Sorry about the picture

Working on several projects, today the muslin for pants.

Not the most charming view, this is my pants muslin for Vogue 2896. Same pants, only standing slightly different. It’s a muslin, but if I can make it a wearable muslin I would be pleased. The fabric is not too expensive and mainly man-made fibre.  I wanted to make a muslin with a fabric that has the same sort of drape as the black fabric that I want to use next. My experience this year was that I finally had a muslin right, and the drape of the fabric was so different that I had wrinkles again.

Now I really want to make a basic tnt pattern, so that I can make a couple of pants relatively quick. I need to make quite a few.

How time flies, I was looking for the picture of the last time I made this one, and saw that it’s two years ago. Then it looked like the picture below (can you tell I love pinstripes?).  I think the fit in the newer version above is better, but should I take up the inseam of the back part?

I’ve taken out width in the upper part of the back, as shown in the Threads article that Summerset mentioned in a post. She had the tip from Nancy K. Clear that the sewing community helps us.

Your advise is hightly appreciated.

Posted by Sigrid at 8:52 PM

Cuff

 

It’s been a busy weekend, but I got a little sewing done.  I cut a muslin for pants, and started on the Patrones blouse, for which I started with a BWOF pattern, as the Patrones blouse is not given in my size. The sleeves with the special cuffs are done.

The instructions are not very clear on how to make these. Berry (who I met in Paris), was so kind to translate them for me (thanks again!), but it still was not completely clear. I sewed a loop on elastic and that’s how the gathering and the closing of the two buttons are done.  The instructions called for elastic for the upper two casings, that much was clear and the lower casing has a cord of fabric. In the pattern there’s only one button, these two seemed more logical to me.

Posted by Sigrid at 11:27 PM

Sewing queue

Once again I’m planning things to make. Most of these projects are simple and should not take more than a couple of hours each. Muslin time (for the pants) not included.

First, ready to cut is this Simplicity wrap top. Valerie (a sewing friend I met through the lingerie sew along) gave this pattern to me. She has made several already and it should be easy to make. It will be the red fabric in the picture and will be combined with the rtw skirt on the left. The flash made the fabric lighten up a bit, in reality it’s the same color as the darker red in the skirt.

Further I absolutely need a couple of pants. I’ve been postponing this as I want to try to make a basic pattern without wrinkles. Will be a couple of muslins for sure. The black and grey pinstripe will be pants, though the pattern is not sure, just took a picture to indicate ‘pants’.

The second fabric from the left has a few wrinkles in the fabric, and will be the Patrones blouse I showed earlier. The purple in the center will be a New Look cardigan. I made it a few weeks ago in the same fabric in grey and that one will probably be worn out at the end of the winter. It’s soooo comfortable that I take it out of the closet very often. And the last one is a knit for which I have not decided on a pattern yet. Something basic probably.

And something new in the sidebar: a slideshow with inspiration pictures I collected.

Posted by Sigrid at 9:59 PM

Weekend in Paris

Past week/weekend was the European Pattern Review meeting. I went and had a wonderful time. Due to a strike with the trains in Belgium I had to make it one day shorter than planned. I had a ticket for Thursday, but there were no trains that day from the Netherlands to Paris. I changed my ticket to Friday and was there from Friday afternoon till Sunday afternoon.

It was such fun to meet Annika, Tini, Val (from Australia!), Vibeke, Nowak, Claire, Lista, Karin, Lara, Berry, Katharine, Sheila and her friend. Talking about sewing, patterns, fabric shopping, visiting the Vionnet exhibition en a bit of sight seeing. It was a great weekend.

I’ve posted pictures in the general picture album created by Annika, more pictures of participants will hopefully soon be added.

Two pictures from a tailor window and a small box with a sewing room pictured:

 

And of course I couldn't resist some fabric shopping. First this gorgeous wool for a coat.

A grey pinstriped wool for a pair of pants. Nothing spectacular but very soft.

 

Two sheer silks. I call them my "difficult fabrics" as I've never before worked with fabrics like this.

 

The silk is so soft and thin, that the whole 3 meters can be pulled through my wedding ring (don’t remember who talked about that to me, but it can be done easily)

 

They are all future projects, nothing short term.

Posted by Sigrid at 1:16 PM

Coat finished: Vogue 8465

The pictures, as promised.

Unevenly spaced!! But I’ll leave it like it is. I’m very sure I followed the marks on the pattern. Don’t know what went wrong.

The lining is prickstitched to the upper layer. The lining tended to turn to the outside as the fabric has no weight to keep the wool turned.

 

(hope the pictures are clear, I can make a ‘negative’ like Katherine H suggested, but don’t find it makes it much clearer to see the details. Making the pictures lighter does help too, but on my screen I can see the details in these pictures.)

Finishing this coat in less than a week makes me wonder why I never made it last year. I know I was wondering too much about whether this was the right pattern, and the fabric I had chosen was not quite right for a coat without adding an extra layer for warmth, which made me reluctant sewing it. This fabric was quite right for it. A real coat quality wool, very warm. Juliet asked me to describe the fabric, but all I can say is that it is very dark grey, no clear grain of weft threads. It was a pleasure to work with. Gwensews: I certainly think that it can be made in felted wool. I think my fabris is not felted, but it looks a bit like it.

After working with this pattern which is labeled “easy” I think they made it easy by leaving out a lot of inside finishing. I did use more interfacing than the pattern describes, and think it is necessary to get a good result.

I really like the coat, and think I will wear it a lot. First this week to Paris! I’m going to the European Pattern Review weekend and am looking forward to seeing Paris and meeting likeminded ladies that I know from Pattern Review in real life. I hope to bring back some nice fabric, I’ve never been fabric shopping in Paris.

The review for the BWOF jacket is on PR.  If you want to browse the pictures for this one you’ll find them here.

 

Have a nice week all. I’ll be back after Paris! No sewing this week.

Posted by Sigrid at 4:08 PM

How I used hair canvas in my coat

It’s Friday evening almost 12.00 pm and the coat is finished and I’m quite happy with the result. Pictures later in the weekend during daylight and after some cleaning of my sewing room and some more general household chores that I didn’t do this week, as I used most of the time that I had apart from work for this coat. Now I’m waiting for DD to come home, just the time to write a post on how I used the hair canvas.

This technique is described in Kenneth King’s book Cool couture. A wonderful book that I have written about before. I greatly admire his clear style of writing and inspirational ideas.

Hair canvas is very stiff fabric and is used in classic tailoring (men’s jackets mostly I think). Because of the weight of the collar I thought it a good idea to interface the front of the coat with hair canvas, but this should not be in the seam allowances. I used this technique before in my weekender bag, and now for the first time in a garment. The hair canvas must have been in my collection for I think 20 years!

Cut the pattern pieces from the hair canvas and a cheap, thin fabric, including the seam allowances.

Pin the layers together and mark at the width of the seam allowance (this is different from what Kenneth King describes, he sews directly using the ruler on the sewing machine plate.) Now sew with a serpentine stitch (or triple zigzag) 2 to 3 mm within the marked line.

Cut away the seam allowance plus 2 to 3 mm of the hair canvas. The extra gives some space for turn of cloth.

On the other side, cut away the  inside part of the cheap fabric. The only part that remains of that fabric is the seam allowance.

Pin the hair canvas to the garment fabric, with the side where you see only the seam allowance on top. Baste the layers in the seam allowance. I did this by machine, mr. King does this by hand with a silk thread (there is a difference in couture sewing ;)

The outside where you see my red basting thread.

After sewing the dart, I catch-stitched it on the inside to the hair canvas. Now you can sew the pattern piece as instructed in the pattern. No significant bulk added to the seam allowances.

Posted by Sigrid at 12:20 AM

Working on a coat

Does this happen to you? You have a pattern, a fabric, an idea and at once you leave all other projects and start on something else. This is what happened Monday evening to me. I was thinking about sewing a coat, the pattern that I have now for about two years (originally sent to me by Cidell in exchange for Knip mode). Then I remembered the very dark grey fabric I bought for a coat and there I was tracing the pattern, cutting, preparing etc. Forgetting the buttonholes of the jacket and the pants I was about to finish. I’m sure they will be done soon, but now I’m obsessed with this coat.

ETA the pattern: Vogue 8465

I took a big risk and did not make a muslin. Fit in the shoulder area is not the main issue here, and well, I wanted to go ahead. The fabric is a very good quality wool, but bought very cheap because the shop was closing down. Muslin fabric wouldn’t reflect the drape of this fabric so I took my chances: started with size 16 and tapered for extra width to 18 at hip level. I based this on the finished measurements on the pattern.

It’s a whole lot of collar, and because it’s not too close to the face I thought I could wear this well enough. Large collars directly to my neck and face are no good on me.

After two (long) evenings this is the result so far:

After sewing the upper front parts and back together I tried it on and took out a bit at center back, only at the neckline, as it was standing away a bit too much. There is too much space in the back now, but I’m only wearing a t-shirt underneath and the skirt part still has to be added.

The instructions tell you to interface the front parts of the body, but I thought that wouldn’t be enough to keep the weight of the collar. So I interfaced the back too, and for the front I used hair canvas. For attaching that without adding bulk to the side seams I used a technique described by Kenneth King in his book Cool Couture. I’ll write more on that in another post.

I agree with Lindsay, sewing a coat is not as difficult as you might think, though this is not a very difficult pattern (but labelling it as Easy seems not right to me, you have to pay very close attention to the cutting layout, as the parts are not symmetrical and some parts have to be cut with the right side down for the lining)

Posted by Sigrid at 5:42 PM