Pad stitching the lapel #1

Working paraelle to the roll line and holding the laple draped over your other hand pad stitch a row of 1/4 inch stitches.  Pad stitch further rows at 1/2 inch and leave the marked triangular tip of the lapel for very small pad stitches.

End of the day - finish lapels tomorrow.
 

Secure hair canvas

Baste armhole and side seam to hair canvas with silk basting thread.  Catch stitch pocket opening to fashion fabric using catch stitch then cover with a bias strip of silk organza secured with small running stitch.

tape roll line

Stitch using uneven basting along the roll line using silk basting thread ensuring you only catch a thread of the fashion fabric when stitching through hair canvas.

Cut a length of twill tape 10mm shorter than the roll line and pin ends to end of roll line.

Smooth out to distribute ease evenly and catch stitch tape in place again ensuring you only catch a thread of fashion fabric through hair canvas.   Fell stitch along the edges to hold them down nice a flat.

Attach hair canvas to front

Cut out dart in hair canvas and line up edges with stitchline of dart on fashion fabric.  Catch stitch hair canvas to dart at stitchline.

sholder dart

Baste shoulder dart using silk basing thread and sew on machine using 2.5 stitch length.  Remove all basting and press to the sholder side.

Bound button holes part 2

 

Cut 5 patches 2.5 x 3 inches to make lips and pin right sides together over the marked and interfaced button holes.

 

 

On the interfacing side stitch around the window using 1.5 stitch length on the machine.

 

 

Cut along the center line of the buttonhole and into the  courners of the rectangles.  Form lips of buttonholes and pin in place.  Hand stitch in the ditch all around the outside of the buttonhole and whip stitch lips together with silk basing thread.

 

 

Trim off the excess fabric around the buttonhole and lightly steam and pat with hand to flatten.

Bound buttonholes part 1

 

Small rectangles of fusible interfacing were used to stabilise the areas on the right front piece (shown) and the cuffs.  I do not own pinking shears but I did not want a ridge to show through to the front side of the jacket so I cut a zig zagged edge using embroidery sissors.

button hole windows were marked at 1/8th inch longer than actual buttons.  Lips were 1/8 th inch wide, making the whole window 1/4 inch wide.

I am going to leave finishing the buttonholes until tomorrow morning when I am fresher as I do not want any mistakes.

basting the fashion fabric

I basted the seamlines using the yellow cotton but used silk basting thread for the interior markings as it is so smooth it is far less likely to leave a mark on the outside of the jacket.

marking fashion fabric

The pieces to be interfaced with hair canvas need to have the stiching lines thread traced onto the fashion fabric alone so i decided to mark them with the white wax tracing paper, which dissappears on ironing. 

baste underlining to fashion fabric

 

Silk organza pieces were basted to the fashion fabric along the stitching lines using a single strand of yellow embroidery cotton.

cut out fashion fabric

I had 2 pieces of this fabric - one 3.25 metres that was intended for the jacket and a short skirt and one 2.5 meter piece intended for pants. 

I held the two folded pieces in my hands and thought I choose the heavier (3.25M).

I gave the fabric a light steam with the iron on the wool setting and decided which was the "right side" and lay out the fabric on my tabel draping the excess over the ironing board.

I pinned out the sections to be cut out using the silk organza pieces and the actual pattern for the pieces to be interfaced with hair canvas.  I worked in layers completely filling one length of fabic with pattern pieces then folding it and working on the next length until all the pieces required were pinned on the fabric. 

It was dissappointing that even pinning on the single layer and leaving very few substaintial scraps that I has used the entire lenght of fabric - until i measured it and found I had cut the whole jacket out of the 2.5M length, which left 3.25 which should make pants and a short skirt.

Unfortunatly I did not take any photos of the cutting out process being a bit too involved in working out the most efficient way to place the pieces.

cut out and mark hair canvas

Pattern pieces requiring hair canvas were cut out in silk organza (shown above) and then stiching lines, markings, grainlines and notches were traced onto organza using dark blue wax tracing paper.

cut out and mark silk organza

Pattern pieces requiring underlining were cut out in silk organza (shown above) and then stiching lines, markings, grainlines and notches were traced onto organza using dark blue wax tracing paper.

Making the pattern pieces

As the muslin had be adjusted in all the sections, except the collar so much from the original pattern I had to make all the patterns for the facings & linings from the second muslin.   

Although the muslin pieces could have been used as a pattern for the  silk organza underlining and hair canvas interfacing I decided to make new pattern pieces from tracing paper. 

The collar pieces and cuff interfacing I did not make a pattern for as they were unchanged from the original.

The most complex pattern pieces I needed to draft were the hem interfacing (shown below) and the front facing.  The hem interfacing was drafted by joining the back, sideback, side and side front together at the hemline lining up the stitching lines and then measuring up 4 inches from the hemline to form a strip that would fit along the hemline.  The front facing was challenging as the front piece contains a dart under the lapel, but the front facing did not, so I needed to trace some of the front pattern then shift it to account for the dart to trace the neckline and shoulder seam. 

 

Muslin #2

This time I went with a 100% plain cotton quilting fabric - the seams did not pucker anywhere near as much but it creases fairly easily.

In this muslin my adjustments were:

- more FBA
- lengthed at waist another 5mm
- lifted shoulder and armhole 1 inch rather than the 5/8ths in the previous muslin.
- brought the shoulder to sleeve seam in 1/2 - 3/4 of inch over top of shoulder and around the back of the jacket, and this seemed to solve the extra under arm fabric problem.

Photos are terrible - I really need to invest in a better camera.  Also the jacket is not hanging straight in the front photo - due to the lack of a sleeve (I hope)

After three days of making muslins and alterations I am pretty satisfied with this and ready to mark out the final pattern and cut the silk organza a fashion fabric.  Yay !!!

 

 

Muslin #1

I used an old sheet to make this muslin - not the best choice in retrospect as it had some polyester content and this made it pucker on the seams, also the darker colour made the adjusted muslin hard to trace a copy of to make the second muslin.

Firstly I marked the stitching lines on the orginal pattern in size 22 which was based on my high bust measurement then traced this onto the fabric using wax tracing paper.

Alterations made in this first muslin were:

- full bust adjustment, not enough added as I can now see by these final photos.
- increased length by 1 inch at the increase length line on pattern.
- reduction of the angle of the shoulder and lifted the arm hole by 15mm (not enough but I ran our of seam allownace as I stupidly cut it off before trying the sleeve)
- further lift of the arm hole by removing 20mm from the upper body and sleeve cap all the way around the jacket.
- lengthened the back of the jacket and made it a curved hem rather than straight.
- brought in the waist on the back seams of the jacket.

Fron this front muslin photo I can see I need to increase the ease around the bust area, note small horizontal folds caused by the muslin being too tight in this area.

I can also see I need to increase the amount I lifted the shoulder, note vertical pull lines.

This muslin photo of the side/back shows an excess of fabric in the back sleeve cap.  The back seams also seem a bit puffy but I will reassess this in the 2nd muslin which will be from 100% cotton and I am going to press it as I go.

 In addition to showing the same problems as the side/back picture this also shows me I need to flatten the curved hemline a little in the centre back.  It also looks to me like there is a little too much fabric between the waist and under arm - again I will assess this further on the 2nd muslin.

 altered muslin pieces ready for the 2nd muslin.

Gathering the materials

This is a picture of all my materials except the twill tape which I forgot to include.  

The fashion fabric came from http://www.tessuti-shop.com/products/claudia-blu and was bought by my boss as a bonus gift - it is Italian Designer double crepe - 50% Viscose 48% Acetate 2% Elastane. .  The lining is silk crepe de chine  that I purchased ages ago from CDC on aliexpress - direct from China.  I buy alot of silk this way as it is alot cheaper and there is a large range of colours.

 

The interfacings from left to right - navy silk organza for bound buttonhole back window, white silk organza for underlining, hair canvas sew in interfacing for collar, lapels etc, tricot fusible interfacing for bound buttonhole stabilisation.  I guess the twill tape should also have been included here and shoulder pads

The silk organza's were from China via aliexpress, hair canvas, fusible interfacing and twill tape from my local fabric store.

 The buttons, shown here on the fashion fabric.

I spent alot of time considering various jacket sets of buttons on esty and ebay - there is a huge selection and I was tempted to buy a set of vintage chritian dior buttons - but my jacket is by me, not christian dior.  I also considered some very plain vintage buttons which were very expensive once freight was added.  In the end I really liked these filagree buttons, made in italy, which were reasonably priced as was the freight and came in a variety of sizes.

The thread - brown silk basting thread for basting prior to machine sewing, matching silk thread for pad stitching (my pattern says silk is used for tailoring as it has more flexibility), polyester all purpose for construction and yellow embroidery thread for basting silk organza to the fashion fabric.

All came from my local fabric store except the brown silk basting thread which I purchased from Susan Khalji's website last year when I took her couture dress couse.

 

The pattern

I purchased this pattern around a year ago with the idea of making a jacket - I had just taken Susan Khalji's  Couture Dress class on craftsy and it had opened my eyes to possibilities in sewing - some way beyond my current capabilities at that time.

 

having now completed 3 couture dresses, 20 tailored shirts and three winter coats - and also watched Gretchens jacket course and Kennith Kings Coat course on craftsy I feel ready to take on this challenging pattern and with two weeks holiday I have the time.