Thursday, December 28, 2006

Pockets and Buttonholes

Making progress but forgetting to photograph everything (namely the pockets). First, we'll start with a photo taken this morning from the newhillcam - as you can see, we have finally had a little snow.
newhillcam28Dec06
Next, I have put the pockets on. Not a difficult job but it does pay to over-mark things sometimes.
pocket markings
In this photo, you can barely see a chalk mark I made on the interlining piece I attached to one of the front pieces of the coat. I put a pin in it so I could see it from the outside. Then I turned the coat to the right side (or outside) and saw that I had been clever enough to mark the pocket placement with long pink tailor's tacks in addition to the chalk on the inside. While I was piecing the coat together, I hadn't really noticed the thread markings because of how busy the fabric was but when I was looking in the right spot, I could see them just fine. So I just sewed the pockets on where marked and there they are (in the next installment, I'll take a photo).
buttons
I thought I'd look through my button stash to see if I had anything suitable. In the Winter, it gets to be more of a chore to go to the store because I have to take the bus and my bike is just so much easier and more fun. As you can see, the only buttons that might have been suitable, aren't. The coat requires six buttons and I do have some nice ones in black but only four of them. So it will be a trip to the store for me soon.
I also thought I would start to experiment with buttonholes so I ironed on some interfacing to a scrap of the fabric.
sample buttonhole
This is an extreme close up of a buttonhole. I used contrasting thread so I could see the effect and it is horrible. Even the closely spaced stitching of the machine-made (i.e. automatic) buttonhole isn't very good. And that stitch I chose for the surround is likewise lame. I see I have some more experimenting ahead of me and may have to do some stitching by hand. I have thought of facing the buttonholes but I thought that topstitching would keep the fraying to a minimum. Anyway, I plan to do more work on this aspect.
I have sewed the facing/lining to the coat and now I just have to turn it right-side out.

4 comments:

Angela said...

Neat blog!

Could you do bound buttonholes in a toning fabric?

Anonymous said...

I'm having the same problem (buttonholes) on a similar fabric; I decided to use covered large snaps on the inside instead of buttonholes. You can find a tip on this by Liana on PR :)

Anonymous said...

Love your blog, reading all the detail is fasinating! Good luck with the buttonhole experiments, I look forward to seeing how you get on.

JuliaR said...

Welcome to my blog, all new people!
Angela, I have been thinking about doing bound buttonholes but I am still leaning toward the stitched ones - just really tightly stitched.
Tany, good idea about snaps (no holes!) but I think if I find the right buttons, they will really add to the look of the coat.
Lazylol, keep on reading! I am getting on fine.