Melanie

French Jacket Class: Day 4

A new morning and a close inspection of my efforts last night highlight an additional few more spots where my pattern matching is off at the seams, so I kickstart the day unpicking, pinning and re-stitching.

And hour or so later and I’m ready for my second fitting, which – you guessed it – means a few more changes are required. Due to underlining with the batiste, the boucle doesn’t have as much ‘give’ in it as it would otherwise – the difference means I need a lot of extra space at the shoulders and to let out the princess seams at the fullest part of my bust. Also, I need an additional 1/2 inch of ease at each of the side seams. The one lesson I seem to keep learning over and over again is the importance of considering how the hand, weave and drape can affect the outcome you’re aiming for.

Frustratingly I forgot my camera today, so it’s dodgy iphone pictures to go…

The top line is the original seam line as per my muslin, and the line about 1-1.5″ below is my new seam line. Another good cause for super wide seam allowances!

Susan marks the spots of the new stitch lines and sends me back to re-baste, pin and sew the adjustments – I also add in a few more quilting lines now I have an extra inch of ease at the side seams. Quilting when the jacket pieces are joined is not something I would recommend….

It’s 2:30pm and after another quick try-on Susan says I’m good to go.

Time to start working on the sleeves! Susan pins one muslin sleeve to the jacket and makes any necessary adjustments:

Then we all gather around to watch her explain how to convert a two piece sleeve into a three piece sleeve, as well as the best place to position the sleeve vent so your buttons and trim end up in a flattering position on your forearm.

Most of us managed to adjust our sleeve pattern pieces and start cutting them out before having Susan demonstrate how to ‘clean up the seams’ at the end of the day.

Homework? There’s a lot.

- My sleeves need to be underlined then the seam lines traced.

- Lining for the sleeves needs to be cutout

- Quilting lines on all 6 sleeve pieces need to be pinned (I’ll do the sewing tomorrow)

- The 5 vertical seams in the jacket need to be pressed, cut back the lining pinned in place and fell stitched together. I’ll probably do a lot of this tomorrow as it requires a sleeve board and a tailors ham, neither of which I have. (Susan’s was lent to one of the ladies who has to finish the class a day earlier).

But then disaster strikes!!

My fingernails are battle weary from all the hand sewing and beginning to catch on my super loose boucle. Inna’s Japanese hand sewing needles take no prisoners. Right about the time I’m cursing my lack of foresight in not including an emery board in my sewing kit, this happens:

Hopefully someone has an embroidery needle stashed in their supplies tomorrow so I can weave it back into place… tweezers weren’t quite up to the task.

At 11pm I settle in to burn the midnight oil with some hand stitching – and quickly decide that the fell stitch and I are going to become excellent friends. Probably a good thing really, because there is a LOT of fell stitching to be done – virtually all of the jacket’s insides is sewn shut this way.

I manage to get the two side seams sewn up before falling asleep. It’s actually starting to look like something other than a messy pile of scrappy fabric now!

Amazingly, I haven’t experienced the usual rollercoaster of increasing and flagging enthusiasm I usually do whilst sewing. You know how you get to a point and a project just kind of gives you the sh*ts? There’s been none of that. Maybe it’s the class atmosphere, maybe it’s the mindset of knowing you’re in the hands of someone who knows the process inside out.

I am kinda getting sick of the sight of lilac, though. You can guarantee that the fabric for next weeks project will NOT be any shade of purple…


  • Love
  • Save
    3 loves
    Add a blog to Bloglovin’
    Enter the full blog address (e.g. https://www.fashionsquad.com)
    We're working on your request. This will take just a minute...