Vests and the next project

I don't think I posted a photo of the blue wool vest I made. I hadn't decided on the buttons, the last time I posted. I went with the same clear plastic button as I used on the jacket of the same fabric. I also made real welt pockets. I love wee, vest pockets! Here is the newest vest (waistcoat to my English readers), made from the beautiful but thick, orange Italian wool I got from Darrell's and from which I also made a jacket (but maybe didn't blog about - I can't find an appropriate entry anyway). In spite of loving vest pockets, I didn't make them on this one because the wool is too substantial and would only cause me more grief than they are worth. I used the fabulous printed lining from the pink raw silk jacket. I put in a piece of elastic at the back waist so the garment would have a bit of shape. Next, I have been wanting to make a fitted jacket with a peplum for some time, and I got this Vogue pattern because of the jacket. I believe I am too short/small to wear the full skirt, as much as I might like it. But the jacket appeals to me. I got a remnant of some plaid wool at Darrell's this summer but I may have been dreaming in technicolor to think that all the pieces of this jacket would fit onto the fabric, especially as the plaid is about 4 inches on a side! The extra fabric required for the peplum might sink using the plaid for this jacket pattern. I have to go back upstairs now to play around with it all.

Not another pink jacket!?

So there I was, having finished the reversible pink jacket, wondering what to do next. I got out my new Badgley Mischka pattern, thinking I would use it to make the raw silk fabric that I've had for ages, into a Chanel-like jacket.

I even got new fabric, so I could make it the first time without using expensive or coveted fabric and not worry about having it turn out poorly. But the idea of the stand-up collar didn't sit well with the loose, scratchy silk fabric.

Then I found myself thinking ahead to the weekend, when we are attending a wedding. It's not like I have nothing to wear! I got out the linen dress and jacket I made last year and wore at the Pink Tea. I wasn't happy about how high the slit in the back went. At the time, I sewed it down so it wasn't so long. But I felt nervous about what might happen if I bent over - would my underwear show?

So I jury-rigged a box pleat over the open slit.

I cut a piece of fabric about 16 inches wide, so it would form a deep pleat in the back. I figured out how to attach it to the existing opening.

And now my dress has a nice big pleat in the back!

Something prompted me to pull out my well-used vest pattern and I dug out the little bit of left-over pale blue wool from the suit I had just made. I knew when I cut the suit out, that I had just enough fabric for a vest. It might be a bit 80s but I don't care - I really like a vest as it gives me a bit of extra coverage and warmth without being a whole jacket.

And vest are such fun to make! Almost like baby clothes, because they are small and fast.

I even made real, working welt pockets, just for fun. When I made the suit, I speculated about brass buttons but ended up with clear plastic which I still like. I got out a treasure trove of metal buttons I have to see if they might work on the vest. I don't think the gold works but the silver might. I only have one of the silver button that I do like (third from the left at the top - I used them on another wool vest I wear a lot), so I'll have to go shopping. Making that vest reminded me that I had just enough orange wool to make another vest so I pulled out the wool, the raw silk, the lining I had bought for the silk, and some other pieces that might serve as vest lining. Another embarrassment of riches! I got out the first and only jacket I have made with New Look 6619. Tried it on and it fits nicely. So I made a command decision to cut out the silk and be done with it. I got the lining a couple of years ago at Darrell's, specifically with this silk in mind. It is substantial fabric in some man-made fabric (acetate or polyester, I can't remember), and funky fun with the print on it. As I was cutting, I realized it would work equally well with the orange wool for lining.

Here is the original plan, with the silk and the printed lining.

And here is the jacket body, on the judy. I have fused interfacing to the entire front and around the back neck edge. The fabric is a loose weave so it will benefit from this. I have already started to sew the lining pieces together. As Hannibal Smith used to say, "I love it when a plan comes together."

The blue suit

I said I was going to wear it and I did. I asked Peter to take a picture of me just before I left for class:

I look like I'm holding my breath. But I think I am just standing up straight after all the yoga I have been doing. I see the one sleeve looks like it needs some more pressing, alas. But I have to say, it fit well and the fabric is very light so it was very comfortable to wear and teach in (which involves a lot of arm waving for me). And because it is wool, it was warm and yet breathable. I wasn't actually sure if I was going to like it after I made it but now that I have worn it, I think it will get fairly frequent rotation.

Blue wool suit finished

I have finally finished the blue wool suit. It didn't really give me grief, but the fabric appears to want to wrinkle when you just look at it, so I don't know how happy I am going to be with it. I'll wear it to teach on Tuesday night and then I'll know better.

I press diligently as I go. This is the shoulder/armscye area with a ham under it, so I can press the seam flat without creasing the fabric.

Here's the hem going up. You can see how I had a little bubbling of the iron-on interfacing on the facing on the right. I ironed it out but it's annoying when that happens because then you always have to be so careful with pressing afterward. It is for this reason that I sometimes use sew-in interfacing, even though it might be considered old fashioned these days. It depends on the fabric and how fond I am of it and the garment I intend to make.

And here it is, all sewn and pressed. The bottoms of the fronts want to curl under a little. Perhaps when I wear it, it won't be a problem. I have only made one previous jacket with this version of this pattern - the red wool with the black embroidery - and it doesn't have this problem. But the red wool is more substantial and heavier. I know I always have this problem with the square bottomed version of this pattern.

I opted for clear buttons. I can always change them if I don't care for them but they look okay for now. The skirt is a fairly simple a-line with a yoke, which I lined. As I said, I'll wear the whole suit on Tuesday and we shall see. Next, some wedding gifts!

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?

New project - wool suit

I am being a good girl and only using up my stash. I bought all those pieces of fabric on speculation, so it is only fair that I finally sew something with them. The difficulty is deciding what fabric will go with what pattern.

First of all, I finished that striped shirt and it looks pretty good. I sewed down the facings with a single line of topstitching. I put it on the dress form for a photo before I realized that I should press the topstitching and buttonholes. You can see a little of the "puckering" caused by the topstitching in this photo but it disappeared after I ironed it.

I got out a bunch of my "outfit" patterns, to ponder over and speculate what I would make with them. I'm going to a wedding at the end of May, and it would be fun to have a new dress and matching jacket. I have made the two Vogue patterns with the short jackets with the swing backs and I could definitely do them again. I haven't made the plaid outfit (V1132). I got that jacket pattern for the back on it too, having in mind my "Edwardian" (or maybe it is Victorian?) jacket that I was planning a couple of years ago.

I have these long lengths of fabric in the pale pink with the same stuff in navy, and then there's the bright pink. I laid them out on my ironing board to think about them.

Then I remembered this pale blue (ice blue) pure wool with a thin white stripe, that I had bought at Darrell's a few years ago. It was actually two remnants. I got some matching lining at the time and planned to make a suit out of it. It is nicer in real life, compared to this photo.

I had thought I would use this jacket pattern that I have made a few jackets out of in the square bottomed, notched collar views, but only once in the rounded bottom view. The one I made in the rounded bottom view was this one:

It is also pure wool with embroidery on it. Every time I wear it, I feel great and I get compliments. Of course, it is mostly the fabric and the colour, but I like the fit also. For some reason, even though it is virtually the same pattern as the square bottomed jacket, it works much better than the square jacket, in terms of the hem lying flat and the pockets working. It is very odd how that happens. I wonder if it was a fluke, that the red one works so nicely, but I am willing to gamble on the ice blue wool, and see how it turns out.

A hat

I'm rummaging around my sewing room, looking for things to make, fabric for some more bags as the last set were pretty popular. I spied the messy purple fabric I made a coat from last year and remembered I thought I could make a tam out of it. This time, I have a pattern which includes a tam but I have it in my mind that a trilby style hat would work and I have a pattern for that too.

I'm using McCall's M5773 and decide to go with view F, the blue one with the brim. Actually, I really want to make view E in the red, using the red boiled wool from that jacket I recently finished. But I figure the purple wool will serve as a template and I can pitch it if I don't like it.

It's very simple and I use some cream coloured lining scraps I have for the inside.

I decide to interface one side of the brim, even though the pattern doesn't cal for it. This wool is very loose and I figure I can't go too wrong with interfacing.

I get the crown of the hat put together and try it on and it's HUGE. I think it's the fabric, more than the pattern, so I take up one half of the crown seams by another 5/8 inch and it seems to work better. I sew the interfaced brim to the outside of the hat.

I sew the lining to the other brim. Then I sew the hats together at the edge of the brims, leaving a small opening to turn them right side out. The hat sheds mightily each time I hold it.

After I turn the hat, I sew around the brim, first to seal the open edges together, then to add rigidity to it, with a line of stitching about 1/4 inch from the edge stitching and one around where the lining joins the brim, to keep the lining at bay. It's not brilliant but it's okay and gives me hope that the red one will look better. And now of course, I have "the ensemble", with the coat and the hat. Hmm. At any rate, it is covering up my bald chemo head and that's the main thing. You can just see that I am wearing a blue skull cap under the hat. When I have hair again, it will fit over the the hair too.

Boiled wool jacket, almost done

Almost done! I got some buttons on Thursday:

I looked at all kinds of red buttons, plain, patterned, matte, glossy. I looked at black buttons too and even metal ones but I liked these red buttons the best. They are not very contrasty and yet they stand out a little bit. I think I am going to have to do the buttonholes the old way, because the fabric is so thick my automatic buttonholer won't work on it.

I've sewed the inside and outside together and pressed all around the edges. I have sewed up the jacket hem but not the lining - that is the lining hanging down below the hem there which of course, it won't do after I've sewed it up.

I haven't hemmed the sleeves yet either. I think I'll wait to the end for that, as I want to make sure they are fairly long, to cover the cuffs of whatever I will wear underneath the jacket. It is heavy too! For such a short garment, it weighs a lot. That is partly the kind of fabric and partly the volume of the jacket with the pleats at the back. Next, more hemming, topstitching all around and buttonholes.

Red, boiled wool jacket

Everything is cut out, the interfacing applied and I have started to assemble the jacket.

Here's the lining. It's polyester (most lining is that or acetate) and substantial so I think it will serve as a bit of a wind break. You won't see it unless I flash the inside of the coat but it's fun to know it's there.

The jacket will be fully lined - sleeves, body, pockets.

I am trying to decide how to make the back yoke. The pattern instructions call for the inner layer of the yoke to be the same fabric as the coat, so I have cut out two wool yokes. I also cut out one lining yoke on speculation. I think it will act as a wind break, sandwiched between the two wool yokes (which are more porous than the polyester lining). My conundrum is whether to put the lining on the inside layer instead, so the entire inside of the jacket is lining. Will the wool yoke drag on a sweater worn beneath the jacket? Why would the pattern makers call for the yoke to be made of wool on the inside, except for warmth? Will I screw up if I put the lining on the inside?
If no one has ever done this and I don't get any answers to my conundrum, if in doubt, I will do it the way the pattern says.

Here is my assembly line for some of the small pieces. I have made the "welt" pocket flaps and they are ready to be topstitched. The things on the machine are the sleeve tabs which then need to be turned right-side-out. I parked the red thread there because I have fifteen shades of red and I am using up some brighter stuff first, before I start the shade I bought for this fabric. And that's a good reproduction of the way this red looks - nice and red, tomato red. Not the pink-red you see in some pix.

Here's the welt for the pocket sewn on and there are two pieces of pocket lining that I have sewn on and tucked behind it. The slash pocket is right in the front dart - interesting.

Here are all the layers for the back at the yoke. There is the back, its deep pleat, the band (folded in two) and the yoke. Six layers in two places.

Here's the back from the outside, before it is pressed. Too pink by half. Onward!

Red wool coat

How did it get to be the last day of September?

One thing I don't often mention is the prep work for starting a project. I have never used this pattern before so I like to read the instructions first. Then I have to cut apart all the pattern pieces and see which ones I need to use. I double-check them with the list shown above.

The only garment in this pattern is the coat (some have all sorts of things like pants and skirts and things) but there are some variations. I'll be using all the big pattern pieces but maybe not all of the small ones. Once I have the pieces separated, I iron them flat.

I am going to make the long sleeves with 6 buttons on the front (view C) but I want to make the slash/welt pockets (views A and B), not the patch pockets. I also like the detail of the band around the sleeve but it is only on the short sleeve and the 3/4 sleeve.

When you look at the instructions for the sleeve band, you see it is only decorative and not functional. Interestingly, it is made from three pieces of fabric so that the seaming becomes part of the decorative design. I have been debating with myself if I want to use the print lining I got for the backing of the sleeve bands and I haven't finished that debate yet. I lean toward NOT doing it, just because I am not familiar with this pattern and there may be a good reason not to use lining fabric to back the band.

I have got enough fabric that I could make them both ways and see which looked better. You can see that the band gets sewn to the sleeve and the button is just for show. But I like the way it looks on the photo and in the drawings so I think I will make bands and then decide as I go along, whether I will attach them to the sleeve. They get sewn into a seam but I could still pick them out later if I don't like them.

Here I have laid out all the pieces and pinned them, except for the bands. I am going to use Mum's old electric scissors to cut this coat out. I keep forgetting I have electric scissors and while I may not use them for delicate stuff, they should be perfect for this sort of wool.