Original text by Marina Belova
I continue to ponder over the chevron making techniques, comparing the ones produced in Canada and the ones I produce myself. Of course, as I don't own a serger, what I'm most interested in is a proper border in case I accidentally cut the satin stitches while manually trimming the fabric.
After all, I can only dream of a laser cutting machine. And besides I'm so far from it that I hardly imagine how the process of cutting the ready garments out of the fabric looks like, how high is the defect ratio and how much profit comes from having such a device. The moment the laser devices exhibition commences, I'll go there and boost my knowledge. For those technologies somehow went past me. I've often heard though that the defect ratio of the laser cutting machines is rather high (up to 50%).
So I will concentrate on an old available method of digitizing an edge of the chevron to be trimmed with scissors.
This is the how I make the borders for chevrons now:
This is an ordinary satin stitch border with an understitching inside. The underlay depends on the border width.
This is how Bonnie Nielsen suggests securing the edges, using 2 runs:
In this case, the border consists of 2 layers. The first layer is a narrow satin stitch border with the density 2 times lower and the width 2 times lesser than those of the finishing border: The second layer is a standard satin stitch finishing border.
And the third way of doing that is very much like Bonnie's, only here everything is vice versa. From all appearance, this is the one that was used for the Canadian samples:
Here the narrow border runs over the wide one and has no understitching (I've painted it brown to make it visible): And the stitch type used in it is not a satin stitch, but instead a zig-zag stitch, which is considered more reliable for holding various things in place — an applique fabric, for example. For those who don't know the difference between a satin stitch and a zig-zag, here's my article.
It appears to me that the third way is the most logical and right. The only trouble with it is that it increases the stitch count in the design indefinitely. Nevertheless, it will be definitely easier to cut the fabric with a double border because of the additional perforation.
Perhaps, somebody will share their own experience and tell what other ways of securing the finishing border for the chevrons are there, besides the ones mentioned in the article?
Edited by Irina
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