The Rest of the Story

And now for the rest of the story….   (Years ago on CBC Radio, there used to be a spot that started with those words, or something very close, and then the announcer proceeded with some interesting historical information that was always an interesting story.  In our family, this became a byword for when someone had to "confess" to something.)

Not only did I start that jacket way back when, I also decided to finally put a piece of black wool to good use.  (Also, by the way, a Creative Festival purchase of many years ago.)  It’s a light weight wool with a sort of basket weave to it.  It was supposed to become a sleeveless sheath.  And that’s probably why it sat.  When would I ever wear a sleeveless wool sheath?  What was I thinking?  Much better I make a skirt and actually get some use out of this wool.  I used my quarter circle pattern.   

(After all that work to draw it out, all that paper used, I might as well use it more than once.)  I love this pattern!  One seam – a zipper – and a waistband.  OK - I did complicate things a bit with a lining.  Mind you, there’s the definite inconvenience of having to let the darn thing hang for a while for the hem to settle.  And this skirt definitely did hang … for … a while.  Like from March to October.  Let’s just say it was a well-settled hem in the end.  Good thing that the mannequin has no problems standing still on the coffee table while I pin and repin and remeasure endless times, because it took a while to mark a straight hem.

And then I needed a new blouse.   

A very pretty cream cotton sateen with a stripey design (courtesy of a very good friend).  As usual, nothing in the pattern collection quite suited my “vision”.  And as always, I was determined to cut at a time when no stores are open.  (And who can wait for delivery after internet ordering?)  What I ended up using, was Vogue 2634 (OOP, but still available). 

Vogue 2634

It is not a shirt anymore!  I put centre front on a fold – actually 1 inch away from the fold so that I could sew in a box pleat, and I decided to draw some facings to finish the neckline.

OK, OK - I know - the facing shows through, but not so much when I'm wearing it.

The back has a seam, so that I could leave a slit and pull the blouse over my head.  (Always a good idea to think these things through, or one could end up with a blouse that is impossible to put on.)  The sleeve was extended and narrowed a bit and it now sports a sort of fold-back cuff.

Why is it, that, having actually finished an outfit, I have to go over and over in my head how I should have done this or that differently, how it would have looked better if I had only done this or that.  I get over it eventually and just wear the outfit.  But then there’s the next thing that I’m sewing that starts the whole “could have”, “should have” muddle going in my brain.  I’m trying to train my brain.  Every item sewn is an experiment.  There are so many variations possible at every step of sewing.  Must choose one and keep on sewing.  Guess I should be thankful that I actually get to the end of my projects and am able to wear them.

Kwik Sew 4191

You buy a very special fabric.  You then need just the perfect pattern.  The search goes on … for years.  The fabric sits and sits and finally you make the decision.  Then, because this is such special fabric, you want to take your time to savour every part of the sewing process, and before you know it, you have a very special UFO sitting in your sewing room … for months on end.

Doesn't really fit this mannequin!

The fabric is an Italian wool/silk blend.  Bought at the Creative Festival in Toronto many years ago.  On the way home, my daughter used the package as a pillow – the ladies on the bus called it the world’s most expensive pillow.  (Well, I don’t know … I’ve seen some very expensive pillows out there.)  It was always destined to be a jacket.  (Pillow status being very temporary.)  Finally at the end of last winter I made the plunge, decided on Kwik Sew 4191 and cut the fabric.

Started sewing.  Along came other distractions (among others, a bride who needed help with her outfit), and before you knew it, the weather was really far too warm to be sewing a wool jacket, and the whole caboodle was folded into a basket, covered with an old pillow case (to keep moths and suchlike out) and there it sat … and sat … and sat.  With cooler weather in the Fall, I finally pulled out all those (now) wrinkled bits and pieces and proceeded to procrastinate about every step of the process.  Once again … very special fabric, needing very special attention.

Fits this half-a-body mannequin better.

I did deviate from the pattern a little.  This jacket should have been unlined, but mine definitely needed a lining … a very special lining.  I remembered having a piece of brown silk charmeuse – somewhere.  It once stood in for a shawl many years ago, and was therefore not in the fabric stash.  Took a little digging through the house to find where I had hidden it from myself.  But I did find it, took it apart and proceeded to cut it up.  (It is certainly now much more useful as a jacket lining, than a shawl that only ever saw use once.)

I did not follow directions for finishing the edges of the jacket, which calls for a strip of contrasting fabric to be sewn to the long edge of the jacket before proceeding with attaching the facing.  I chose to sew the jacket and facing wrong sides together, cut off the seam allowance and just bound the edge with a bias strip.

So I finally got to the buttonholes.  I thought of making bound buttonholes, but the weave of the fabric is so loose, I thought that option might not be the best idea in the long run.  (Wear and tear, you know.)  And by this time we had that amazing Pfaff Icon sitting at the store, just waiting to be explored.  Choices, choices.

Samples

When you only have one option of buttonhole on your machine, things go much more quickly.  When you have a whole array of buttonholes, well that requires much experimentation and thought.  I knew I wanted keyhole buttonhole, and what I ended up choosing was something with lots of stitching to make for a (hopefully) very durable buttonhole.

Buttonhole selected

More samples

Much sample stitching ensued.  The Icon behaved very well, but with the loose tweedy fabric, I found that the best results came with placing stabilizer top and bottom to keep things nice and smooth so that nothing got caught up on the feed dogs and the buttonhole foot (which, by the way, has some very serious "teeth" and does a wonderful job of grabbing and holding the fabric in place).  Buttonholes sewn, I cut away the stabilizer (the water soluble variety) as close as possible to the stitching, then used a wet Q-tip to whisk away any little bits of stabilizer that were still visible.

Buttonhole with a little stabilizer still visible

Buttonhole  - finally finished

Of course, after all that, the jacket still hung in my sewing room for a while because I needed to get up the nerve to slice open those buttonholes.   Cutting holes in a finished garment always makes me very, very nervous.

Stay tuned for the rest of the outfit.  (Because a new (very special) jacket definitely requires new stuff to go with it.)