Thursday, May 8, 2008

Not your ordinary sew-on snaps

Last weekend I visited a higher end/designer consignment shop. I saw a jacket with a really cool detail - I snapped a few pictures so I could share!


The jacket is from Annette Görtz. It closes with several large sew-on snaps (I always think of Tany now whenever I see sew-on snaps, although in this case the snaps are not covered).




From the functional side, the snap looks normal. It's sewn over a strip of constrasting petersham ribbon. (BTW: In the current issue of Threads [#136, Apr/May 2008], Kenneth King describes the strongest way to apply a sew-on snap - with a buttonhole stitch.)



The reverse side of the fabric is where it gets interesting. It looks like an incomplete circle in contrasting thread was stitched by machine where the snap is placed. Also, the contrasting thread that was used to apply the sew-on snap shows up as little 'bars'.



I can only imagine how carefully one must work to achieve such perfect-looking stitches!

14 comments:

dawn said...

What a cool detail! Thanks for sharing it. I think that one could negotiate this without too much difficulty if the circle part is done by hand as well. It could be done with a backstitch, first on the top layer only, then the bottom layer only, perhaps catching only enough of the underneath layer in each case to hold them together. Interesting.

CraftRage said...

That IS pretty cool! They look a lot like the snaps on the jacket in this month's issue of Sew Stylish - you can't see them in the cover photo, but they're on the pictorial inside. I've been kind of wondering where to find them, because they're much nicer looking than the traditional sew-on snaps I've seen.

Even if I found them, I'm not sure if I'd be able to get the stitching done so nicely, though!

Anonymous said...

Oh my! To do that by machine, I imagine myself breaking a bunch of needles...Maybe sewing just the circle first and then apply the snap and put it in by hand...or by machine using the button foot with the feed dogs down and carefuly hand turning the wheel...

The whole idea looks great thought!

Becky said...

I'd just have to hand-sew it. There's no way around it. It is a nice detail, though!

And I'd love to get my fabric stash down, too. Espcially because I realized I have a lot of fabric, and if I can ever afford to move out of my parents' house, I'd have to put it all somewhere. So I think I'd rather use it!

Paula Gardner said...

That's an interesting detail. It looks to me like you could stitch the circle by machine first (precisely marked and stitched ever so slowly and carefully!) then center the snap in the circle and sew it on either by hand or machine. I saw that article in Threads about sewing snaps on with buttonhole stitch and I've been dying to try it.

Paula Gardner said...

Oh, yeah. And I wonder why they didn't complete the circle?

Christina said...

Oh I would definitely sew the snap on by hand. The decorative circle I would do first though and that could go either way - by machine or by hand.

Christina said...

Paula - I don't know why they didn't complete the circle! It looks cool how they are all oriented the same way though.

narcissaqtpie said...

That's really nice. Totally worth it to do it by hand.

Elaray said...

That's a very neat detail. So many ideas for us to use! Good snoop shopping!!

C. Dishmont said...

What a jazzy way of putting snaps on!! I wonder if the non-sewer could look at that detail with the same awe.

Marji said...

That is a very cool touch - and also done by one of those specialty sewing machines you'll find in industrial workrooms.
you can tell that the snap was positioned, and the machine is calibrated to stitch around the outside, and at every opening it does the equivalent of a bar tack. See how the stitch for each bar tack goes right back into the same stitch hole as the stitching around the snap? And they start at one hole, stitch around to the last hole, and get each hole stitched with a bar tack, then stop - which is why they didn't close the circle.
Have you ever seen the YouTube video of the jeans factory? They have all sorts of fabulous one-function machines.

Tany said...

I love little details like these! Thank you so much for sharing!

Anonymous said...

Where can I buy these snaps? I have a sweater that would look great with this type closure, I need snaps that are not metal and about an inch in diameter.

Cathy J
tomco@atmc.net