Sewing with satin: snags, shine and seams

Satin snags on anything rough, so sew it with a new 70/10 microtex needle, fine polyester thread, a 2–2.5 mm stitch and smooth hands, and keep pins inside the seam allowances. Its shine reads like a nap: cut every piece in the same direction, press from the wrong side at a low temperature under a press cloth, and enclose the seams in French seams or bind them so nothing shows through.

What kind of satin are you sewing?

Satin is a weave, not a fiber. Long floats of yarn lie on the surface, which gives the shine and also explains the snagging: anything rough catches a float and pulls it. Satin is woven from polyester, silk, acetate or cotton, in weights from a whisper to a stiff bridal cloth.

Silk charmeuse has its own article in sewing with silk. The rest of this post applies to all of them, with notes where the heavy satins differ.

Quick reference: how to sew satin

How do you stop satin from snagging?

Snags come from the sewing room more than from the fabric. Before you start: fit a new needle (a used one has a burr you cannot see), take off rings and watches, file your nails, run a nylon stocking over the cutting table and the machine bed to find rough spots, and check the needle plate and the presser foot for nicks. Cover a scratched table with a sheet.

Pins leave holes and heads catch floats, so use fine silk pins inside the seam allowances only, or clips with smooth jaws. Keep the fabric away from hook-and-loop tape, rough knitwear and the serger's cutting blade until the seam is ready. If a float does pull, do not cut it: from the wrong side, use a fine needle to ease the loop back through, then smooth the surface with a fingernail.

Which direction does the shine run on satin?

Satin reflects light differently along and across the length, so two pieces cut in opposite directions look like two shades on the finished garment. Treat it like a fabric with a nap: lay out every piece pointing the same way, mark that direction with a chalk arrow on the wrong side, and buy 10–20 % more fabric than a two-way layout needs.

The right and wrong sides of a light polyester satin can be hard to tell apart once cut. Mark every piece's wrong side with a small chalk cross or a piece of low-tack tape in the seam allowance as you cut.

How do you cut satin?

Lay a sheet of pattern paper or a cotton sheet on the table, then the satin in a single layer, wrong side up if you are marking. Hold the pattern with weights and cut with a sharp rotary cutter, flipping the pattern to cut mirrored pairs. Cut notches outward, mark darts with chalk on the wrong side, and never run a tracing wheel over the right side. The methods in how to sew slippery fabric apply, including spray starch on polyester satin, which helps a little, and gelatin on silk, which helps a lot.

Crepe-back satin can be cut with either face out, and many sewists use the matte crepe side for most of the garment and the satin side for a collar, a band or a facing. Decide before cutting and mark it.

How do you sew satin seams without puckering?

Light satin puckers for the same reason silk does: the needle pushes it into the hole of the needle plate. Use a straight-stitch plate or a strip of tissue paper under the seam, a short stitch, and a new needle. Start on a scrap and chain into the seam, hold the fabric lightly taut in front and behind the foot, and lower the upper tension one step if the seam draws up. No backstitching: leave tails and tie them.

On light satin, French seams enclose the edges: sew wrong sides together 0.9 cm (3/8 in) from the edge, trim to 3 mm (1/8 in), fold right sides together and sew 6 mm (1/4 in) from the fold, for a 1.5 cm (5/8 in) allowance. Duchess and bridal satin are too thick for that; finish the allowances separately with a serger or bind them, and press them open. A bridal bodice is usually underlined with silk organza or cotton, which gives the needle something to grip and hides the allowances. Stretch satin takes a stretch needle and a narrow zigzag, like any knit.

Staystitch necklines right after cutting: satin stretches on the bias and a curved edge grows while you work.

How do you press satin?

Heat is the risk. Polyester satin glazes, puckers permanently or melts at the cotton setting; set the iron to synthetic, about 110–130 °C (230–270 °F), and test on a scrap, raising the heat only if the crease does not hold. Press from the wrong side under a press cloth, with a dry iron or the least steam that works, since drops of water can leave rings on acetate and some polyesters.

Seam allowances print through a shiny surface as a pale line. Slip strips of paper under the allowances before you press, or press the seam open over a seam roll so the iron only touches the stitching line. Lift and lower the iron rather than sliding, and let each piece cool before you move it.

How do you hem satin?

A narrow machine hem suits light satin: stitch 1 cm (3/8 in) from the edge, fold on the line, stitch close to the fold, trim and fold again. A rolled hem foot or a serger rolled hem also works on polyester satin. Duchess satin takes a deep single-fold hem of 4–5 cm (1 5/8–2 in), interfaced with a strip of sew-in interfacing and sewn by hand with a catch stitch so nothing shows on the right side. For a full skirt, horsehair braid in the hem gives the edge the lift bridal satin is chosen for. Let bias-cut or circular pieces hang for a day before marking the hem.

What should you sew with satin?

• A slip dress in crepe-back satin, with the crepe side out for a matte version or the satin side out for the evening. The slip dress pattern is a few bias seams and spaghetti straps.
• A fit-and-flare dress in duchess satin for an occasion, with the half-circle skirt option for lift. Sewly's fit-and-flare dress pattern gives the fabric quantity for 110, 140 and 150 cm (45, 55 and 60 in) widths; add 10–20 % for the one-direction layout.
• Scrunchies in polyester satin: the scrunchie pattern uses a strip of about 10 × 60 cm (4 × 24 in) and is the easiest way to learn how satin feeds through your machine.