Sewing McCall’s 7760 Retro Drape Front Blouse & Jacket
I was amazed to find I had a coordinating group of purple fabrics in my stash—a jersey knit, a 3-ply silk, and a poly/rayon/spandex bottom weight for pants. This Melissa Watson blouse pattern, McCall’s Palmer/Pletsch M7760, can also be a drapey jacket (jersey knit) to wear over a tank top (silk).
The pieces are wide. I shortened the top by 2” so the pieces would fit my fabric width. Pleats come from the front neckline.
I hemmed the entire outside edge and sleeve using 1/2”-wide Steam-A-Seam Lite. I love that this product is a sticky fusible web with a protective paper on one side. I pressed under 3/8” and then stuck the Steam-A-Seam on this pressed-under edge. As I worked my way around the hem, I put my iron on the paper to slightly melt the web. That way I could leave the paper on until I turned up the hem another 1/2”. When I went around the curves, the stickiness helped me ease in the edges for a smooth hem.
On my second time around, I peeled off the paper as I turned up and stuck the web in place. I made sure everything was smooth before pressing. It takes about 10–12 seconds to get a good fuse. I did not topstitch because the web has held well for me before if I fused long enough. But it would be easy to topstitch with the extra body created by Steam-A-Seam (we carry two versions on our website).
This technique is in the Palmer/Pletsch book Knits for Real People, by Susan Neall and Pati Palmer. We include tips from our books in the pattern guide sheets.
The hems chapter shows a variety of hems for knits, along with many hemming tips:
6 Responses
Joan
July 10, 2019Thank you for highlighting this product and how to hem a very drapey, long continuous hem and edge.
Great modern twinset on you!
Louise Denniss
July 10, 2019I just love twin sets and this one looks terrific! I happen to have Melissa’s pattern M7760 and was planning to sew it in a nice navy georgette. I might add a matching cami with it. I always find so many new fun ideas on this blog. Keep up the good work! Thanks!
Louise
COREY HILL
July 10, 2019I think your books “for real people” are pretty terrific. I have your jackets for real people and use it all the time. I am not the tailoring type (hand stitching, pad stitching etc is not my thing) Fast tailoring and industrial sewing techniques for quick but professional results. I am going to pick up the dvd and this book on knits since I am sewing more and more knit wear and fabrics with lycra and easy to care for (wash and dry) which are perfect for traveling.
Candice
July 20, 2019Thank you for your Blog, absolutely love it.
I teach serger classes and just finished a few classes where we used this pattern for a serger only class. When only using a serger I found I needed to rearrange the instruction order just a bit and substitute a serger rolled edge. The students loved it and finished it in class. I had one student who had lost her husband a few months before and signed up for class to begin getting back into serging but…she had never made any clothing before. Your pattern worked beautifully, she finished it and went around the store modeling for everyone to see. It was a joy to see her so happy and feeling accomplished because of a well designed pattern.
It turned out to be an ideal project for a number of reasons. One of those reasons was that everyone had a different fabric which required a slightly different approach for the perfect rolled edge. Wonderful class because everyone learned several techniques for those fabrics with an ‘attitude’.
Thank you for the wonderful pattern and looking forward to using more in my classes.
Pati Palmer
July 25, 2019Thank you for sharing. Yes, it would be a great serger knit project. Loved hearing your comments.
mary
September 12, 2022Hi
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