Five Days to Coatmas!

Readers, you know I'm not big on the holidays, but this coming Thursday, December 19, I will be celebrating Coatmas.  And I do hope you'll join me.

Actually, my peacoat must be completed the day before Coatmas (Wednesday), when I'll need to photograph it so that it can go live on the Mood site on Coatmas itself.  It's kind of like how Santa has to have all his gifts ready before Christmas so they can be opened on Christmas, only Coatmas is real and Santa is just make-believe.

You might think I took today off since I've been coat-making for weeks now, but no.  I did make sure I visited the Chelsea flea market, however, just as the snow was starting to fall.  (Could we actually have a white Coatmas?)





I came home with all sorts of little things -- CD's, vintage deadstock wrapping paper -- but here's the best of the lot: you know I have a weakness for 1940's women's hats, right?  How's two for $16?















Aren't they peachy?

In peacoat news, I got a fair amount accomplished.  I reinforced my armhole seams with cotton twill stay tape, and measured and pinned my sleeve and coat hems so that tomorrow I can start stitching them (after reinforcing the edges with bias-cut hair canvas).

I also experimented with sleeve heads, which I think I'm going to make using the insides of an old tie (the one I made that belt out of during the summer).   I actually found an old sleeve head from a suit jacket I took apart a few years ago.  It looks like this:





I also made another pair of sleeve tabs as I wasn't happy with my first pair.  This time I used leftover coated cotton on the inside and interfaced the tweed with a lightweight knit fusible.





If I get the hem done tomorrow, I can concentrate on the lining on Monday.  Coatmas waits for no man, as they say.

Have a great day, everybody!

Bust My (Coat) Buttons!

I'm usually a plastic button kind of guy, but for my tweed peacoat I've opted for horn.

They were a bit more costly than the brown plastic ones (immediately below), but not ridiculously so.





I stopped sewing earlier than usual today.  I needed to shop for buttons, and frankly, I was spent.  I did manage to topstitch my collar, lapels, and coat front edges, and to attach my sleeves.

Remember how I complained about there being WAY too much ease in the sleeve of this coat pattern?  Well this time around the sleeve fit perfectly with very little easing.  I did deepen the pocket a scad, but that still doesn't explain the difference so I'm at a loss.  The sleeves went on perfectly the first try with no adjustments needed.  There's still some light pressing to do, and then I have to decide if the sleeves need more support or not.  The coat front/sleeve seam has hair canvas in it (as per Tailoring: The Classic Guide to Sewing the Perfect Jacket), the back has a back stay, and there's muslin backing in the sleeve cap.   Still, I will do some research on sleeve heads. 

I think this needs a sleeve head to shape the sleeve cap a bit.

After much testing, I have decided to make my own buttonholes.  The tweed is actually very easy to sew through, even with multiple layers of interfacing, and seems to fit under the buttonholer.  I find the Jonathan Embroidery experience rushed and impersonal, and the result, while certainly professional looking, isn't much different from what I can achieve with my Singer buttonholer.  The tweed is easy to cut through and, since the outer facings were fused, the cut is clean (as opposed to raggedy).

This is thrice around with ordinary poly thread.  





Thank you for your suggestions yesterday regarding my lining and lining pocket.  I still haven't decided how to proceed; I'll take a day or two to decide.  I don't need this project finished till next Wednesday, which feels like a lot of time to me.

And that's it.  I think I need an evening away from this coat.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Willy ponders the meaning of life.

One Victory, One Defeat

Good news and not-so-good news today, friends.  Naturally, this is all in reference to my tweed peacoat -- the only thing on my mind these days.

First, the good news: I successfully performed the "turning of the cloth" -- attaching my facings and upper collar to the undercollar and main part of the coat, and turning them right side out -- this afternoon.  A peek at my results:







There's still a tremendous amount of pressing I must do to flatten edges, but so far, so good.  After that, topstitching.

I had less success today trying to make an inside chest pocket, which normally I'd make with one part cut into the front facing, like the photo below from my earlier peacoat.



This time, I tried to do it solely cutting into the silk lining, which didn't work very well.

First I interfaced a small rectangle on the wrong side of the silk.



Then I attached the front of my pocket and my welt.  Quick -- what's wrong with this picture?



I decided to make the front of the pocket cotton and the back of the pocket silk.  What's still wrong with this picture?



Yup -- the welt should be under the pocket, not on top of it, since the whole thing will be turned to the inside.  I had to rip out the welt and pocket front and reattach them, with the hole already cut.  Meanwhile the silk was fraying like nobody's business.

After considerable fudging, I managed to get the pocket to look almost acceptable.  But it wasn't how I wanted it and the weight of the pocket fabric made the pocket hang open.  (And I really didn't want to add a button.)



It wasn't until after I'd cursed my silk twill for twenty minutes that I realized that I had also forgotten to stitch the long dart into my lining before I started making the pocket.  So the whole thing had to go.



I could probably get better results next time, and I have enough silk to cut another front lining piece.  But now I'm thinking of scrapping the silk altogether and using rayon Bemberg, which I find easier to work with.  Silk is just too shifty.



In other peacoat-related news, I also managed to make a sleeve backing for my sleeve caps today.  Following Claire Shaeffer's instructions from High-Fashion Sewing Secrets, I cut my backing (basically, it's interfacing) from sturdy cotton muslin, on the bias.



Tomorrow I hope to attach the sleeves and maybe have my buttonholes made.  Still unsure what to do about my lining.

That's all for today, folks -- I'm beat.  More tailoring on the morrow.

Have a great day, everybody!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Peacoat!

Friends, I never thought I'd say this, but I'm starting to like tailoring!

The trick, for me at least, is to work slowly.  I'm actually forcing myself to stop relatively early in the day so as not to push through this project too fast.  I'm trying not to go more than four hours at a time (On some projects I've sewn twice that.).

A few details:

My undercollar, which I'd steamed and left to dry overnight wrapped around my tailor's ham, is now beautifully shaped.



I'm taking the time to pre-shrink my hair canvas and twill tape.  Is this really necessary?  I don't know, but in the scheme of things it doesn't take that much time.  Better safe than sorry, right?

I chose not to padstitch my lapels because I want them soft rather than rigid.  I still did all the basting of my hair canvas to my coat fronts, as well as to the pocket edges (plus catchstitching edges to shoulder and side) and have added twill tape to stabilize the edges of my lapels.









The book I find myself using more than any other is "Tailoring: The Classic Guide to Sewing the Perfect Jacket."  It's written at a level that suits my sewing experience.  I recommend it, though it's certainly not the definitive tailoring book.

I may treat myself to a copy of "Vintage Couture Tailoring" by Thomas Von Nordheim.  Are you familiar with it?

There's still a lot to do.  I'm going to draft my own lining pattern as I had a few problems with the peacoat lining the first time around (which I made following the Japanese pattern book).  I haven't decided how much structure/support I need at the shoulder -- I hadn't planned to add shoulder pads, but I may add a thin one to help support the sleeve.  Likewise, I may add a layer of light sew-in interfacing to the sleeve cap area; still some research to be done about that.  The tentative plan is to have my buttonholes done at Jonathan Embroidery this coming Friday, which means I have to attach my facings tomorrow; we'll see how it goes.



Readers, that's all for now.  I feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel -- almost.

Have a great day, everybody!

Peacoat Progress -- a lot of pad stitching (and a little fusing too)

Today I worked primarily on the undercollar and undercollar stand (two separate pieces) of my peacoat.

I'm reluctant to offer anything that feels like a tutorial since I'm doing most of this for the first time.  I have many tailoring books outlining the steps for interfacing with hair canvas and they're all a little bit different, so I'm just relying on my common sense and doing what works for me.  I'll be able to judge my choices when the coat is finished and, over time, when I see how it wears.

Hair canvas seems like the best bet for interfacing a heavy fabric like my tweed, but, after reading Paco Peralta's coat sew-along from a few years ago, I also decided to fuse a super-thin knit interfacing to my overcollar, the inward-facing collar stand, and the front facings, to stabilize them.  My tweed isn't as loose as bouclé, but it is stretchy.  

Pad stitching isn't hard once you understand what you're trying to accomplish -- to attach the hair canvas to your fashion fabric so that they work as one, and to help shape the collar.  Since you don't want hair canvas in your seam allowances, you have to make sure you don't stitch into them.  (You can stitch close though.)  When you're done stitching you can trim the hair canvas out of the seam allowance area.

Before I started any of this however, I trimmed my undercollar along the outer edges so that it would be roughly 1/4" smaller than my overcollar.  You don't want the undercollar peeking out from under the overcollar when you've turned and topstitched them.



After seaming my hair canvas with a lapped zigzagged seam, I drew the approximate lines of my pad stitching (and the seam allowances) with a colored pencil. 



Then I got to work.  I used brown silk thread which I also waxed.  (Silk tends not to get knotted up while you're stitching so it's much easier to work with.)





When I was done with both the undercollar and the collar stand, I attached them to each other, pressed the seam allowances open, trimmed where necessary, and then from the right side topstitched them down at 1/4" from the seam, a detail that's in my peacoat instructions.  I could also have whip stitched the seam allowances down on the wrong side.



Finally, I folded the collar and stand around my tailor's ham and steamed them to shape them.  I propped the ham up with the collar pinned to it to allow the wool and hair canvas to dry overnight.





The decision to fuse my facings and over collar was one I made only today.  First, I tested the lightweight knit on my tweed and I liked the result: the wool looked and felt the same, but was less prone to stretching.



Then, I cut my fusible knit and bonded it to my fashion fabric with the aid of my Elna Press.  I left the fusible knit in the seam allowances; it's so thin that it won't add bulk.





Tomorrow I hope to interface my coat fronts with hair canvas.  I don't think I'll be pad stitching my lapels since I want them to be flexible and easy to turn up but maybe I'll change my mind.  (Same goes for taping the lapel roll line with twill tape: this is not like a suit jacket whose lapel you want to stay fixed in place.)   More research needed. 

I'm hoping to be able to do the "turn of the cloth" on Wednesday if everything goes well.

And that's it.  I'm trying to just take it a step at time and keep the stakes low.  My priority is to learn as much as I can and make the best coat I can right now. 

Happy Monday, everybody!