How to Sew With Satin

Satin a fabric weave that produces a shiny, smooth and fairly delicate fabric used for things as wide ranging as wedding dresses and bed sheets. Because of the cloth's tendency to mark and tear easily, it's important for you to follow some steps when trying to sew satin.

Instructions

1. Choose the right kind of satin for your job since satin weaves come in many different levels of quality and kind. If you're just starting out, go for a an acetate satin since it's relatively inexpensive and serves as a good material to learn to sew satin with. If you're doing a more critical, serious sewing project, like a wedding dress, a more expensive satin like polyester satin or silk satin, which is top of the line, is the way to go.

2. Choose from the shiny and dull side of the cloth the side that you want to be the right side, or the side that shows. Then make all your markings with tailor's chalk or an air soluble pen on the wrong side of the fabric since it is very difficult to completely wash out markings from the surface of the cloth.

3. Stretch your fabric out and pin it to paper tissue to help you control the slippery fabric. Do your best to keep the edges of the fabric in line with the edges of the table. Also make sure you don't press your body against a bit of overhanging fabric since creases in satin are extremely difficult (and sometimes impossible) to remove.

4. Use a substitute cloth or muslin to get the sizing of the garment correct so you don't have to make changes to the satin, which will mark easily. As you sew the satin, place pins in the seams or in the hem allowance so you don't mark the surface of the fabric with pinholes, which are not only permanent but also very visible on the shiny fabric.

5. Press the seams of the satin after stitching in order to meld the stitches. Then, press the seams open. In both cases, use a pressing technique that you experimented with on a swatch of the satin so you don't damage the actual fabric that you're working with.

Resources

• Properties of satin fabric
• Find marking chalk and air soluble pens at Jo-Ann Fabrics.