Wanting to start something new

Still working on that shirt. I get so impatient when I want a project to be finished already. I prefer the phase where I wonder what fabric to use with which pattern, to the nitty gritty of finishing.

In the meantime, tragedy befell my favourite track pants!

I don't know how long I have had these Pearl Izumi pants but it has to be close to 15 years. I love them. They make my butt look small. They fit comfortably over my yoga pants and I wear them to the gym three days a week. Last week, I was zipping down the ankle zipper when it suddenly parted company with itself! The zippy mechanism jumped off the teeth. I can rip everything apart and install a new zipper. But I was wondering if any of you clever sewers out there had a magic fix? You have to get the zipper teeth back into the zipper pull and I'm not sure if I can do that.

I finished the cute little blouse with clear buttons. They have a little band of "cut glass" around the edge which sparkles nicely. I haven't worn it yet but plan to, the first warm day. Today was warm and it got up to 10C (50F) but that isn't really warm enough for a short sleeved blouse. And I have a cold so I didn't even get to go out and enjoy the weather much. But soon!

I decided to flat fell the armhole edge, to contain the ravelly polyester fabric edges. I've been doing French seams for all the rest.

It turned out well.

I put the cuffs on by sewing the right side of the cuff to the wrong side of the sleeve first.

Then after I sewed up the ends, I turned the cuff to the right side and used the zipper foot to sew the folded edge to just over the sewing line.

Here's the finished cuff. I still think I'm going to sew a line of top stitching around the other three sides.

After I turned the facings to the inside down the front, I saw that there was going to be bagging. This might fix itself after I put on the buttons and buttonholes, but in the meantime, I hand sewed a line of basting down the fronts to hold the facings down flat.

So I have just got buttons and buttonholes to go, and maybe some top stitching.

Boiled wool jacket, finished!

I'm done!

And just in time too, what with the snow we had last night. Yikes. Those are baby pumpkins under the snow on the lower right. It was really windy too and the snow stuck to the door. This shot was taken just as I was leaving for work at about 7:45 am.

To go back to where I left off, here is how I sewed the buttons to the sleeve tab detail. I sewed them to the tab and the sleeve, through all layers, before I sewed the lining hem up on the sleeve. That way, I could push the needle in straight through all the layers of thick wool fabric and not catch the lining, nor worry about trying to angle the needle in vain.

Here are the sleeves, from different perspectives, all finished.

The pattern instructions called for a maximum of three buttons down on the short sleeved jackets (and only 2 down on the long sleeved version). They also called for a button to be sewed on the inside with a corresponding buttonhole on the inside of the flap. I decided to make four buttons down (making 8 to sew on for the double breasted effect) and not do the inside buttonhole. If it turns out that I need it, I will sew a large snap on the inside part of the flap.

I decided to make the four buttonholes (it is only a faux double breasted) the old fashioned way, which is to say I knew where they were going and put pins in but I free-handed the zigzag stitching to make the buttonhole. The stitching was therefore a tad wobbly (this is actually the best of a bad bunch) but now that I have worn it, you really don't notice at all.

Here I am modelling it the night before, as the snow has started to fly.

Here you can see a hint of the dotted lining - so cute!

It was a pleasure to wear and really warm too! I am so pleased that I am going to get a lot of wear out of this jacket. It turns out I can fit a shirt and suit jacket under it but not the five layers for when it is 20 below. But when it is that cold, I will want something that covers my bum anyway. What next?

Votes are in!

I got 16 votes, including one on Flickr. I thank you all for spending the time to look at these things! My husband says that the pictures don't really show how the buttons look but they are the best I can do. If I count his vote, I have 17 in total.

I got 5 for the small gold spiral. I got 3 for the brown plastic one. And I got 8 for the large gold one. I was leaning toward the large gold one all along, and in fact, when I was thinking buttons, before I even pulled them out of my stash, I thought of it as an option. I was concerned that it would be too sparkly and when I looked at the three finalists over and over, I started leaning toward the smaller gold spiral. It blends right into the jacket fabric, which is both good and bad, depending on the look you want to achieve. I also had a vote for doing the snap and no buttonhole thing but it is a little fiddly to be doing and undoing snaps and I am not a fan of fiddly. Form should follow function!

I am therefore going to make a large buttonhole, the size of the big gold one and sew on the big gold button. Then, if I have doubts or get weird looks, I can hand stitch the end of the buttonhole closed and take off the large button and go for a smaller one. How's that?

In the meantime, I have started back to work and am scrambling to finish the little silk tops for under jackets. I wore the embroidered linen to my first classes yesterday and felt very cute. :) But no one commented on it. :( I wore the cream silk top too. It was a hot day and although the college is sort of air conditioned, because I was not told my first class was in a different room, I had to sprint around the campus and was sweating freely by the time I found my proper classroom. I was glad I had on light and natural fabrics! Tomorrow is also supposed to be hot so I am thinking I will wear one of the new silk tops under a light cotton jacket with the shorter, "extra" navy linen skirt (that I got out of the left-over linen). We'll see.

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.

Linen outfit, jacket

On to finishing touches. I am hemming the skirt tonight but that's a simple proposition.

I have put on all the seam binding and hemmed up the jacket. Looking good!

Now I just have to figure out the buttons. The three I have are different from each other, with one having a dark brown spot on it, one medium and the third light.

I have to decide what order to place them. Should the darkest one be at the top, in the middle or at the bottom? Not a crisis either way, I am thinking.

I have discovered that the top buttonhole will have to go right through the middle of an embroidered flower. Nothing I can do about that now. I have made an experimental buttonhole through a flower and it's not bad. But I wonder if there might be anything else I could do?

After I made the sample buttonhole, I pinned it on the jacket, put it on Miss Pink, and stuck a button into it, to get a feel for the thing. I also have to calculate where I want to sew the buttonhole, because when done up, the buttons will stop at the shank (or where they are sewed) and I don't want them overlapping the edge of the front of the jacket. So the buttonhole has to stop about 1.5 cm from the edge of the jacket, which looks kind of far back to me, when the jacket is unbuttoned.

Silk suit finished!

It only took me another 5 days! Please pardon the model in the pix - they were taken at 6:30 am with no make-up. Zzz.

First: the buttonholes.
I realized, especially after thinking about what Lorna wrote about taking a lesson for bound buttonholes, that I was not making "real" bound buttonholes. I made real ones on my faux fur winter coat. You make the tiny welts and turn the welt fabric to the inside of the jacket front, which is inside where the interfacing is, between the front and the facing. Then you finish the buttonhole on the facing in a similar way and bind them together. I sewed the "welts" to my silk jacket, sewing through all layers at once and turning the welts to the inside but where they showed on the facing. The above photo shows one finished buttonhole at the top, from the outside. The second buttonhole has the welt fabric zigzaged to it from the outside. There is a line of basting in dark green thread running down the middle of the welt area. That's where I cut the buttonhole open.

I know I showed this before but here is the buttonhole from the inside - the facing side. I have tucked under the raw edge on the short sides of the "welt" and pinned them down.

Here, I have sewed the fold on the short ends down to the jacket facing. On your right side, I left the needle in to show the scale and the stitches. The stitches are very small but not invisible. But the silk fabric is very forgiving and doesn't show all sorts of insults. Then I had to tuck under the raw edges on the long sides of the "welt" and sew them down too. You can click on these pix and make them larger at Flickr for detail.

Here it is on Rose last night. I am having an "issue" at the moment with the top button area not wanting to lie flat. I am not sure I will want to button it all the way up to the neck but I should press that and maybe it will work better.

I decided to model it with a yellow t-shirt because, a) I haven't decided what shirt to wear as it is only -2C out there right now and b) the yellow suited the pink because if it's warm background - it is not a blue-pink.

Here it is all buttoned up with the top button "issue".

And here she is with the top button undone. Whew. I guess I should make the satin blouse next but I haven't decided.

One finished buttonhole

I know what's holding me back - fear of doing the wrong thing. Because I haven't done this before, I'm not sure where I'm going. But I do know that once I've made a buttonhole, it's there forever.

Here I am, laying out the jacket and thinking it should have only four buttons down the front and not the five I have put on previous jackets. The buttons are larger and the buttonholes will be more prominent so it may be too much to put all five buttons on. And no, I'm not doing this because I made one of them too dark - I can easily go get some more button forms to remedy that.

So I made the first buttonhole at the neck. And it looks good on the outside! But if I don't always button the jacket up to the neck, you are mostly going to see the inside of it...

... which looks huge, at least to me. I am thinking about running a bit of zigzag machine stitching around the buttonhole from the inside, knowing it will hardly show on the outside because of the type of fabric this is. The machine stitching will make the buttonhole sturdier and may cover up some of that floral fabric. Other than this issue, I have tried on the jacket and it fits nicely and feels even better, so I am pleased with it and I suppose I shouldn't worry about 4 buttonholes or 5.

The sample buttonholes

I don't know where the time goes. But I went to the store on Thursday and got button forms to make the covered buttons. I had one at home and got a package of 4, as I needed 5. Then I went and covered them and...

I made one button dark red to see what it would look like, thinking I could take it apart once I made it. Wrong! You can't get these things apart without wrecking them!

So, I either need to go get some more forms, or I could use the dark button at the very top at the neck. I probably wouldn't button the jacket all the way up to the neck much, and if I did, it would be okay if the button at the top was different from the other four. But you really can't put the dark button in the middle. That's my rationale and I'm sticking to it. Anyway, I can just get another set of forms the next time I am at the store.

I took a scrap of fabric and ironed interfacing to the wrong side of it and then folded it over to make two layers. That's what the front of the jacket is like, with the front and the facing. Then I took a piece of the floral fabric and sewed it to the right side of the jacket scrap, trying to stay in a straight line with the weave of the fabric. That's hard to do on both sides. I used a zigzag stitch and went around where the buttonhole will be. Then I sliced open the buttonhole and put a button halfway through for a visual.

I turned the scrap over and pulled the floral fabric through the buttonhole to the other side - what will be the inside of the facing on the jacket. I played around with tucking under the tiny folds of floral fabric in preparation for hand stitching them to the facing. That's going to be a fiddly job! I think when I'm done hand sewing, I will reinforce it with machine sewing. I am lucky and can do that with this fabric because it is loosely woven and stitching just doesn't show on it.

Here's what it will sort of look like from the right side or outside of the jacket. I haven't sewed the facing side. The buttonhole looks like a tiny welt pocket. Now to actually DO it.

Raw silk suit almost finished

Almost there! This is the point where I start thinking about the next project and if I didn't have my Rule, I'd end up with UFOs all over the place.

Here, I've pinned the jacket shut to simulate buttons. Everything is done except for the sleeve hems. Peter thought I might want to put seam binding along the bottoms of the sleeves and I plan to pin some there to see what it looks like. He may be right. You might notice that I have put a row of pins down the fronts, to hold the fabric up and keep it from buckling at the bottom edge. I may take a few loose stitches in the shoulders to prevent this from happening in the finished jacket.

The skirt is complete. I decided to cut a few pieces of bias from the satin and finish the skirt hem in it. I sewed the satin on by machine to the raw edge of the hem and then I folded the other raw edge under and hand sewed the hem to the skirt. And no one will ever see this.

Back to finishing the inside of the hem on the jacket. Before I could sew down the lining to the hem, I wanted to finish that tiny bit of raw fabric at the bottom edge of the facing. The Threads magazine suggests putting a bit of bias tape on it and in this photo, I have pinned the tape to the edge. I sewed it to the edge by machine before folding it over to encase the raw edge of the facing. By machine sewing, I also was able to catch the end of the piping cord in the stitching, thus anchoring it even more than I had already.

Then I folded the tape around the edge of the facing and tucked the end under and sewed it down by hand. You might want to make this photo larger to see the detail. For someone who is picky about finishing the insides of her garments, even this may be a bit much for me for future jackets. The piping is nice but I wonder if it's worth it, especially with the fuss at the bottom because f the fold in the lining for ease. If I do this again, I may have to eliminate that fold. But I like the bit of bias over the raw edge.

Here is the jacket on Rose, inside-out. The lining hem is pinned up to the jacket hem. I suppose it looks a little more relaxed, now that I've sewed it but I'm not convinced the piping is worth the trouble.

I think the jacket does need more of the piping fabric as an accent on the exterior. That's why I'm going to test it around the bottom edge of the sleeves when I hem them, and that's why I'm going to use it on the buttonholes. I can't use my automatic buttonholer anyway, because of the thick piping at the front edge of the jacket. So I'm going to do some machine zigzaging to make the fabric sturdy and then do a bound buttonhole with the floral fabric. And then I am going to make fairly large covered buttons using the floral fabric to cover them! I can't imagine this jacket with any other buttons - plastic, pink, gold or whatever. I think they have to be covered in the floral. So that's next, after I make the trek to Fabricland for the button forms.