Japanese Kimono

Posts Tagged ‘how to sew kimono dress’

Question: What needle should I use to sew polyester and silk together?

I'm trying to make these really cool asian-like leggings. I bought a kimono (well, a japanese dress, but not really the original kimono...) which is 60% silk and 40% rayon. I want to sew this to another dress which is 100% polyester. (In other words, walmart doesn't offer enough variety of material and there are no other local places to buy it, so I'm compromising.) So, any suggestions on what size needle or any certain thread I should use?

Answer: If you can find a decent lightweight thread, use that. Otherwise, general purpose polyester thread should do nicely. Make some trial seams on scraps, paying special attention to stitch length, as closely woven (I'm assuming that's what you've got) fabrics tend to pucker from "thread jamming" fairly easily.

http://www.schmetzneedles.com/sizingguide.html

Again, assuming you're sewing wovens, I'd try a fairly small sized sharp needle. Needle size is related to fabric thickness -- I'm going to guess size 9/65 to 12/80 from what you've said. Use the smallest needle size that sews without skipping stitches. If you're buying Schmetz needles, the first point style I'd try would be Microtex, followed by Jeans. In other brands, choose a sharp.

But if you're in an area with a dearth of sewing supplies, chances are that a size 12/80 Schmetz universal needle will do fine. The others will do better, but the 12/80 universal point will sew virtually any garment weight fabric, knit or woven.

If your fabrics are knits, however, you want ballpoint needles -- universal, jersey or stretch points in Schmetz's terminology.

Handy needle/fabric matching guide:

Puckering and pulling threads are probably going to be your worst problems with these fabrics. Thread pulling usually stops with the right needle point and size. And here's an excellent tutorial on puckering here:

http://www.amefird.com/seam_puckering_bulletin.htm

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