Started Quilting
This weekend after the La Belle meeting, I started quilting Jeff's arming doublet. Yes, it's been sitting waiting for that for a little bit.
Quilting and padding is something that I'm kind of making up as I go along. There are a lot of things I have on my mind during this process:
-Being able to fit it directly to Jeff
-Not having 20 layers in each seam allowance
-Making sure that all of the layers end up where they're supposed to be.
-Since it's about a 1/4 inch thick, sizing the outer layer correctly so it's not too small.
Notes on how I'm dealing with some of this. For some reason, I'm too tired this evening to write this in coherent paragraphs, so you get something along the order of bulletpoints. :-D
-The padding layers will have the seam allowance trimmed off
-I cut the outer layers slightly bigger than the inner layers
-I pinned the butt piece to a dress dummy, curving it around to account for the larger outer layer
-After pinning, I pre-quilted the body pieces, taking the curve into account.
-I'm planning on hand sewing the outer layer and first inner layer, so that the additional linen adds strength to the seam. The innermost layer will be stitched down after the fact for finishing. I'll have to see if I can find a link to it, but some people might know what I mean by the "Ken Nye" method of lining. :-)
After all of the pre quilting, and assembling the back two pieces, I started the regular quilting. The first few stitches looked AWFUL. I marked it with chalk on the reverse side, and was trying to sew from that side, following my marks.
I realized that in quilting that many layers, it's pretty critical to work from the outside, so you can really see what you're doing. After working from the reverse failed, I thought I'd try to machine sew it, then go back through and stitch through the holes, to make it nice and even.
Weeeellll... That was a failure. Throwing this thing through the machine was UGLY. The twill makes a very subtle vertical stripe, and the horizontal machine quilting made it look like a big zig zag.
So, I pulled out all of the machine stitching, but that left me with handy stitch holes as marking lines that I could see from both the inside and the outside of the garment. Hooray! I might end up machining all of these lines, just without the thread.
When I did Jeff's other doublet, there were few enough layers that I could use a running stitch for all of the quilting. Not so, this time around, I have to use a stab stitch. Can I just say, I HATE the stab stitch? It's essentially the same thing, you just can't stack up multiple stitches on the needle at once. Poke the needle all the way in, all the way out, repeat.
I know that embroiderers will sometimes use both hands for their stitching, so I've been working to train myself to that. I've determined that it's actually a little easier to use my right hand at the back, and my left hand where I can see it. The back still looks pretty ugly, but it's a lot quicker to get the needle in the right place as I'm going along.
Oh, and I didn't post this earlier, but here's the sleeve I fit on him:
:-)
Ack. There are so many little things to write about this, but if I do, I'll never finish the garment itself!
Quilting and padding is something that I'm kind of making up as I go along. There are a lot of things I have on my mind during this process:
-Being able to fit it directly to Jeff
-Not having 20 layers in each seam allowance
-Making sure that all of the layers end up where they're supposed to be.
-Since it's about a 1/4 inch thick, sizing the outer layer correctly so it's not too small.
Notes on how I'm dealing with some of this. For some reason, I'm too tired this evening to write this in coherent paragraphs, so you get something along the order of bulletpoints. :-D
-The padding layers will have the seam allowance trimmed off
-I cut the outer layers slightly bigger than the inner layers
-I pinned the butt piece to a dress dummy, curving it around to account for the larger outer layer
-After pinning, I pre-quilted the body pieces, taking the curve into account.
-I'm planning on hand sewing the outer layer and first inner layer, so that the additional linen adds strength to the seam. The innermost layer will be stitched down after the fact for finishing. I'll have to see if I can find a link to it, but some people might know what I mean by the "Ken Nye" method of lining. :-)
After all of the pre quilting, and assembling the back two pieces, I started the regular quilting. The first few stitches looked AWFUL. I marked it with chalk on the reverse side, and was trying to sew from that side, following my marks.
I realized that in quilting that many layers, it's pretty critical to work from the outside, so you can really see what you're doing. After working from the reverse failed, I thought I'd try to machine sew it, then go back through and stitch through the holes, to make it nice and even.
Weeeellll... That was a failure. Throwing this thing through the machine was UGLY. The twill makes a very subtle vertical stripe, and the horizontal machine quilting made it look like a big zig zag.
So, I pulled out all of the machine stitching, but that left me with handy stitch holes as marking lines that I could see from both the inside and the outside of the garment. Hooray! I might end up machining all of these lines, just without the thread.
When I did Jeff's other doublet, there were few enough layers that I could use a running stitch for all of the quilting. Not so, this time around, I have to use a stab stitch. Can I just say, I HATE the stab stitch? It's essentially the same thing, you just can't stack up multiple stitches on the needle at once. Poke the needle all the way in, all the way out, repeat.
I know that embroiderers will sometimes use both hands for their stitching, so I've been working to train myself to that. I've determined that it's actually a little easier to use my right hand at the back, and my left hand where I can see it. The back still looks pretty ugly, but it's a lot quicker to get the needle in the right place as I'm going along.
Oh, and I didn't post this earlier, but here's the sleeve I fit on him:
:-)
Ack. There are so many little things to write about this, but if I do, I'll never finish the garment itself!