In fact, I'm even more convinced of the direction of my comments when I view the very first sentences in this article:
[Sometimes the word “couture” implies difficult and time consuming.
But it really stands for quality workmanship..."]

This column is definitely not for Sewing 101.
We can get that on too many other sites.
I expect Threads to offer us TOP QUALITY Couture, for today's busy woman.
I was a subscriber from the very first issue in the 80s when I was a working woman.
Now that I have changed professions and am a Fiber Artist/Sole Proprietor of my own business, I value individual, hand's on QUALITY work even more.

As I began this Comments section, I'd like to clarify something, though my statements certainly are stand-alone ones and ones which MaryRay and others appear to have understood.

They were made with respect as I would to any other professional; as I treat all individuals respectfully and appreciatively because we all have different points of view depending on our background and/or experience.

What I was referring to was the appearance of the loose threads laying alongside the snap's ball in image #2.

The easily-frayed cut edges of this particular material is in evidence in the last image as well, which lead me to think that a spreading of the warp and weft would serve the purpose better than cutting them.

Or, alternatively, if cutting is a must, then to suggest overcasting the cut edges with a fine thread, as I would worry about future unraveling at that spot in a garment that I was to wear, at the same time elevating it into the realm of Hand-Made rather than Home-Made.

To me, anything that can be done as a preventative rather than as a later 'fix', is far better. Once threads begin to fray out of a close-set area like this it's almost impossible to put them back into their original positions.

My comments were directed toward - - '...an ounce of Prevention..."

It's perhaps a mountain out of a molehill, but isn't it "all in the details"?

And I am somewhat tongue-in-cheek, as I take all sewing and needlework seriously but don't wish to upset anyone here by posting.
Please forgive me if this is toe-stepping!!!

I'm really having a problem understanding why a couture column would advocate 'cutting' a spot open for the snap...
This is a guaranteed weak spot (quickly fraying out) and it will positively scream Home-made!
I've used this technique successfully many times with many weights of fabric; an awl will gently spread the threads apart to push the ball through and on the female side, very short sts around the circle will hold the warp and weft threads back out of the way.
Please don't talk down to us and take the easy, kindergarten way out.
We look to Threads for short cuts, but also for QUALITY!

My workhorse, a 40+ year old Viking & I like best to use a little 'tank' too. It's a Roller Foot with 4 rollers on it, but the rollers are cross-hatched, unlike the smooth surfaced one the show now as a Leather Foot.
It rides over everything with perfect ease; silk gauze and heavy denim.

Of course, being a complete Tool Gal, I have all of the other feet & accessories, but I rarely remember to switch the feet.
The buttonhole foot would have helped me just today, in fact...

Speaking of being fiddly, I've always wished that they'd made the screw that holds the feet in just a few turns longer. I can 'almost' get most of the feet changed without the screw coming out of the hole but it usually pops out and it's a bit of an inconvenience to try to thread it back in - backwards - and with the left hand.
The person designing that system didn't think that through very well!

Sorry, the URSA link won't wrap correctly and open.
This 'TinyUrl!' is good for 30 days; the competition closes 10 September; there's more than enough to time to use it!!

http://tinyurl.com/ktseyy

I'm a Fiber/Textile Artist, specializing in Miniature Teddy Bears since 1990, and you've finally hit the subject that's in my back yard!
First, World of Miniatures is not considered Artist bears by those in the field: they are manufactured bears, made individually with production techniques by workers in Asia. The company owners now live here in the US.

'Artist' teddy bears—standard larger bears—were only developed in the 80s by the van Port family in the Northwest. It is a relatively young Collectors' market.
Artist bears are OOAK (One Of A Kind) or made one at a time in VERY small, limited series (usually less than 5 or 10.) My work was also 2" to 3" tall, sewn 20 sts to the inch, vintage long pile, either Malden Mills' or similar fabric, turned right-side out, stuffed, extensively needle- and scissor-sculpted, shaded by hand. This is labor intensive work and one 2" teddy may take well over one week to design and create: accessories and clothing are all extra time. (I now Needle Felt 2" - 3" realistic bears out of wool fiber)

Insetting paw pads, hand-sculpted noses, Yes-No mechanisms, specialty studio techniques for jointing and other trade secrets which set each artist apart all add to the time it takes to create these tiny treasures.
And unlike the artists who have the space in standard-sized bears, in which to work out all of these features, we miniaturists must make all of them work and look natural and in perfect proportion and scale—and all within fractions of an inch!

Please don't think of or dismiss miniatures as what you will see in an internet search for 'artist miniature bears' as was suggested below - World of Miniatures comes up near the top of that search by dint of number of sales, because they offer a very inexpensive product and can afford to put it into every type of retail and wholesale outlet available. These aren't considered 'Artist' bears, even though each prototype was designed by an artist (I was solicited several times to design for them and several other companies but their timelines are too short):

Please search for 'MINIATURE ARTIST TEDDY BEARS' - all 4 words, that will take you to the sites of hundreds and hundreds of individual working artists from all over the world, displaying a wide range of the types of techniques incorporated from every other type of Sculpting, Needle Felting wool/fibers, theater-work, metal work, jewelry design and other craft, and the majority use Mohair fabric, Sheep's wool, Alpaca and man-made fibers (rayon, nylon..) as the fabric for their bears. A small percentage of us recycle animal coats (mink/fox/etc) into teddies but do not use new pelts.

To see some cream-of-the-crop work, there is an international online competition in its final phase right now - inviting viewing and voting from the general public. This final vote is for Best of Show from among the top place winners in each category.
To see some EXCELLENT, OOAK, ARTIST, TEDDY BEAR and other animal work, please visit
http://www.bearsandbuds.com/URSA2009/URSAAwardsCompetitionFinalRoundofV\
otingBearsandbuds.asp
and cast a vote!
Thank you Threads, for giving me the opportunity to explain the difference in miniature teddy bears; why the ones seen in the Hallmark shops and W.O.M. will cost under $20 and true Artist bears may cost $750+.
But the Beanie Baby-type are good in that they foster a love for these tiny treasures and, as tastes mature, one may seek better quality and begin to look around for it, through internet searches, eBay sales, trade magazines and teddy bear shows. Then—real artist - collector connections are made and a new world opens up!

Jim makes excellent points about adding a bit of ANY natural fibers between to help bind from above & below. And the needles do have several barbs along the sides, not at the tip (using the narrowest you can locate, preferably 42! to minimize the puncture holes.)
I've needled by hand for 10 years and have only one issue—the generic use of the word 'felted' to cover everything, both noun & verb.
The verb 'needled' (no, I'm not the grammar police here but this describes the action rather than the result) can be substituted for every place that the word 'felted' is used from #3 on down and it describes the action better and others will begin to associate this with dry felting work instead of the traditional wet felting work, which has always been referred to as just 'felt/felted/felting'.
Please use needle/needled/needler/needling when referring to our dry techniques?

Does anyone know if this cording would also be appropriate for piping on a bathing suit? Is there enough stretch in the cord?
- - - - -
Yes, if you leave enough extra length of the rat tail hanging out of the end of the 'tube' to pull in to snug up the fit and adjust in the final fitting. Of course this also depends on the style and materials your swimsuit is made of; many styles and materials do fine w/o the rat tail left inside.

But this produces a simple cord; if I'm understanding correctly, piping in its true sense needs the seam allowance on the outside to be sewn into the suit's seams. Perhaps CCSstudio is going to use this as a surface embellishment?
____________________

Is my mind going... or does the clematislover solution end up with the cord outside the tube?
- - - - -
Yes, no cord is left inside the tube as clematislover describes it, unless you follow Knit Daily's sew-the-center-of-the-rat-tail-to-the-short-edge-of-the-bias-strip-method.
Like clematislover, I too learned this other technique, but a very long time ago—in HS Home Ec class in the late 50s, for the spaghetti straps on our prom dresses that were the style then.

We knotted the cord, folded the bias strip over the cord (knot poking up on the outside) at the top short edge and sewed across the cord just under the knot, then sewed across this short half inch seam at the top edge with the zipper foot. Sew twice as insurance if your cord is thick or stiff as you'll be clipping the knot/cord off and the stitching may leave a gap.

If you were to use this cording to make, for example, surface embellishment like Chinese knots instead of sewing the ends inside of something like our straps, you'd want these end seam stitches to be even and tight.

Turn to come down the long side of the tube, right against the cord and after a few inches, clip off the knot, then begin to ease the end of the tube inside itself (great idea with the medical gloves!)

Continue to pull the cord as you sew and by the time you get to the end the cording is completely right-side out. No turning tubes needed!

I have designed miniature artist teddy bears since 1990 and the limbs of a 2" bear are sometimes only 3/4" long x 3/8" wide"—and furry napped inside as well; the devil's own time to turn right side out after hand stitching right along the edges with 20 sts to the inch.
These are treated in the same way: though these aren't nice straight bias-cut tubes, the same principle applies. I thank heaven for Sister Gregory, O.S.A., who insisted that every stitch be perfect or we rip them all out.....

I posted this in the other Dress forums as well.
The expanding foam is available at most DIYs and Big Box stores, like Home Depot/Menards/Loewes (sp?) used to fill in around door and window frames, vents, anywhere that there're air leaks into the home.

rkr4cds1 writes: I TOTALLY agree with DARKSSYDE about using the expanding type of insulating foam inside of the Duct Tape Dress Form; however I partially filled the center with crushed & balled up newspapers first. The foam had room to expand inwards into the paper and outwards into the shell: I didn't need as much foam and its expanding action was more controlled as it filled.

Suchpae brings out the MOST valid point as well, that one must be conscious of the depth and width of the form: just making up the complete circumference in inches isn't the same as replicating a body's exact shape as the true dress forms do.

I made a second foam-filled form, and using the dowel idea, pushed the marked-depth-dowels through my duct tape form from front to back in the exact spot that they needed to be for my body, leaving approx 1" on the outside and then taped them in place, before stuffing in the newspaper (they helped hold the balls in place!) and before squirting in the expanding foam.

After the foam had cured I sawed off the ends that projected outside the form and sealed the spots over with duct tape. Now it truly is an exact replica of my body, with NO distortion from just stuffing it with polyester batting.

Thanks for your input & tips, Ladies!!
rkr4cds

I also posted this in Dress Form #2:
rkr4cds1 writes: I TOTALLY agree with DARKSSYDE about using the expanding type of insulating foam; however I partially filled the center with crushed & balled up newspapers first. The foam had room to expand inwards into the paper and outwards into the shell.

Suchpae brings out the MOST valid point as well, that one must be conscious of the depth and width of the form: just making up the complete circumference in inches isn't the same as replicating a body's exact shape as the true dress forms do.

I made a second foam-filled form, and using the dowel idea, pushed the marked-depth-dowels through my duct tape form from front to back in the exact spot that they needed to be for my body, leaving approx 1" on the outside and then taped them in place, before stuffing in the newspaper (they helped hold the balls in place!) and before squirting in the expanding foam.

After the foam had cured I sawed off the ends that projected outside the form and sealed the spots over with duct tape. Now it truly is an exact replica of my body, with NO distortion from just stuffing it with polyester batting.

Thanks for your input & tips, Ladies!!
rkr4cds

I TOTALLY agree with DARKSSYDE about using the expanding type of insulating foam; however I partially filled the center with crushed & balled up newspapers first. The foam had room to expand inwards into the paper and outwards into the shell.

Suchpae brings out the MOST valid point as well, that one must be conscious of the depth and width of the form: just making up the complete circumference in inches isn't the same as replicating a body's exact shape as the true dress forms do.

I made a second foam-filled form, and using the dowel idea, pushed the marked-depth-dowels through my duct tape form from front to back in the exact spot that they needed to be for my body, leaving approx 1" on the outside and then taped them in place, before stuffing in the newspaper (they helped hold the balls in place!) and before squirting in the expanding foam.

After the foam had cured I sawed off the ends that projected outside the form and sealed the spots over with duct tape. Now it truly is an exact replica of my body, with NO distortion from just stuffing it with polyester batting.

Thanks for your input & tips, Ladies!!!

rkr4cds

Also, I do cut the back of all of my pants on the straight grain: NO jeans orientation for me!
I hate the way that style cups around the buttocks and emphasizes them. Designers today use it in every style of pants/slacks and don't limit it to just jeans: that's a main problem and what drove me to finally developing my own slopers!

Also, I do cut the back of all of my pants on the straight grain: NO jeans orientation for me!
I hate the way that style cups around the buttocks and emphasizes them. Designers today use it in every style of pants/slacks and don't limit it to just jeans: that's a main problem and what drove me to finally developing my own slopers!

I have a problem with every pair of pants I wear; my own pattern or ready-to-wear: wrinkles form in the crotch area, beginning right along the seam between your #10 and 11 and then fan down diagonally away from the point of al 4 seams coming together, crossing the line between your #10 & 9, along my inner thighs toward my knees and never rise to even a straight horizontal level, but staying in a forward and downward sweep for about 5" in front of the inseam.

I can see where the back of the crotch depth may need trimming out (though it hangs and fits smoothly in standing and walking) but am unsure about what the front half needs, as that seems unaffected by the old axiom "The wrinkles point to the problem." The seamline fits best when it rises rather quickly and shallowly, nowhere deeply/widely cut as the back half of the crotch.

I have wider high hips than derriere (3" to 4" down is where I measure my 'hip' measurement), have a flat-ish fanny several inches thinner than my high hip and can get all the rest of my pants areas to 'hang from the waist' rather than hang up on my hips or anywhere else.

What is causing this set of forward-sweeping wrinkles? And how do I fix it?

Thank you - I've just tonight learned that you were 10 miles from me last Oct!!!
rkr4cds