Tricky Pieces

Well, when I heard that I was getting checked material, I had a small quibble-moment, but I do enjoy a challenge like this.  

When we did our previous tailoring unit making waistcoats, our tailoring tutor, G, said that we were very welcome to used checked material, but that we had to be prepared to have a few hiccups.  Because at that point all I wanted was to produce a good, well constructed garment, I went for the safer option of a block-coloured wool.  And I was very happy with the results!  BUT, this meant that coming into this unit, and being presented with a green tweed bolt, my knees shook.*

In matching the fabric I had an immediate problem: that the way in which the fabric had been woven and folded meant that I couldn't line up the two layers without wasting a lot of the fabric.  So, under the guidance of G, I was instructed to pin on my pattern pieces, carefully choosing where I wanted the strong red stripe to fall vertically as well as horizontally, then cut out the TOP LAYER ONLY.  Then I had to move each piece over by about half an inch** and re-match the lines to cut out the bottom layer...

I fell into a zone of concentration; I had started cutting out when it was still in lunchtime and therefore quieter in the studios.  By the time I looked up from my work the first years had returned and were clamoring on the edges of the (3) tables I was taking up, wanting the space for their class.

At this point in time I am not too stressed about the whole thing; all the hand tacking is going to my head and making me rather placid - a good thing to note for up and coming units: if you get too stressed Do Some Hand Sewing!

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*It is not that I have never worked with even stripes before; the last university project we were studying Candide by Voltaire, making 18th century costumes and I ended up with a black silk frock coat with silver braiding and matching breeches, but for that I applied the stripes by hand so was not trying to match them right from the outset.

** Yes, we still work in the old imperial scales in this profession.  We had a modified version for the waistcoat when all 43 makers were learning at once that used the metric scales, but all the original books and patterns are still printed in inches

Picture: http://villagedraper.com/