New Tips for Sewing Rouleau Loops
I had a wonderful visit from a long-time sewing friend. Of course we talked about sewing and clothes! She works in a bridal salon making gowns, and shared a couple of new tricks she’d learnt.
The salon uses rouleau loops and buttons a great deal, as they’re stronger and more reliable than zips. They make them in a slightly different way than how I’ve (or she) made them.
I haven’t made rouleau loops for a long time, but I took notes and gave it a whirl.
But first, here’s a quick overview of how rouleau loops are usually made:
2. Fold it in half and stitch next to the fold – the amount determines the width of the rouleau.
3. Turn the tube through to the right side. You now have rouleau.
4. Form loops of rouleau on the edge of the garment, stitching on the seam line.
5. Lay a facing over the top and stitch in the same place.
6. Understitch the facing.
7. Fold the facing into place and press.
Just to shamelessly plug my book here: there’s a whole chapter devoted to rouleau in The Dressmaker’s Companion.
Here’s some hot tips from my friend.
1. Stretch the bias strip hard as you sew the row of stitching to form the tube. This stops the stitching from breaking as it cannot stretch any further. It does make the tube part narrower as you sew it, so (as usual with rouleau) you’ll need to experiment with exactly where to sew.
Have a large amount of fabric inside the tube, so the rouleau is like a firm cylindrical cord. It should be quite firm as you pull it through. As with the stitching, you’ll need to test the right amount of fabric to have inside the rouleau. You’ll get a feel for this if you do it all the time – my friend said she’s fairly practised with the fabrics they regularly use, but for new fabrics she would need to do a test rouleau.
To give you an idea, I cut my bias strip 4cm (1.5″) wide, and stitched 3mm (1/8″) from the fold.
2. Pin the rouleau to the ironing board securely, then pull it tight and hold a steam iron over the top. Give it a few breathy puffs of the iron.
3. Still holding it, roll the rouleau with a tailor’s ham or sleeve roll. This makes it smooth and round. A sleeve roll works well because you can roll the whole length at once (I didn’t have mine handy).
4. Form the loops on graph paper before you sew them to the gown. My friend said they have a pad of 5mm graph paper at work, and everyone just tears themselves off a sheet when they need it. Stitch the loops aligning them on the grid. (This is so brilliant – why did I never do this before? I always stitched them straight onto the fabric, making even loops using my calibrated eyes. So did my friend.)
An awl or wooden cocktail stick is really useful for holding it under the presser foot as you stitch.
From then on, it’s a breeze.
5. To sew the loops to the gown, put the paper face down on the fabric, and peek underneath as you sew it to make sure you get the stitching in the right place.
6. Tear away the paper which will be perforated from the needle.
7. Sew the facing on, with the facing underneath and the garment uppermost, so you can see where to stitch, and stitch just inside the previous row of stitching so it won’t show.
8. As always, understitch the facing to keep it hidden out of sight.
Rouleau loop perfection! I’m going to do all mine like this from now on.
Cheers!
I’ve never used a tube turner. I insert string, or cord, along the tube, as I sew. Sew across the top of the tube making sure the string is secure. Then pull the string out. Hey presto! The tube can be as long as a piece of string! I use this method for any width of strap too.
Thank you for mentioning this method. I should have put it in there but am too enamored with using a loop turner. Both methods work great.
The loops on my Sandie shirt were very successful following your ‘original’ directions – I was pleased with them at least. These new tips all make sense – and my drawer of redundant graph paper has a new purpose!
Thanks Wendy, I’m with you on the graph paper – we seem to have so much of it yet no-one uses it…until now:)
Genius! And how timely as well! I wanted to tackle the Sandie shirt this fall at some point.
How genius is the graph paper?! Would be excellent to use for Sandie (and the real Sandie would be pleased too).
I’ve always been intimidated by sewing rouleau loops but this method looks foolproof!
I think this method is great, especially the graph paper – takes the guesswork out of getting the loops even. I hope you have success with it.
What a good idea to use graph paper, it seems so evident when you say so that I wonder why it’s not the “normal” way of doing!
My biggest problem is that I don’t sew rouleau loops very often… something like once in almost 30 years of sewing? Between the hassle of doing the rouleau and the hassle of sewing the buttons, without even mentioning opening and closing all those buttons, I don’t see the point, exept on “special garnment” as bridal wear, which I don’t sew and wear much 😀
I know, it sounds so obvious now.
I think you, me and most of the sewing world doesn’t have much call for rouleau loops too often, but it’s handy knowledge to file away.