Wednesday, January 16, 2008

More of the plaid but the other suit gets buttons

I managed to make it to the store (I actually walked one way and it only took me 30 minutes from the Loblaws at Baseline and Woodroffe - I took the bus back) and I got button forms to cover for the light brown suit I made some time ago.
brown suit finished
Mum, you were right! The covered buttons look great. I wore this outfit to teach that morning. You may notice some shiny seam binding peeking out of the sleeve. For some weird reason, the sleeves weren't very long and in order to get a hem without folding the fabric over twice, I used seam binding. Not thinking about how it might show. But, I don't think it looks that bad.
plaid wool suit
In the meantime, I sewed on the sleeves to the lining and the jacket in the wool plaid. Here's how I do sleeves - with tons of pins and no basting.
plaid wool suit
Then I sew a second line of stitching at 4/8 of an inch (the seam is at 5/8) and trim the excess away. This shot shows the lining sleeve attached and the wrong side of the fabric.
plaid wool suit
When you push the sleeve flat against the body of the jacket, you can see that the stripes line up.
plaid wool suit
When the jacket is resting on the dummy, it looks like the stripes are a little low and out of alignment but I think this won't show or matter when the jacket is in motion being worn. THEN I stupidly did not pay attention to what I was doing and sewed the jacket lining to the jacket at the collar with the right side against the wrong side! Then I had to pick out all the stitches without ripping any fibre on the fabric, including the tiny stitches I take at corners so they won't fray when I clip them. All I can say is thank goodness I noticed before I did more than the collar or before I trimmed the seam. Then I went and had a drink.

4 comments:

Chicago Sarah said...

The first suit is very flattering- looks great. But the plaid, it is bea-u-tiful!

Anonymous said...

Julia, it is looking good, no, it is looking fine. I did wonder about the plaid but now that it is made up it looks quite elegant. About the misaligned areas, my mom would say, just move faster, or a man on a galloping horse will not see it!

Having that drink was a good idea, I must remember that when I have a sewing bobo like that. Usually, I will get up and leave everything as is and it might be days or months before I touch it again. This way I don't pull my hair or rip the project to shreds...lol...

So back to waiting....

Anonymous said...

Oops, did it again.
Heather at 6:42pm.

JuliaR said...

About the plaid, Sarah and Heather: I like plaids but am never sure I can carry them off, being only 5' 2". But this one was subtle and only two colours, so I thought it was worth a try. I still haven't worn it yet so that will be the telling point - how dumpy might I look. But the combination of beautiful pure wool and colours that look like butterscotch ice cream were irresistible. I am at the hem stage (hand sewing during "Ghost Whisperer" tonight!) and then it will be time to find beautiful buttons.