Today we’re going to talk about interfacing your Archer shirt, mostly about selecting your interfacing since the actual fusing / insertion is pretty straightforward. I talked a little about choosing a fusible in this post here, but basically you want to select one with a weight similar to that of your self fabric. I know a lot of you are making silk Archers so with that in mind I’ve also included a bit of silk specific advice. I’m not sure if you guys fuse as you go but I find it least annoying to just do it all now and then put away that press cloth for good.
There are a many ways to interface silk, just as there are many ways to interface anything, but my two favorite ways are with ultra lightweight fusible woven interfacing or with silk organza. I typically use fusible because I like the fact that the fused fabric drapes more closely to the original fabric and also because on really thin fabrics, like chiffon, occasionally the stiffer organza fibers can peek through a bit, but the choice is really up to you on which one you’d like to use.
Silk organza just comes in one weight, so I won’t talk about choosing that, but when selecting a fusible you’ll want to pick one that most closely resembles the weight and drape of your self fabric. Above are my fusible and self fabric (silk habotai) together for comparison.
Just so you can get a sense of how the two drape in relation to each other, above on the left is my self fabric interfaced with silk organza and on the right is the un-interfaced silk habotai. The organza definitely adds a bit of body, which may be exactly what you’re looking for! When using silk organza as your interfacing you’ll need to stitch the organza and self fabric together inside the seam allowance so they act as one.
On the left here is my self fabric interfaced with ultra lightweight fusible and on the right, again, is just the fabric. Pretty similar to each other.
Not only does silk want to move around while you’re cutting, it also wants to do it’s slippery thing while you’re trying to fuse it. I like to lay the piece I’m fusing and it’s fusible on top of one of the paper pieces I cut out with it to make sure I’m fusing into the exact proper shape.
When fusing your left CF button band it can help to use a seam gauge to make sure the interfacing is lined up properly at 1″ from the edge of the fabric.
Other than that, just fuse everything according to the instructions on your fusible or sew in your interfacing if you’re not using fusible. The photos of the rope print Archer are part of a guest post I just did for Britex on Tips & Tricks for a Silk Shirt. I’ll be including all of them in the sew along as we go but if you want to check it out ahead of schedule, you can read it here. See you tomorrow for making our button bands!
