Pocket opening - using silk organza

With the warm weather we are having at the moment (25 degrees Celsius, very hot for The Netherlands in April) I’m longing to sew linen trousers and not doing much hand-sewing. I’m also enjoying the sun, having a lunch or a cup of coffee in the garden is so nice!

For the enforcement of the pocket opening I used a technique I found in the book “Couture sewing techniques” by Linda Maynard that I bought recently. It’s a wonderful book with a lot of special techniques that I’d like to try. Like Ann said in her review of the book (must be the same book, though my version has a different cover) it’s not about haute couture techniques. The techniques are more high end RTW and as I’m striving more towards high end rtw for my own sewing than real couture techniques, this is a book I like and will use more in the future.

These are not the complete instructions of the book to sew the pocket, but I like to show the way the opening is made.

For the pocket opening a strip of silk organza is used, cut on the straight of grain, 3 cm wide. Fold the strip in the length and iron it. Place it on the seamline of the pocket (wrong side of fabric), clip where necessary to make the curve. Stitch in the crease.

Sew the pocket facing with right sides together, the stitchline just beside the previous stitching.

From this point I made the pocket opening like I always do: trim the seams, clip where necessary, turn and topstitch.

This is the result on the inside of the pocket.

And here you can see the trimmed seam allowance and the silk organza. Nothing to be seen after completing the trousers.

Other projects

In one of my previous posts I mentioned I was working on other projects besides the jacket. In the past days I did finish a t-shirt and a lingerie set.

The t-shirt is from the above New Look pattern. I made this pattern before and used size 14, which I found to be a bit large. Now I used a 12 and think it’s a bit snug. The difference is the amount of stretch/drape in the fabric I suppose. This fabric has less stretch.

The fabric is a mostly cotton knit that is part of the fabrics planned to use as described in this post. I now used 3 of the 5 fabrics. The pants in the brown was a wadder.

The neckline has a detail I copied from a rtw t-shirt. In that shirt it is placed lower, but the neckline of the rtw is cut deeper as well. In this shirt it didn’t look as good, so I placed it higher.

The pattern has a center back seam, which made it easy to apply a bit more waist definition.

Perhaps I should take out some fabric horizontally next time?

 

And my latest lingerie set, an unusual color combination for me.

Continuing on the jacket

There’s more than one project in progress at the moment, nice because when there’s time to sew a bit but I’m not in the mood for the jacket, there are other things to do. Bad, because it means the jacket has not enough progress to my taste. All my own doing, no complaint, just a fact. Tonight I did continue and you’ll get a first view of the trim I’m using. Its difficult to get the colors right in the pictures. The last one shows the colors best on my monitor.

 

The front of the pocket

The back, the lining is sewn mostly by hand to the pocket.

And on the jacket front, also hand sewn. Tomorrow night is the next pocket. It’s time consuming!

Brussels/Antwerp fabrics

 

Past weekend was the Pattern Review weekend in Brussels. It was the most wonderful weekend: we did a lot of talking (sewing and other subjects), shared a bit of experiences and projects, laughed a lot, visited a beautiful and special fabric store in Brussels and some of us went to the fabric market in Antwerp on Sunday. Our host Sheila opened up her house to us, which was very, very nice of her to do. She has a wonderful sewing room we were all jealous of. Not very big, but so well organized.

Did I finish my jacket in time? No way, it is still in the same state as it was in my last post. Did I buy fabric? Of course. Today I washed and dried them, but they’re not ironed yet. Therefor the wrinkles in the picture. From left to right: a fabric of unknown content but with a beautiful drape for a pair of trousers, white linen/cotton for trousers/jacket, knit with grey/off white stripe, blue linen/cotton again for trousers, blue silk for a blouse and a silk voile for a tunic. Very basic fabrics mainly, to be made into basic garments. When? Some hopefully soon.

Sheila, Claire, Valerie from Australia, Valerie from Amsterdam, Lista, Hilde, Joanna, Martha, Margaret, Samira,  Katharine: thank you so much for a wonderful, relaxing weekend. Hope to meet you all again soon.