will be folded -say a hem, or a vent- your fusible should cross the fold line. Do not -I repeat- do not have the interfacing end right at the fold line (which is what’s done in home sewing patterns). Extending the fusible one half inch beyond the fold line will extend the life of a garment. If you don’t extend the fusible and you fail to line up the fusible with the fold line exactly, it can throw off your fold line as I’m sure you’ve noticed. A fold in fabric is a stressed region, cushion it for longer life.
7. You should fuse the zipper inset areas (again, use that wonderful tricot-knit fusible).
8. You should fuse the areas where pockets are mounted on garments. Fusible should extend at least a half-inch beyond the finished boundaries of pockets.
9. Manufacturers fuse leather and you should too. We iron leather all the time and you can too. The leather police will not come and get you for this.
10. When making your fusible pattern pieces (required for production patterns), they should not be the exact dimensions of the pattern piece upon which they’re placed. Trace the shape exactly, then trim off 1/8 of an inch all the way around. This will help to stagger the seams allowing them to lie flatter. Plus, any off-set fusible pieces having become askew will not obscure the actual seam depth.
16 Responses to “Interfacing: 10 tips”
Comments RSS feed
August 15th, 2005
6:06 PM
I’m happy to know that, by some miracle, I’ve been getting it right! I guess I’ve read, researched (those handy thriftstore garments!) and tested enough over the years. I think many home sewers 1) don’t know the difference between good and bad (i.e. boardy) interfacing, 2) don’t know how to properly fuse it and 3) trust the pattern as to where and how much to interface – I’m sure you’d agree that the (home sewing) pattern is nearly always wrong!
August 15th, 2005
6:27 PM
Kathleen, I admire you to the point of adoration, but I have to say about this topic that I do not agree with you at all. I never use fusible interfacing; I despise what it does to fabric and I deplore what happens to it when a garment is washed. I believe firmly that all garments should be washable. I hate “dry cleaning” and, if you don’t know by now, you will soon that the “dry” cleaning industry is in for some big changes. And besides, the solvents used in the “cleaning” process do not get out dirt, but only “body soil.” This is a big issue for me; I have spent countless hours figuring out how to make a couture garment that is washable and fusible iterfacing is a no-no. I will concede that applying interfacing and keeping the fashion fabric happy and undistorted is a problem and even now after years of perfecting my method, I still slow down and work carefully and painstakingly to make certain that everything will be the way it should. To concede to you a little, I guess a fundamental part of this consideration should be how long the wearer intends the garment to last, but I always aim for the long haul and hope that all the clothes I have lavished so much time and consideration on will last forever and wind up in a museum. I hope that I haven’t offended anybody, but, at least for the kind of clothing that I make, fusible interfacing would be ruinous.
August 15th, 2005
8:19 PM
Kathleen, what are the questions you would have asked?
I have to agree that home sewing “experts” seem to have deliberately complicated things, but the interfacing manufacturers have put a lot of money into this I guess they want returns. The most recent Australian Stitches magazine has 8 pages of advertorial by Freudenberg, who make Vilene/Pellon, complete with lots of overdesigned garments, showcasing their range of interfacings. One tricky pair of pants uses two types in the waistband alone, but nowhere is there any sensible info such as “trim 1/8 from the edges”.
August 16th, 2005
7:10 AM
Jan, I use fusible interfacing in all of my washable garments. I use a commercial press to fuse it and have never had a problem with adhesion. Then again, I lead a pretty casual life – I’m not exactly creating couture here.
I wash everything but my structured jackets, which I dry clean. There’s a lot to be said for freshening DCO garments with a steamer and a brush.
August 16th, 2005
9:44 AM
I use fusible tricot interfacing all the time. Do you have an economical source where I can buy it by the bolt?
August 16th, 2005
1:16 PM
Fusible interfacing is inappropriate for couture work. For everything else, and I mean everything, fusibles properly applied (I have an Elna press) will readily stand up to the years of the ordinary washing they’ll get.
Early fusibles got to the home market before they should have. Now most are of excellent quality. If a fusible changes the hand of the fabric for the worse, it’s an inappropriate weight or type. I use mostly fusible tricot, with weft-stabilized in second place, and keep four or five less commonly used others on hand. There is a lovely (though expensive) Japanese silk-weight fusible that can be used for the airiest silk blouses with virtually no hint of its presence, other than that the buttons haven’t pulled their holes out of shape.
Pretreating everything for “home” sewing for myself and clients (shell fabric, lining, interfacing – and tapes and zippers while you’re at it) eliminates the bubbling associated with bad fusing. Proper stabilization as Kathleen has just itemized for us, eliminates pulls.
I agree that we are encouraged to overclean garments, washing or dry cleaning (ick) them when a good brushing and airing would suffice.
August 16th, 2005
7:30 PM
Ana, if you’re just buying the occasional bolt for personal use then the 40% or 50% off coupons from JoAnn’s can’t be beat. You’ll have to sign up for the mailing list. It also pays to sign up to the JoAnn.com online mailing list as they often email 50% off in-store coupons. They nearly always have some unopened bolts of fusible tricot in their stores – ask at the cutting counter. I never buy less than a whole bolt of anything because it’s so much more economical that way – not to mention very handy to have around when you’re sewing in the wee hours.
November 16th, 2005
1:32 PM
A question of collars
I found this question on a message board and asked its author for permission to reprint it here. Z wishes to remain anonymous. As you read the question, you should know this question’s author was using a pattern that was…
May 23rd, 2007
12:31 PM
I knew I was right to “start at the beginning.”
How silly to assume that the information in the instruction sheet is accurate. How disappointing to realize that we “home-sewers” don’t know the right questions to ask.
Thank you.
August 3rd, 2007
12:36 PM
When is it appropriate to block fuse then recut as opposed to cutting the interfacing from a smaller pattern and then fusing it it to the cut piece? Is it related to the size of the piece? I’m working with fabric and no die cutting available.
Thank you.
November 25th, 2007
8:03 AM
I read the comments on PR about this posting and came back to read it. Glad I did. I do some of what you suggest, but not all. So my next jacket, it is my next sewing project, will be interfaced a little bit more. I am also sewing a leather
jacket and wondered what interfacing you
recommend for leather.
August 24th, 2008
3:22 AM
another home sewer checking in who had no clue … thanks for some great information.
December 17th, 2009
10:53 AM
Here I am years after this post with a question. Regarding the perseveration around interfacing, I have never understood interfacing and I’m guessing one of the reasons sewers get so overwhelmed with it is because there are so many options–I mean, just one sewing supply site I looked at last night had over 20 different types of fusible interfacing so now of course we need some teachers to help us navigate the maze. It definitely didn’t used to be that way when I first started sewing–there were 2 different kinds at the local store. It stunk but that’s what you used.
Anyhow, my question–I’m working on a vintage 1948 men’s vest pattern, fixing up some of the pattern pieces (especially the facing and lining, as per your book). It calls for interfacing in the facing piece and on the buttonhole areas only and something in me says that’s not enough, especially since the goal is a structured, not loose, vest. I’ll go ahead and interface the entire front but I’m curious about the back. Since the back is a looser lining fabric than the front, would one fuse the back piece, and/or the back lining piece, or just the hem/armhole/neck only?
December 17th, 2009
3:02 PM
If you have a lining back (not shell), I’d add a layer of light fusible around the back neckline and back armhole, no more than an inch (finished, nett) wide.
March 18th, 2010
9:43 PM
Hey – Sorry, but I have NO idea how to use Interfacing..
but I made a jacket out of Pleather – Fake Leather – and I need to know how to use it to make the collar stand up straight!
Please help!
March 19th, 2010
6:26 AM
There are many sewing sites and books that can teach you how to apply interfacing. A lot of interfacing sold at fabric stores have a strip of plastic interlaced with the goods that will also show you.
Interfacing can be a wonderful thing but it can only emphasize or reinforce the shape that is already there. I can’t see your jacket but it would seem the best way to make your collar stand up is to correct the pattern, taking out some of the splay along the collar edge.