How to add pin-tucks to the Highland Henley - By Bianca
This hack will show you how to add a few pin-tucks to your Highland Henley Shirt. I love pin-tucks and they are a great addition on this shirt.
For this hack you need a ruler, a pencil, scissors and as an option, a twin needle and a pin-tuck presser foot.
The first step is to draw a line for the first pin-tuck. This line indicates the position of your first pin-tuck. In this example I wanted the first pin tuck to be placed 1cm (3/8inch) from the placket. You can choose the distance individually.
This is what the pattern of the front piece looks so far.
Now cut the front piece along the line for the first pin-tuck. Take some adhesive tape and secure into place on a blank piece of paper.
For the next step, make sure you evaluated the width of your pin-tucks. The width for the pin-tuck is always the size if the finished pin-tuck times two. So if you want your finished pin-tuck to be 2mm (1/12inch), the extra width that needs to be added to the pattern is 4mm (1/6inch). Since my twin needle is 4mm, I went for a finished pin-tuck size of 2mm.
In this case, measure 4mm from the first pin-tuck line you just cut open. The front piece will be secured down exactly on this line, so 4mm from the piece you cut away and secured on the blank piece of paper. You can also go ahead and draw the lines for the other pin-tucks. You can add almost as many pin-tucks as you like (as long as they fit onto the pattern piece) but keep in mind, that every pin-tuck adds a bit of extra to the width of your Highland Henley. The extra width will disappear around the bust line after sewing but will stay around the waist and the hips, unless you sew the pin-tucks all the way down.
Keep on working in this pattern until all pin-tucks received their extra width of 4mm (or the value that you chose).
Once finished, you can cut all pattern pieces as stated in the instructions of the Highland Henley.
Next up is the sewing part. Take a marker (one that will disappear with water or heat) or some Taylors chalk and mark your pin-tucks on the right side of the fabric.
Make sure you also mark the length of each pin-tuck. I decided to make them as long as the placket in the middle and each pin-tuck is shorter on the way out to the side seams.
For this step there are different possibilities. You can either fold the pin-tucks one by one and sew them with a straight stitch. For example, when you added 4mm for one pin-tuck, fold it on the marked line and sew 2mm from the marked line. Repeat for all other pin-tucks.
Another option is using the twin needle on your sewing machine. For this, prepare your sewing machine with the twin needle and as an option with a pin-tuck presser foot.
I also added a thicker yarn that I threaded from below through the little hole on the needle plate. This is optional but helps to keep the volume of the pin-tucks.
Then start sewing. Your machine will do the work for you. Just sew along the lines for the pin-tucks and if using the extra thread try to keep it in the middle between the needles, especially in the beginning.
Keep on going until all pin-tucks are sewn. And this is where a pin-tuck presser foot comes in handy, it makes it a lot easier to sew the pin-tucks to be parallel without making an effort. But as stated before, this is optional. If you marked the pin-tucks on the fabric and sew carefully, this can be achieved even without a special presser foot.
This is what the wrong side of the fabric now looks like. You can secure the long ends of the ticker yarn by just tying it together with the long ends of the normal thread. From this point on, you can continue to follow the instructions that come with the sewing pattern, the pin-tucks are complete.
