A Very Fine New Tool

I present...the Tandy Round Hole Punch!

Attaching leather straps to leather bags is a bulky undertaking, and I've been inspecting bags and photos of bags to see how the industry gets such a nice finish. Answer: lots of ways. But rivets are one, so I invested in a hole punch, a set of Rapid Rivets, and a rivet setter. Believe me, every one of these elements is completely necessary. You also need a pounding surface (in my case, a block of scrap wood) and a mallet. A hammer would really be too rigid for this purpose; a rubber, plastic or (best of all) leather mallet is needed.



The size 2 (1/8") hole punch seems to be a perfect fit for the small size of Rapid Rivets. It was also terribly helpful for installing purse feet through a layer of leather and a bag bottom.



The finished article, a leather version of Amy Butler's Swing Bag, lined in Techno Taffeta by Vera Wang.

I Match My Sewing Room Curtains

This beautiful silk from the 1960s proved somewhat difficult to use. It had quite a noticeable fade line in the middle of the 44" wide yardage from being stored on a bolt for fifty years. The gathered curtains in my sewing room were one good use, and I think this blouse has turned out to be another.

In this second rendition of Simplicity 2599, I still haven't gotten the sizing quite right. I did a 1/2" petite adjustment between the shoulder and the bottom of the armhole (and then forgot to make the corresponding adjustment to the sleeve!), but it's still a bit too big in the neck and shoulders. I believe this is a size 10 with the C cup front. Crazy, since the bust measurement for the 10 is 31 1/2 inches. My high bust is right at that measurement, so there really is no good reason for it to still be so roomy, especially with the length adjustment. But down to an eight I go on the next pass.

I put in both center front and center back seams to avoid the fade line in the center of the yardage (and to allow for a sway back adjustment in the back), and I replaced the neck facing specified by the pattern with a bias binding that extends to make a tie in front. Another change, and one which I do heartily recommend, was to cut four sleeves so that each tiny sleeve could be fully lined. On these short little sleeves, the hem and sleeve seam are often visible when the garment is worn. So much nicer to have a finished right side of the fabric showing than the underside of a hem and a sleeve seam.

Naturally I didn't think to take step-by-step photos of the sleeve construction, but if you aren't familiar with this procedure, here is what I did:

1. Stitch the lower edge of two sleeves together with right sides facing one another.
2. Press the seam allowances toward whichever sleeve you designate as the lining or undersleeve.
3. Understitch the seam allowances toward the undersleeve.
4. With right sides facing, stitch the sleeve into a tube (or, said another way, stitch the underarm seam).
5. Fold the sleeve so that the wrong sides are together and all seams are enclosed.
6. Baste the seam allowances for the armscye seam together.
7. Stitch sleeve into armscye (after sewing side seams).
8. Finish armscye seam with a serger or with bias binding. Or sew a French seam, which I don't know how to do on an armhole and intend to learn!

My apologies for the blurry pictures! I believe the fault lies with both the photographer (me, using a tripod) and her aging Canon Powershot A80. The screen is so tiny on this camera that I never know what I've taken until I download the shots into the computer. And by then it's too late to get re-dressed and go back for more.

Jalie Coat Unveiled

Gosh, the whole drama of the fitting of this coat, when it really heated up, played out over on PatternReview's message boards and didn't make the blog at all. Now I find I just can't bring myself to bring things up to date by adding photos of the saggy, draggy, wrinkly effect of the sleeves as they were drafted. On me. On others, and in another fabric, perhaps they are fine.



But thanks to PatternReview members, most especially Belinda, aka sew4fun, I am able to report that it all worked out in the end. Generally I am tragically stingy when it comes to fabric, but I happened to have three yards of this gorgeous cashmere. At first it looked as though my mother, the prowling rug hooker, was going to make out big with a whole yard of my extra fabric. But no! I had to cut new sleeves. And then I nixed the hood, so I had to cut a collar. Not so much left for rugs now, but I can't say I feel too guilty.

And cashmere is such a dream to wear! Soft and warm. I am very happy with my coat. It fits me; shoulders are right, sleeve length is right, no bunching in back at my swayback, no pulling around the tummy and hips. Take that, ready-to-wear!

More Coat Notes

Memory being what it isn't, I want to record the specifics of my coat-making so as to improve the speed of future efforts.

Jalie 2680 is designed as an unlined coat for stretch fabrics. Judging from the reviews on PatternReview, I am not the first to use it as a point of departure for a more tailored coat. My mostly-cashmere fabric is very soft, and preserving that lovely drape and hand is a goal. But I do want it to last for at least ten years (barring disaster), so some inner support also seems like a good idea.

I have interfaced the yoke front and back, the front facing and the back facing, and the inner (folded up) portion of the sleeve and body hems. I have also stayed the front and back neck edges with straight grain fusible tape. Following Sandra Betzina's recommendation, I used fusible interfacing on the pocket openings and facings (thanks, Sandra--I think I'll be glad you told me to do that).

The pattern specifies cutting the pocket pieces from the fashion fabric, but I think I'll recut those from cotton flannel to reduce bulk. I am thinking of applying a strip of some sort of bias fabric or interfacing to the sleeve cap as an aid in easing and as a form of a sleeve head. I have some very tiny shoulder pads to insert between the coat and lining.

Lining, yes, that's coming right up. Not cut out yet. Lucky, since I was planning to use some very standard poly lining from Fabric.com in a close color match. But then my latest Fabric.com order came in. The Retro Gold crepe that I meant for a blouse is wonderful with the coat fabric. Very shiny, slippery and luxurious. If my patience holds out, I will add a tiny piping of either a silk charmeuse print that I've had forever, or the olive green silk/cotton that also came in the latest Fabric.com order.

Working on this coat is a pleasure, but it does have many more steps than most of my recent projects. And I'm nearly out of thread!

Note to self: today is the day to decide whether we'll be going for bound buttonholes or not.

Coat Progress!

The coat is cut out. I have high hopes for this pattern: winter coat, spring rain jacket, long cutish jacket.

I love that it has a hood, and I hope I will actually love the hood itself. What could be more practical than a hood? Hats are worse for mussing the hair and not always there when you need them.

Here are some dumpy photos of the muslin/pattern sewn from the row cover fabric I described in the previous photo. Two disadvantages of this material I forgot to mention: first, it is difficult to mark. A Sharpie or similar pen will definitely do it, but it will also bleed through and mark what's underneath. I decided that I was okay with a few pen marks on the master pattern, but the resulting markings on the row cover are indistinct. You really have to look for them when cutting out the fashion fabric.

Second, like all poly products, the row cover is susceptible to static cling. This is rather helpful when cutting out the fashion fabric, since the pattern pieces stay put, but can be annoying at other times.

I wore this bulky sweater (Banana Republic via thrift store) underneath for size purposes, but its pattern makes it difficult to see the muslin. Live and learn.


My conclusions from the muslin exercise are: add back 1/2" to sleeve length, take a 1" swayback tuck, add 1/2" to side front and back seams at hip, add 1/4" to center back seam at hip (total 2 1/2" extra circumference at hip).





The plan is to baste the cut fashion fabric together to check fit before proceeding to final stitching.

New Coat Directions

Coat projects are difficult to time. The ideal month for making a new winter coat would be August, according to internet sewing wisdom. August?! The coat spirit does not move me during hot weather. Plus, there's a lot happening in the garden in August and I am generally just barely (or just barely not) keeping up with the harvest.

Then the fall moves in and I get energized about long sleeved tops and sweaters. Then the sudden realization that Christmas is rapidly approaching dawns. Before you can say Bob's your uncle, it's early January and then, well, does it make more sense to sew a winter coat or a spring one?

This kind of thinking leads to beautiful cashmere coating languishing in the fabric stash for year after year.

I have been making a brave effort to break this cycle. I traced the cute short coat from the 5-2009 Ottobre Woman magazine.



And then, pulling out all the stops, I made a muslin in a heavier weight upholstery fabric to approximate the hand of the wool I planned to use. I know I should have taken pictures, because it's not fair not to share, but I couldn't make myself do it. The style looked simply awful on me. The muslin and the carefully traced pattern went straight into the trash.

Next up, Jalie 2680, a recent pattern purchase from fabric.com.



So far, so good. Being newly out of tracing paper, I tried something different. On PatternReview, there has been discussion of using "soil separator" cloth for tracing. This utilitarian-sounding item can reportedly be found at hardware stores. I had something in the garden shed that is probably similar: floating row cover. This material is a very lightweight, very strong, white non-woven polyester intended to protect plants from frost and insects. It's inexpensive considering the size, easy to see through for tracing and, I know from using it in the garden, durable.

Preliminary results are encouraging! The material will not wrinkle. This property should be a good thing when folding it up and putting it into an envelope for storage. The downside is that it also doesn't crease, say, when you want to take a tuck in your pattern for making an alteration. Every fold that you would like to have stay folded will need to be taped thoroughly or sewn.

Yes, sewn. The material is easy to sew. I tested it out with a long stitch length (the 4 setting on my vintage machine, its longest) and a very loose upper tension (1). The stitches come out easily with just a tug and then you cannot even see where they were. Could this be a combination tracing tissue/muslin material? Well, I sewed up my tracing this morning and tried it on. True fitting will have to wait until I'm dressed and ready with the digital camera on a tripod, but I am very excited about the possibility of a material that allows me to tissue fit without all the pins.

I traced a combination of sizes R, S and T. R at the shoulder and neck in front, S at the shoulder and neck in back, tapering in front to S at the waist, tapering to T the hip on front and back pieces. Pattern adjustments so far include: reduce length of front and back yokes by 1/2" and corresponding adjustment to front facing, forward shoulder adjustment of 3/8" and corresponding adjustment to back facing, reduce sleeve cap length by 1/2", reduce lower sleeve pattern piece length by 1".

The length and sleeve length look good. I'll have more to go on once I've taken some self-timer photos.

Singer Straight Leg Treadle Cabinet

I haven't much to say about this cabinet yet. The treadle turns wonderfully smoothly, though I know it must need at least a little cleaning and oiling.

I had thought that I might declare this my official treadle cabinet, given its very smooth operation and good looks. But now I'm not so sure. My "restored" White treadle base does make more noise than I like, but its width means that I can sit centered to the needle. Since I mean to really use my treadle setup a lot, once temperatures are again in a range to make the basement habitable, the ergonomics are important. But it's difficult to put the two treadles to a side-to-side sewing test without doing a lot of reconfiguring, belt shortening, hinge pin hole enlarging and so on.

Hmmm.