Figure Skating Sewing Question Round-Up

Today’s post is a mish-mash of the most recent figure skating sewing questions and updates I’ve received.

December is a good month to sew. I have sale flyers from two fabric stores on my kitchen table. You can bet I’m using those 50% off coupons this weekend and stocking up on half-price needles. When I see needles for half price, I buy.

Serging Stretch Velvet with a Lining

Question from reader A.S.:

I have a question that possibly only you can answer. Even Google is letting me down. I am about to sew a stretch velvet vest for a boy’s skating costume. I am going to line it for warmth and was going to use my serger. I have a sewing book that says “don’t serge the seams if the garment is lined” under velvet. Mind you, not stretch velvet, but it has me worried enough to email you. I have serged stretch velvet plenty of times and am not worried about the actual process of going about it, but I am worried about if the garment will hold up or if I am sending some sort of skate wear time bomb on to the ice!

Ice Mom’s response:

I think that it should be just fine to serge the velvet as you have always done. Are you basting the lining to the wrong side of the velvet and then treating them as one piece? If so, there shouldn’t be a problem at all.

I think the reason they’re concerned about the lining is that, with tailored garments, the lining hangs free of the pant leg. The problem is that the wrong side of the lining fabric is against the wrong side of the velvet and the seams rub together. A serged seam with that amount of rubbing might, I don’t know, cause one of the seams to ravel or create an imprint of the seam on the velvet’s nap. Maybe they want a fancy Hong Kong seam or a flat-fell seam instead. That’s the only excuse I can come up with for not using a serger on velvet. I’ve never heard of it before.

Dress Disaster Update

Update from reader Mel, who had the dress disaster:

This is what I did… I drove into town and went back to the fabric/costume shop and they (no laughing) tried to sell me MORE of that material… apparently it’s called “Chiffon” but the ladies at our rink said it wasn’t Chiffon…  I couldn’t believe that they even thought it was a good idea to put MORE of that stuff on… well anyway, they didn’t have any net-style material that was suitable and they only glissenette was with gold sparkles and her jewels were white/silvery…

So, I reluctantly went for white dense “netting.” Well, that’s what they called it. I wasn’t sold on the idea, so I went to Fabricland and found some netting; it’s a similar density to my daughter’s pull-on skating skirt that I made for this Halloween when she danced/skated…

I insanely did unpick the seam, major surgery… it took over an hour to unpick that seam…. And use tweezers to pull all the threads, but here’s the picture: if the white “netting” becomes a pain, I’m going to cut it to a fraction shorter than the pink main skirt…

In hindsight. You lovely ladies were so right, I should have “got the snips out” and done surgery on the skirt, and hand stitched its replacement in, rather than unpicking the whole lot, as I used the cutting blade on my serger when I first put the “chiffon” skirt on and this time ’round, it was trickier as it had trimmed some of the fabric off and I was concerned that it would be wonky, etc.

Thank you so so so much for all your help and advice and for taking the time for your comments, I really appreciate it and hopefully if it survives tomorrow’s skating practice…

Knit Boot Covers

From reader Barb H:

A co-worker has agreed to knit my skater a pair of Alpaca wool boot covers. I have to come up with a prototype in fabric for her. It has to be out of fabric because, the wool ones will not be elasticized at the top and bottom.

I’m thinking Velcro at the back/heel and a strap that Velcro’s under the boot between boot/blade.
Is there something out there?

Ice Mom’s response:

I’m not aware of anything for a knitted boot cover, but I’m concerned about the project. In my experience, boot covers should be sturdy. I can see Ice Girl stabbing the Alpaca (nice yarn) boot cover with a toe pick and either snagging the boot cover in the first 15 minutes or getting her blade caught in it and smacking the ice.

If it were me, I’d take an Alpaca anything. She could make me a scarf, mittens, a hat, or just give me the ball of yarn to cuddle up with at night.

I’m collecting sewing/craft questions, though, so when I have enough, I’ll include this in the post. Maybe someone else will have another idea.

As for boot covers, I just kind of wing it with a hand-drafted sewing pattern. I run the Velcro under the boot, as you mentioned.

I’m kind of into polls lately. Vote for as many of the answers as you want!

Please leave comments for these sewers/crafters! Is there a better reason for not serging a lined velvet garment? How do you cope with re-sewing a seam that’s been serged? Am I totally off-base about the Alpaca boot covers? Are you aware of any figure skating boot cover patterns? How do you make your figure skating boot covers? I kind of wing it and my pattern is lumpy.

Do you have a question for Ice Mom? Do you have a huge problem for the Advisory Board to tackle? I have a question for tomorrow, but none for December 24. If you have a blog post idea, let me know! E-mail me at IceMom.Diane@gmail.com

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Photo credits:
Bacon Angels: Sappymoosetree / Mandy Jouan on Flickr.com Creative Commons
New skirt: lisaclarke / Lisa Clarke on Flickr.com Creative Commons
dress with tulle: reader Mel
Sewing Machine: tsuacctnt / Chris on Flickr.com Creative Commons
Stupid Sock: Evil Erin / Emergency Brake on Flickr.com Creative Commons