The longest project

Do you remember that coat?  (Come to think of it, that was almost 2 months ago... do you remember The Sewing Lawyer?)

It isn't a hard pattern.  The body went together really quickly, once I got past all those buttonholes (6 down the front, 2 on the collar, 2 on the pocket flaps).

And then I decided to do 3 on each sleeve, because I am a glutton for punishment.  And I was on a roll.  If you are counting, that's a total of 18 bound buttonholes.

They will not all be working buttonholes.  When you get to a certain state of peevish sewing perfectionism, the wobbliness of shank buttons that sit up top on the fashion fabric with nothing to do, compared to the sturdy firm seating of a button doing the work of holding layers of coat together starts to bug you...

The non-working cuff buttonholes will allow the shanks of the buttons to sink in so they are at the same depth relative to the outer coat fabric as the working buttonholes.  I decided to solve the same problem on the coat front by making tiny machine buttonholes, just big enough to contain the shanks.  Claudine recommended just sinking the shank into a hole made by an awl to avoid this pesky problem.  My "solution" is waaaay too complicated but I didn't read her post until after I'd embarked on my fool's errand.

Some of those buttonholes (8 if you are counting) need to actually work, so they needed to be faced. I used silk organza patches.

First, I sewed the long CF seam to attach the facing to the coat front.  Then I marked the location of each buttonhole (with pins and measuring tape to triple check).  Then I marked them in a contrasting colour of thread and sewed a little box (1.5mm stitch length) for each one.  As you can see (at right) I have the needle set to the left of centre and am using the marked CL of the buttonhole as a guide.

Then carefully clip open each little window.

And turn them and press.

I am hand sewing these windows over the buttonholes and pressing some more.

Luckily this wool is thick and forgiving so my stitches sink right in and are invisible.

Unluckily this wool is thick and my fingers hurt after doing a few.  One more left and then I'm finished with these.  Then I can move on to more interesting and less painful sewing tasks, like assembling the lining and interlining.

Partially assembled, not cleaned (yet)

In other news, the real reasons for my radio silence are (1) it's curling season and (2) my obsession with knitting machines has kind of taken over.  I have just acquired a new (to me) Passap Duomatic 80 and am ridiculously excited about my new baby.  I've got a busy January coming up but in February I'll have some time off work and hope to learn how to make her hum along and consume lots of my yarn stash.

The lady on the cover of the manual makes it look pretty easy...

My goodness, what a lot of buttonholes!

That's a total of 10.  Six up the front, two on the collar, and one on each pocket flap.
Only six more to go (there are three on each cuff).

I made bound buttonholes because no machine I own could make nice enough sewn buttonholes through all the layers of wool melton.

The technique I use is well presented here. 

• I found I was able to make a pretty narrow buttonhole by stitching 5 clicks to the right and then the same to the left of the centre guide line.  My finished buttonholes are 7mm wide.
• I backstitch at each end of this line of stitches (none of that knotting the thread and weaving it in for me).  
• After clipping I press the tiny seam allowances open so that half the bulk is inside and half outside.  This prevents an obvious difference in height around the buttonhole.  With a thinner fabric I wouldn't bother to do this.  
• I found with my thick and forgiving fabric I did not need to do any hand stitching to secure the welts.  I just spoke to them sternly and manhandled them until they were pretty even.
• I agree with Sherry - don't press them until they are all sewn.  

Pockets - topstitched and ready to be sewn by hand
on the coat fronts.

Once the remaining ones are done, the rest of the coat will come together REALLY fast, right?

Chanel, the quick and dirty version

Confessing that this is probably a wearable muslin.  I am using fusible instead of sew-in interfacing.  I serged the edges of all my pieces, because my fabric is very ravelly.  I am also not thread-tracing anything.

Don't tell anyone.


I have some much nicer wool for my next version of this jacket.  As for this fabric, well, let's just say that a crochet hook to pull the most egregious of the nubs and loose threads through to the side I've deemed to be the wrong side is The Sewing Lawyer's best friend.

That said, I am liking the look of my bound buttonholes.  See if you can spot them.  Hint:  There are 5, in a row down the middle.

Murphy was in the sewing room, however.  I did 3 perfect practice buttonholes yesterday, and 3 perfect ones today.  Guess which ones were not perfect?  That's right, the last 2 I tackled, the ones closest to the top, and therefore the most visible.

Fixed the top buttonhole

However, they are really invisible, aren't they?  I fixed the messy ones with some hand-stitches.

See?

I thought not.

A few more bits of information about V8804.

If you are worried about the printing error in the undersleeve, I don't think it's necessary.  Apparently the piece was supposed to be graded for the different sizes, but in the first printing the piece is a straight one-size (14, I believe).  The differences must be very minor because I have had no problem with the ungraded piece.

The back neck interfacing is marked with a bias grain line but in the printed instructions, it says that this piece (unlike the sleeve and body hem interfacing pieces) should be cut on the same grain as the main piece, i.e. not on the bias.  Claire Shaeffer herself (via FaceBook) says it doesn't really matter.  Really?  Then why so specific in the instructions?  I cut it on the straight grain.

The shaping in the fashion fabric is done by steam so that the outer layer mimics the inner one, in which darts are actually sewn.  By hand.  After the two layers are attached with the lines of machine quilting.  I haven't done this step yet.  I'll let you know if it's physically possible.

The only shaping done before the quilting step is the side seam bust darts, which are not actually darts, in the fashion fabric.  You do a dart stay in interfacing, and then ease the fabric to conform to it.

I secured the dart stay with machine stitching along the grain of the fashion fabric, figuring that it would be invisible.  It is.







Finally, please admire the constructed sleeve.  See the crazy grain placement?

Bound buttonholes

I bought some different trim and buttons, but on getting my purchases home I'm not so taken with them, and I cannot convince anyone who has seen them on the fabric in real life (except the probably slightly biased owner of the shop in which I bought them).  So I took some time off my search for the perfect trim, and actually sewed instead - what a concept!

Let's play "spot the buttonholes"!

Since the placement of the buttonholes and CF on this pattern are dictated by the size of the buttons and trim intended, and since I intend to buy the right size, I figured I could go ahead and make the buttonholes.

Now this pattern calls for hand-worked buttonholes and The Sewing Lawyer has a confession to make. I have NEVER made a hand-worked buttonhole.  And from the start, a decision had been made that this jacket wasn't going to involve my first attempt.  However, I have made quite a few bound buttonholes and, despite departing from the Chanel path as taught in the extensive instructions in V8804, bound buttonholes will have to do, and in fact they will do just fine.

In fact, I just made three (practice) buttonholes, and took pictures.  Exhibit A, to the right.  What do you think?

So, my super-duper no-windows never-fail patch buttonhole tutorial follows.  (NB:  these instructions are slightly simpler than the tutorial I previously posted on Flickr.)

Step 1 - Marking

Carefully mark your buttonholes.  This involves several steps.  First, determine exactly how far from the edge of the piece each buttonhole should start, and exactly how long they will be, and exactly how far apart from each other they will be.  Mark these dimensions with pins.

Then, with a stitch length of 3 or 3.5 mm, mark the dimensions with thread.  I used a contrasting thread (black) which will be visible on both sides.  I stitched the practice buttonholes in black because I forgot to rethread my machine so you can see my stitching easier in this tutorial.  To sew the actual buttonholes, I'll switch to the right colour.

Double-check that your thread lines are in the right places!

A couple of other things to note about preparation.  The pattern calls for non-fusible interfacing for this piece and I am using a rather stiff silk organza rather than hair canvas or some other interfacing.  It's gray.  However, Claire Shaeffer suggests fusing a patch of interfacing at each buttonhole site.  Given the loose weave of my fabric, this was a must.  These patches are fused directly to the fashion fabric, so lie under the organza.

Then mark the long sides of the buttonhole.  On my sewing machine, I can move the needle R and L by 0.5mm increments.  This is an extremely useful feature for this part of the job.  I was able to align the presser foot so it was accurately centred on the originally-marked CL of the buttonhole, and sew a parallel line on each side, at the chosen distance away.

(NB my finger is there to highlight the needle position only!)

A word on buttonhole dimensions:  In The Sewing Lawyer's not-so-humble opinion, thick/fat bound buttonhole lips, especially if they are lumpy and/or uneven, scream "happy hands at home".  (A recent Threads article on bound buttonholes therefore made me wince - it's in #140 at p. 16, if you want to see what I mean.  I simply cannot believe that "industry" uses the method the author proposes, or would put up with the results pictured there...)  [Rant over]  The Sewing Lawyer says:  make your buttonholes as thin as possible given the characteristics of your fabric.  The thinner the fabric, the thinner you want the lips to be.  I moved my needle 5 clicks away from the CL, and the finished dimension of my buttonholes is 5mm or about 3/16".

After completing this step you can remove the basting marking the CL of the buttonhole; you don't need it anymore.


Step 2 - The patches

Cut bias patches that are bigger than the finished dimensions of the buttonhole - you will need approximately 1" (2.5cm) on either side and a bit more at the top and bottom.  Don't skimp.  The patches can be trimmed down to size after the buttonholes are sewn.  Centre the patches over the markings for the buttonholes, right sides together, and pin in place.

For my practice buttonholes, I decided to try using two different fusibles and to sew one buttonhole without any interfacing.  Don't ask me to tell you exactly what kind of interfacing they are - all I know is that the one with lines (on left) probably came from Fabricland.  I have no idea if they still sell it.  I fused so that the interfacing was most stable along the length of the buttonhole.

Step 3 - Sewing the patches

Working from the wrong side so you can see your thread markings, and using a small (2mm or so) stitch length, sew along the outer marked lines, backstitching as precisely as possible at the lines marking the end of the buttonholes.

I find it useful to stitch a hairs-width beside the basting rather than trying to sew directly on top of it.  This makes it SO much easier to remove the basting afterwards.

Speaking of which, you can now remove the lines of basting along the top and bottom edges of your buttonhole, and the CL basting too (if, like me, you didn't do so already).


Step 4 - Cutting etc.

Simple:  cut down the middle of the buttonhole, through all layers, but stopping short of the ends.  Then cut at an angle exactly into each corner, as close as you can without cutting through the stitching.  You should have little triangles at each end of the buttonhole.  You need these.

Then carefully pull the patch through the hole.  This is where I started to get a sense for whether I wanted interfacing (I do) and which one (the softest).

After you do this the buttonhole will look all weird and hopeless (from both sides).  It isn't.

Step 5 - Whispering to the buttonhole (with heat and steam)


The next step is to fold the patch back and press open the teensy little seam allowances in the seam along each edge of your buttonhole.  Finding them and holding them open for the iron may not be easy, but it can and must be done.  Use an awl if you have one.  Press FIRMLY, but just the sewn part of the patch.  Do the other side too.

The Sewing Lawyer's humble opinion:  This is the step that makes these buttonholes non-bulky and flat, and therefore what marks this method as superior.  When the lips (the patch) are folded back, one side of the open seam allowance is inside the buttonhole and the other is outside it.  Other methods open a window and leave ALL the SAs outside the actual buttonhole.  This means that the actual buttonhole is 2 layers of fabric but the surrounding area has 5 layers (jacket front, 2 layers of window SAs, 2 layers of lip fabric).  Lumpy!  Hard to press evenly!  Harder to avoid "happy hands at home" look!

Then flip your piece over and start manipulating the lips with both hands until they are evenly filling the rectangle.  Keep the little triangles folded back so the buttonhole retains its rectangular shape.  Once you have it how you like it, press it into position.  Be firm!  (I find it easiest to do this job on a sleeve roll or other pressing aid rather than on the flat ironing board.)

Step 6 - The pesky triangles



You have already pressed them into place.  The very last step is to secure the little triangles at each end of the buttonhole with stitching. To the left, you can see what they look like after being flattened.  Notice that the patch is pleated where it forms the lips.  VERY CAREFULLY transfer your pressed buttonhole over to the sewing machine.  Take care to preserve the pressed shape of the lips. With the right side up, fold the fashion fabric back, exposing the triangle and the patch.

Using a short stitch length, sew through all layers, as close as possible to the basting which marks the end of the buttonhole, and forms the base of the triangle. Sew back and forth to anchor all layers of the triangle to the patch.

After stitching, your patches look kind of strange from the back.  The only visible stitching relates to the triangles.  This will be covered up (and would in any case be practically invisible if I'd used the right colour of thread) by the facing.

At left you can see what the interfacing did.  The top patch (uninterfaced) is very soft and draws in.  The middle one (firmest interfacing) is almost square.  The lowest retains the softness of the fabric, but is more stable.  I like it best.


That's all there is to it.  Now, I have to replicate these excellent results five more times...  Wish me luck!