When you lay out your Madden, you’ll find that you have 2 pieces of interfacing, and two pieces of fabric! We’ve done this to make it easy for your to blockfuse the fabric for the waistband, as the pattern suggests. Blockfusing is when you interface a piece of fabric BEFORE you cut a pattern piece from it. This is nice for waistbands and curvy pieces.
Since the original layout didn’t make it especially convenient to do the blockfusing, we’ve suggested a slightly different layout and given you a little extra fabric.
We also gave you a separate piece of interfacing for the button facing. It’s cut on grain, whereas the waistband is cut on the crossgrain, so it matches the grain on the fabric.
We use top-of-the-line weft interfacing with our linen. The interfacing in your kit does not need to be pre-washed. Your fabric is pre-washed at the mill and it’s your choice if you want to pre-wash. See our Caring for your Linen blog post for more details!
Layout:
The big piece of interfacing goes with the small length of fabric in your kit. Line up the interfacing so it’s centered on your fabric. You’ll have about 2 inches of fabric showing on either side.
Always lay interfacing on top of the wrong side of the fabric, glue side down. You can tell which side is gluey by feeling it - the gluey side has a lot more texture.
To fuse, use a medium setting and lots of steam. Also use a presscloth of some sort to protect your iron! If you don’t have a presscloth, you can use the acid-free tissue paper in your kit!
Press one section at a time, holding the iron still for about 15-20 seconds. Overlap the next press with the prior pressing area a bit. Continue until the entire block of fabric is fused.
Here’s what your blockfused fabric will look like!
Now you can fold the blockfused fabric in half and cut 2 each of your front and back waistband pieces.
If you have a bit of extra near the selvage, save it as it’s a great test scrap for your buttonholes!
The next trick with this layout is the front piece - you need to connect the Main front piece to the Lower front piece.
When you cut the Lower Front piece, consider leaving a little “extra” on the edge of the pattern piece you are taping, to help with alignment when you connect them.
Line up the marks on the bottom of the Main Front with the marks on your size line on the Lower Front Piece and tape. Now you have your front!
Note that this is cut on a SINGLE LAYER of fabric. Here’s a photo of your overall layout. This will work for all sizes. Just remember to flip your pocket and cut a 2nd one.
When you mark your pleats, snip your marks but ALSO, make little direction arrows next to each notch that marks the end of a pleat. This will make it so much easier to tell what you are doing when you fold your pleats. Keep your pattern piece with the panel in its correct alignment so you have a quick reference for which piece is which!
It’s VERY important to note that you cut your pattern pieces RIGHT SIDE UP. Make sure when you fuse the button facing interfacing on the Skirt Front and the Skirt Left-Hand-Side Back, you fuse on the WRONG SIDE. I found it helpful to make myself a big red note on my pattern pieces as I did this wrong the first time and fused the front (doh). : )
Now you’re ready to start construction!
