I have got a 40 (ish) jacket !

My starlet suit jacket completed (no mean feat), I had to strut about in it and flaunt my skills in every one's face. I'm so vain ! To my credit, I must say that I didn't explain to every and any one how I hand tailored the collar, nor, how I eased the sleeves in, etc. even though I really wanted to. But, I managed to keep myself nicely in check and just said to every one and any one "I did it myself !" in the most modest demure way I could manage, of course.
Every one did make the right "ooh!", and "aah!" (nb : noises made with the french accent), and prodded and poked my jacket as if to see if it was real. It was so rewarding in a base boastful way that I wanted to start on another jacket strait away to get even more compliments. Yes, vain, I know.

Does sewing turn any one else  into a praise seeking narcissist ? Is it just me ?

Here is the jacket in all its glory :

The skirt is made from the bursa style may 2012 magazine. It's the pencil one with the folds.
I know that a circle skirt would have been more appropriate to a vintage style suit, but I didn't have enough material left for it. So there it is a horizontally pleated pencil skirt (not to sure this is the right description for it).

My friend Elodie (picture on top), is doing her own nail art. Look at that ! :

 Sorry, I don't have a better picture, but it's a lovely shade off of pink with delicate silver flowers on it.

I have added to my list of the 1001 things to do the task of learning how to take better pictures.
It will be a slow learning process as it is with sewing, so, be patient with me, please !

And if you wandered, YES, I did go camping, with that suit, in the tiniest tent ever . have a look :

My pink blouse is showing in the most untidy way. My excuse is that it was early morning, I didn't get much sleep due to the cold that night (8°C degree in the wee hours of the morning), so, i gave myself the right to a little scruffiness.


On the lining front, that jacket is a mess. Of course, I purposefully forgot to mention this to any of my jacket admirers. I didn't know what went wrong at first, I cut everything as instructed (or so I thought ), but the lining didn't match the jacket and I had to gather it on the sides, like so :

More of that ugly lining !

After taking a closer look it seems that I cut the pieces of the lining in the bias rather than on the grain.
Could this tiny detail be the root of such a mess ?
Apparently so.

I might one day take the lining off the jacket and recut it on the grain, AND, reassemble it. But, I don't see this happening in the near futur as I'm a bit sick of jacket sewing for now.


Have a nice sunny week-end, all of you !
E.

Going camping !!

It's rainy here in northern France, and cold, and I'm going camping, yeah!
I'll be writing a longer post about my finished jacket next week, if i'm not dead of pneumonia.

I don't like it too much due to bad material. It's frumpy, doesn't iron well and feel like cardboard once interfaced.

Here's a quick shot !
See you next week, for (hopefully ) better pictures.
E.

Le truc des manches de Gertie

J'apprends pas mal de choses avec mon cours en ligne  " the starlette suit jacket", mais il y a quelques techniques que je ne maitrise pas très bien. Je pense surtout à ces poches passepoilées. Il est nécessaire que je m'entraine un peu plus, selon les dire d'une couturière dont je tairai le nom et qui affirme que pour que la couture "rentre" il faut  travailler, travailler, travailler.Qu'à cela ne tienne, je vais donc coudre des poches passepoilées sur tout mes vêtements à venir.
Pour l'instant, j'ai cousu la toile tailleur sur le dessous du col en faisant de petits point là où le col doit rester droit avant de rouler sur lui-même (le pseudo-pied de col) et des points bien plus larges là où le col tombe.

I'm learning quite a few tricks from Gertie's crafty course but there are still a few technics that I am far from mastering. I'm talking about you welt pockets.
As practice makes perfect, I will be putting welt pockets on all my futur garments, till i can make them with my eyes closed.


I have enjoyed the hand tailoring of the collar. All that hand sewing is calming and can be done in front of the TV ! 
Here is the inside of my collar :

Ça donne ça :


C'est assez long comme technique mais ça donne l'impression de bien contrôler la forme finale du col. Je me suis imaginée être un vrai petit tailleur en bâtissant mes petits points. Comme ce travail est fait à la main, c'est plutôt reposant et ça peut se faire devant CSI New-York, avantage non négligeable.


Maintenant, les choses sérieuses.
Gertie conseille de résorber l'embu des manches en les formant à l'aide d'une bande de tissu extensible. Préférablement le même tissu  que celui de la veste, mais coupé dans le biais.
Étant donné que mon coupon était à peine suffisant pour la veste et une jupe, il ne me reste pas de quoi couper deux bandes de 2,5cm sur 30cm. Je décide donc de couper ses bandes dans de vieux bouts de jersey, trouvé dans ma poubelle à "vieux bouts qui peuvent servir". Ce n'était peut-être pas une bonne idée.

Voici le procédé en image :

And now, the sleeve trick :
To form the sleeve's cap, Gertie sews a strip (2"x 12") of stretching material on its inside. She cuts the strips on self fabric, in the bias. As I ran out of fabric (had barely enough for the jacket pieces and a skirt), I decided to cut the bands on scraps of knitted fabric. Not a good idea !
Here how it goes:

Fist, cut two strips of stretching fabric (preferably self fabric)
d'abord, on coupe les deux bandes de tissus :

Ensuite on épingle le milieu de la bande au milieu du haut de la manche envers contre envers , comme ceci :
Then, pin the middle of the strip to the middle of the cap sleeve wrong sides together.

Puis on coud la bande sur l'intérieure de l'emmanchure en partant du milieu. On coud la moitié, on retourne la manche, on coud l'autre moitié, en tirant sur la bande extensible d'une main tout en poussant le tissu sous le pied pressure de l'autre main.
A peu près comme ceci :
Then, sew the strip of fabric to the inside of the cap sleeve, starting from the middle (it will therefore be a two steps process, one half of the cap, then the other) . While sewing you have to pull on the strip of fabric while pushing the jacket sleeve through the feed dog at the same time.
You need both hands to do this, so you can't really see it on the picture as one of my hand is busy taking the picture.

Et l'embu est résorbé et structuré :
And the sleeve cap it shaped : TADA !

En revanche, cette  épaisseur supplémentaire (le jersey étant bien plus épais que le tissu tout pourri de ma veste) m'a causé grief lors du montage de la manche. J'ai bien failli en maudire Gertie, mais, après tout, elle n'y est pour rien. Elle n'a jamais conseillé le jersey à proprement parler, en décrivant sa technique révolutionnaire de résorption d'embu.
Il convient donc de ne pas suivre mon exemple et d'employer cette technique judicieusement et sur tissu déjà un peu épais.

Nothing went wrong until I tried to sew the sleeves to the jacket. But then ... The knitted strips of material are way to thick for my light, cheap jacket material, and it was a nightmare to put it all together. The lack of a free arm on my sewing machine didn't help either.
Here's a (bad) picture of the sleeves on the jacket.
Not too far to go now, I'm hoping to be able to show you the finished suit soon.

Voici les manches montées, avant de pouvoir vous montrer (bientôt je l'espère), la veste enfin finie.

Àbientôt.
E.

Une toile !

Voici ma première toile ! Je suis fière d'en avoir fait une (dans de vieux draps), donc, je vous la montre .

This is my first ever muslin, yeah ! Made it from old sheets.

La poche est top haute et les boutonnières, trop près du bord de la veste, mais, cela se corrige facilement.

The pocket is too high up the chest and the bound button holes are too close to the lapel (how did I managed to do that?). Those mistakes (all mine) can be corrected easily.

Je trouve qu'elle monte un peu trop haut dans le dos, et pour le coup, je ne suis pas certaine de pouvoir rabaisser l'encolure tout en gardant le col bien ajusté. Je n'y toucherai donc pas.
C'est la même chose pour le bas très évasé de cette veste, évasé au point de faire un laid plis à droite, mais je préfère toucher à rien, plutôt que de faire pire.
"A quoi cela sert-il donc de faire une toile ?" me direz-vous. Euh... "à rabaisser ses poches ?" vous répondrais-je.

The neck seems to be too high but I don't think I can alter it and still manage to have a perfect fit for the collar, I'm therefore not touching that part of the pattern till I understand how a pattern can work, collar-wise. It is the same for the flare on the hips of the jacket. A flare so dramatic that it's folding on it self. But I'm not sure I can alter that part of the pattern and have a good fit with the lining and all. So, Ì'm not touching that either.
So far, the only use I can make of that muslin is as a reminder to be careful with the placement of my pockets and buttonholes. Was it really worth making a muslin for me ? Not so sure...

Mon mannequin la porte mieux que moi, je lui en ferai donc cadeau.
It's more fitting on my form than on myself. Oh well, she can have it .


Faites-vous une toile avant de coudre chacun de vos vêtements ? Et surtout, la toile vous aide-t-elle à faire des modifications sur vos patrons?

Do you make a muslin before sewing each garment in the proper material?  Are you able to always alter your pattern from your muslin's adjustments ?

À bientôt.
E.