Lady Grey: Lining

Wanting to add some extra warmth to my jacket I underlined all of my lining pieces with a flannel fabric.  I basted the pieces by hand first then stitched 1/2” around all edges and finished the raw edges with the serger.  The lining was then constructed. 

 

 

 

 

 

I also modified my coat pattern to include a hidden pocket on the left front side.  I just happen to love all the pockets that are on men’s apparel and feel ladies apparel is sometimes lacking in this department.  I wanted the extra pocket for my sunglasses, cell phone, lip balm, etc.  I utilized a technique which I had discovered in Kenneth D. King’s book, “Cool Couture”, page 79 – 82.

In these pictures the  pocket was stitched to the front facing as well as the front lining pieces first and then the lining and the front facing were stitched together.  In the third picture you can see the finished pocket which was tacked to the princess seam to prevent the pocket from drooping when items are in it.

For setting the sleeve cap into the jacket I once again referred to Kenneth D. King’s book, “Cool Couture”, page 114 – 115, Easing the Sleeve Cap.  I tried using hair canvas cut on the bias for the sleeve head but didn’t like the results so opted to try polar fleece instead and the results turned out well.  Gertie also referred to this technique and uploaded a video demonstrating the process on her blog.  Here are a few pictures from my installation of the sleeve head into the lining.

     

 

I really liked how this turned out and will use this technique on future projects.  The results are amazing and don’t require the standard two rows of gathering stitches thus saving you time.

Here are several pictures of the finished jacket lining with the wrong side showing.

 

The right side of the jacket lining.

 

Up next…final jacket construction.

Happy Sewing…

Lady Grey: Work Continues

After finishing off all that lovely pad stitching, work shifted to the constructi0n of the main body pieces of my jacket.  Prior to sewing the shoulder seams I stay stitched a back stay into my jacket to help maintain the shape over the upper back and shoulder area.   This piece was fairly easy to create by tracing off the upper portion of  the sewn jacket back onto my stay material and then pinking the lower edge of the stay.  It is then stay stitched to the wrong side of the jacket back along the side, arm, shoulder and neck seams.  Then with right sides together the jacket front and back were sewn at the shoulder and side seams.  So many wonderful techniques in this SAL.

Will be back tomorrow with underlining work and setting in my sleeves.

Happy Sewing…

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!!!

Mail Call via Club BMV

This weeks Mail Call post comes to you courtesy of the Club BMV website and the Lady Grey Sew-Along taking place on Gertie’s New Blog for Better Sewing.

In participating in this sew-along it is requested you purchase the Lady Grey pattern designed by Colette Patterns.  It is quite a lovely jacket pattern but upon seeing some of the participants muslins I deduced quickly the pattern wouldn’t work for me!  You see…I am rather tall, all legs and short-waisted; taking these body features in combination with the short styling of the jacket and sleeves, the added volume of the peplum along with the large lapels I’d end up adversely accenting areas of my body I would rather not!!

In making this deduction I gave the Big 4 pattern books a once over and came across a Butterick pattern with similar styling to the Lady Grey minus the short length and peplum volume which fits in with the longer, sleeker lines that I prefer on my own body type.  This has led me to choose B5401, View C to make my “Lady Grey” jacket out of.  The styling is similar with princess seams and the jacket length is longer with less fullness while the sleeves are full length and straight.  I believe a good, alternative match for the Lady Grey.  What do you think?

While picking this pattern out and not wanting to miss out on a good, three-day, $1.88 sale; I also purchased two other jacket patterns on BMV that will make good projects for the future.  McCall’s 5525 trench coat pattern which is currently being featured on Gorgeous Things’ Blog in a lace version and Butterick’s 5295 which will be used to replace an old L.L. Bean duster that has seen better days.

All in all a great “Mail Call” haul.

~Happy Sewing~

Waiting in the Wings…Lady Grey Sew-Along

As if the knitting projects I have going on at present weren’t enough I’ve added sewing The Lady Grey project to my “Mama-Do List” as well.  In comparison to the other participants in this SAL I am literally the turtle of the group!!!  You want to talk about being at the back of the pack…I haven’t even gotten off the starting line!!

My main goal for this project???

In order to participate I could only use what is in my fabric stash…NO PURCHASING OF MATERIAL!!!  Boy that is hard to do once you get to perusing the online fabric stores and all the wonderful fabrics they have to offer the sewist.  Ok, I can do that…as a matter of fact I have 3 1/4 yards of a 62” 100% camel hair, black heather fabric.  I also spent several hours going through some fabric bins downstairs and came across 5 yards of a hunter green moiré fabric that would work out nicely for the lining as well as a cute flannel that I plan to underline with.  Even though you won’t see the ring pattern on the underlining I like the idea of having something funky on the inside of the jacket!

Up next:  Pattern Acquisition…

Gertie’s SAL is using the Lady Grey by Colette Patterns.  It is a very sweet jacket pattern but I’m not a fan of it for myself and feel it just won’t work on my body type.  My original thoughts were to keep inline with using only what was available to me via my stash but upon seeing the Sewing Princess Seams post on Gertie’s New Blog for Better Sewing I’ve changed my mind from using McCall’s 5767 to finding a coat pattern that incorporates princess seams with a lapel design similar to the Lady Grey so that I can practice the techniques that will be used in the SAL.

What I came across was B5401 in the Butterick pattern book but unfortunately for me I missed the previous sale at Joann’s and I absolutely will not pay retail for a pattern or even 40% off when I know the store offers the very same pattern for $ 0.99 during the sale.   In my e-mail last week was a notification from Butterick Online in regards to a three-day sale they were having on their patterns…$ 1.88 is a good thing!!  Still more expensive then the Joann’s sale but taking into account time spent going to and from the store plus your gas it pretty much is a wash so…click…into the shopping cart it went and to my door it came today.

Wooo Hooo…I can finally join in the fun!!

Up first….UGH…tracing and adjusting the pattern then stitching up a muslin.  I will be playing catch up all weekend; nice to finally be with the group.

~Happy Sewing~

Mail Call…$3.99 sale at Vogue

Note: This post was created on 2/6/10 right after the online sale; I must say the past few weeks I just haven't felt like being on the computer so my lack of enthusiasm for technology has left me not wanting to go near the laptop being as I'm on the computer at work all day as well. This lack of enthusiasm probably has something to do with the winter dragging on too!!! So with a cup of coffee in hand and Martha Stewart on FLN I am finally getting the chance to get it up and posted...all be it a little late. Enjoy!

This week’s mail call comes to you courtesy of Vogue Patterns and their $3.99 sale that took place last Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I normally don’t order patterns through the mail unless they are for a company I can not access locally or it’s a good buy. For me ordering three patterns online from Vogue equated to what I would have spent in gas and sales tax if I had purchased the patterns at Joann’s considering I have a 30 minute drive to the nearest Joann Fabrics store. The patterns I selected were V8146, V8615 and V1160.

First up is the V8615 which I had seen in the December ‘09/January ‘10 issue of Vogue Patterns (pg. 65) but hadn’t really given much thought to until a post made on Gertie’s New Blog for Better Sewing blog made me rethink my ideas about this particular pattern. What drew me to the pattern was the fact that Vogue was introducing their new Custom Fit for A, B, C, D cup size collection but I believe my dislike originated with the fabric choice for the dress that was featured in this issue as well as the artwork on the front of the pattern envelope. Black and white houndstooth is not one of my favorites so seeing it on the model was basically a big turn off for me and in essence colored my vision towards this pattern. But through following Gertie’s blog my thinking on this pattern has been reversed for she made a lovely wine-colored silk shantung dress from this pattern.

Gertie also offered some very helpful video tutorials on tissue fitting and finally finishing off the dress with a circular hem. Please check her blog out for you will be pleasantly surprised by all of the helpful information and posts you will find there.

Left: Photo courtesy of Gertie's New Blog for Better Sewing

Moving on to the V8146, a Very Easy Vogue, Misses Jacket and Dress; this pattern features a basic sleeveless, straight dress but it is the jacket on this pattern that I fell in love with. Made up in the right fabric it will be a great jacket to go with the V8615 dress for a night out on the town. I can’t wait to make that duo up. As for the sleeveless dress, I have future plans to utilize the basic pattern in making a knock-off of an L’Wren dress that I have just fallen for.

Last but not least is the V1160 pattern. This pattern I think is to die for because it has a very fun and flirty look to it for spring. It is a DKNY (Donna Karan New York) designer pattern for Vogue. I’m not totally into the black and white polka dot fabric but the dress itself is great and I have already purchased the chiffon fabric for it. I will approach this pattern with trepidation being as sewing on chiffon can present its’ own set of issues. Wish me luck on this one!

Well…those are my latest editions to my pattern gallery and I can’t wait to work on them once my Chanel jacket is complete.

As always….Happy Sewing!!!