Wool suit

I am doing pretty well in the fabrication of the suit.

I decided on this skirt pattern, even though it is a-line and the fabric has stripes. It is a comfortable skirt, easily lined and wears well.

I got all the pieces cut out. The skirt has four gores and two pieces for the yoke and then there's the lining. The jacket has lots of pieces! Each sleeve has two, the back has four, there are facings and the collar, and then there is the lining.

I'm making the patch pockets as I did for the red wool of the same pattern (see previous entry). I may have just enough of this blue wool left over for a vest but that will wait until I get these main two pieces finished. I found my "old" (1995) inspiration book for vests recently (I was hunting for printer paper) and suddenly, I am motivated to make more vests. I have quite a few already but I do wear them, especially when I'm wearing a dress shirt with a skirt. A vest adds a layer of warmth without being as warm as a whole jacket.

I have the body of the jacket done and the sleeves are ready to attach. The gores of the skirt are sewn together and I discovered that I had a matching skirt zipper in my stash, so I don't even need to go out for that. The only thing I'll go buy for this will be the buttons - I don't think I have anything that will work, although I will check of course. I wonder if brass or gold buttons would work?

Finishing things up and a new jacket

I am making progress! I have made a pot of blueberry tea to have while I blog. Then I have to study some for this test I am taking on Monday. It may lead to a job as an adjudicator at a tribunal so keep your fingers crossed. Then I will finally have somewhere other than school whence I can wear all my fancy duds! (Hmm, that doesn't look right but my understanding is that "whence" means "to where" so it should be correct.) I'll alternate between studying and sewing to keep fresh at both.

First I took a photo of the two tops I finished. I haven't worn them yet but I have worn the cream silk one I made three times now! It works beautifully under a suit jacket and I can get warm at the front of the class without dying from dehydration.

I finally sewed a buttonhole on that checked jacket and finished it with the large, slightly sparkly gold button that won the contest. There is a sparkly gold thread that runs through the brown stripes in the check and I think the button goes well with the whole thing. Not having worn this yet, I will reserve judgment on the total effect.

I finished the wool skirt. As usual, I converted darts to ease - those are the wrinkles you see pinned into the skirt as it is attached to the facing. I also basted the lining to the skirt around the top before sewing it all to the facing. That's that line of stitching you see showing on the lining.

Because this is such nice fabric and I want the skirt to look polished, I sewed seam binding to the raw edge of the hem and hand sewed the hem up. The lining hem has not been sewed yet - that's the raw pinked edge you see.

Because the skirt is surprisingly heavy, I sewed hangar tabs to the facing. It makes the skirt hang like this and I have to iron it the morning I want to wear it, to get those drape marks out.

But if I hang it with clothespins like this, it falls off the hangar after a while.

In the meantime, I have been thinking about my old LL Bean barn jacket. I have had this great coat for over 15 years now and I used to wash it whenever the dog put her muddy paws on it so it got washed often. Now it has frayed around the pockets (which are lined at the edge with dark green corduroy),

and it has frayed on the sleeves where I used to turn up the cuffs, which are also lined at the bottom edge with the corduroy. I still think I can get some wear out of it so I am wondering if I should get some gimp or other braid and sew it over the broken bits?

That said, my next project is a new, cool weather jacket. I thought this pattern was so cute, but of course, I cannot imagine making a jacket that you wear outside in anything other than full length sleeves! Maybe someone meant for this jacket to be worn walking around the mall but if I was inside, it would be too hot and when I am outside, I want proper sleeves. So I am going to make it in the full sleeve but with the slash pocket of the other views (A and B). I have not decided on the buttons but I think I will be going for 6 of them, not 4, for better control in the wind. It is certainly not a jacket I would wear when it's minus 10C but I think with the right layers and accessories, I could wear it to minus 5C. I'll let you know later.

When you wear some kind of outer garment 9 months of the year, you want a selection and you want one of them to be red. I have some "boiled wool" in a nice bright red here, although I think it is mixed with some nylon. For a change, I didn't pre-wash it and so once a year, I will have to dry clean this. I think I was afraid the fabric would shrivel into weirdness so I decided to go for dry cleaning later. I also got some "fashion polyester" for the lining. Instead of getting "regular" lining, I saw this fun polka dot stuff on sale and thought it would be cute whenever I took the jacket off. I have not made this pattern before so I suppose I am risking a bit here but it is a coat and so it won't be fitted too closely and I think I can get away with not making a muslin - which I never make anyway. If it doesn't work for me, some lucky Sally Ann client will get a unique jacket!

Silk tops and wool skirt

Ten days since my last post. Hmm. I've been busy! But I haven't even finished those tops. So back to where I left off...

That silk I bought on sale was so narrow (how narrow was it?) that I had to cheat to get the tops cut out. I had only bought a metre of each colour, thinking that was enough. As you can see in this layout photo, there was no way I could get both the front and the back cut out on a fold. I thought I could fold each selvage into the middle and do it that way but it was just too narrow.

Even though I put the back seam right on the selvages, the sides overlapped by a few millimetres and I had to make them with a 3/8 seam allowance. Talk about cutting it close.

Here is the blue top, inside out, with the back up. You can see I didn't need to finish the centre back seam because the selvages are already finished. I zigzagged the other seams and trimmed them, although they are not trimmed yet in this photo.

Here I am, ironing the neck facing on the ham. It really is easier on something like a neckline or shoulder, to use the ham, instead of trying to iron it on a flat board. In this photo, I have already understitched the facing and all I need to do now, is iron it folded under.

Here's the ham from another angle. After this, I stitched the facing down to the shoulder seam by machine stitching in the ditch of the shoulder seam from the outside of the garment.

That was the end of the machine sewing. From here, to finish the tops, I have to hand stitch the hems. They are pinned up and ready to go. I generally save my hand sewing for sitting in front of the tv. These tops look awfully shiny and that pink one is very pink, but when I wear them, it will only be under jackets so all you will see is a little bit of the top at the neck.

Because I only have hand sewing left, I am not breaking My Rule by starting a new project upstairs in my sewing room! This is the beautiful wool I got at Darrell's sale. He only had the oatmeal colour left at the sale and I kicked myself when I discovered he had had two other colours - blue and green - as they would have made perfect, all-purpose serviceable skirts. Oh well.

I am making my tried and true, no-waistband, knee-length skirt with a small vent in the back. It will go with everything this Winter!

White jacket and other things finished

I got bored with sewing the white jacket and violated my Rule and made a navy denim skirt in the meantime. In my defense, I had had the navy denim hanging over the railing since Spring, planning to make the skirt. It was after I finished the white denim skirt and realized what a good job I'd done and how much I was already wearing it, that I caved and interrupted the jacket to make the other skirt.

It's like my navy denim jacket - something I have always wanted but never had until I made it for myself. It has pockets, a "waist"band, front fly and flat felled seams. A classic.

To cut down on bulk, I lined the pockets with some craft cotton I had, just for fun.

Since I was on a roll with finishing projects, I sewed three snaps to the embroidered linen jacket. I didn't cover them because, when I tried putting even the thin silk over the snap, it snagged and made the unsnapping difficult. I will probably always wear this jacket done up anyway. Now I just have to find new buttons.

Next, I pick-stitched the facings to the front of the navy linen blend jacket.

I used navy thread and you really can't see the stitching, which is what I wanted in this case.

Finally, I also finished the white jacket. I really like the accent of the wood buttons. What next!?

White denim skirt

Working on the skirt. I have made this pattern a few times before.

I always put on the belt loops, even though almost all of my belts date from when they went around the waist itself, and so they are 6 inches too short for going around the below-waist area now. I really need to get over to Winners and get a couple of longer belts. AND I need some more leotards (tights) for the Fall. I know! It is too early to think about putting leotards on! I haven't even worn this white summer skirt yet! But, I DO need leotards, more than pantyhose.

Now that I have discovered how to put a waistband (or collar, etc.) on without hand-sewing the facing to the inside, it is a more straightforward procedure and takes less time. (You sew the band on to the INside of the skirt and then sew the band to the outside with topstitching.)

Then you figure out where you want to place the belt loops.

I tack the loop down about a half an inch onto the body of the skirt, so it won't stick out later. Then you sew the band down, catching in the bottom of the loop.

After that, you fold over the top of the belt loop and get it ready to be sewn down to the band but the line of topstitching at the top of the band.

Voila! A finished band and belt loop.

I was going to blog just about the loops when I realized that all I needed was a button at the top and to hem it, and the skirt would be finished. I am only tucking my shirt in to show the top. I am glad fashion these days does not call for tucking things in because I am so short-waisted that the proportion does look better without the shirt tucked in.
(edit: I just realized that I am wearing a smallish belt and so the skirt is riding higher than if I had on a longer belt.)
Next - keep working on the jacket.

White denim jacket and skirt

So I got some plain wood buttons. There wasn't a huge choice so I settled on some shank buttons because they weren't very dark, or very big or very textured. Sort of like the Baby Bear's middle of the road choices.

I wanted to get them now because it is far easier to put a buttonhole on the pocket flap before you sew it to the jacket.

Here, I've made the holes and set the buttons on the flaps, with the shank in the buttonhole.

The other decision I made was about the skirt pocket facing or lining. I didn't want to use the denim because then the pockets would be too thick and look weird. I had some almost white lining but then I remembered the thinner cotton I used to make the last two white shirts I made so I used that instead. You can't really tell from the photo but the denim is in the middle, the lining on the left and the shirt fabric on the right.

The skirt zipper is a mock fly - a real one is more complicated.

The zipper itself is too long, even at the regular skirt size, 18 cm length, because the waistband is supposed to sit just below the waist. So I sew a zigzag stitch in one spot as a new stop, above the original metal stop at the bottom, and cut off the excess zipper tape.

Here's the fly with just the one side sewed down.

Here's the fly with both sides sewed down. Not too exciting but simple is good too.

White denim jacket and skirt

I decided to use the 3 or more yards of white "ten ounce" denim I have and make it into a jacket and skirt. Not to wear all together of course, lest I look like the Man from Glad. I am calling it "ten ounce" because it is very substantial, like the denim you get in traditional jeans.

I am using Butterick 4741, view D (the red one), the same pattern I used for the yellow cotton jacket I wore to death in France. This time, I am taking up the sleeves by 1/2 inch and the body by a whole inch. The sleeves were really long on the yellow jacket and I ended up rolling the cuffs up almost the whole time I wore the jacket. I didn't notice that the body itself was really long but looking at it in the mirror, I realize it could come up a bit too.

I am using McCall's 3656 in a modified version of the fly-front with pockets skirt. It is way too short for 50 year old knees so I have lengthened it over the years.

That looks lame but it is still just above the knee, even with the extension. When you are 6 feet tall, you can wear a skirt that goes half way down the thigh and it is wearable. But when you are 5'2", the femur just isn't that long and halfway down it can mean disaster for sitting in a short skirt. So I go just above the knee for a casual, cotton skirt.

I've been thinking about what buttons to use. As is my wont, when I can't sleep, I go through my fabric boxes in my head and sometimes, I think about the next project. I have a white corduroy jacket in the "classic" jean jacket pattern and I used silver snaps for that. I didn't want to go with plain white boring buttons on this jacket but couldn't decide until I thought about wooden buttons!

Of course, I shall have to go get some new ones and they won't be very dark wood but what do you think of the concept?

Navy linen outfit

Forging ahead. But first, I had a question on an old post about sewing skirt linings to the zipper tape. On the recent linen skirt and on the one I am making now, I will hand sew the lining to the zipper tape.

This is not complicated and in fact, it is easier except for the time it takes, than machine sewing. I like machine sewing because it never lets go. Sometimes, in my hand sewing the original knot will come undone or something and then I have to re-stitch. But you don't see the stitching from the outside and it is more elegant.

When I machine sew my lining down, I pin it from the wrong side and then sew it from the outside, running the line of stitching down the original line where the zipper was sewed in the first place. You can see this on the outside of this peach skirt - the two lines of stitching, one on top of the other. The trouble I run into with machine sewing is that sometimes I miss catching the lining on the inside and then I have to either sew it a third time or do it by hand.

On this navy skirt and the previous linen skirt, the pattern called for the use of grosgrain ribbon at the top instead of a facing. I also decided to line the skirt which is a simple enough thing to do.

Once the ribbon is sewn on, you just trim the seam and fold it over and tuck in the raw end of the ribbon by the zipper. I haven't worn the linen skirt yet so I don't know if the ribbon might feel uncomfortable at the top, especially as this is a high-waisted skirt but since it is high-waisted, I plan to tuck in whatever shirt I am wearing so I hope it won't be an issue.

I decided to set the sleeve in first, before I sewed up the underarm seam, because it is generally a little easier to get it in flat that way.

Then I trim the seam and sew on the double fold bias tape to finish it (since there isn't a lining with this jacket). I am using purchased tape because it is easier to let some machine in a factory make it uniform and nicely folded. But they only had one package of navy when I bought it and I think I will have to go back for a second package because, now that I am doing the sleeve this way, I might as well put seam binding all the way down the entire underarm seam including that of the sleeve as well. Of course, you can't do any of this if the sleeve seam doesn't match the side seam of the body of the jacket.

There is a white ribbon tied at Rose's waist and you can see that this jacket, while not a bolero length, is short. That's why I went with a high-waisted skirt.