There will also be a skirt

But for now, there is a jacket.

It's nicely lined (Bemberg, from stash) and the buttons (also stash) are quirky and just the right light grey colour.  

And some seams matched in pure serendipity, 

while others matched because I worked to make it so.

I will enjoy wearing the jacket, but certain aspects of its making were less than positive.  I'm looking at you, Lekala pattern.  You were a bit of a cheat, promising more than you delivered.To be fair, I knew you needed major adjustments before I decided to go ahead.  But...

I've already written that the muslin demonstrated major differences between the actual pattern and the so-called "technical drawing".  This is, in my opinion, inexcusable.  Folks buy a pattern based on the company's visual representation of how it will look when sewn up.  The jacket pattern Lekala delivered was not what I wanted.  The configuration of the collar and lapels was significantly different from the illustration, and the jacket proportions were different.  I had to do major adjustments to achieve the look that Lekala had promised.

The fit was not any better than I would have had from a pattern drafted for a standard size, rather than for my specific measurements as Lekala promised.  I had to make most of the same types of adjustments for fit as I do with (say) Burda or Vogue patterns.  Specifically, I had to narrow and shape the back and shoulders, and reshape the hip curve.    

I hadn't realized, when I wrote about my muslin of this pattern, that the CB was intended to be cut on a fold. Unawares, I sewed a 1cm seam in the CB of the muslin.  That's 2cm (about 3/4") less width than Lekala intended.  The resulting width was pretty good although the CB seam needed shaping. This means that the back Lekala drafted based on my measurements was way too big (again, given the neat fit of the jacket shown in their drawing).  And nobody has a ramrod-straight back, from neck to hip.    

I shaved about .75cm off each front shoulder, but could have taken off even more.  

I took a lot of width out of the front sleeve seam (both upper and under sleeve pieces) and the sleeves are still not very slender.  

I added 2cm of length to maintain the proportions of the drawing.  

Can you see the seams and darts?

I had to adjust the pattern to get the funny little partial waist seam that extends towards CF from the princess seam/dart junction to look OK.  The pattern had a line there, but you can't just toss a dart in anywhere without throwing off the shaping as a result, no matter how little it is.  

So it may be a while before I turn to Lekala again, at least for a complicated garment like a tailored jacket.  

In progress shots of Lekala 5054

The Sewing Lawyer must return to lawyering as of next Monday (sniff!).  I want this suit done by then.

So here are some drive-by photos of the jacket progress with random comments.  I hope looking inside is of interest to you my dear readers :-)

I used Pro-Weft fusible interfacing from Fashion Sewing Supply (site for international customers) to stabilize the entire front and the under collar.   You might be able to see that the lapel has an extra layer of Pro-Weft.  So does the collar stand.

I used a different interfacing (softer, fluffy texture) to provide a bit of extra oomph to the upper collar, front and sleeve hem facings,  sleeve and jacket back hems.





The upper back is stabilized with a layer of cotton shirting.

Chest shield/shoulder pad piece

The shoulder area is lightly padded with a combined chest shield/shoulder pad of my own invention.  The piece is drafted using the jacket pieces (front and back).  I overlap the shoulder seams and trace a piece that follows the neck edge, roll line and armscye.  The front is full width (roll line to armscye) and ends above the bust.  It fills in a hollow without adding bulk.  The back is more like a standard shoulder pad.  It's cut from one layer of Warm and Natural cotton quilt batting, with a smaller shoulder pad shape cut from fusible fleece.  I fuse them together over my pressing ham to build in a bit of shape.




 I also use Warm and Natural to cut a sleeve head, using the jacket upper sleeve pattern as a base.

And here is an incomprehensible inside photo.  At left is the back (blue cotton gingham back shield.  At the centre is the sleeve cap with sleeve head installed.  I use a catch stitch to attach the chest shield/shoulder pad piece loosely at the armscye, neck seam and roll line.  The sleeve head is attached with a running stitch to the seam allowance at the sleeve cap.

Not a bad result, if I do say so myself...

Whoopsie!

The subtitle for this post is "measure twice, cut once". And BTW, don't listen to audiobooks when you are cutting, unless you are sure you have lots of fabric. 

As you can see, I sort of ran out of fabric when cutting out my sleeves. (The fabric towards the camera was earmarked for other pieces.)

But no worries, I fixed it. 

Pretty good, unless someone invades my personal space. 

This 'n' that

In the past couple of years my contributions to Pattern Review have tailed off but this year I decided I will faithfully post every sewing project I complete.  I played a bit of catch up and in  the last week, I posted reviews of the coat I just finished and the volcano-inspired dress I made from a sari last fall.

And what do you know, PR made me the Member in Focus on their blog!  I have been a member since 2004 and I've posted 177 pattern reviews.  That seems like an awful lot!

I'm at work on project #178 - my Lekala jacket.  I made some final adjustments to the pattern to further reduce the size of the collar and fine tune the fit.  Thanks to the commenters who made suggestions!  I confirmed that I have enough fabric to make a skirt to match, so it'll be another Sewing Lawyer suit.  I traced off a pencil skirt from the September, 2012 issue of BurdaStyle Magazine.  Specifically, the one from this interesting vintage suit.  I wanted something sleek and this skirt is - it's nicely pegged and with some reshaping at the hip and lengthening of certain darts, I think I have a good fit.

Extreme closeup - Prada wool with
wool double crepe and light wool challis

As a reminder, I'll make the jacket and skirt from a length of Prada novelty weave wool.  At left it's posing with some light blue wool/lycra that is destined for dress #1.  At right you can see the detail of the weave (although the light blue in the weave is kind of washed out) and how good it looks with the dark grey wool double crepe I purchased at the same time (dress #2).

I also discovered a long piece of extraordinarily lightweight wool challis deep in my stash.  It's so old that I can no longer remember where I got it, but I am pretty sure that I got it at a thrift shop or other source of old stock.  It's only 34" wide! I believe it is within the class of fabric known as "nun's veiling".

It's a very light grey and I think it might make a really nice top of some kind.  Pattern TBD.

In other news, I got out my bulky knitting machine (it's a Singer LK-100) to see if I could coax it into cooperating in the production of some colour-work - specifically, stranded knitting and intarsia. I didn't want to commit to a really big (adult-sized) project and settled on a vintage Mary Maxim pattern for a little boy's jacket, "Soldier Boy".  I'm making size 4 in the hopes that it will fit the grandson of a friend.

And I made a sleeve. It's not perfect but it's not bad for a first attempt.  AND IT'S SO CUTE!

Lekala jacket - muslin 2.0

Muslin 2.0 (collar points pinned under)

Muslin 1.0

I transferred the fitting adjustments to my pattern and completely redrafted the front. The collar still isn't quite right, but I think it only requires a bit of reshaping and it's now the right size.

This was no mean feat, I can tell you. The Sewing Lawyer has made a ton of jackets and owns quite a number of pattern drafting books, many of which were read (in parts) yesterday afternoon. But pattern drafting isn't an intuitive art in these parts.  In the end Vogue 7908 (now OOP) came to the rescue.

Vogue 7908

At left is my version of that jacket. This lapel is extremely high and rather big, and the collar is very small.  However I thought it would be a useful starting point.

At right is the collar/lapel I cobbled together.  I am pleased that it actually works, although the collar is still too big and not quite the right shape.










And here is proof that all the seams and darts from the Lekala sketch are present and accounted for - in the comments to my last post, there was a question about that.

Notes on a muslin - Lekala 5054

This is what it's supposed to look like

The Sewing Lawyer is adventurous, but cautious.  Lekala is a new experience so careful testing of Lekala 5054 is needed before she cuts into her precious precious precious Prada wool suiting.

So here's the muslin. FYI I've inserted small shoulder pads for these photos.  

There's good and bad in this.  One good thing is that the pieces went together quite easily despite the almost complete lack of markings.
 
Even though Lekala drafts to your specified measurements, the fit isn't perfect. And I didn't expect it to be. However, it is manageable with tweaks that are not too alien in my experience. I need a small wedge taken out of the CF above my bust, the front shoulder is a bit too broad, and I need some more shaping in the princess seams. Also, the darts are a bit too high.  Finally, the hip curve is too extreme.  

The CB is dead straight, which I knew would not work for me.  I've pinched out about 2cm at the waist through the CB seam.  Although the upper back appears too wide in this photo I will leave this as is.  It can always be adjusted in the sewing, and I need a bit of room there.

Style-wise, the pattern doesn't match the so-called "technical" drawing, which to me is more of a sketch.

I have cut off the seam allowances at CF, and on the collar and lapels.  The buttons are placed lower on the pattern and the lapels and collar are both bigger and rounder than I would have liked.  I don't think it will be too difficult to make the adjustments I want.

The proportions of the peplum are also different - I have not cut off the hem allowance but to me, the unhemmed length is about right.

The sleeves seem too wide to me.  I'll remove width from the front seam on both the upper and under sleeve sleeves.  This will also add a nice curve - as drafted this seam is pretty straight on both pieces.

You can't see it in these photos, but the curved opening at the back sleeve seam is differently-shaped on the upper and under sleeve pieces.  I think they should be the same.

It's interesting that the sleeves are the right length for me since I have short arms and  usually have to shorten sleeves by about 2.5cm.  I made the mistake of telling this to Lekala the only other time I ordered one of their patterns, and the sleeves were ridiculously short (you can't specify how much shorter than average your arms are).  This time I let them think I had arms of average length.

I already pointed out that there are few markings on this pattern.  This didn't bother me except in relation to the sleeves.  There is some ease in the back sleeve seam and you have to know where to put it (in the elbow area).  Setting the sleeve in was more of a problem. There is only one mark - to show where the sleeve cap sits relative to the shoulder seam.  When, after a couple of tries, I got it properly set in, I realized that the sleeve cap has very little ease and all of it is in the front shoulder. I'm going to take note of the point where the under sleeve intersects with the side seam and add another mark there.

I'm inclined to proceed.  Comments?

Aims and objectives

Isn't that the buzzy kind of phrase you're supposed to use when looking to the future and making some kind of commitment to do something in particular?

I haven't blogged because there has been nothing to blog about.  I've been curling a lot in January, and of course working full time.  I've been sick (that flu shot didn't work very well).  My sewing is stalled (that coat!) and my knitting on the machine would not be very interesting to you, although it has been fruitful from my perspective.  What I mean is - I've knitted on the machine and I've learned a lot, but so far I have a limited number of actual things to show for it.

But I'm on the verge of something.  I can feel it.

It helps that I've got a whole lot of time suddenly free in front of me.  As I did last year, I elected to take leave (and a corresponding cut in pay) of five whole weeks.  It starts on Monday and I'm starting to feel pretty excited about the possibilities - especially now that stupid flu seems to be finally over.

So what can I tell you?

First, there will be sewing.  I AM going to finish that darned coat!  It doesn't help that there is a lot of hand sewing in it - but I've just had a look and most of it is already complete.  There's only one more buttonhole to attach the facing to.  I recall stopping when my fingers were too sore to continue but they have had a whole month to recover!

And then ... drummmmmmmrollllllll I will move on to new projects.  I feel my work wardrobe needs some new items and I certainly have the stash and patterns needed to create them.

Lekala Jacket Pattern

Like this fabulous Prada wool I bought in Chicago at Fishman's Fabrics in 2011.  The light blue is a beefy wool crepe with lycra from stash (Fabric Flea Market).

Fingers crossed I will have enough of the suiting to actually make a suit.  I'm planning to use a Lekala pattern for the jacket but reserve the right to change my mind after I muslin it.  The skirt will probably have to be a narrow pencil skirt, if I have enough fabric to do one.

The blue wool crepe will be a coordinating dress.  I have the godet dress from the September, 2014 issue of BurdaStyle in mind.  I have already traced the pattern.  I think it will look good in this plain but weighty fabric.

I bought some dark grey wool double crepe at Fishmans at the same time.  It may turn into something else that coordinates.  A flippy skirt and coordinating top?  What would you recommend?

Hmmm.  There may well be other sewing projects, depending on how these ones go.  I'll keep you posted.








And there will be knitting.  Right now I have a small and very colourful cowl on the go as a hand-knitting project.  It'll be finished soon.

Wrong side - yes it really is this bright

About 65% done 

The stitch pattern is easy - K1, slip 1 with yarn in front, repeat forever (on an uneven number of stitches so that you are always knitting the stitch you slipped in the previous round).  The back side is interesting too.  If you're on Ravelry, the free pattern is called Dots and Dashes Cowl.  I'm using Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Sock Yarn and the finished cowl will use half the skein.  

I have pledged to myself that this is the month to really learn how to be fully comfortable with my new knitting machine the Passap Duomatic 80.  Since I last wrote, I have accumulated a few additional tools for it - cast on combs and weights, and a transfer tool that moves stitches from one bed to the other (so you can place purl stitches easily on a bed of knit stitches, among other things).

My first actual project using the machine is to make hats for my curling team.  Three are finished, a fourth has been knitted but not assembled, and I still have to knit the fifth for our alternate player.  The first one was fun...