New things!

I always knew that I would learn new and interesting things during my time at university – that is why people learn: to discover things that are amazing, or intriguing, or thought-provoking – and tailoring has been one of those things.  I had always admired men in suits; smart, slick, dignified, and I, maybe particularly coming from a military family, have thought that a man in uniform is one of the ultimate shows of elegance and decorum.  But I had never thought I could pull myself away from the beauty of women’s historical costume in all its diversity and inventiveness.  The main factor about tailoring is, however, that, for men, the basics of a jacket and trousers can be seen throughout a very large proportion of history.  Through this, the creation of jackets and trousers for men has been tried, altered, refined and tried again, all the way to the 1930’s.   I don’t say to the modern day because, though people are still trying out ideas and, potentially, moving forwards, I believe the craftsmanship and quality of the tailored suit reached its height in the 1930’s.

SO! With our previous unit, I was shown how to draft and use tailoring patterns, how use fabric in a different way, how to put a tailored garment together, how to do pockets.  

This time, I have learnt some new terms: ‘Ziggering’ namely securing the edges of the fabric by running a zigzag stitch all the way around them.  'The Cabbage' being the fabric that is left over from cutting out the garment.

I have learnt how to baste multiple layers together – last time we did just 2, this time, we have 4, each of which is done individually.

And I have had the new experience of tacking, by hand, an entire garment together.  Gulp.  There is only one seam that is machine stitched, and that is the centre back of the jacket.  Every. Single. Other seam is sewn by hand and then the seam allowance is pushed to one side and that, too is tacked down by hand...

How to conduct a tailoring fitting, too, is very different to how one might do a dressmaking or a costume fitting.

Here's too questing minds, generous tutors and more information than we can ever dream of