Piping for the raw silk

"I'm so excited!" I went shopping today for piping material and got so much more.

First of all, when I walked into the Fabricland, I saw that they had Vogue patterns on sale. I am still looking for the perfect jacket pattern (actually something more than that but that's another story) and I sat down and looked through the patterns. I ended up with three different patterns - one for a short, swingy jacket with back pleats, one for a reversible jacket that looked interesting and one for a dress that I had seen at A Dress A Day.

Then I went looking for that pink-and-white quilting cotton for the piping. I had it in my head that it would be just the two colours and a sufficiently large print that you couldn't tell what was going on once it was piping. But of course, once you start looking for something you imagine, it doesn't always appear. I was torn between a pink with a tiny yellow flower on it and some pink and white mottled stuff when the sales clerk told me there was some other stuff on sale. I went to look at it and there it was.

The best thing was that it didn't have a white background. I saw right away that the cream worked better with the silk which has quite a lot of yellow in it when you look at it closely.

In addition, I decided it was time I had a rotary cutting tool and a self-healing cutting mat and I got those too. I have two sized of piping cord because I'm going to use the smaller on the inside with the lining, as suggested by Threads magazine, which I will blog about as I do it.

Cutting the raw silk

It is taking some time to cut all the pieces out properly. Here is the upper collar, which I decided to re-cut. It had to be cut on a fold and even though I was careful about the vertical lines, the horizontal lines of pink didn't line up with the notches. I saw that the collar will look a little bit crooked if I use this piece. Also, there was a substantial flaw, where the pink threads had broken. I was sure it would end up in the seam allowance but because it was crooked anyway, I re-cut it and was done with it.

It's going to be close with the skirt! There is just barely enough in the width to get the front and back pieces cut. Plus I will have to be very careful cutting the front, as it is cut on a fold. I will cut the back pieces out individually to be very sure that the vertical threads are totally straight down the back.

A Chanel jacket

I've decided on the Chanel jacket for my next project. I'm going to use an old pattern I have made several times before but not recently.

It is New Look 6684. I actually never made it with the faux fur accessories and I have never made it with the collar either. At the time, I wanted a short, boxy jacket and it worked well.

If you look at this Chanel jacket in my Couture sewing book, it looks like it could use this sort of pattern. I won't be using a contrasting fabric for the facing and collar but I will have to go hunting for the right trim. I am thinking piping for the edge of the collar and fronts and using the same piping fabric to trim pockets.

I am going to use the plainer raw silk I got as a Fabricland bargain. I have two pieces of the raw silk but just enough in the fancier one with the gold thread to make a jacket. In the pink, I have enough for a skirt too. There are all kinds of flaws in the fabric so I will have to be careful cutting. I am going to use a nice pale pink satin for the lining and I think I have enough of that to make a shell or tank type top, as Chanel did for her outfits.

Here's the jacket in a maple leaf tartan that I made more than 10 years ago. (Note the maple leaf buttons!)

Here's the back. You can see it has darts to give it a bit of shape and I think I will also incorporate them into the silk jacket, although I may decide against them as I start fitting it.

And here is the inside. One of my Threads Magazines has an article about putting a thin line of piping down where the lining is stitched to the facing and I may also add that detail to this jacket. So after I cut it out and ponder on it for a while, I will have to go looking for piping materials.

Shirt finished

My parental units were late arriving on Friday and since I was worried, I finished the shirt while I paced! Turns out they just had had a nice long lunch with relatives so it was all good, including finishing the shirt.

As I expected it looked and felt great. Since I had finished it, I decided to wear it on Saturday to my 50th birthday party!

I also made the the mauve corduroy jacket in September, 2006. And now, for something completely different. Or not.

Cotton shirt

I decided to make up one of the cottons - the stripe with a little bit of Lycra in it. It is such a pleasure to sew with fine fabric. This stuff makes itself, really, especially as I have made the pattern quite a few times. The last time I made it was the peach shirt but there are better pictures back last January when I made it in some candy striped cotton. It is Simplicity 9877.

I cut each piece out singly so I could make sure the stripes matched and were straight up and down. Also, it is an uneven stripe (just in the thin purple lines) so I wanted the stripes to be the same for the sleeves and fronts.

Stupidly, with all this matching, I forgot to line up the stripes at the shoulder seams! Ack.

Anyway, I think it will be fine - who would notice but you and me?

The navy wool suit - it's done!

Buttonholes and it IS done!

These two pix don't do it justice. It is warm and fits wonderfully. In fact, it is almost like a coat because of its length and weight. When I thought of that, I remembered this navy wool coat I bought back in the 80s that I wore until it was worn right out - lining shredded and cuffs frayed. It was a thin wool so I wore the coat more as a jacket. Very 80s in style - I am sure people might laugh at it now - but I loved it. This is different in that it fits more closely and the wool is very different but I hope to wear it right out eventually.

I bought the buttons from Darrell's at the same time that I bought the wool and he was right - they look terrific. I'll have to get Peter to take a picture whenever I wear it first.

Next? Not sure - it may be some of that lovely cotton for a shirt, although I am longing to get at the raw silk.

The navy wool suit

Sarah asked last time if this fabric was boucle. My immediate reaction was, "lovely, expensive fabric could never be boucle!" and so I went to the dictionary to look up what it meant, exactly. As I discovered, boucle merely means "yarn with loops producing a rough, nubby appearance on woven or knitted fabrics, or a fabric made of this yarn". So why the negative reaction? I would probably have to undergo hypnosis to know exactly, but I bet it came from somewhere in the 70s, when I was told a certain kind of fabric was boucle and the stuff I was looking at was something horrible and polyester. Like double-knit. I suppose there may be decent double-knits now (I don't know) but forever in my mind, it means something oddly coloured and polyesterishly oogey. Likewise with "boucle". (I have discovered over many years that it is part of my unique brain function to adopt weird word definitions that don't always bear a great resemblance to the norm.)

You can see from this close-up of frayed fabric that the threads in the weave are not uniform. There are bulky, wooly threads every so often that give the fabric its three dimensionality. But they are not loops.

Back to the skirt which is now finished. I decided to cut off an inch from the bottom and hem it up an inch and a half, to make it hit mid-kneecap. I also decided not to use seam binding on the raw edge. I think I thought it would be more subtle and less noticeable without seam binding, although since no one sees the inside of the hem anyway, I am sure I don't know why I considered this. I zigzag stitched all around the new cut edge on the hem and then turned it up and sewed the hem by hand.

After I attached the lining to the jacket all around the edges of the lapels and collar, I wanted to make sure the edge was as sharp as possible when I turned it right-side-out. I ironed open the seam first, after I trimmed it. Ironing the seam open pushes the seam itself right to the outside of the fold. Normally, if you just turn a garment right-side-out and try to press the edge of the lapels after it is turned, you will get some of the fabric dipping down into the seam. Then, you have to try to pick that fabric out of the trough formed by the seam. Press first and you won't have to do that.

When I hemmed the jacket, I first zigzagged the raw edge of the hem and then turned it up. Because the fabric is so loosely woven, it is simple to ease in the excess fabric in the hem, as I pin it to the jacket. After hand sewing and pressing, I don't have any tucks or bumps in the hem.

I still have to sew the puncture-proof lining to the jacket hem and hem the sleeves in the same way. Buttonholes and it's done!

The navy wool suit

Sewing with nice fabric in a pattern you have made before makes for an easy go of it.

Here is the same pattern, made with some more of Darrell's wool from some years ago. I got two separate compliments on the jacket when I wore it today and I realize that it fits me even better than the other pattern, especially around the shoulders. Plus it doesn't have that curling problem so I'm away to the races.

Here's the navy wool outside shell. I just have to put it together with the inside shell (which is at the same stage, which is to say, completed) and it's almost done. Those are tailor tacks at the collar, to locate the large dots where the collars come together.

When you have any slightly bulky fabric like this, pressing becomes even more important than usual. And we all know I am a fanatic about pressing. This time, I quadruple pressed the seams.

First, I press the seam as sewed. I press the seam in its closed position, as it came off the sewing machine. Then I press the other side of it, closed. That's two.

Then I press it open from the inside. I am using the clapper at this stage too.
Then I press the seam flat and open but from the outside or right side, also using the clapper. That's four presses on one seam.
Next - I finish the skirt and decide how long it should be.

The navy wool suit

I've had a little extra time just to myself, so work on the navy wool is going very quickly. It is also fast because I have made this pattern several times (never mind how many skirts I have) and I don't have to match plaids.


I've already put the zipper in the skirt. I basted the opening with bright green thread by hand, because I knew I'd never see the thread to pick it out if it was navy, and the loose weave of the fabric would make it extra difficult to pick stitches out if I machine sewed it.

The jacket really does look extra long and it is long - mid thigh. But I knew that when I chose the pattern and so far, I think I was right. I may hem the skirt up an inch higher than the plaid I just made.

I am using some polyester for the lining that was not sold as lining. It has body and substance compared with regular lining. But it is also weirdly puncture-proof. Sticking pins in it has been ridiculously difficult and even sewing by machine, I have to hold the fabric taut otherwise it pokes down into the bobbin case as the needle tries to make a dent in it. And when I cut it out with pinking shears, it cut fine but the cut edges stick together almost like they were fused. Once I start to peel them apart, it is fine - they aren't really fused. But getting a purchase on the cut edge to get the two pieces apart is like trying to open a shrink-wrapped CD case.

This jacket pattern has one-piece sleeves so I am going to put the sleeves in at the shoulder first, and then sew up the entire underarm seam. It might not be any easier in reality but it has always seemed easier to me, to put sleeves in this way, rather than setting a tube inside the armhole.

And the suit is wearable

It's 6:30 a.m. and although I got dressed, I haven't put makeup on yet. The nicest thing about the outfit is how comfortable it is. I still have to train the bottoms not to curl in (they are doing it again this morning) and I wore a plain white shirt to start. But the shoes go great! They are some camel coloured sling-backs I got last summer.

Plaid wool suit, finished and starting the navy wool

I'll start where I left off, which was on my way to Darrell's to look for buttons. I wanted the buttons for the beige plaid to be subtle yet distinctive, a possibly difficult combination as, if they are too subtle, then they aren't distinctive, and vice versa.

I was totally successful! First, although we were having another huge snow dump, I got downtown by bus and back again with no issues. I even spent a short enough time at Darrell's that I was able to use my original transfer to get home. Cheap I know but sometimes, every penny counts. Second, I had bought some lovely horn buttons ages ago from Darrell and they turned out to be just too large for me so I took them back, just wanting him to have them for someone else, and he gave me a credit for them! [Thank you so much Darrell, I didn't expect that.] Third, he still had some of that wonderful printed lining that I had coveted for the Chanel style raw silk I want to make (one day, I hope soon) and so I bought some of it. And finally, I found just the right buttons for the plaid.

Here is the jacket, completed. It will still require some judicious pressing to train those curly bottoms into line but I also think it will help to wear it a lot, which I plan to do, starting tomorrow.

Here is the button in close-up. That red glow is my range-finder, I think. To me, they are perfect. They stand out but they aren't shiny or sparkly. They contrast with the plaid but not too much. Even the slightly green tone is a little contrast to the pink tone of the beige. I like the fact that they are matte in finish and yet have a metal rim.

Then it was time to cut the navy wool. I cut each piece out of a single layer of fabric, to make sure everything was all straight.

The front panel of the skirt has to be cut on the fold so I ran a line of pins down the fold to make sure the fabric had folded exactly along one of the warp lines.

And with each pattern piece, I also put pins in the stright-of-grain lines and then turned the pattern to make sure I was straight.

This extreme close-up doesn't do a lot more for you but here it is anyway.

After I had cut everything, I still wondered which side I should use for the right and the wrong side. I don't know how much you can see in this photo, but I chose the left side in the photo as the correct/right side because it is ever so slightly less fluffy than the other side.

Finally, I settled on sew-on interfacing because the fabric is so nice, I didn't want to take chances with issues associated with iron-on interfacing - bubbles, scorching (not that I've ever had that). I think I will also zigzag stitch around the raw edges of most of the pieces because it is a fairly loose weave and I don't want to risk any unravelling later. I plan to press all seams open and only trim the ones that need it, like shoulders and facings but I plan to wear this suit a lot and for a long time so I want it to be sturdy.

The navy wool, finally

So while I was musing about expensive fabric, I hauled some plain beige corduroy out of my stash to make a plain long skirt for winter. After I cut out the skirt, I saw I had enough for something else and managed to fit a shrunken jacket with only 3/4 sleeves on it and presto - I have a new jacket!

It is so cute! Even the puckers that come from making flat fells are cute. And it has an already-lived-in look about it, in a good way. I just finished making this pattern in yet another shade of beige/brown but it had full length sleeves and different lapels. Anyway, what was I going to do with the left-over corduroy when this pattern fit on it so nicely? I don't know how much wear I will get out of it in the winter because of the shorter sleeves but I am loving it for spring and fall. As with the beautiful beige wool plaid, the shirt colours that work the best with it seem to be ice cream or sherbet colours. That's why I pulled a peachy turtleneck onto my dummy (for whom I still do not have a name with which I am comfortable) to take the photo.


I have decided to take the bus downtown tomorrow to get the buttons for this jacket.

Darrell's has the most wonderful selection of buttons you don't find elsewhere and since I got the fabric at his place, I am sure I will find something really nice for the jacket. I have put the line of basting back in to the fronts, to cure the curling problem. After I press the front several more times, the problem will be fixed. But since I asked the question last time, and since I put the basting back in, I realize that it has to be the darts on the front that causes the curling. Heather (in comments from the last post) wondered about the interfacing. I only interface the facings, which are half the size of the fronts. Because the front has a vertical dart in it, I don't put interfacing on it. And because the front piece is large (all the way to the underarm seam) I don't interface it. And because iron-on interfacing can tend to bubble, I don't put it on the front where it would show more than on just the lapels (the only part of the facing that shows).


I have made this jacket quite a few times and it has curled every time. I blamed myself each time and vowed to do something different the next time but still it curled. I therefore have concluded it is the pattern and the way the darts work on the front that causes the problem and not me. I can eventually make it work but this latest issue has prompted me to rethink which pattern I am going to use for the navy wool.

Here's a reminder of how beautiful this navy wool is. I got it several years ago from Darrell's. It is "designer wool" and I am pretty sure he said it was Chanel. Nothing to do with the Chanel jacket I eventually want to make out of the raw silk but actually designed by the House of Chanel. Or something like that - correct me if I am wrong please Darrell!

I looked at three different patterns, two of which I still have never made.

McCall's 2923 has got a nice mid-hip length and curved lines but I don't like the collar for this wool.

Butterick 6342 is almost the same but longer and they made it out of a very three dimensional wooly fabric which is encouraging. But because of the collar, I'm not going to use it.

I settled on a tried and true pattern, McCall's 4154. I didn't originally consider this pattern because of the (long) length of the shorter jacket. I thought such classic wool and colour should have a classic length jacket. But now I think I will dare to be a little different. This jacket fits me beautifully so I am just going to go for it. Of course, I am making the thigh length jacket, not the knee length coat! The last time I made this jacket I was having sewing machine issues that were making me crazy and maybe I got gun-shy about the pattern just because of that. Who knows? In any event, I have ironed the wool yet again and am ready to start laying the patterns out.

Plaid wool suit - jacket

Now I have to get buttons. I see in the photo that I didn't press the near sleeve very well but the sleeves, they are hemmed and everything is completed except for buttons. I took the basting out down the fronts and sure enough, the lower edge has curled up to the inside slightly. I am still puzzled by why this happens, especially because I know the facing/lining is not smaller or shorter than the front. I can sort of "fix" it by pulling the jacket up at the shoulders so maybe it is a function of not using shoulder pads? But I don't think so. In spite of this one thing (that happens on all the jackets in this pattern), the jacket fits beautifully and part of that is because of the fabric. It never once gave me a hard time while I sewed with it and now it deserves lovely, special buttons.

Next, I think I will finally cut out the navy designer wool. I have hopes that it will be like making sure the bus comes by lighting a cigarette. If I make the navy suit, I will get a call for a job interview.

The plaid wool suit, continued

So it's still coming along nicely. The front is folded with the "wrong" side over the other - the buttons will go on the left, not the right - because of the angle I was photographing it from. I put a line of basting down each front because the front always curls up and to the inside for no good reason and while it awaits the next steps, the fabric can learn to lie flat the way I want it to. Also, the stance in the picture is higher that it will be (I think) when the buttons are on.

Interesting aside: I just looked up "stance" in the online dictionaries and none of them include this use, which is where the jacket comes to a closure at the top. But I hear them use it all the time on "What Not To Wear".

I also want to comment on the vivid blue and pink showing under the jacket. Although they are "okay", I think I will wear shirts in "ice cream colours" with this jacket. Especially as it reminds me of butterscotch ice cream. Mmm, ice cream.

So here's the way I'm doing the vent on this pattern these days. I want the lining to be as free of the skirt as possible but I don't want it to show at the vent. I fold back the flaps on the lining vent and sew down the one that won't be tucked under the skirt vent.

Then I tuck the one side of the lining under where I am going to sew down the vent on the skirt. I make sure it is loose down the middle back seam, so it won't pull up on the back. Then I pin down the vent.

After I pin the vent into position, I baste it. If you look closely, you can see a line of turquoise thread which is the basting. Then I sew it down from the right side or outside of the skirt.

And here is the skirt, finished. The whole back centre needs pressing again but once it has been steamed and clappered, you won't even notice the vent. I hung it using clothes pins so it would lie flat for the photograph.