New things!

We learnt how to doing the finishings on the waistband: this involves more hidden, secret canvas, basted into place; pretending to machine sew linings on but actually doing them by hand; how to attach trouser hooks and bars that won’t move or pull at the opening by tying a short length of cotton tape to them, couching this down, and then hiding everything beneath the lining, leaving just the hook end poking out over the edge of the lining.

We also were shown how to do curved hems on trousers. By curving the hem up over the front and down at the back you create a hem that sits well over the top of the shoe while keeping the length at the back.  Long-looking legs = good.

Jetted pockets...

Now then; everyone said that jetted pockets were easier, but I wonder if they had to do one first time with checks.  Precision, as with most things in tailoring, is the key, but here, it is very, very visible if you get it wrong.  With most things, you can put something together not quite right and the majority of people might notice that there is something slightly off about it but they won’t be able to put their finger on it unless they know exactly what they are looking for.  With Jetted pockets, it is excessively plain to see when you have failed to a) match your checks, b) sew in a straight line and c) sew two straight lines that are parallel. With our jacket pockets we were actually going to be putting a flap over them, but while this might help hide a very little inaccuracy, you have the added hurdle of getting the flap to match up with everything involved too.

Practice, practice, practice...

Ladybird, ladybird fly away home

So, my best friend and I clubbed up together this weekend and decided to keep each other working by supplying good company, good music* and someone to commiserate with, go for lunch-walks with and watch movies with in the evenings.  She is studying Law and has exams looming, so was revising with papers, cases, coloured pens and a dictionary; I was tackling the fly, pockets and side seams on the trousers and the pockets on the waistcoat, pacing back and forth between the sewing machine and the ironing board.  

I admit I had to make two of the pieces over a couple of times as I made certain mistakes – putting them together upside-down or back-to-front, sewing up and clipping the wrong side.  But I sat my head straight eventually and it all came together.  

Sewing up the side seams I was quite pleased with: It required matching the checks down the very visible outside length of the leg** and stitching right up to, but not over, the opening edge of the pocket.  This is so that, while the pocket is not being used, it should be invisible; only when the gentleman puts his hand in his pocket would its existence become obvious, melting out of the side-seam like a secret entrance, only evident at certain moments.

And mine came out Just Right.

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*We both listen to a variety of music and, with both of us chipping in with suggestions we covered quite a bit of ground; from Wicked to Avatar, Katherine Jenkins and Michael Ball to Avril Lavigne and Nightwish, country and western to modern worship.

**When you are 6’4” there is quite a bit of leg-check matching to go on^! 

^and it is very noticeable when you get it wrong...

woe is me...

So today, I had a meltdown.  Several, in fact.  And all over these blessed little checks. 

It has been a while (in my brain, which doesn't take long at all) since we had the demonstration about how to match checks through pockets on waistcoats.  Approximately 7 months, actually, so, this time my brain had a slight excuse.  But thinking in 3D is something that I can do, usually, so I am not sure why today was quite such a disaster.  But it was, and then, at about 3.45pm, I managed to accost my tutor and he showed me how to do it, which was slowly where I was headed, but upside-down to how I had it.  It is awe-inspiring and demoralizing at the same time how people can make things look easy.  I know; people have said that about me when I fix machinery that they have battled with for ages, in 10 minutes.

Maybe I should become a mechanic...I will finish this suit first, however.  I will not let it beat me.

5 days in one

Today is the only day this week we can have a tutor at our beck and call, so we made use of it.  We have had little demonstrations in: what needs to be done now that we have had a fitting; how to do trouser side-seam pockets; and a crash bang whizz through Everything that can be done now, without the lining.  

Apparently, we are not using the lining fabric for pockets (whoop!), so we can get quite a bit more done in the time before it appears.

However, of that 'quite a bit more', we have been warned that there is still a Huge Amount to do, and that we probably don't quite grasp how much Time it will take us to complete it all.  We have 20 days until hand-in, including a 4 day weekend, which, tied in with our tutor's timetable, we have 6 days, starting tomorrow in which we are Totally On Our Own.  This is not scary so much as the blind leading the blind.  We know we are perfectly capable of using tailoring techniques and doing this really well*, it is just that we have never done any of it before, Ever.

Hey ho! Where's the fun in not having a challenge!

Garibaldi, anyone?

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*even, maybe, getting all those checks matched up?

Sleeves

Well, here we are, back after the Easter break with three days of class until the next 4 day weekend bars us from studio and tutor alike once more.

Having had our fittings during the break, we have now to adjust the suits as necessary and to finish them.   One small problem we have at the moment is lining fabric that has gone AWOL.  Without the lining we cannot start even doing things like pockets (of which there are two in the trousers, three in the jacket and four in the waistcoat) which need to be done before we can put in facings, and, well, you can’t line something if you don’t have lining!  So, I am down to moving sleeve settings and spreading out my seam allowance.

I had some trouble putting my sleeve in, in the first place.  Having been instructed to allow for some ease in the upper sleeve drafting, I was finding it almost impossible to squeeze in even the minimum suggested.  There is, apparently, nothing straightforwardly easy about easing!  Maybe it comes with practice, though, as many things similar to this do.

So, I had pinned the sleeve in place, adjusting the seam on both the sleeve itself and also at the join between the sleeve and the jacket, pulling it over a little, into the body.  The challenge here, now, is to cut and place the top-fabric sleeves well enough.

It’s not quite ‘wearing my heart on my shirt sleeves’, but ‘wearing my checks on my jacket sleeves’ has equal possibilities for becoming a moralistic saying...

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/