Lady Grey: Bound Buttonhole and Pad Stitching the Lapels

Prior to attaching my hymo pieces to the fashion fabric I needed to make a bound buttonhole.  A daunting task for which I had no experience on!  I’m not one to run away from a technique I’ve never tried before so thought I’d give it a shot on my Lady Grey coat but first I needed a button so I turned to my Great-Grandma Nettie’s tin of old buttons and pulled out this baby.   What do you think?  Obviously it isn’t “new” for there are some marks of usage on it but I really like how it is rimmed with the brown which sets it off against my black camel hair fabric.  Now that I’ve chosen my button time to tackle that bound buttonhole.

  I followed the tutorial for bound buttonholes on Gertie’s New Blog for Better Sewing.    There are some techniques I will practice but this seemed straight forward and pretty basic so…Living on the Wild Side…I made my first bound buttonhole right on my Lady Grey jacket.  I think it came out pretty good for my first time…

 

Moving forward I have layered my hymo pieces onto the wrong side of my fashion fabric and started the basting and pad stitching.  For this I have used Gutermann’s black silk thread I picked up in Joann Fabrics.  I have actually used the whole 110 yard spool….WOW…who would have thought there was that much hand work in attaching the hymo and pad stitching the lapels and under collar.  I may have pad stitched more heavily than usual, I am truly amazed at the results.  After steaming the lapels they look great and they are maintaining their shape beautifully.  I really like the crispness that the hymo brings to my jacket front and now understand why a “custom-made, tailored item” costs so much!!!  All that work is definitely worth the effect that results from the pad stitching.

Here are pictures of my pad stitching work:

 

In these photos I basted my
1/4” tape along the roll line and
marked my stitching lines to
help guide me while pad stitching
the lapel. You can see a more in depth
description of tailoring the
front of your jacket on Gertie’s blog 

Tailoring Jacket #1
Tailoring Jacket #2
Tailoring Jacket #3      

 

 

 

 

In the following photos below you can see what the pad stitching helps you accomplish.  The pad stitching has created a nice line where the collar will roll and lay back nicely.

 

   I used the handle on my wooden spoon to aide me in my stitching where it was hard for me to get my fingers under the collar.

 

These photos show you how the collar lapel wants to roll back.  After completing my stitching I took and rolled up a bath towel and placed it under the lapel.  Setting your iron so that it will steam, hover the iron above the lapel and steam up and down your roll line and then outwards to the edges of the collar.  Do not press the iron onto the collar you just want to steam the collar and then allow this to dry overnight to set the collar.

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are both lapels with the pad stitching complete after being steamed and set.

Up next…pad stitching and steaming the under collar.

Happy Sewing!!!