Tailoring, day 2

Hello...

So, on Friday, my tailoring adventures continued. I'm still enjoying it, and now it 'looks like real tailoring'!!

Hours 5-13

The first part of my day was spent completing the sleeves - hemming the outer fabric, attaching the lining to the outer through both seam allowances, turning it inside out, and then hemming the lining; followed by tacking the sleeves outers and linings together to keep the lining out of the way, but not completely free to move. They are now resting on my sewing table, flat and with nothing on top of them (so they don't crease badly, or get squashed). Probably 2 hours of work.

After this, I got to start on my fronts! This started with stretching/shaping my canvases at the iron - giving roundness through the chest, and shrinking it a little around the armhole to encourage it curving in the right places! Each side needed to end up looking similarly curved, and it was something I felt you could spend hours perfecting, but limited myself so as to not over do it. I joined the cavas to the outer with three vertical rows of tacking (1cm inside the CF, one roughly down the middle, and one near ish the armhole). This was done over a ham so as to give the appropriate chest shape. Then the canvas needed to be cut back to 1mm inside the stitch lines- the CF and hem never have seam allowances in it. To permanently attached the canvas, with a interfacing tape was used over the hem +2cm, and the whole length of the CF. Assuming that the interfacing glue will one day give up, a quick whip stitch was sewn connecting the interfacing tape and the cavas, and I have been assured the machine stitching joining the lining to the outer at the CF will be enough at that stage. Maybe 3 hours of work.

My final thing to do on Friday was attach the braid to the front. This first needed tacking in place, checking all the lines were even (left to right length, as well as matching vertically, and giving a good line), and finally machine sewing it on! This part of the process took me probably 3 hours!

I do have the exact times this is taking me on each step of the way, and a particularly detailed method list, but I am keeping all that information at work until it is complete. I don't think I'm forgetting anything, though it is difficult to tell. I will do my best to keep updating this on a daily basis as the work continues!!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend. I will be blogging about another project soon - there is something else in the mix that is not through work, and will be a beautiful collaborative piece!