Sit by a window, listen to some music....stitch

The next step in the process is to tape the edges of the jacket and reinforce the vents. It's all about handsewing, which I happen to enjoy, probably more than I'm supposed to. I find it very enjoyable. Not only is it satisfying, I also love the fact that I'm participating in an activity, a tradition, with a long history. While I stitch away I fantasize about working in a great atelier, perhaps making a coat for royalty! Fantasy aside, I like to sit by a window, watch the snow fall and listen to some music. My current soundtrack is The Weepies. Love them!

The canvas is oversized so any excess canvas is trimmed away after the fronts have been basted. The seam allowance is then marked on the canvas and very carefully trimmed away. This step always makes me nervous because one risks inadvertantly clipping the jacket fabric. As Cabrera says frequently in his book, "give this step your full attention". The alternative is complete ruin.


The twill tape should be soaked in cool water, dried and pressed before using. Starting at the neck, the tape is basted along the seamline through all layers.

At the break, the tape is cut almost to the edge and a small wedge is clipped out. This insures that the tape will lay flat when the "corner" is turned. The tape runs down the jacket front and then along the hemline.

Now that it's all basted into position, the edges of the tape are slipstitched to the canvas on one side, and into the fashion fabric on the other. None of these stitches should be visible from the right side of the jacket. Put on some music that you love and enjoy the process!

So here is the tape all sewn into position.

Lastly, a crossgrain strip of pocketing is slipstitched at the edge of the vent. Again, these stitches should not be visible from the right side of the jacket. This completes the work on the jacket fronts, and they are ready for the front facing.


At this point the body of the jacket can be assembled, and there's a sudden feeling of huge amounts of progress being made.

Go to your stash (I know you have one!) and cut a strip of "semi-bias" lining. This strip is basted to the front shoulder as a reinforcement. Note how the canvas has been peeled back.

The back shoulder seam is wider and will need to be eased. In this picture you can see how it ripples.

Steam press the wrinkles out, extending the tip of the iron only an inch beyond the seam line. Now stitch the shoulder seams. Pressing out the wrinkles makes this seam so much easier to sew.

Press the shoulder seam over a tailor's ham which will help preserve the shape. Now simply attach the back to the fronts. I like to stitch down to the waistline, remove the piece, and then stitch up from the hem to meet my stitching at the waistline. Thank you Edna Bishop for this tip, which helps prevent distortion of the garment.

So here's where I am so far. The jacket body from the front.

Jacket from the back.

Now it's on to the sleeves and even more tailoring geekery! As always, I hope you are finding this informative.

Working on the jacket fronts

Today I finally had time to tackle the jacket fronts. I'm making this jacket out of a raw silk patchwork fabric. As much as I like the look of it, it's proving to be a challenge to work with. It's very loosely woven with flaws and slubs everywhere. Not to mention that it frays and falls apart almost by looking at it. To say the least, I'm treating it with kid gloves.

Because there are seams about every 3 inches, I spent the better part of a day just cutting out the various parts, one piece at a time. I tried my best to match in places, but the primitive quality of the material made it difficult. I also tried to avoid having seams of the fabric fall on the seams of the jacket, or along hemlines. There are definitely some potential "bulk" issues when working with this type of fabric. I as cut each piece I immediately took it to the sewing machine to staystitch any curves as well as the front opening.

My inspiration jacket has patch pockets, but where I'm already working with a patchwork fabric, I felt that it might be too "hobo halloween costume". I've decided to use what Roberto Cabrera calls double piping pockets. I think it will be a cleaner look.

I always like to make a practice pocket before I launch into the real thing, so here goes.

I stabilized the reverse area of the pocket with a scrap of fusible interfacing. This is Pro Woven Light Crisp from www.fashionsewingsupply.com. As someone who's avoided fusibles like the plague, I can't suggest their products highly enough. Do yourself a favor and skip the stuff at JoAnn's.

I follow the directions from Roberto Cabrera's book on menswear tailoring, and here's the result. Not completely horrible, but when the lower welt was pulled through and pressed into position it revealed a flaw in the fabric.

Ooops! A broken thread in a highly visible area. This is why I like to make a trial pocket. It really helps expose the potential pitfalls. When working on the actual jacket fronts I'll fold the welting strips at the 1/2" mark just to make sure there are no flaws. This photo also shows just how loosely woven this fabric is. I'm determined, however, to make it work, so it's on to the real thing.

I'm not intending this to be a pocket tutorial, just an overview of the process for those of you interested in tailoring.

Here's the pocket after the welt sections have been stitched into place (they're on the front side) and the dreaded slash has been made. I hope you can see that the placement line is actually slightly curved which, according to Cabrera, will help keep the pocket from falling open.

The pocket from the right side after the welt strips have been pulled through and pressed into place.

Pocket on the reverse with the pocket bag attached.

This is all much easier to do than one might expect. The Cabrera book presents each step with an illustration, so it's simply a process of just following along.

The finished pocket. Yay! It works! This completes what will probably be the most difficult part of this project. It's on to the canvas.

I'm using the pre-made heavy weight canvas jacket front from B. Black and Sons. The pattern is placed over the canvas and the dart is transferred. The top and bottom of the dart is extended 1", and then the dart is cut out.

The dart opening is then closed by butting the edges together and zigzagging a bias strip of pocketing over the seam to hold everything together.

With the darts aligned, the jacket front is sytematically smoothed and basted to the canvas. The Cabrera book walks one through step by step. The result is that the two layers become one. Here the top seam allowance of the pocket is cross stitched to the canvas. One side of the pocket bag is also stitched to the canvas, but I forgot to take a picture of it!

The inside view of the basted front.

The outside view. The next step will be to trim the canvas and apply twill tape to the edges. I hope this has been informative for my readers interested in tailoring. Cheeers, and happy sewing.

The Revised Muslin (the male bust adjustment?)

Readers, I've completed the adjustments to my muslin. It's not pretty, but at least I have the satisfaction of knowing that what I thought would work ... will!

So here's muslin #2

I added an additional 1/2" to each side of the neck opening as planned. Gone is the gap between the edge of my shirt collar and the neckline of the jacket. Hooray! I also raised the back neckline 1/2" as well.

Thanks to Mrs. C for suggesting that I "dart out" the gap that made the jacket pull away from my chest. This looks so much better. A side benefit to making this adjustment is that now the jacket wants to hang closed. In this picture I don't have the jacket pinned closed. Before, the bottom of the jacket wanted to swing out when not buttoned.

Side view of the male bust adjustment! If you gals can have FBA's and SBA's I guess we guys can have the MBA!

I figured the dart to be about 3/8". After establishing its position in relationship to the other front dart, I marked it on my Swedish tracing paper and folded the dart out. Easy.

Here you also see where I've added 1/2" to the neckline. I simply tape on a scrap of paper and redraw the line. The Swedish tracing paper makes this a snap. Love the stuff!

To make the pattern lay flat I had to extend the dart quite far across the front. Hopefuly, this will keep the effect I'm after. New territory here.

This picture also shows the new neckline, which is now ever so slightly curved rather than straight.

Lastly, I trimmed 3/8" from the front / side seam, tapering up to the waistline. This has helped reduce the fullness at the hem without causing the back vents to pull open. I could have perhaps taken out more, but I've learned that most times a little adjustment is better than a huge one.

Ripping apart muslins and fudging them back together is hardly my favorite thing to do. I'll be very glad to put this step behind me. My fabric is prewashed, so it's time to cut this jacket out.

The Blizzard Fitting

Readers, today I'm hunkered down in the middle of a huge nor'easter. Thankfully I still have power and heat. With nothing more than shoveling and snowblowing facing me, it's a good day to try on and evaluate the Spring jacket muslin. So here goes....

All things considered, not too shabby. Goodness knows, I've started out with much worse fitting muslins. I've pinned in a set of shoulder pads in order to get a more accurate representation of how the finished jacket will fit at the shoulders. The fit there is actually quite good.

The big problem is that the entire neck opening is too wide. I'm thinking that each side needs to be brought in towards the center at least 1/2" . That would eliminate most of the gap between the shirt collar and the edge of the jacket. I plan on just tapering the additional material down to the position of the top button. This will preserve the stance of the jacket.

Also, as warned by my reader Mrs. C, the jacket has a tendency to gape away from my chest. I'm hoping that with lots of basting, careful sewing and twill tape sewn along the edge, I can prevent that problem in my finished garment.

Also, as predicted, the sleeves are too long. Here I've turned them back an inch. This will allow about 1/2" of cuff to show. My plan is to shorten the pattern 1/2" above and below the elbow in order to preserve the overall shape of the sleeve.

Here's a view of the back. Again, it's not that horrible. However, the neck is dipping too low in the back. I'm hoping that I can just tack on another 1/2" without making it look freakish from behind. This kind of alteration is totally new territory for me. Nothing ventured nothing gained, right?

Readers, I'm not a tall guy. My feeling is that the body of the jacket is too long, especially now that the sleeves are shorter. It's kind of a top heavy look, yes? Too much jacket...too little leg. I think I'd be happier, and the jacket would have a "younger" look if it were about an inch shorter. And who knows, it may make me look taller!

So here it is with the bottom turned up an inch. Much better proportion IMO. I'm going to do some rip-out and redrafting of the neck opening before going any further. It won't look very pretty, but I want to be sure that what I think will be an easy fix, will actually work.


Finally, I'd like to pass along a tip to any of you who, like me, have no access to good tailoring supplies. In the few years that I've been making my own clothes, I've found that working with good materials really increases my satisfaction with the final product. For this project I'll be using a "Jacket Packet" from B Black and Sons. www.bblackandsons.com Easy online ordering and they ship very quickly.

Here's what you get... a yard of striped sleeve lining, 2 yards of a nice weight acetate lining, a generous yard+ of pocketing, a quarter yard of both under collar felt and French canvas.

But there's more! 2 padded haircanvas chest fronts (your choice of heavy or light weight), sleeve heads, shoulder pads and a set of buttons. It all comes neatly packaged for $52.50. For me, this is a lot less than the gas and tolls to drive to NYC.

Now I just need to turn all this stuff into a jacket before March 23rd.

Trying to be productive

I live in New England, and I shouldn't complain, but damn it's been miserably cold lately. So it's been a good time to stay in and work on a project.

The kilt is temporarily on hold. As suggested by one of my readers, Craig Thomas, I purchased the book The Art of Kiltmaking by Barbara Tewksbury and Elsi Stuehmeyer. I have so much invested in fabric that it seemed foolish not to have the ultimate kiltmaking guide, which it most certainly is. I'll use the Folkwear pattern to make the jacket and vest sometime down the road.

Before I even consider starting the kilt project it's clear that I need a really GOOD set of measurements taken. A kilt sits higher than most men wear their pants and should come just to the top of the knee cap. Nothing's worse than a grown man in what looks like a naughty catholic schoolgirl in a plaid mini-skirt! Good measurements are crucial to the whole endeavor and hopefully they can be taken within the next week. While I'm at it, I'm also hoping my measuring buddy, who is recovering from the flu, will be willing to take a full set of measurements as outlined in Lori Knowles book The Practical Guide to Patternmaking for Fashion Designers -- Menswear. One of my sewing goals this year is to draft both upper and lower slopers. At some point I'd like to be drafting my own patterns. Hey, a guy has to have a dream, right?

So, while the kilt is somewhat dead in the water, I've decided to work on a muslin for a spring jacket.

This is my inspiration, which is from Brioni's spring 2013 collection. I thought lapel-less jackets were ridiculous until I saw this. Is is the color? the tailored shorts? the beard? The hat? Who knows, I'm totally loving the look. It's casual and age appropriate for me. It also looks pretty easy to make. The only details are patch pockets and some top stitching.

In order to replicate this look I'm going to be riffing off this vintage Bill Blass pattern, which shows up on eBay and Etsy frequently. Mine looks like it has never been taken out of the envelope. Maybe the initial purchaser took one look at the 12 pages of instructions and went running!

Menswear is relatively static, sort of a "theme and variations" world. Features get added or subtracted from season to season, but underneath it all there are just a few basic designs. This three piece suit strikes me as a great basic pattern.

The lapel width is reasonable and there are darts in the front to add shaping. It also features a double back vent and sleeve vents.

A pretty classic silhoutte that could easily be worn today. My plan is to chop off the lapels at the roll line and "voila!", Bill Blass 1980's? turns into Brioni 2013. So, on to the muslin.

I'm using a set of lightweight canvas tab top curtains that I picked up at Goodwill for $6. The construction is very straight forward. So far I'm finding that there's a lot to like about this pattern. The front darts add some nice shaping, which is further enhanced by the shaped side seams. This coat should nip in at the waist just like the Brioni.

There's just the right amount of easing at the shoulder seam. This helps shape the upper back and shoulder area of the jacket.

The amount of easing at the sleeve cap is reasonable. Sometimes there's just too much fabric. Not so here. With shoulder pads and sleeve heads the dimples should press out nicely.

I lopped off the lapels so that the roll line will become the finished edge of the jacket. The front facing was cut to match and I fashioned a back neck facing. As I work along I'm anticipating that the sleeves will be too long and that I'll want to shorten the body of the jacket. Next time I'll model the muslin and we'll see if I'm right.

It feels good to be working on a project again!

A winter's project -- The Kilt

Happy New Year, readers. I know it's been awhile since I've posted on here, but small things HAVE been taking place. Unfortunately, none of them involve any actual sewing.

Today I'm letting the cat out of the bag and announcing that my winter's project will be making an authentic Scottish kilt. So where to begin?

Several months ago I ordered Folkwear's #152, Scottish kilts. The pattern includes a history of kilts, and the tissue to make a man's Prince Charlie jacket, or coatee for those perfectionists among us. There are also instructions for knitting argyle socks (No Way!) and a sheet outlining the process for making a kilt. There is no physical pattern for a kilt. It's essentially a rectangle of fabric pleated to fit the wearer's measurements.

Emboldened and armed with this pattern I went in search of my tartan.

My search ultimately brought me here.... to the incredible Scotland by the Yard in beautiful Quechee, Vermont!

This store is a shopper's paradise for all things Scottish and Irish.

Need a wool scarf in your tartan? I'll take one of each!

Or maybe you need a new sporran to hold your wallet and cell phone? Check out the skunk fur one at the top center. LOVE!!!

Once I stopped drooling over everything in the store I got down to ordering my tartan fabric. Georgia, the owner, pulled out a massive swatchbook of tartans and quickly thumbed to my family's dress tartan. This woman really knows her tartans and is a wonderful resource. She showed me the different weights available and I settled on an 11 oz fabric. It's the same weight as the ready made kilts sold in her shop, and it seemed acceptable to me.

The typical kilt takes 8 yards. Because the fabric is 60" wide only 4 yards is required. The length of tartan is cut down the middle to make 2 long strips. The two selvedges become the bottom hem of the kilt. I ordered 5 yards because I'd also like to have a matching fly, which is a large tartan sash worn over the shoulder, trailing down the back of the jacket. Hey, I'm only going this way once. Right?

4 weeks later I received a phone call that my fabric had arrived, and back to Vermont I went.

Here is Georgia, of Scotland by the Yard, presenting me with my dress tartan. 100% wool, the real deal from Strathmore Woollen Co., Forfar, Scotland. All you tartan aficionados will be able to figure out my last name now! Have fun with that.

The color here is really off because of a fluorescent light, but here I am with my 88 year old mom. She lives in a retirement community in NH and doesn't get out much. This was such a great field trip for her, she was like a kid in candy store.

Come to think of it, so was I!