The Sewing Lawyer's latest lawyer's suit

It's not so much that a sewing slump has hit The Sewing Lawyer; but the output has slowed to a crawl as she compulsively knits away the evenings.

So, I am thrilled to announce that the skirt to match my jacket is now finished.  As predicted, with temperatures in the low 20's (C) during the day, this outfit will have to wait until fall to be really enjoyed.   But I put it on to take some low-light pictures.

Does this look like a lawyer's suit to you?

I need some interesting tops to wear with it.  I like the red colour with the suit, but this top is pretty old.











I've already given you all the interesting construction details.  There's not much more to say about this skirt.  It is straightforwardly lined to the top edge.  I did not do anything fancy to justify the extreme amount of time it took to finish it.  There is no inner corset, and no boning.  This fabric is so soft and cushy and I didn't want to interfere with that.  Besides, it's a little stretchy, always a good quality in a pencil skirt with a high waist.  The skirt should be very comfortable.

I also got lazy in relation to the back walking vent.  Instead of making a concealed vent, properly lined (as per my tutorial here - the most-visited page on this blog, by far), I just folded the vent facings back at the seam line and tacked it invisibly by hand to the facing, leaving a little extra length for ease above the top of the vent.  I mitered the hem and facings for a clean finish but it's practically invisible in this fabric.    

And that is that.

Ethereal

See-through stockinette

Here is another finished object - it's a wispy knitted top.  It's made from 100% cotton yarn, 2 ply, quite slubby, lace weight.  In 150g of this (from ColourMart), there are 1,500 yards of yarn.  Needless to say, this little number barely made a dent in my two cones (3,000 yards) of this stuff, even though it took me about two months to knit it with tiny little 3mm needles.



Between the lace panels and the inherent thinness of the knitted fabric, this top is so airy as to hardly be there.




The pattern is from a free online knitting magazine, Knitty.  It's called "Etherial" (mis-spelled, yes).

As usual, I was incapable of slavishly following the pattern.  The designer had envisaged it in a lace weight alpaca, which would have a completely different character from my cotton.  The cotton is drapier and even though it is knit at the correct gauge (28 stitches and 42 rows per 10cm or 4"), so that the garment has the finished dimensions called for, it fits far more loosely.  Finished, it has about 4cm (1.5") of negative ease at the bust.

Knitty schematic

As I was knitting I was scheming how to change the way the design fits at the arm openings.  To the right is the schematic provided on the Knitty website.  You start at the hem, and continue in the round to knit a straight tube, which has a double panel of lace at each side.  The arm openings are created by simply splitting these two lace panels and decreasing.  I think it looks uncomfortable in the pattern photo on the Knitty page.

Knitty's version

Besides, in my looser fabric, the tightness below the arm would not look right with the relative looseness elsewhere.

Gusset - in progress

My solution was to insert a knitted gusset between the two side lace panels which allowed me to cast off a number of stitches below the arm, creating a looser, rounder opening.  As I added stitches under the arm, I decreased in the centre panels on the other side of the lace, keeping the stitch count the same.  This means the lace starts moving towards the centre more gradually, but it doesn't change the overall look of the top.

I made the back a little longer than the front, and a tiny bit wider, for fit.  I also firmed the finished arm edges up a little bit with an invisible edge of single crochet.  I think my modifications worked really well.

I'm going to love this top on the hottest days of summer, but it's kind of revealing.  While I'm waiting for the weather to really change, I've already started a coordinating cardigan, worked with the same yarn, but held double.  It's coming along nicely.

Check out my Ravelry project page for the top and cardigan.

Ta. Da.

I finished the jacket, just in the nick of time as temperatures plummeted (frost warnings three nights in a row) so I could actually wear it.  The entire suit, alas, will have to wait until fall, since I will be lucky to finish it this coming weekend and surely it will be unsuitably wintry garb after the long weekend in May (Canadian tradition demands that one shift mentally to spring after this holiday which nominally celebrates the Queen's birthday).

Anyway, here it is.  The photo of the front  is pretty bad due to bright light conditions and camera operator ineptitude.  I darkened it but unfortunately, the jacket looks kind of drab.  It isn't, in real life.  I'm wearing it with these pants. The fabric leftover from making them supplied the contrast for the piping and buttonholes.  Therefore they must "go with" this jacket perfectly.






Speaking of those details, here's a closeup of the jacket front.  As I said in my last post, I was very pleasantly surprised by how smoothly the piping insertion went.  Shortage of fabric meant that the bias strips were pieced.  The piping is therefore marginally thicker in a couple of spots, which are however functionally invisible if you follow the 6 foot rule.*

Buttons are plastic with silver metallic inserts.  The lining is Bemberg which, as you can see, has a woven-in pattern.  All materials - every last bit - came from stash.

I really am going to finish the skirt very soon, after which I'll record it here, put it lovingly in my closet, and switch to writing about sewing lightweight, airy cotton items.  I have such a thing already cut out, in fact, and am dreaming of white linen jeans...



* If a sewing mistake cannot be seen by the average viewer standing a reasonable distance away, it doesn't exist.

I'm still heeeeeeeere!

Hello.  You may remember me.  I'm The Sewing Lawyer.

Again, I have been busy, in what passes for real life around here.  I have this full time job which takes me away from sewing, knitting and blogging.  Nevertheless I have slowly been making progress on a few fronts, though not blogging, evidently.

Easter sunrise socks

I made some more socks.  I know, yaaawwwn.  But for posterity, they are precisely the same as the last ones; the blue pair (finished in Halifax).  Except obviously they are a very different colour.

On Ravelry, there is a free pattern for a stitch pattern to disguise ugly sock yarn (the Ugly Duckling Socks, if you are on Ravelry).  I kind of wish I had started these socks with a sober solid colour for contrast.  They are (ahem) very bright.  My sole innovation was instead to try to start sock #2 at the same point in the colour progression as sock #1.  This was very unscientific and it only almost worked.  However I consider it close enough.

I'm also knitting another little summer top.  It's a free pattern from Knitty called "Etherial".  I'll save my review for the next post.  For now, This will have to suffice:  Lace weight.  Oy!

I have been sewing too (Yay!).  The suit is somewhat closer to being wearable, and The Sewing Lawyer has done it again folks.  The wool suit will be unwearable once complete, due to a very predictable break out of warmer weather, expected to last for months.  I console myself with the thought of the delightful surprise I will have, come September or so, on rediscovering its pristine, probably unworn newness in my closet.

Sorry for having to feed you with more progress shots.  But the jacket has really taken shape.  It does actually have sleeves, and a (partially completed) lining, but it seems I'm going to make you wait until the thing is completely finished with arms in it.

You can see I inserted piping at CF, around the lapels and collar. I'm really pleased at how easy this turned out to be, and how good it looks.  I thought of using two pieces which would end/overlap at the notch, but then thought I'd first try a single pass, and to my amazement it worked really well.  Much trimming of the bulky fabric, along with strategic clipping and much steam and pressure, was required to get it all to lay flat enough.

BTW, if you haven't already, get a really good iron (I love my Consew gravity feed iron and Reliable board).

Finishing the inside of the bound buttonholes required some mental preparation.  Given how much my fabric ravels (and that I had not used any fusible on the jacket facing), I decided to use silk organza squares to make no-bulk windows in the facing.  I located the corners of the buttonholes by jabbing pins straight through all layers, then double- and triple-checked these by measuring, before using a small stitch length to sew the organza via buttonhole shaped rectangles, clipping and turning.  I have now sewn the facing to the buttonholes from the back, by hand.  And all I can say is that it's a good thing my fabric is all black, and that hand stitches virtually disappear in the fabric of both the jacket and the buttonholes themselves, because it is not all that wonderful a hand-sewing job.

However, onward!

Next I am going to complete the jacket lining, and the jacket will be all done but for the sewing on the buttons.

The skirt is also almost in the home stretch.  I have to assemble the lining, and do the hem.

Maybe I can finish them both today, while there is still some chill in the air?

Various activities - but not so much sewing

Bound buttonholes

Two weeks of blogging silence is due to the fact that I had a trip to Halifax Nova Scotia last week, partly work (for which I had to use valuable potential sewing time to prepare) and partly pleasure.  I did manage to vanquish the bound buttonholes but got very little else done in the sewing department.

The buttonholes will match the piping perfectly because I am using the same black fabric for both.  Considering that this fabric is pretty ravelly the buttonholes weren't too hard to make.  I used my usual technique except that I did not try to press open the teensy tiny seam allowances because the fabric used for the lips is much less bulky than the fashion fabric.  The fashion fabric fills in the lips very nicely and the relatively thin lip fabric doesn't make the buttonholes feel much thicker than the rest of the jacket front.  Nor did I attempt to sew the ends of the buttonholes by machine, since I thought the tiny triangles would disintegrate with the handling that would have had to happen while I wrestled with them at the sewing machine.  Instead I took tiny hand stitches to finish the ends (short sides) of the buttonhole and then hand back-stitched in the ditch to anchor all layers along the long sides.  I think the buttonholes look pretty good (at least from a polite viewing distance).


I took some knitting with me to Halifax since my husband wanted to play in an open session at the Old Triangle Irish pub and knitting on a sock would give me something to do (other than drinking excellent beer) while I listened to the music.  It worked admirably well - I both enjoyed myself and almost finished the sock.  Knitting was even a bit of a conversation starter.  (The Old Triangle is a great pub if you are in need of food/beer/musical entertainment in Halifax.)

This is a very bad picture of the sock, but does sort of prove that we had a partial view of the Halifax Citadel from our hotel room window.

Better depiction of the socks

As I make more socks, I have learned that a snugger fit is better than comfortably loose.  These are the closest fitting socks I have made yet, so much so that I was a bit worried they would be too small.  But the wool relaxes and the fabric stretches slightly when worn so they are very comfortable but do not slide around when putting shoes on.  I immediately started another pair the same.  This is the "Ridgeline" master pattern from Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters book.

I've also recently started knitting a summer top in lace weight yarn (slubby cotton) which is scary skinny stuff.  So far I have knit about 12cm from the cast on edge which makes it about 40 rows.  It's quite a different knitting experience, not to mention slow going.  Even sock yarn feels very substantial in comparison.

I leave you with a couple of pictures of The Sewing Lawyer, wearing this coat (perfect for a blustery March day), at Peggy's Cove.  I swear it is impossible to take a photograph there that doesn't turn out looking exactly like a post card or a painting by Alex Colville.

Postcard

.

"Alex Colville"

Piping!

I love sewing with cushy textured wool.  It's so forgiving!  This fabric is so thick and resilient that I decided it needed minimal interfacing on the under collar and stand, the front edge of the jacket, and the skirt waistband pieces.  I'm using Pam Erny's Pro-Weft fusible.  It stabilizes the fabric (which has quite a bit of natural give) without changing its hand appreciably.    

I quickly assembled the jacket fronts and backs, and then paused since I'm planning to make three bound buttonholes.  One has to fortify oneself for bound buttonholes, although I'm confident that in this fabric, I could make many mistakes and no one would ever notice.

In the meantime I decided to test out the piping on the skirt.  This caused me to stop and ponder sewing order.  Burda instructs sewing the lower front skirt (with pockets) first, then the lower back (which has no CB seam).  The right side seam is sewn.  Then the waistband is constructed, except for the left side seam (which has the zipper).  The entire waistband is then sewn in one pass, and the left side seam with zipper is constructed last.

Phooey to that I say!  First, I find it easier to insert the zipper in the relatively straight CB so I made a seam there.  This also allows me to make a back vent, for walking ease.

A brief word on fitting:  This pattern is meant for quite stretchy cotton/lycra twill and as designed it has almost no ease.  All the PR reviews showed it was very tight.  Based on flat pattern measurement, I added a 1cm strip down the CF and CB (4cm or 1.5").  This gives about the right amount of ease.  Then all I had to do was fine tune the shape of the side seams.

Back to construction.  I like to put in the zipper flat, then sew the side seams last.  This allows me to do fine changes to improve the fit as I sew.  Normally I would make the front starting with the pockets, then apply the waistband in one pass, as illustrated in green at right.

However, I'm piping the seams shown in pink at left.   I wanted a continuous line of piping which would be impossible if I sewed the waistband seam last.

So I changed the sewing order.  It isn't all that hard.

First I sewed the CB waistband to the lower skirt front (the curved waistband seam between the lines of piping).  Then I piped the edges in a continuous line.

Then I attached the pocket facing piece, but stopped sewing at the waistband seam.

Next, I attached the side waistband at the piped seam, again stopping sewing at the waistband seam.  Ideally there is no more than a tiny gap between the two.

Finally, I attached the side piece, which forms the back of the pocket.  I sewed the top seam first, again stopping at that point (or as close as I could get to it) where all the seams meet.  After that it was an easy task to sew the pocket bag.

The last step was to anchor the waistband seam through all layers by stitching in the ditch (did I say this fabric is very forgiving?) for a centimetre or so.  It's invisible.

For piping and the pocket facings, I'm using left over black wool fabric from these pants. I'll do the bound buttonholes in this too, as narrow and unobtrusive as I can make them.  Later.

In progress

The overwhelming consensus is that it is not just not a bad thing but actually a good thing to re-visit and re-use a pattern already made.  (I thought so too.)

I finished cutting out the jacket and skirt last night and the biggest left-over bit of my 2m of fabric is about 35 x 45 cm (maybe 1 sq.ft.).  I sure hope I didn't make any mistakes!

I am going to insert black piping at the curved line formed by the pocket edge and front waistband seams, just for fun and because the detail of this line is really rather beautiful but would completely disappear if I didn't do something to make it pop in my dark and textured fabric.  To unite the two pieces, I'll continue the piping at the CF, collar and lapel edges in the jacket.  Or maybe at the horizontal seam...

Here, as a reminder, are the line drawings:


Where do you think piping would best be inserted?

Is it wrong?

The Sewing Lawyer is glad that a couple of readers noticed the little teaser at the very end of her last post.  So here are a few more tidbits.

In stash is this luscious pure wool fabric, purchased for me in Italy by a good friend a few years ago.  She claims to have forgotten giving  it to The Sewing Lawyer.  But she did.  Anyway, here is an extreme close up view of said fabric (there are about 5 little bumps to the inch so you're looking at about 2.25" worth of fabric).

Black, textured, with tiny sprinkles of red, white and green.  It's a little more vibrant in real life.

There are only 2 metres but I can get a suit (jacket and skirt) out of it if I use the pattern for this jacket again.

Pros:  It's a real fabric miser; I've got it fitted perfectly, and it's a cute and wearable shape.

So my question.  Given that I have dozens of patterns for jackets I have never made, is it wrong to make the same one again?

Been knitting

I finished my cardigan.  

Soooo, what else can I say about it?  

I used extra-fine merino, double knitting weight, from ColourMart.  I've sung the praises of the yarn from this UK vendor before.  They are like a knitting yarn jobber - they reformat fine machine knitting yarns used in top knitting mills in the UK and Europe into weights that hand knitters can cope with.  (I'm wearing the cardi with a silk top also from ColourMart yarn.)

It does fit, as you can see.  The shoulders are dropped but not excessively so.  I made something between the smallest and second-smallest size and it seems about right.

The fabric is stretchy and could be pinned together at CF, if I was so inclined.  

I like the simple zig-zag lace - it was very easy to memorize the pattern.  

Inside Out

To the right you can see how the sweater is constructed, from the inside.  The horizontal line is where the back joins the front and lower edge of the collar.  I've reinforced this line with a row of single crochet chain, to stabilize the shoulder line.  

The edges of the cardigan lie nice and flat - it's a simple edge - K3, P1, K1, P1 (on wrong side, K1, P1, K1, P3) and then on with whatever the body is.  The 3 stockinette stitches at the edge curl to the wrong side and the 3 stitches of ribbing contain the amount of curl very effectively.  You can see the wrong side of this edge on the collar.  

I'm contemplating my next project.  I have a muslin cut out for this skirt.  

The problem is, as designed it's pretty skin tight.  I've added 2 cm at CF and another 2 at CB, because I'm contemplating it in a woven suiting instead of a cotton-lycra sateen as Burda intended.  

I need another suit...

Knitting patterns - The Sewing Lawyer muses

Knitting.  Sometimes you start slow and simple (bottom rib band of a sweater or the top rib band of a sock) and sometimes you have to plunge right into some sort of complicated manipulation or technique.  Inevitably there will be chunks of relatively mindless knitting (back and forth, around and around) on an established number of stitches, and transition points where you have to engage your brain.  However, overall knitting gives you lots of time to think.

If you are making anything to fit the human body, the characteristics of knitting are truly wonderful.  Its geometry and the fluidity of knitting combine to allow you to make the stitches flow and grow or decrease as the case may be, turn corners, attach new garment segments sideways, make holes and close them up again as needed, and do virtually anything to make the needed shape.  Knitting designers love all this stuff.  But do they care about fit?  

Chic Knits - Vonica Pattern

Right now, I'm working on a cardigan.  It combines a relatively simple lace pattern (7 stitch repeat over 16 rows) with some mindless stockinette sections.  The pattern is by an accomplished designer, Bonnie Marie Burns (Chic Knits).  It's called Vonica.  It was first published on Ravelry in April, 2011.  As of today, it has been favorited by 2,727 people, making it one of her most popular patterns, although there are "only" 184 projects posted on the site as of today.

People really like this sweater.  As does The Sewing Lawyer, I hasten to add.  (I actually can't wait to finish this - I SO need a black cardigan...)  It's just that, from a fit perspective, it's kind of strange.  More on that below, but first read about how this sweater is built.

Progress so far

Construction-wise, the pattern grows out of the centre back collar. You do a provisional cast on, knit a narrow strap to form the back collar, cast on to make the piece a lot wider for the shoulder on one side, and work the front down to the bottom of the armscye.  (This seems to flummox lots of knitters, judging from comments I've seen on Ravelry, but produces a shape that is completely logical to anyone who has ever sewn a garment with a shawl collar.)  Next, it's back to the CB collar where you work in the opposite direction from your provisional cast on to make a mirror-image piece for the other front.  Then you pick up stitches along the cast on front shoulder edges and the lower edge of the collar, and work the back down to the bottom of the armscye before casting on additional stitches at the armscye (for under the arm), joining front to back, and knitting seamlessly down to the ribbed hem.  Then you pick up stitches all around the armscye and knit the sleeves, in the round, down to their ribbed hems.  It's truly ingenious, as per comments above about knitting's fluidity and ability to change direction.

I've just finished the body, and have started on the left sleeve.  To the right, you can see what it looks like so far.  Once it's blocked, the fabric should actually cover me ... although this cardigan is designed to be unfastened and looks pretty good even if the front edges don't touch or overlap.

Here's the weirdness, at least to this sewing person.  Everybody knows (don't they?) that the back, above the armscye, needs to be wider and longer than the front to fit the body.  If it isn't, the garment shoulders will slip to the back, as the relatively-too-short back borrows fabric from the relatively-too-long front.  Moreover, the wider front shoulders will facilitate the garment's tendency to slip to the back.

Bonnie Marie Burns did not follow these "rules".  This pattern has many fewer stitches at the shoulder line in the back (22 in my size) than the front (29).  In the intended gauge of 20 stitches to 4" (10cm) that's a dimensional difference of about 1.4" (3.5cm) Personally, I think the back fits my relatively narrow shoulders correctly.  At left, you can see that the edge of the back armscye lies pretty much straight down from the shoulder point.  At right, a view from above showing that, as I would have expected, the actual shoulder line (red) is slipping to the back.  The blue line is the actual top of the shoulder.  Believe me, the edge of the sleeve at front is falling off the shoulder.  The fit of this cardigan is going to be quite different in the front than it is in the back.  Neither is, in the abstract, wrong or bad, but shouldn't they match?

I get that knitting is different from sewing, and its qualities allow different fitting norms to apply.  But do they have to be so different?  Is there something technical that requires this garment to be constructed this way?Or should The Sewing Lawyer stop fussing and enjoy the process?