Sewing queue

After the jacket there’s nothing very elaborate in my sewing queue. I’ve sewn 3 t-shirts the past days which is a sort of instant gratification, but also a bit boring. I’ll show pictures when all the threads from the coverstitching are finished.

Next up are two pairs of pants, a blouse, a summer dress and possibly a black jacket.
One of the pants will be of tan linen, which is the exact color that’s in my jacket and will also will be combined with these fabrics:
In the first picture on the left a cotton which is already cut using the pattern for the “artsy polka dots blouse” that I made recently. In the second picture on the left a knit, one of the t-shirts I made.
In the middle the linen and on the right a piece of black fabric that I used for a skirt last year. It’s only 1.20 meter long, Í’m going through my patterns and magazines to see whether I can find a jacket that can be made of only that small amount of fabric. In any case the blouse and pants could be combined with the black denim jacket I made this spring too.
 
The next pair of pants is a grey denim. The pictures don’t show it too well on my screen, but it’s quite a bit darker than the linen.
 
And last in the queue this fabric, from which I want to make Vogue 8472.


I hope to make these garments in June, for my own guidance I’ll make a list in the sidebar to keep track of what I’ve done.

PS: thank you all so much for your resources for petersham, I'm looking in to them and probably order some soon too. At the moment my friend Valerie was looking for it, but I want to try it myself too. This time I won't be in London, so I won't be able to go the shops mentioned there, but certainly keep them as reference.

A skirt

This time I feature someone elses work. Today I met Valerie, a real life sewing friend. We got in contact last year and have met several times and visited the exhibition in The Hague together. It’s such fun to actually talk sewing a lot of the time and knowing the person you’re talking to is knowing what you’re talking about and not bored stiff.

Valerie already told me she liked this skirt in my inspiration folder and today she was actually working on it.

 

The pictures are taken with my cell phone, so the quality is not very good, but you’ll get the idea.

She took a medium weight black denim and ribbon in 3 different widths. Together we placed the ribbons. She could have done that by herself, but as I was there it was nice to do it together. We did the front first, then marked the matching points for the ribbons on the side seams  and continued on the back. The result looks very special and could be dressed up or down. Accurately stitching the ribbons in place will be quite a job, but when it’s done sewing the skirt will be easy. Valerie, I’m looking forward to seeing the result.

She wants to finish the waist with petersham. In the Netherlands this is not available (as far as we know). Does anyone know a good European source to buy this online? And next month I will be in the UK for a few days, is this available there? Any tips for fabric/notions shops that I could visit (Sevenoaks/Tunbridge Wells region).

Last details and finished jacket

A picture heavy post, as I’ve included pictures on me and on the dressform, to show the comparison for this once. A few pictures on the end conclude the details on the construction of this jacket. The jacket is finished and I’m so happy with it. The style is very much me, the fit is good and I really enjoyed sewing it. Nothing more to wish for? There is one little thing that’s not quite correct, but I won’t tell!

The front, the extra shoulder interfacing of hair canvas really ensures that the fabric doesn’t collapse between shoulder and bust. My fabric was very flexible, and I think it was the right thing to do.

At the back I took a bit out of the shoulder, to remove the extra pleat I often have there. The solution was in the book Fit for real people and I want to thank Nancy K for pointing me to this solution.

In the sleeves I used a sleevehead and thin shoulder pads.

To finish the posts on the jacket the last details on construction for those interested.

I didn’t make a separate lining pattern, but used the pattern and marked the extra space where necessary on the fabric. I seldom make a jacket pattern twice, so I just cut the facings from front and back pattern. (if I want to I could tape them together again).

Extra space in the low part of the sleeves, on top of the sleeve the extra centimeter that is used by the shoulder pad is taken off.

Extra width in the back, and at the shoulder seams also the space of the shoulderpads is taken off (folded the pattern down).
Not in the picture, but I also added extra width at the top of the side seams, where the sleeves are set in.

Hongkong finish for the front facing. The lining is inserted with the bagging technique.

One of the pattern changes was taking out half a centimeter at the front shoulder and tapering to the side.

The effect is that the center front is closed more when worn open. See the difference between the two jackets?

The changes I made to the jacket pattern:

• FBA on the front
• Shoulder change in at neckline in front (as described above)
• Shoulder change at the back (reverse, at the sleeve side) to remove extra space/pleat
• sleeves 2 cm longer
• decreased the sleeve ease
• more waist definition at the back

And finally: I didn’t use Burda’s instructions at all, I adjusted the pattern and used techniques described in the books below. I wouldn’t want to be without these books in my sewing library.

Almost there

It was a lovely long weekend here, with gorgeous weather. Had the weather been worse the jacket would probably have been finished by now, but we took the opportunity to go cycling and enjoy the weather in the garden.

A few answers to questions or comments to a few previous posts:

Faye asked whether the tailoring board is the june tailorboard. Yes it is, and I’ve used it a few times now in constructing the jacket, and I’m sooo happy with it.

Ann-Marie asked about extra costs involved in importing from the USA: yes there are extra costs involved for customs and VAT (BTW). As I said: I could’t find a European source for this, but still think that all together it’s value for money.

Then there were several questions on the dressform: I made it in a workshop, so I don’t have the instructions how to do it, we followed the instructors guidance. The bottom is wood with a piece of pvc pipe in it. The stand was ready for us, we didn’t make it.

The workshop was on 3 Saturday mornings, 2 of these were used for making the clones of each other. At home we had to make it more sturdy by adding tape at the inside, which was really taking a long time. The last morning it was finished with the outer layers, which was not too much work.

This is a link to several instructions making a clone of yourself. A bit down there are 4 links to different methods. The last one, paper-tape dressform, is most like the method we used.

The fit of the dressform is pretty accurate I think, it certainly isn’t far off.

More details on the jacket

The notched collar was constructed by sewing the collar first. The under collar was cut at the bias. First the long side is sewn and understitched at the under collar, then the sides of the collar are sewn. I checked for turn of cloth and made the necessary changes to the collar, in fact made the under collar a bit smaller in the neckline.

Under collar is sewn to jacket and upper collar to facings, sewing to the corner as much as possible.

The next step is sewing the center front side, without making the corner of the lapel. I put a pen in to show that this is still open. The lapel and the center front are understitched too, switching sides at the point the fold line meets center front.

Last step is sewing the short part of the lapel, and sewing approximately 1 cm of the collar too. Black is too difficult to make pictures, and as this is not a test garment, I couldn’t use a different color thread. Next time when not using a a dark fabric, I’ll try to get better pictures. But I found this methode easy to do with great results.

Dressform

You had a little sneak peak last week: I have made a dressform to my own measurements. It was done in a group of 4 ladies and we helped eachother with the process of making a copy of your body. A few impressions of the construction.

First I was wrapped in adhesive paper. This was cut at the back and glued together again. Then it was made more sturdy by adding more adhesive paper on the inside.

After drying it was coated with a first layer of fiberfill. The outer layer is a stretch velours

The result after adding the bottom and putting it on a stand. On top is a pincushion. I’m convinced it will help me with fitting issues. It was pretty confrontating to see your own body copied with all its particulars, but it’s just the way I am, nothing to do about that.

Notched collar

Just have to show a picture of the notched collar. Earlier this year I tried the method that is described in Threads when Nancy K wrote about that article. Now I’ve used the method in a real jacket and I’m quite pleased. I made a few pictures of construction that I’ve not uploaded yet, not too sure you can see much on them. Working with a mostly black fabric is not too easy for pictures.

Details

You’re being quite unanimous in your answers whether you like the posts on plans and details. I was thinking I might be repeating myself, i showed how I make a jacket earlier on, but it has been awhile. As to plans: I have a lot of plans, quite a few (coordinating!) fabrics that I want to sew some clothes from and techniques I want to try. I’ll do a post on my plans when my jacket is finished, but my experience is that most plans for a sequence of garments somehow are left somewhere in the middle.

More detail shots of the jacket then. I made single welt pockets and was inspired by the book Cool couture by Kenneth King (so envious of those of you who attended the PR weekend and had a chance to do some embellishment with his guidance). I used a combination of two types of pockets that he described.

Basically it comes down to  make sure the seam of the side of the welt is transferred to the back of the welt.  I’m not writing a complete tutorial (( do highly recommend buying the book) but this is what I did:

Cut the welt from silk organza, in a double layer, the foldline is on the straight of grain.
Re-drafted the welt pattern piece, so that there are angles of 45 degree that must match on the back of the welt.

The interfacing organze was edgestitched to the back of the welt, leaving a few stitches open at the corners. In this way I could pull the corners away when stitching th seam.

Stittched the seam of the welt.

Folded the welt over the organza interfacing

The back, do you notice the seam line that goes from the left upper corner in a diagonal line to the bottom?

Stitched the welt and pocket to the front of the garment.

After turning you can see how small the pocket opening is. Mr King says that in this way you won’t get any stretch on the welt and the pocket opening is practically invisible. The sides of the welt are sewn from the back through the front. I’ve done both pockets now and I love the result.

What you won’t see later

I took some time this afternoon to work on the jacket. When I bought the fabric, the lady of the shop showed me a picture of a jacket with the edges only serged and obviously not very structured on the inside. She said this was a good fabric to make such a jacket. Apart from the serged edges (not my style) initially I thought I would make it not very structured, but I changed my mind and it will be a tailored, linen jacket. Though I use some shortcuts in tailoring, like I usually do.

As I told in my previous post I interfaced the whole jacket, and treated the interfaced pattern pieces as “the fabric”, therefor I used extra interfacing where I would do that in a non-interfaced fabric.

The result on the inside: a back stay of silk organza.

I sewed a shoulder stay of hair canvas to the fusible interfacing, and cut the interfacing on the roll line and took off 3 mm at the body part (as described in the book Tailoring). The hair canvas is not fusible, this was a solution to that “problem”.

The result after applying stay tape to the roll line too.

The stay tape is sewn by machine, except for the last centimeters, that are done by hand. That will make sure the machine stitching won’t be seen from the outside.

I wanted to include a poll, but that is not working properly. I wanted to ask you: do you like these posts about plans and construction details, or do you prefer to see only the end result?

New tools

Ladies, you are so right about leaving the darts in. A jacket with more shape suits me much better, nor do I want to go for an 80’s style! Karin quoted Vibeke “darts are our friends”, and Vibeke, you’re right.

Not much progress to show. I interfaced the fabric with Pam’s Pro sheer Elegance fusible interfacing and made a trial single welt pocket. That is what I think I will use as pockets, I don’t want a zipper or patch pockets, like the variations of Burda show. I did sew the darts and think that it will be a more tailored jacket than I originally thought it would be.

Recently I bought two pressing tools, and I’m quite happy with them. The tailor board from Nancy’s notions which arrived within 10 days, very quick! (I could not find an equivalent in Europe). I also bought a press roll. Both are good extra tools, as you know half of the time spent on sewing a garment is time spent pressing parts of it.

 

Finally there are a bit more flowers in our (small) garden. My son was experimenting with the camera this afternoon, and I was surprised to see that one of the roses (Zépherine Drouhin) has flowers. It’s in a sheltered spot, the other roses don’t have flowers yet.

 

Random projects

That’s how it feels to me. Next is a jacket from a Burda from 2000 (too lazy to check the month now). I was looking for a pattern I remembered for a jacket in one of the old issues I have, but that appeared not to be what I was looking for, but I found this pattern instead.

The fabric is linen, it has a stripe in the length which doesn't show well in the picture, along with an abstract flower woven in.

The muslin on my “dressform to be”, more on that later, it’s sturdy enough now to be used for the first time, though it’s not finished yet.

I traced a size 40, did a proper FBA as described in the book Fit for real people and took in the center back seam a bit at the wiast. I tapered down a size larger in the hip area, but need more space there.

Trying the muslin on myself showed a strange fold in the sleeve, but I checked it with the sleeve pattern of one of my favorite jackets (Burda too) and it’s practically the same.

I’d like a bit casual jacket and consider taking the vertical darts out. What do you think?