Today we’ve got 5 tips for sewing fabric with rosettes. It can be a little tricky, but if you follow our 5 tips, you can end up with a gorgeous result.
1. Choose a pattern with fewer seam lines
We chose the City Lights Cape pattern from Project Run & Play. This pattern is basically 3 pieces, so there are not a lot of seam lines. This is important when sewing fabric with rosettes because you don’t want to break up the rosettes with a bunch of seam lines and details. Also, eliminate any extras like pockets and plackets for the same reason. Fabric with rosettes is just not suited for this. You can see another very simple skirt pattern we’ve sewn using fabric with rosettes here.
2. When cutting, don’t cut on the fold
This is a very important tip for cutting fabric with rosettes. If you cut on the fold you cannot see the rosettes. (The same thing applies if you are not cutting with the right side of the fabric (the rosettes) facing you!) Also, if you cut out pattern pieces on the fold, you are cutting through multiple layers of the rosettes and can’t see the ones on the bottom.
3. When sewing seams, push the rosettes into the garment and out of the seam line.
Hopefully this is not too confusing! But if you sew slowly, you can slip your finger into the layers of the fabric and push most of the rosettes out of the way of the seam line. Why do this? If you don’t, there will be a very marked line where the seam is, drawing your eye away from the beautiful rosettes!
4. Grade any extra rosettes out of the seam allowances.
If you didn’t get all the layers of the rosette fabric out of the seam allowance, be sure to grade out some of the layers of petals from inside the seam allowances. The extra fabric in there can really add bulk quickly.
5. Eliminate top stitching if possible
The City Lights Cape has an option for topstitching all around the edges. But we eliminated this for 2 reasons. First, it will add a definite line around the edge (drawing the eye) and it’s hard to figure out where all the petals should lie much less transition between the layers when topstitching. Second, we really like the effect of seeing the lining we chose (super soft sherpa!) peeking out around the edge of this magical looking cape!
In Summary:
Cape Pattern: City Lights Cape pattern from Project Run & Play
Cape Main Fabric: Satin rosette fabric from the stash (similar here)
Cape Lining Fabric: Ivory sherpa fabric
Skirt Fixation 