Ou est mon de? (I'm learning French from Daphne, the new girl, from Paris. We sit at the same table. I can now ask "where is my thimble?" in French! It's good fun keeping my brain active while sewing!!)
Hours 19-26
Today's tailoring consitsted of fixing up the waist/skirt seam, as predicted. This time, I included a few extra balance points, to be able to match it all up nicely. It worked quite well! My pocket flaps were then sewn on with a line of machine stitching, and a quick hand catch to hide my seam allownaces. It sits pretty neatly now, and the curved seam of the waist matches that of the pocket.
After that, I got to machine sew my side back seam - from the waist up, and from the waist down, so as to not catch my thick, one directional waist seam allowances. The curves were quite tight, which makes the rule of not clipping any seam allowances difficult, but after a lot of pressing, I got them sitting pretty flat. The seam allowance through the skirt of the jacket is pressed towards the front, but the upper/body part is pressed open, so half way along the seam, it sort of folds over itself. While I can see that each seam needs to be pressed in those directions, and with no clipping allowed there aren't many options, but I just don't see how it will sit flat, and smooth, and look good. But, if that's the way it's meant to go, then that's what I will do! The lower part of the back seam needed braid attached, so I went through those motions again - pin, tack, 3 rows of machine sewing. Then I was able to machine sew the lower back lining seam. It was nice to be able to machine this one, as the hand sewing process takes a little longer, and this seam consists of two perfectly straight edges, so no need to do anything tricky on it! I then got to do some hand sewing - closing the lining above the waist along the side back seam. The CB piece of fabric was laid flat, and the seam allowances were basted together; then the side back was folded over and 'felled' closed. It's kind of like a whip-stitch, but seems to be quite heavily used in tailoring, and looks quite beautiful when it it finished. All of this took me through to lunch time - 4 hours of work.
After lunch, I was able to do my hem - well, most of it. The outer fabric was pressed up, and hand caught from inside the fold (the same way the sleeve hem was sewn back on day one, though I don't think I explained it too well then). A large amount of consideration was put in to making sure both the CB vent, and the CF were finished to the same lengths. The hem of the lining was not caught permanently, but just tacked in place, 1cm above the hem of the jacket. This, I was told, is so it can be ready to be sewn later, but also if things shift in the mean time, I wont have to undo my beautifully sewn hem, but just the tacking to be able to smooth it out and fix it. It was nearly time to sew my shoulder seams, but then most of my team of supervisors were heading home, so I had a quick lesson in cuffs and began those. This was roughly 4.5 hours of work.
Each cuff is made up of 2 layers of canvas (the 'orange stripe' one, I like to call it), cut on perpendicular grain lines, for strength in all directions. They get zig-zag sewn together, curving as you go along. The idea is that the inside piece of canvas will be slightly smaller than the outside piece, and it will help keep the cuffs in beautiful curves. There are many more steps involved, including organza, outer and lining fabrics, braids, trims, and tacking, but this was as far as I could confidently get. I have a sneaky suspision I have sewn my 'zig zags' wrong and my canvas isn't curving enough. We shall see in the morning!!
In other tailoring news, I will be making a second jacket after I have finished the first one. I am also now helping Daphne make hers! It is quite intimidating to be supervising someone when I am only 2 days work ahead of her. We have already had to ask two different people for help on two different occasions. I hope the notes I have been taking at work are extensive enough to be helpful, though I know that there are many people around should we require more help. She is not as excited by tailoring as I am, and it got off to a bad start, so I hope we can collectively stay strong, and not let the tailoring win!!
That's all for today...
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