I should make a sewing icon
It's not all sewing that I've been up to but work busy-ness isn't really the most exciting of things to witter about on my LJ at the moment, or at least I don't mostly fancy writing about that. The sewing is rewarding and fun, so definitely better to talk about :-)
I regularly look at the Oliver+S blog, which has a lot of interesting hints, examples of completed work examples, and all sorts. Back in December someone wrote a guest post on 'Sewing with a Plan', with a whole load of coordinated sewing she'd done in a very efficient and managed way. Particularly striking was the fact that she'd sewn an amazing coat - and it was something she regularly did! I would never have imagined that you could aim to sew a really proper-looking coat at home, and have it come out so professional-looking. But so it was - and indeed there were lots of other people chiming in, on the pattern reviews and other blog posts relating to this pattern, saying how well it comes out. I ended up buying the pattern and getting the cloth before Christmas (this raincoat fabric and this quilted lining for a detachable insulated vest, plus a lovely orange lining for the main coat).
I started after Christmas and it didn't half take a long time, but it is now finished (apart from the last bits on the vest) and all the promises are true - it both looks amazing and is quite doable!
The PDF pattern runs to 70+ pages - about 15 of them are instructions, and the rest are the pattern pieces. These need to be printed out, cut out, and sellotaped together. That alone took me at least an evening (well, the printing was during the day cos I did it at work, but still).
Pinning the pattern pieces onto the fabric and cutting it all out took a while too - the quilted lining only needs two pattern pieces cutting (one for the body of the vest and one for the sleeves, doubled up so you only need to do one lot of cutting out). I did that right away no worries. The lining likewise wasn't too bad to get all cut out, it was mostly a few big pieces that needed cutting out. But the main raincoat fabric, blimey! Lots of pieces - especially the little tabs you can see in the photo below.
You need to do six of the little tabs, which is actually twelve bits of fabric: to put each one together you have to mark them, sew them, trim them, turn them right side out (a strugle to get them started as they only quite small!), and then sew the edges for neatness. Phew!
Another weekend and the body of the coat was coming together much more - tabs completed and in place, pockets put together but not yet sewn on, buttonholes wrangled:
It took quite a bit of Saturday and a lot of yesterday to get it to a wearable state though.
The sleeves weren't too bad to finish, though it is the sort of thing you have to be careful of. Sewing the hood and lining onto the body of the coat was a worrisome moment - getting it wrong would be a waste of a lot of earlier work! And there were a lot of layers to sew through so there were some bits I had to redo to make them neater.
One of the tricky elements throughout was the fact that sewing the raincoat fabric is a bit like working with really posh Marigold washing up gloves. The underside is nice and smooth, sort of flock-lined, but the upper side is of course rubbery and has some friction (and it's all a bit liable to stretch if you're not careful). The net result is that if you sew an inside seam (right sides together) it's quite easy, but if you sew onto the top side of the material it catches against the sewing foot and causes problems. Luckily the solution is quite low-tech and easy - put a layer of tissue paper in between the material and the sewing machine foot! Glides like a dream - but you do have to pick off the tissue off the whole of your seam. Ah well!
This entry was originally posted at https://jinty.dreamwidth.org/1045236.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
I regularly look at the Oliver+S blog, which has a lot of interesting hints, examples of completed work examples, and all sorts. Back in December someone wrote a guest post on 'Sewing with a Plan', with a whole load of coordinated sewing she'd done in a very efficient and managed way. Particularly striking was the fact that she'd sewn an amazing coat - and it was something she regularly did! I would never have imagined that you could aim to sew a really proper-looking coat at home, and have it come out so professional-looking. But so it was - and indeed there were lots of other people chiming in, on the pattern reviews and other blog posts relating to this pattern, saying how well it comes out. I ended up buying the pattern and getting the cloth before Christmas (this raincoat fabric and this quilted lining for a detachable insulated vest, plus a lovely orange lining for the main coat).
I started after Christmas and it didn't half take a long time, but it is now finished (apart from the last bits on the vest) and all the promises are true - it both looks amazing and is quite doable!
The PDF pattern runs to 70+ pages - about 15 of them are instructions, and the rest are the pattern pieces. These need to be printed out, cut out, and sellotaped together. That alone took me at least an evening (well, the printing was during the day cos I did it at work, but still).
Pinning the pattern pieces onto the fabric and cutting it all out took a while too - the quilted lining only needs two pattern pieces cutting (one for the body of the vest and one for the sleeves, doubled up so you only need to do one lot of cutting out). I did that right away no worries. The lining likewise wasn't too bad to get all cut out, it was mostly a few big pieces that needed cutting out. But the main raincoat fabric, blimey! Lots of pieces - especially the little tabs you can see in the photo below.
You need to do six of the little tabs, which is actually twelve bits of fabric: to put each one together you have to mark them, sew them, trim them, turn them right side out (a strugle to get them started as they only quite small!), and then sew the edges for neatness. Phew!
Another weekend and the body of the coat was coming together much more - tabs completed and in place, pockets put together but not yet sewn on, buttonholes wrangled:
It took quite a bit of Saturday and a lot of yesterday to get it to a wearable state though.
The sleeves weren't too bad to finish, though it is the sort of thing you have to be careful of. Sewing the hood and lining onto the body of the coat was a worrisome moment - getting it wrong would be a waste of a lot of earlier work! And there were a lot of layers to sew through so there were some bits I had to redo to make them neater.
One of the tricky elements throughout was the fact that sewing the raincoat fabric is a bit like working with really posh Marigold washing up gloves. The underside is nice and smooth, sort of flock-lined, but the upper side is of course rubbery and has some friction (and it's all a bit liable to stretch if you're not careful). The net result is that if you sew an inside seam (right sides together) it's quite easy, but if you sew onto the top side of the material it catches against the sewing foot and causes problems. Luckily the solution is quite low-tech and easy - put a layer of tissue paper in between the material and the sewing machine foot! Glides like a dream - but you do have to pick off the tissue off the whole of your seam. Ah well!
This entry was originally posted at https://jinty.dreamwidth.org/1045236.html. Please comment there using OpenID.