fabric shoppin'

For the last rather a long time I have been not buying any fabric and not many patterns in order to complete the things I had in mind. There are now not so many things outstanding, and no very expensive fabric sitting unused; only moderately expensive fabric. The thing I have to try to do is complete some Goretex trews for James before rainy season, and I also want to sew some more T-shirts, which I have fabric for - but apart from that....

...well this weekend I went looking for for fun fabric. I started off in bed, online at the fabric stores on Saturday morning, but of course that stuff hasn't arrived yet. The photo above is the results of a 1.5 hour shopping expedition in our home town of Kamakura. There are two fabric store companies in Kamakura but that comprises 5 shops. Wimmin's work seems very much alive and well in the 12th Century capitol of Japan!

Swany - 3 shops. This being an old-fashioned world it is closed on Sundays and all national holidays. Of course most Kamakura wimmin can shop during the weekdays so no problem there. :-) Actually the shop is packed with wimmin on Saturday and merely busy the rest of the week. It has floors spread throughout its 3 shops dedicated to, in no particular order:

a. notions, buttons, ribbon, beads and bag-making essentials. Bag making does seem very popular.
b. quilting cotton and quilting notions
c. cotton and linen
d. home dec fabrics and notions
e. clothing fabrics with a particular emphasis on knits, and including some lining and interfacing fabrics.

You can buy examples of pretty much anything you can imagine although there is not a large range of some things. The emphasis is on cheaper things, and you don't find many very striking things or designer fabrics here.

Sometimes (and at present) it has a relatively large amount of denim in stock. I got the lovely and unusual ripped denim for the jeans I made here, as well as the infamous stretched denim for the second pair. On Saturday I bought a dark blue very lightweight stretch denim (I thought I might make some shorts) and a guaranteed uncolour-fast denim both for under 500¥/m. The non-colourfast one just seemed interesting - it was wrapped on the bolt inside out so that the indigo didn't get on everything! I suppose it will make the whole house blue.

Then I was determined to choose something from their large wall of knit prints. The problem I have is that almost all seem to have a pale yellow-green cast and I look really quite ill in pale yellow, pale green and pale orange. I guess these colours suit the average Japanese complexion well. Anyway I found one rather striking thing - a buttermilk stripey number for a little over 500¥/m. It isn't a print, though, but a "real" stripe of dyed threads. It is bright, has a sheen to it and if it is too yellow for me, it looks like it will be super on James.

Next, on to Keitoya - 2 shops. Basically they have one shop concentrating on cheaper fabrics and the second one focusses on the hyper-expensive designer shit, and stuff. The first shop is currently flogging all its huge stock for almost nothing. Whether, when it is all over, they will re-stock or close down from too much competition from Swany I don't know. The overall effect walking in to the stores is that colours in both the stores tend to be brighter than those in Swany. However, looking back through my blog I see that although I visit the cheap Keitoya often, I buy far more often in Swany. Perhaps the best thing I bought in Keitoya was the fabric for the trench coat. I also quite regularly buy practice fabric, or fabric to use as interfacing in their 100-200¥/m section.

Still a closeout sale is not to be missed. I want to attempt to make a proper shirt for James so here is some practice fabric - 100¥/m really quite nice shirting cotton (as far as I can tell at this stage) brown and light brown with thin gold stripes.

Next a real find. Well I've seen it here before but not for 500¥/m! Usually it is more like the 3000¥/m I paid for similar in Yuzawaya. It is the wool with 40% angora knit. This one is very thick so definitely will make a winter jumper for James.

From the sublime to the ridiculous. This is 1.5m of velvet knit. I think it is the stuff that is variously called panne velvet and crushed velvet. Anyway this is remarkable variagated gold, and almost as interesting on the back as the front. 500¥/m. Maybe it's just for looking at?! It is rather more "interesting" in real life than in this photo. One could make some weekend trews out of it if one dared to cut it up.

Finally - hyper-Keitoya - which was the place that had preciptated the shoppin' trip. I've only lived here 6 years and so it was only last week when I realise that the stuff in hyper-Keitoya was not _quite_ as expensive as I had thought. Much of the fabric is sold in cut lengths and the price tags are for the whole length rather than per m! Having said that they do have astonishing fabric at extraordinary prices ( 480,000¥/m?!). Hyper-Keitoya is probably the only place in town where you might find cashmere coating or suiting fabric. Last weekend I picked up two pieces of matt finish very lightweight, but not sheer, silk, for, erm, some money. Suitable for shirts or blouses, here they are:

While there last week I spotted these rather extraordinary prints: so extraordinary that I left it a whole week before buying (a dangerous ploy in the Kamakura fabric buying business where the good stuff usually sells out very fast). The first is a 4-way stretch woven, which will make a lovely revolting pair of trousers. In the shop they assured me that despite being made in Japan, this print is of the Italian style. Being of the Italian style seems to be quite important in hyper-Keitoya. They confidently informed me I'd only need 1.2m for a pair of trouser but I can't imagine that working out so I went for 1.5m. Hope it is enough. The price was: more money.

Finally, near to the stretch woven was this knit. I'm not really into flowers, but this one seemed very nice. I suppose the reason is that it is not a regular pattern. It also cost some money. I was doing so well, having spent less than 10,000¥ until I got to hyper-Keitoya...

velvet rules OK

Vogue 7856, View A. See previous review of View B. I shortened the pattern by about an inch and cut a 12.

About a year ago I impulse bought the last 1.5m of a violet/green/blue with splashes of gold asbtract pattern silk/rayon velvet burnout in Yuzawaya, Kamata. I don't much like regular flowerly patterns and almost everything seems to come in flowers so I found this design irresistible. It was incredibly expensive (worked hard and have suceeded in forgetting exactly how much), and ever since I have been dithering over what to make with it since it was far too nice to leave in a cupboard. For a long time I was going to make some sort of top with it. Maybe something like this, only I don't like that top so much. It turns out that 1.5m doesn't seem to be enough to make most tops.

One of the two branches in Keitoya in Kamakura is closing down. At least it is selling off all its stock at a low price: perhaps it will re-stock when it is done. It is quite funny - the sale has been going on for months, and yet each time I go I notice different things. It think that more fabric is being revealed below the stock that has been sold. They really did have a huge amount of stock crammed in! Anyway, one day I found 2m of violet silk/rayon velvet for 2000¥, and bought it cos it felt so nice.

When I got home I found that the burnout and the violet velvet were a tolerable match. Suddenly with 3.5m of fabric the pattern possibilities were greatly expanded! I was on the verge of making a blouse when suddenly I spotted the skirt pattern envelope. I used gimp to draw some pictures and work out a pattern for the panels. I thought alternative stripes would just be too stripy. When I first showed the design (already cutout and tacked together) to James he said it looked like I hadn't had enough fabric to make a whole skirt. I told him it was "design". Cruel boy.

I had already washed the burnout with no obvious effect on it. I knew that if I washed the violet velvet it would come out a bit crinkled, but I thought that this would make it combine better with the shiny/matt streakiness of the burnout design. So I chucked it in the washing machine. The result was impressively crinkly, and I think it improves the match between the two fabrics.

For stitchin' with velvet I used info. from two websites, here and here. The cutting out was very tricky. I did my best but did not get too worked up about it because I reckoned on the 12 being large since the previous version of View B had really come out a bit big. As it turned out, after tacking it together I could take out 6cm at the waist, which I tried to do quite evenly over all the back/side pieces of the skirt. It was not so easy to take it out of the front due to having to line up two overlapping sections here. I finished the seams flat with a 3.0 width triple zig-zag and then trimmed them close to the stitching.

Then I realised that since it was turning out OK, I really should do the velvet justice and line the skirt. Cupro fabirc was duly purchased. Next time I should consider lining well in advance - I had not realised how much it really does improve a skirt - and order some silk from Sarah Veblen's huge range. At the front of the skirt, because of the wrap design of the skirt, the burnout has violet velvet behind it, so I bought violet lining to get a reasonable match behind the other burnout panels.

Velvet is pretty difficult to sew accurately, but the acufeed foot (dual feed) foot on my sewing machine helped a great deal and the only problem I really had were at the zipper. While sewing I did manage to get it uneven but didn't want to rip it out, due to the risk of ruining the fabric. I thought it was salvaged but now I see that somehow I managed to stretch the fabric at this point. Here is a picture of the mess. Yes it looks as bad in real life too. Velvet burnout may be difficult to handle but this stuff also hides mistakes wonderfully!!

Also in this pic. you can see the waistband. In the pattern you are told to ease the skirt into a facing. I don't like this finish on View B and I didn't think it would be a great deal of use in this view either. The velvet is pretty heavy and needs something quite strong to keep it up. I bought some wide black velvet ribbon, folded it over and handstitched it onto the top of the skirt.

For the hem I marked it, thread basted the fold line, finished with the three step zig-zag about 1cm from the edge, and then hand stitched the hem. Took a long time but I knew there was no was I would get an acceptable result with a sewing machine.

For the lining I lined up the back (8,9,10) and front (the underwrap pieces 6,7) pattern pieces on grain, joining them at the hip and marking darts at the waist. Then I cutout a front and a back on the fold, and stitched it all together, taking in the side seams to account for the 6cm of decrease in circumference. I sewed the hem of the skirt before hemming the lining then marked the skirt level on the lining, then stitched a 1 inch double hem on teh machine, which is not beautifully done but is hopefully fairly well hidden from view.

A comment on the design. The skirt is shorter at the front than the back, but it is almost too subtle and could almost be a defect. The beauty of this skirt (as even James acknowledged) is in motion, so here is a viddy!



Sewing machine settings:
#90 violet thread, #9 needle lining, #14 needle velvet.
TT - 4.5, FP - 2.0, BT loose.
seams - straight stitch acufeed foot
edge finished - 3.0 width 3 step zig-zag, non-acufeed foot

review

green frock update

Due to too much travelling and recovering from travelling I have done hardly any stitching recently - only preparing the pattern pieces for a go at View A of Vogue 7856 in velvet! It has 11 pieces and I have 2 rather short lengths of 2 different velvets to fit it onto. I anticipate a lengthy process.

However, here are some slightly more proper green frock pictures with the arm with a stitch in rather than with shoulders poking through. It is now just about warm enough to strut about outside dressed like this, for a few moments. And I bought some shoes. Hate buying shoes, but didn't have anything suitable.

Stitchin' makes you rich and famous

I bought the Pertex for James' cycling shirt and trousers from Textile Outfitters. At some point during email correspondence about seam sealers they requested a photo form me, and here it is on p11 of their 2007 catalogue! As if the fame itself were not enough they also gave me a coupon valid for several months valued at the princely sum of $25 (Canadian).

New Look 6370 is a fairly short frock intended for lightweight and possibly sheer fabrics. View D. I bought this pattern more than a year ago, and then bought some fabric for it. Then realised my tricky-fabric skills were non-existent so I took Sarah Veblen's sheer fabrics class in order to be able to make the dress. The pattern is labelled easy. But it is not easy or fast making a bias frock in a slippy dippy lightweight fabric! Key thing I learned from the sheer fabrics class was pick an easy pattern and to take time to make the fabric behave properly.

Mock Up

The practice was made in cupro (a rayon like lining fabric) and is basically slammed together - took me a long day from starting cutting out - none of the seams are finished or the arms hemmed, although I did get round to making the adjustments on the pattern pieces. My new sewing machine helped a lot too because with the clever acufeed system I didn't need to baste before stitching.

For the practice I cut 14 top and 12 from waist down in line with the measurements on the pattern back. I have adjusted this considerably. I took up the shoulders 2cm. I decided to also lower the underarm and bust dart by 1cm. I took in in 3.5cm on both sides at the bottom (ie 14cm total!!!), about 3cm at the waist tapering to nothing around the underarm. I've also reshaped the back to allow for sway back. I stuck a tuck in the practice frock to estimate this which can see it in the back view photo. Because of all the adjustments the tie is in the wrong place on the practice (2cm too high). the envelope.

Real Thing

Top layer is a green silk/rayon devore bought almost exactly a year ago from Borovicks Fabrics, Soho, London. The underlining is deep red silk geogette from Sarah Veblen's on-line shop. Both these fabrics feel warm to the touch whereas the lining fabric I used for the practice frock feels really cold.

I don't think I made too many mistakes the second time around. The only problem really occured during construction of the neckline. The final result of the neckline lies much nicer than that on the muslin (partly because it was stitched much more carefully). However, I was rather shocked after stitching it because the back of the neckline was all baggy. Seemed I had managed to stretch the back neckline while sewing. I unpicked it and took in the top of the CB seam by about an inch. After much basting and trying on and helpful comments from James it seemed to work out OK.

The part I was not sure about was whether to completely sew up the arm/shoulder part. On the pattern the two sleeve halves just flap loose and when I tried on the dress these flaps tended to turn over revealing the underlining a bit too much. So I sewed the ends together. After soliciting the opinion of the PatternReview participants I decided to take an extra stitch in the middle of the sleeve to keep the general effect but lessen the amount the shoulders poke through. The photos are taken before this change was made.

After making the practice I altered the pattern but was a bit confused because I had so drastically reduced the ease. I emailed Sarah Veblen and my interpretation of her advice is that for a bias frock for someone quite small like me should cut with about 2-3" ease, baste together and then adjust. I measured the post-muslin-adjusted pattern and I was down to zero ease at the bust and even negative ease at the hips. Spot the drag lines on the photos of the practice frock! So I added 2cm to my pattern side seams and then cut out and basted the CB and side seams. I ended up not taking the hips in at all from this but taking the 2cm back out of the bust. Sarah's other advice was to "go with the flow", which I interpret as not trying to force things together that don't want to go, but letting the fabric fall/hang where it wants to. I found this very useful advice for all the seam sticthing. For example, the underlining fabric hung longer at the bottom of the dress than the top layer fabric.

For the flounce I made one flounce of top layer devore and another narrower (by about 0.5-1 inch) flounce from the georgette and then sewed them together at the top only. I did this so that the flounce would be visible and yet still be "flouncey". The flounces were hemmed with baby hems. Since the frock is cut on the bias I didn't finish the seams, just sewed them down to the underlining. Because of the multiple layers and the way they liked to misbehave, this time I did baste most things before stitching.

It is interesting how differently the frock hangs in this fabric combination than in the lighter weight less bias-stretchy muslin. As well as the quite large differences in the width fit, I had to take it up a bit at the back hem, and it still hangs a bit lower than the muslin.

This is a good pattern for sheer fabrics on the bias because it is basic with few seams and the flounce adds a bit of interest withought being too hard. It took me a lot of days to make this but I only had the odd hour here and there to work on it. Worked quite well since it gave the frock time to hang out and me time to consider the next move between sessions.

One might have to be a bit careful how one sits down in this frock.

review

ミシン settings:
90 weight thread; bobbin tension 0.5 turn left (~minimum).
Devore alone - FP=2, 1.7mm str. stitch, 3 step zig-zag W=2.5mm L=0.8
Charmeuse alone - FP=3, 1.8mm str. stitch, 3 step zig-zag W=2.5mm L=1.0
Devore, Charmeuse together - FP=1, 1.8mm str. stitch

jules' jeans #2

First thing with new mishin!

New machine is supposed to sew through anything. So what better to test it on than denim? This is a repeat stitchin' of Vogue 7481. This time I used much thicker denim and attempted some of the topstitching details. What I really wanted to work on was the fit. As well as seeming too large at the front crotch, the previous pair we slightly loose when finished and are even looser now. So I made the pattern alterations that I had noted last time: I took an inch off front waist, tapering to nothing at the hips, and then took 5/8" off most of the outside of the legs. Then I took a cm off the front inside leg all the way down. I then redrafted the waistband to taper more towards the waist. I'm not sure I got the grainline correct on both waistband pieces - the left side looks kind of wrong on the finished garment.

I'd already washed the fabric 3 times to pre-shrink it (it is what they advise for denim). Then I cut across the grain at either end and attempted to lay it out. The fabric was about 4 inches off grain! I do wonder if I made it do this by stitching the ends together before washing it (to stop it fraying). Perhaps one ought to try and straighten it while wet? Or after it is dry? Anyway I did neither of these. Instead, with James' help I laid the selvages on top of each other. The ends were about 4 inches off, but the fabric was lying very happily with a nice flat fold -- if you fold fabrc off-grain usually the fold will not lie flat. The fabric was also already showing another irritating characteristic of picking up bits. I thought I may as well carry on since the main aim was improving fit.

So I cut out and then I basted it all together in no time, using my new machine, on which it is possible to sew long stitches that can be easily pulled apart. The result certainly seemed tight!, but I've heard often of people sewing jeans which then stretch in wear that I thought I should not adjust it but carry the experiment through. I think what I failed to take into account was the extra bulk taken up by this thicker fabric which makes them tighter compared to the previous pair. I took another cm off each side of the legs below the thigh because they really did seem too baggy especially when compared to the tightness of the top. This change needs transferring to the pattern.

To test the new machine I bought some #20 thickness "jeans stitch" thread. I had wanted very dark red but it didn't seem to be available so I got an orangey instead. I wanted to be able to see it clearly to see how good the topstitching really is. I think this thread is thicker than one usually sees in RTW jeans so probably one could just as well use #30 thread which is available in a huge range of colours. Anyway, yes, the machine stiches merrily through 8+ layers of denim. I even made flat felled side seams and the new machine and new iron just made it easy. The only thing I didn't feel confident enough to do was the double row of topstitching round the fly. Perhaps next time... For the hems I copied my RTW jeans and did a double folded hem (2.5cmx2).

I haven't done any of the details like the belt loops, or the yoke and pockets of the other views. I suppose having belt loops might be useful if/when the jeans get looser.

At present they are certainly tight round the bum, but not tighter than pairs of jeans I have bought before. I am waiting for several round of wearing and washing before casting a verdict...

review

atarashii mishin

On the evening before Memorial for Broken Needles Day a new sewing machine arrived.
The day before, the iron stopped working so later in the week I bought a new one of them too! As you can see the new equipment is all huge and built around an icy blue theme.

The sewing machine is a SuperQuiltDX made by Janome, a Japanese company, who are also the world's largest manufacturer of sewing machines, partly because it also manufacturers a lot of the machines sold by other companies. Or does it own the other companies? I am not quite sure... I bought the machine for a lot of money (205,000¥) from Janome's local dealer in Fujisawa. I could not find this machine in any more usual shops (like the big electrical stores which, surprisingly, mostly seem to sell rather old models), on the web or even at the specialist stitchin' shops. I was so impressed with myself for finding the dealer only a 20 minute bike ride away that I wasn't going to waste time shopping around for a cheap deal!

Anyway, the SQDX is the Japanese version of the 6600, which can be found in places like Europe, Australia and North America. The only differences (as far as I can tell) apart from the casing colour and language details are that my version doesn't stitch alphabets and also has slightly fewer decorative stitches. One of the cool things about the machine is the oodles of space to the right hand side of the needle. As you can see, this allows one to more easily enjoy a nice cup of tea while stitching. The Janome 6500/6600 have their own yahoo group!

The iron is a T-Fal (or Tefal depending which country you are in), and its most amazing feature is that it flattens things. My old iron did not do this. Reminds me a bit of our old vacuum cleaner which did not pick up dust. At least my previous sewing machine - cheapest Brother that did not sport Mickey Mouses on the casing - did actually do stitchin'!

green T-shirt for James

In September 2006 I took a Tshirt class (on the web) and stitched a couple of samples. I have several bits of fabric to carry on with this but have been rather slow getting a round tuit. The only one made so far is a light weight dark green version for James. I had to add a little width at the chest compared to last time when I used a 2-way super-stretchy fabric. In this case the error was found after I had stitched the side seams so I took them apart and added gussets at the underarm. I've altered the pattern, adding a somewhat generous amount of extra width all the way down the side seams. I have some nice fabric for another T so don't want to mess it up by cutting it too small. I can always baste it together and then sew the sides with a bigger seam allowance. I followed the class instructions for self ribbing which it seems to me produces a rather too tight neckline. I am waiting until the Tshirt has been throught the wash before passing a confident verdict on this. Possibly it will settle down just enough. There is enough fabric left to make a T-short for jules...


again - no piccie yet!

heavy cotton baggies for James

I have made in total 3 pairs of cotton baggies, and even have possible fabric for another pair. Because James is so tall he looks good (I think) in these things. However, he does not look so good in the baggy-knees sweatshirt-fabric trews he insists on wearing at home all winter. I was wondering what to do about this. Then I found a kind of ethnicy weave of rather thick cotton in the local store in Kamakura. I accidentally didn't buy enough so James had to go back with a swatch and buy some more. Only by then (a week later) they had cut the remanants up into 1m lengths! I had realised that if I see nice fabric I should buy it there and then but I hadn't realised quite how quickly it gets sold. Kamakura is obviously a stitching hotbed. James bought two 1m lengths and then I spent quite a while sewing them accurately together (being the sort of person who struggles to stitch in a straight line, this was a bit of a challenge). I was concerned that with this thick fabric even tall-James would start to look dumpy in these but turns out that the strong vertical pattern cancels out the effect.

The problem of what to do with the two ~50cm lengths left over from the purchasing error has just been solved! While writing this I kicked over my coffee cup and the smaller scraps came into service to mop up the spill. Very effective. Ethicy tea-towels then..

Pixie and shroomie

James has a silly hat which he used for cycling in the winter. But it is not warm enough (see previous post on fragile men). So I took some of the remains of the Polartec 200 WindPro fleece used to make the muslin for James' cycling fleece (which BTW has become very popular as a really warm fleece for taking mountain climbing in the winter), and roughly based on the not-warm-enough hat I made a pixie hat for jules and a mushroom hat for James. I wonder if the styles will catch on.
















Somehow I doubt it by nevertheless the hats have been very serviceable this winter.

more jim jams

James said he wanted more winter jim jams. I was a little surprised since he already has 2 other pairs as well as the ones I stitched last year, and only needs 2 pairs for winter. But apparently one pair are too old and smelly and the other pair too small! So I bought some brushed cotton from Yuzawaya in Kamata. I decreased the width of the legs by an inch (ie 2 inches decrease in circumference) and otherwise stitched them the same as last time. Something I didn't mention on the blog last time is that the legs are too long. At least I had to stitch a large hem and I noticed that the first pair also have a large hem. It would be good to adjust the pattern to take a couple of inches off before cutting these out for a third time.

The clever part of making these jimjams is that two pairs resulted. I did have plans to make some nice PJs for me having ripped one of my two winter pairs last year - but I found that the rejected "too small" pair are in excellent condition and can be made to fit a jules! After all it is better to have PJs too big than too small. It is interesting how much warmer men's PJs are than women's. Now I understand that it is men who are the fragile sex!

jules' jumper in blue

I made Burda 8291 again only this time I made View A. Kind of. It is just the hoodie without the hood and in a less sporty fabric. I used a self-binding for the neckline. I thought perhaps that with the wide neckline it would be good for wearing over shirts. The fabric is a soft medium weight knit made of wool, tencel and lycra (IIRC). It is a bit clingy so not so good for wearing over shirts made from crisp fabric! Also it feels like the sweater is slightly bigger this time even though it is made from the same pattern pieces. Interesting how the choice of fabric can affect this - this fabric is thinner with less stretch recovery. My instructions said to cut 1.5 inches width for the binding but with 5/8" seam allowances this was really too little (2" would have been OK) and I ended up handstitching the backside of the binding. The only interfacing I used was lightweight interfacing on the neckline. This seems to help stop things stretching out of shape.

The only alteration to the pattern pieces was to smooth off the area near the hem a little so that it wouldn't flare out. That worked out as hoped I think. I used stretch thread and a small zigzag stitch for most of the stitching.

V-neck jumper for J

This is a fluffy raglan V-neck jumper made from a lovely soft wool/angora/lycra mix knit bought from Yuzawaya in Kamata. Angora wool comes from angora rabbit fur but mohair is what you get from angora goats. I suppose this is probably the rabbit version, but I am not totally certain since Japanese use of foreign words is not always related to the common usage in the foreign tongue.

This is a repeat sewing of KS2561. This time I made View A which is a short sleeved V-neck T-shirt, but using the long arm pattern from the previous sewing. So all I actually changed in the pattern used last time was the neckline. I tried very carefully to do it correctly but somehow it ended up with the V right overlapping left, which is not the manly way, apparently. Other than that the V came out OK.

I interfaced the neckline with lightweight interfacing for knits and also basted lots which probably helped things not get stretched out of shape. The fabric was quite stretchy but without good recovery. I used steam with very light (or no) pressure from the iron to shrink it back into place. I've seen it often written on PR how easy it is to reshape wool using steam but had never experienced it before. It certainly is a nice quality of the fabric. I used the almost invisible hand hemstitch that I learned from Kenneth King's tailored jacket CD to stitch down the seam allowances inside the V-neck since I thought that if I tried to machine topstitch it, it would be bound to stretch, and I didn't think leaving the SAs hanging as recommended in the KS instructions was likely to be very satisfactory in this somewhat chunky fabric.

The kerfuffle came with trying to get the arms the right length. On the previous shirt I shortened the cuffs during the stitching process. I should have adjusted the arm length on the pattern at the time. Anyway this time I ended up cutting an inch off the bottom and stitching 5/8" seam allowance on the cuffs (the rest of the pattern is 1/4" SA). I have now adjusted the pattern and taken 1.5" off the length, so next time the cuffs can be inserted with 1/4" SA and it should fit perfectly!

It is interesting how easily the long sleeve T-shirt pattern has become a jumper, but then I suppose it was quite a baggy T. I did not intend the jumper to be quite as warm as it is. The fabric didn't seem that thick to me in the shop. Perhaps it became more dense through pre-washing, or perhaps I am just not very skilled at judging these things.

review

Ultra-cool bizz part #3

PHEW! If anyone actually ever read this blog they'd be thinking I'd given up stitchin' but here, at last, is what I have been toiling over! I wouldn't like to try to add up how long it took!

This is the jacket of the Vogue loose fitting men's four piece suit (ie jacket, waistcoat, trousers and shorts!). We sometimes attend parties that specify "lounge suit" as the dress code. Almost all the men turn up in black suits which is very dull of them. James' other suit is also black and more suitable for a Scottish winter than a Japanese summer. So now he has something jolly to wear instead.

I think the Vogue instructions were OK, although there may have been a couple of mistakes. For example, I didn't see where the lining arms are attached to the body. On the whole I did not follow the Vogue instructions, but those of Kenneth King's (hereafter KK) Tailored Jacket CD book instead. I followed the Vogue instructions for the pockets and for checking that the hems allowances were going to work.

Originally my intention was to use the Vogue instructions but I became an instant convert to tailoring when I discovered just how much the fusible interfacing altered the fabric. I also didn't want to mess up the breathable hot weather qualities of the tencel fabric by glueing some interfacing to it. It really seemed to defeat the object and was clearly going to add weight. The Vogue instructions have you fuse all the body pieces right at the start - and this was the point at which I booted up KK's CD full of instructions. The instructions in this CD are excellent on the whole. They are incredibly detailed step by step instructions. I had a couple of occassions when I couldn't see KK's geometry for a while but I think I got it in the end. The only fault with the book is that it seems to think that a jacket can be knocked together in a "long day". Bah humbug! It takes days and days and daysssss...

My version is, however, not a properly tailored jacket. Mine is meant for the heat of summer and jackets here that made to cope with Japanese summer (I've been to the shops to check) are really hardly interfaced at all. Indeed sometimes they are almost transparent. Husband also desired a very soft informal and crinkly looking jacket (he says he wants to look like a rhinocerous) rather than smooth tailored lines. So I didn't make shoulder shields or use canvas in the interfacing. Instead I used cotton batiste for all interfacing. I made the shoulder pads using a mixture of the Vogue pattern and some instructions I found online.

My version looks softer than that on the pattern picture due to the different construction methods employed (sewn in interfacing vs fusing). The pattern went together fine so I don't have any complaints. Of course not all the dots lined up exactly with the KK instructions so there was a bit of guesswork and it didn't turn out perfectly. For example, the (KK) piping in the lining should have gone lower down.

Following KK's instructions I really like the way that the jacket was shaped. It is amazing - the finished article has this incredible lapel that lies in a beautiful curve even though the fabric is really soft and no firm interfacing was used. All done by steaming things in curves and basting with silk thread. I don't have any hams or a sophisticated iron or half the tools required by the CD. I managed with a normal iron, a towel and a sleeve ironing board. The tencel is pretty hardy stuff and survived the trauma of my inexpertise! The let downs of my construction are the buttonholes which are not the sort with the nice curve at the end. My machine only has one sort of buttonhole - the straight 4 step sort - I have experimented on scrap cloth with making them by hand but they look awful so I just did the machine ones, which aren't that great either!

Apart from that I made plenty of mistakes like not realising that the piping should all be done in one long piece, not realising that I should have drafted the under collar and front into a single piece before cutting out, and accidentally snipping bits of fabric when I was supposed to be cutting threads, and stitching wonky seams and not getting things to line up properly. I have a similar feeling to when I made the Vogue trench coat which also had a lot of steps - with one mistake in each step one ends up feeling like the whole thing is just a load of errors. However the trench coat has held up really well with only a couple of small repairs so I am hopeful that the jacket wont just unravel the first time it is worn.

Fabric Used: Green Tencel for the "fashion fabric", red and purple bemberg lining (which KK hates!) and cotton batiste for the interfacing.

I made a muslin out of muslin in size 40 and then added an 1.5cm to the arm length and half an inch width at the underarm, tapering the arm to the normal cuff size and keeping the excess all down the side seam of the jacket.

Even now, only an hour or two after finishing it I think I would sew it, or at least another tailored jacket again. It was really quite a lot of fun. I do feel quite a sense of acheivement at having done a jacket almost properly! My technique of not bothering too much with the multiple mistakes and instead thinking "I'll do it properly next time" does make me want to do it again better.

Shoulder pads:
Here are some instructions for making shoulder pads. I also had the Vogue shoulder pads pattern, but since it was for ladies shoulder pads I thought it wise to take measurements from the jacket muslin. I used non-fusible cotton batting for the padding. 4 layers - one for each of the pieces shown in the photo. Then I used a kind of thinner cotton stuff - maybe flannel? using two of the largest pieces. Altogether this made the desired 10mm thickness. I pad stitched all this together in a curved shape according to the Vogue instructions. Then I decided to stick fusible tricot over the outside to make a smoother finish. I am not sure if that last part really helped in the end, although it kept the pads clean while they were floating around the house before the jacket was sewn. I discovered that the important thing about shoulder pads is to have a nice smooth curve at the thick end so that they look smooth in the sleeve cap. Steaming after installation helps to greatly improve this.
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