- We've graduated!

Now in the real world you as designers will want four additional tips that I have found very valuable.

Yogers is the terms we will use for yoga for sewers.

And we will have a special guest to show us the moves.

Then we take a pair of pants and show you how to fit them perfectly to anyone's shape and size.

And finally an armhole and sleeve pairing to make your lifetime of sewing easy and fun.

Today on Fit 2 Stitch.

(light, pleasant music) - [Announcer] Fit 2 Stitch is made possible by Britex Fabrics.

(soft piano music) Vogue Fabrics, Evanston, Illinois.

Bennos Buttons.

Kai Scissors.

Sew Steady.

O.C.

Sewing.

Buena Park, Fullerton, Garden Grove and Irvine, California.

Richland Sewing Center, Dallas, Texas, and the Metroplex.

Cynthia's Fine Fabrics.

And Mike Gunther Industries.

- So many things I learned in design school and I've used them over and over and over and over, and you will too.

After I graduated, worked for designers, worked with pattern makers and just had some great mentors along the way.

And I learned a few more little tips.

I'm just gonna bring four of them more.

So we've graduated, four more little tips.

The first one is the fabric always wins.

Always, always, always.

We're gonna see this in real life form, so there's something I want you to think about as we look at this mannequin and real-life mannequin, which is Jeannie.

So as we look at this t-shirt what we see is this is a stripe.

It's a masculine pattern.

It's a masculine fabric.

And they work together perfectly.

Because if I had used the florals in this case I wouldn't see any of these beautiful lines in the back.

But the lines really bring out the interest in the pattern, which is to cross them and go different directions.

Likewise the top Jeannie has on is so soft and floral, it's got the little extension down the side.

It's just perfect for that beautiful floral fabric.

And the beauty of it is you don't see the darts, it fits so nicely.

There's darts in that t-shirt, and you don't even see them.

So feminine patterns, feminine fabric, we want them to go together.

Masculine fabric, masculine patterns, we want them to go together.

Fabric always wins.

Another little thing, I know yoga's been around for about 4000 years.

But I didn't really know as much about it as much as it's done today.

So we have Chuck here today who is a yoga instructor who happens to be married to a... - Sewer.

- Seamstress.

And you know what?

She, after all those hours, gets whatever she gets, you take care of all that.

- I try to, yeah.

- Yeah, and yoga is the perfect way for all of us who sew long hours and then we get tired, help us.

- Okay.

- How long you been doing this?

- So I've been practicing for about 32 years.

- Wow.

- And I've been teaching for just a little under 20 years.

- And so it's really picked up though.

It's helped to know a sewer.

- Oh definitely, yeah.

- To incorporate some of these things.

- Definitely.

- So after we've been hunched over, this is the stuff to do.

- [Chuck] The stuff to do.

- Let's do it.

- Okay, so the first thing we'll do is we'll sit down for a second here.

- Okay.

- And just be comfortable.

Don't lean back, sit up, engage your core.

First thing I want you to do, shoulders down.

Have a big chest.

And from here I want you to take some deep breaths into your belly.

You're trying to really expand into your diaphragm.

Take five deep breaths right there.

And we'll work from there.

- This feels relaxing.

- That's part of the goal.

- It's amazing, just the breathing.

- Part of the thing with sewers are is you get into your flow, you get into what you're working in and everything you start breathing clavicularly.

- Because we're so focused.

- [Chuck] Exactly, yeah.

- And dropping the shoulders even, I notice that makes a difference.

- Okay, so if you're about five breaths, okay.

We'll stand back up here.

- Okay.

- And we'll come to the side here.

And we're gonna do an extended mountain pose.

Basically from here what I want you to do is I want you to take your toes out at an angle here.

Okay, and this aids your balance.

From here I want you to lightly pull your belly button in.

Lightly tense your glutes.

Hands together and I want you to extend over your head.

And we'll hold for a few seconds.

Okay.

Now when you're doing this thing, all these movements, you wanna try to hold, with the exception of the breathing, you wanna try to hold for about 20 seconds to two minutes, depending on how much relaxation you need to do.

How much you need to open up.

- [Peggy] Sure.

- For the sake of the show here we'll go a little faster.

- So just a question.

When I'm sewing, what's a good time to take a break?

Like after how many hours of sewing is it good?

- A lot of it depends on how you feel.

What I mean by that is we're gonna come down.

We're gonna come back to the chair.

What I mean by that is, so for example, let's say you've been sewing for two or three hours, whatever, and you're just like... - You're just noticing.

It depends on if you're making mistakes and ripping them out.

- Exactly.

- I got it, okay.

- So some of that's stress and there's a lot of stuff that can be a piece of that.

What I mean by that is sometimes you're gonna be like the first hour, you might be like, man, I just don't feel like I'm into it.

I usually recommend every hour, take five minutes.

- So nothing set.

It's just whenever you're feeling, okay.

- Okay, so we're gonna use the chair here.

I want you to start with your thighs maybe an inch or two behind the chair.

Hands on the back of the chair.

And one quick little piece here is you wanna have some kind of a chair or a table or something that won't move on you.

Okay?

If it slides, if it rolls, you don't wanna get hurt.

So from here we're gonna take just a natural step back.

You're gonna bend your elbows, you're gonna stick your glutes back.

Try to keep your back flat.

This is kind of a version, an assisted version of downward dog.

- I can feel it pulling behind my leg.

- Exactly.

You're trying for this nice L form here.

Like so, okay?

And you're gonna hold that for about 20 seconds or so.

- Until I can't.

- Right, until you can't.

If you really wanna get into your breathing you wanna hold for about five breaths or so.

- Okay.

- Now without moving your feet from here, I want you to bring your hips in.

Arch your back, look at the ceiling.

Come up on your toes.

So from here, now, if you don't have a back issue, lower back issue, you arch your back.

If you do have a lower back issue, you just come to an inverted plank here.

- Got it.

- And you hold again for about 20 seconds or so.

Okay?

Right now you're stretching your front side of your body, basically from under your chin all the way down to your toes.

Getting some arm action in here.

We're gonna step back.

I'm sorry, bring our hips back.

I want you to take one foot in.

Like so.

And you're trying to keep both feet parallel, like so.

Come down, stretch out your Achilles tendon in the back here.

- I can feel that all the way across the back.

- And you're also getting a little quad work here.

This one, some people can do this in ten seconds.

Some, takes as long as two minutes.

- So it's really just contrasting the sitting position, which muscles tense up, you're just stretching those out.

- Exactly.

A lot of too, cutting table, a lot of people don't have their tables and stuff set up quite right for their height, I've found that a lot.

- They're too low.

- Exactly, and so they have this hunched over position kind of thing.

Lower back gets tight, hips get tight, and so we want to counteract that basically.

- Sure.

- Wanna take a step back.

Opposite foot.

Switch them out.

10, 15 seconds, somewhere in there.

- So this should be done every day.

Seems to me like every time you sew, just... - Like for my wife, she probably does it, it depends on how long she sews.

Say she comes into the studio on a weekend, in the sewing studio.

And she might sew six, eight hours on a good day.

She might do it two or three times during that time frame.

- Okay.

- You wanna come out.

We're gonna pull the chairs back.

We're gonna sit down.

Let's start with our right leg.

Again, so you're not leaning back in the chair.

Keep your core engaged.

We're gonna start with our right leg.

Bring your foot over your thigh.

And your goal is to try to get this knee as low as you can.

Big chest.

Lean forward at the waist.

And you'll feel that back in the... - Ouch.

- Piriformis, the glutes, IT band.

- Yeah.

- We'll hold that for just a few.

Again, normally you'd hold for 20 seconds or so.

- Don't push, just hold.

- No, yeah, you don't ever wanna go through discomfort.

You just wanna go to the edge of that discomfort.

Wherever that is.

- That's a good thought.

- You punch through discomfort, you end up your chance of injury go up.

- Sure, okay.

- Okay, so we'll call that.

- What if you can't bring your knee up?

Is it possible that... - I'll show you an alternative.

Let's do the next movement first here.

So I want you to bring that knee toward your chest.

And look to your right.

It's a half-seated twist.

Okay.

You're gonna get deeper into the piriformis, the glute medius, your (mumbles) which is a muscle in your back.

- Okay.

- Okay?

And we'll hold that for a little bit.

Good.

Now if you can't get your leg up, you can also cross here, okay.

Turning the knee out as far as you can here.

Big chest and leaning forward at the waist.

- That does the same thing basically, stretches it.

- Yes, it's not quite as deep, but it's a place to start.

- [Peggy] Got it.

- Let's do the other side.

From here, big chest.

Leaning forward at the waist.

I use the term big chest instead of in yoga you'll hear tall spine, long spine, whatever.

What I found is a lot of people don't know what that means, they don't understand.

- You're right.

- If your chest concaves, your back rounds.

- [Peggy] So tall chest.

- Tall chest or big chest keeps your back flat, keeps your core engaged.

- [Peggy] Got it.

- So you're leaning forward, good.

This is probably 10, 15 seconds right in there.

We're going to bring the knee to the chest.

Gonna look to your left this time.

- So you look toward the direction of your knee.

- Yes, look to the direction of your knee.

- Got it.

- Okay?

- Feels great.

- Its amazing, once you do it a time or two, you'll really be able to contrast the feelings between like, man, I've been doing this too much to... - Well, I noticed as we talked, I have a tendency to tense my shoulders when I sew.

- Gotcha.

- And it's really helped just to be aware of that to just relax your shoulders that you don't hold them like that.

- My teachers used to say, your scapula, your shoulder blades, try to put them in your back pockets.

- Got it.

- You know, and you can't but it's a good visual.

Okay, so from here we got one more.

Gonna stand up back to the side again.

- Okay.

- This time our feet are parallel.

I'm gonna back up just a hair or move to the side just a hair so we don't bump heads here.

- Okay.

- We're gonna bend our knees.

Big chest, hands on your thighs.

You're gonna slide down.

Wherever you feel your hamstrings engage, that's where you're gonna stop and straighten the leg.

And you're gonna gold that.

Now straighten your legs as much as you can.

Good, big chest.

That's the hardest part.

Because then you'll notice that all of a sudden you can't get down as deep.

(Peggy laughs) - And again I feel it in the back of my legs.

- That's where you're working your hamstrings and your glutes, your lower back and your calves right now.

Now, go ahead and come back down just for a second.

If you can, if you can't touch the floor and if you can't touch... - I can touch but I can't touch with a tall back.

- Gotcha.

- So which is more important?

- Tall back is important in this one.

Either put your hands on your shins.

- Okay.

- Or you can actually use, pardon me for getting away there.

You can actually use the chair back here as your position.

It's similar to the L position here.

- Oh sure, okay.

- But it's a little lower because you're using the seat bottom instead of the back of the chair.

Does that make sense?

- Yeah.

- One more.

The other thing, no, you're good.

The other thing that sewers really have a hard time with, everything you do is flexion based.

- Okay.

- You're spinning, you're sewing.

Everything is here, and it works the flexor part of the forearm.

- Sure.

- We wanna open that up because you create a tension imbalance in the muscles.

So we're gonna use the seat back here.

- Okay.

- Basically what I want you to do is, we're coming from the backside.

I want you to start with your hands down on the seat back here.

And as best you can I want you to slowly walk your hands as far as you can.

See how you're having trouble getting your palm down?

- Well, that wrist was broken.

That one's not gonna go down.

- [Huck] Gotcha.

- When I was young.

But this one can.

- You're probably feeling a lot of tension... - I can feel it.

- Through the form right there.

And that's because everything we do, we eat, we drive, everything we do is flexion based.

- We do forward.

- Everything is grab, not open.

- So this takes it the opposite.

- This takes it the opposite way.

This I would recommend that people do, you know, anywhere between one to five times a day.

- And this isn't even just sewers, this is everything, but especially for sewers.

- Because on top of the normal life stuff, driving, computer, whatever, you have that extra sewing action.

One more piece, I don't have these, highly recommended, one or two rubber bands around your fingers.

- Okay.

- Opening up against the rubber bands.

- Oh!

- Works the extensor muscles in the forearm, which helps rebalance that tension in the forearms.

- Got it.

And again like ten seconds.

- Yeah, ten.

- [Peggy] 20 seconds.

- In that one I'd probably do reps.

I'd probably do like one set of ten to five sets of ten each hand.

- Got it.

- Okay, one more thing, gonna stand.

Take a deep breath.

Shoulders down.

Just relax.

Thank you.

- Thank you!

Thank you so much!

- [Chuck] You're welcome.

- That was wonderful.

I can't believe the difference I feel, its amazing.

- Good.

- And I think it's really important that we really do balance off those hours of sewing because we don't ever want there to be a time where we can't work at our table and sew at our machine.

That's kind of what it's all about for us.

So thank you so much to Chuck for joining us today.

So then I want to talk about something that I took with me kind of at a later time after I'd graduated out of design school.

Something that was just really really fun for me, and it's really gonna make it simple for you.

So, what we know is that we actually have three different sleeves.

Three different sleeves.

If I went to all my garments and picked out how many different sleeves I have, I have a jacket sleeve, I have a blouse sleeve, and I have a knit sleeve.

So those three sleeves pretty much encompass all the garments I wear in my wardrobe.

So it's logical to me that we repeat those sleeves over and over again.

Once we find them, once we like them.

All of them go with an armhole.

So for instance, this is my knit sleeve.

This is the armhole.

I just took the actual armhole, I made a little one inch here, one inch here, connected it, but this is actually my armhole.

Seal allowance included, there is my armhole.

So this armhole and this sleeve are married and living happily ever after.

This armhole and this sleeve are same thing.

So once you find the sleeve that you like, take your patterns and take the armhole and make these little templates.

Because these are really gonna help you because in my sewing room, I have a jacket template, I have a blouse, I have a knit.

You could have a sleeveless, not necessarily critical.

But those are the basics.

Then this is a jacket I'm making.

And if I come into this jacket, and I decide, okay, now I'm gonna make a knit jacket, I take this armhole.

And my two alignment points are the shoulder, and I swing this out to be at the side seam.

And if you notice when I do that, that side seam is gonna have to be extended up.

That's okay, just extend it up.

But now I've got my knit armhole onto my jacket body.

I take my knit sleeve and sew it in.

And changing armholes and sleeves, it's amazing how much freedom it will give you.

It's really really powerful.

So go through, get those sleeves, get those armholes, figure out which ones you like, take them with you everywhere you go.

Then, also in design school, we learned how to actually make the pattern.

What we learned in design school is that when we make a pair of pants, we have a hip line and we have a crotch line.

And the crotch line is parallel to the hip line.

It's about two inches below.

The crotch line is two inches below.

And then what happens when the pants are made, because pants come from a skirt pattern.

The back of the pants, the back of the skirt is opened up.

There's a piece put behind.

And this is really cool stuff.

That is the beginning of pants.

Notice this opening.

And then what happens is this comes around.

And then the pant is formed.

But this little opening right here, notice it throws the back of the pant off grain, and it has a little dart right between the crotch line and the hip line.

So so many times when I go into help ladies get their pants to fit and I make the dart across their backside, what are you doing (mumbles) They can't figure out what's going on.

And it's only because they don't understand that when patterns were made, the skirt pattern was sliced, opened up, except that I don't know how much to open this.

Manufacturers will open it actually more than anyone needs it.

So the concept is it won't fit anyone, it'll just fit everyone.

And so many women just get that bagginess below their rear end.

So I want to bring Jeannie on because she's got a pair of pants.

We simply made up a pair of pants.

And I'm going to show to you, we've pinned them in the front.

I'm gonna turn around to the back because that's really what we're looking for.

And if you notice, underneath the back there's just a wrinkle that goes all the way down.

This is the fix.

And you're gonna see a before and you're gonna see an after of what this little dart does all the way across the back.

Now remember when we learned about darts, we learned that some of them don't have to be sewn in the final product.

This definitely does not need to be sewn in the final product.

This one's going just in the pattern work.

And I'm going to show you that in just a minute.

But first off we wanna take the wrinkles away.

And if we'll notice with this pant, it'll tape to nothing at the side seam.

And once I do that you see that it just tightens at that leg and how beautiful it hangs.

And you can see the difference between those two legs.

So the reason that little dart is there is because when the pattern was made, the skirt was split, it was opened up.

And if you don't know that you have no reason to understand this logic as to what it does or what it improves or what makes it better.

It can't be done after the pant is cut.

It doesn't matter how much you spend.

It doesn't matter how much money you put out.

It can't be fixed properly.

Because then the grain line drops down and we're good to go.

Jeannie, thank you.

But what I wanna do is I wanna look at it on the table.

And when we go to the table what I wanna show you is the pants pattern itself.

So here's the pants back.

And that's kinda all we need to really see this.

We see that... Notice the center back of the pant is off grain.

The grain line on the pant goes from the dart, and it goes all the way down to the center of the leg.

So what created this angle was sure enough this little opening that was done here when the pant was made from a skirt.

And so of course that's where I'm gonna take it out.

So on Jeannie what I would do is measure where that dart is.

And again, I'm gonna take it from center back.

I'm gonna taper to nothing over at the side seam.

It literally tapers to nothing.

There's nothing that has to be done to any other pieces.

Because center back sews to center back.

And the side seam sews to the side of itself.

So it's just a really easy fix for a very common problem.

If I could say to you what I've seen with my experience is so many women actually go where the problem is.

And because the fullness of the pant, I'm gonna compare it to cup sizing.

In cup sizing, we have B cup, C cup and D cup with women's bras.

What we need is B cup, C cup and D cup with our rear ends.

Except we don't get that.

But many women have a B cup butt and a D cup pant.

And so what happens to that extra fullness, it's just not there.

It kinda sags down and falls below.

And that's not the goal.

The goal is to pull this up to where it's exactly where we need it to be.

So then one other thing that I wanna show you.

On pants is that, oftentimes, there is a little smile.

And when I say that everybody knows what I'm talking about.

There's a little smile on the front of that pant.

And that smile is gonna be taken out the same exact way.

And I'm gonna bring just the pattern here, and I'm gonna actually make a dart where that smile will happen.

And the reason it happens is because the curve of the pattern and the curve of the body are not at the same place.

And when that happens, because the two don't match, there you get little lines that radiate out.

And whenever you notice those lines you'll notice that those are depth wrinkles because they're angular, we've talked about that.

So this is where I'm going to make the little dart.

I'll take it right to center front and it'll taper to the side seam.

Remember again that...

The dart center front sews to itself.

Once I take that alteration I'm gonna come back with my French curve and just clean up that curve there.

Connect the lines.

The connection of those lines are not what's important.

What's important is I'm taking length out of one place and not in another.

And remember that anytime I have an uneven length, that's called depth.

So I've got another little goody I wanna show you, and that is I wanna make some pockets.

And these pockets, you can make them anywhere, anything, any pant.

All I need is the hip line.

Or even on a skirt.

I'm actually gonna put this skirt back together so we can kinda see how it goes.

And we'll make a pocket.

It doesn't matter, pocket anywhere you're doing.

I'm gonna take two pieces of anything, paper.

I'm gonna put them behind.

And I can decide how wide I want my pocket to go.

And I can cut all three layers to equal the shape of the side seam.

And the shape of the top.

Then I'm gonna take one layer, I'm gonna put it down.

And I'm gonna cut, well, before I even do that actually, let's turn to the back and make the pocket.

And the reason I do this is because I have really tall kids.

And their pockets are never deep enough.

So to make your own pocket is a fun thing.

And you can make those layers.

So cut the back two layers the same.

Then I'm gonna take this pocket.

I'm gonna put it down.

And I can actually create the shape I want my pocket to be.

So this enables me to put a pocket anywhere I want.

In fact even if the pant's already made because I'm taking away fabric.

So if you notice this is my facing.

I sew right sides together.

I pull it around in there.

I put that pocket piece behind.

And twa la, I have the pocket.

And it can be any shape, as long as I want.

Mine go down to my knee sometimes because I just have all kinds of stuff within them.

So don't forget that yoga.

Deep breathing, all those things we need to do.

And a great pair of pants, we all need at least one pair that will do it.

This wraps up series 600 titled 101 Things I Learned in Design School.

Now you are much more informed and can pick the subjects you like best and study them further.

Remember that sewing is so much more than just the machine, the designer, the pattern maker and the seamstress.

You can be all three.

Happy sewing rom the entire Fit 2 Stitch crew.

(soft piano music) - [Announcer] Fit 2 Stitch is made possible by Britex Fabrics.

Vogue Fabrics, Evanston, Illinois.

Bennos Buttons.

Kai Scissors.

Sew Steady.

O.C.

Sewing.

Buena Park, Fullerton, Garden Grove and Irvine, California.

Richland Sewing Center, Dallas, Texas, and the Metroplex.

Cynthia's Fine Fabrics.

And Mike Gunther Industries.

To order your four-DVD set of Fit 2 Stitch Series 6, please visit our website.

(soft piano music)