I buy and collect too. I have to admit that my madness is generally centered on the 50s. I’m a big believer that people get focused on certain styles worn by people they admire and were close to when they were young. My style icon is my mom from that period. She was young, very beautiful to my eyes and was an absolutely socko dresser. Even though I am built completely differently from her (she was 5′8″, very athletic, small bust, very long legs and I…am not), the clothing styles that always capture my eye are the ones from that period. Isaac Mizrahi, for example, has talked extensively about the effect on him of a) growing up in a household dominated by the dress-making business owned by his parents and b) growing up in a household surrounded by his mother and aunts during the 1950s and their wearing those styles of outfits. And his designs show this time and again. He was showing dresses with big swishy skirts, pencil skirts, darted waists in the bodices long before “Mad Men” came along. He used the same aesthetic in his design collections for Target, which were hugely successful.

But everyone is different. One of the things that does not draw my eye from this period is what people would consider the ‘classic’ shirtwaist dress. Part of that is because I actually wore that style of dress to elementary school, so it doesn’t hold any magic for me. So, what I look for in terms of seeking out patterns from that period are the outfits that show something different in terms of details, or an item which was popular but perhaps only for a time (such as the ’sack’ dress with the back belt which actually eventually morphed into the sixties shift). Another aspect is whether I’ve seen this pattern before. Like other collecters and users of vintage patterns, I have favorite sites that I visit basically every day. There are patterns that you see basically all the time – they were obviously hugely popular and had big print runs. I had never seen this pattern ever before – once I saw what it was and the size that it was, I had to make it mine. I did not hesitate in terms of ordering it.

The pattern above was one which drew my eye immediately. First, it’s an ‘outfitter’ pattern, which always has an appeal in terms of thrift: The pattern comes with separate patterns for blouse, jacket, shorts, skirt and slacks. Today, a pattern trying to ape this appeal would probably have a jacket pattern with indications where you would cut the sleeve pattern for the blouse; a pants pattern with indications where you would shorten the pieces for the shorts and might or might not have a pattern for the skirt. Another special thing is that most items (the blouse, the jacket, the shorts and the slacks) all have the most amazing numbers of different facings to them, including facings for the bottom of where the hem would be on the shorts! Secondly, it features several design items which are unique: kimono sleeves on the jacket and blouse and that very unique button-up-the-side ankle treatment on the slacks. Very Gidget. Third, and this is a personal thing because even though I can draft, I would rather not, this pattern came in a size 20. For 1957, to find a pattern this stylish in a size 20 (measurements being 40-32-42) is a real find.

On the other hand, I do collect vintage patterns just to have them as a design resource – I don’t intend to ever actually make them. Here’s a good example – and not even from the 50s. This is from the 1930s and shows some of the very unique styling and detail work that is pretty common, even in home sewing patterns of the era.

But let’s return to the 1957 outfitter. Did I actually use this pattern? Yes, I actually just finished the blouse, using blue on blue embroidered cotton that I got from here. The only change I had to make was that I took out one of the tucks in the front and one of the tucks in the back. That is the only difference. I love the way it fits – it’s a blouse that was easy to fit, easily fits me and that I plan to make in several other fabrics as well. The slacks come next. (my stance is a little bit unbalanced here, which is why the neckline has shifted off; it really does fit correctly on my neck)

So, what method do you use in terms of choosing vintage patterns?

He thought it might be ’some sort of twill’. Several of us recognized immediately that what he had was not twill but I thought that perhaps a little bit of information on what twill is…and ain’t..might be useful.

The picture at the top is a twill that is probably the most accessible and well known to all of us – and that is denim. I put the pen in the picture to draw your attention to the twill weave effect, which goes diagonally on the goods. That picture was taken straight down the leg of an old pair of blue jeans, so although the ’straight of the grain’ is vertical, you can see that the twill effect runs diagonally.

The definition, per wiki: “Twill is a type of fabric woven with a pattern of diagonal parallel ribs.It is made by passing the weft thread over one or more warp threads and then under two or more warp threads and so on, with a “step” or offset between rows to create the characteristic diagonal pattern. Because of this structure, twills generally drape well. Examples of twill fabric are chino, drill, denim, gabardine, tweed and serge.” Twill

The one thing this definition does not mention (strangely enough) is that this structure does something else for fabrics: It makes them extremely “hard wearing”. Look at that list and what many times these fabrics are used for:
Chino: Men’s work pants and hot weather military uniforms.
Drill: Men’s work clothing where an element of protection is required; also used as coverings on items that have to take heat such as ironing board pads. Usually light colored or natural and all-cotton.
Denim: The original American work clothing: blue jeans. The original fabric came in a dual fiber form: the dark blue was cotton and the white or natural was actually wool. You can still get ‘wool denim’ clothing and fabrics from time to time and it is a fabric that the Australian Wool Board has promoted (for obvious reasons).
Gabardine: The number of various fibers that this material can be made from are legion, but it remains that this fabric is used for nicer levels of office clothing such as suits for men and women.
Serge: This fabric is not as popular in men’s suits as it once was but was considered very hard wearing; one weakness was that it had to be pressed from the back through a press cloth. The fibers in the weave are so numerous that pressing from the front caused shine.
Tweed: The best use of this form of twill is in outerwear as the fibers in the weave are relatively coarse.

So, what was the fabric that the blogger got? It certainly had a pattern of parallel ribs on it, but the direction was horizontal to the straight grain of the goods. I just made a skirt (thank you; I couldn’t find a navy pencil skirt in my size any place. I had to make one for myself) out of the same type of fabric, though mine is a mixture of cotton and silk. This weave is called “faille” and can be found in many different fibers. The ribs are more pronounced than in a twill (besides the direction being totally different) and this gives the fabric entirely different qualities in terms of draping, durability and so on. In general, it is seen as a dressier fabric than twills are and is generally not used in items such as pants, where durability in the seat and inner leg areas is a concern.

So, from a ‘bang for your buck’ aspect, what’s your best choice? Well, for rough outdoor work clothing, denim and drill can’t be beaten. For suits with slacks, gabardine is best (and even better if you get it in ‘worsted wool’ or a ‘worsted wool blend’ as the worsted processing produces fibers with a hard finish, which makes the fabric even more durable). For women’s suits and dresses, gabardine is a very good choice as gabardine (especially in lighter weights) has a very nice drape but will also tailor well. For outerwear, heavier gabardines and tweeds are very good choices. Remember – hold up the fabric in the item up to the light and move one hand up and down so that the light plays across the face of the fabric and you’ll be able to see the diagonal rib effect. That way, you’ll know you have a true twill.

Very Easy/Tres Facile. Misses/Misses Petite Dress and Belt: Semi-fitted, pullover, lined dress with waistline casing in seam and blousing in the bodice, back neckline opening with button and loop closing. Knee and floor length. I made the floor length for a ‘black tie’ affair we had at the local university last night. Also comes with pattern for tie or covered buckle belt.
Fabrics: Crepe back satin and soft faille. Also for A: Lame and Sequin.

So, let’s analyze:
Separate bodice with inset shoulders. Elasticized waist. Skirt that gets gathered by …the elasticized waist.

Why did I choose this dress for the event? Well, as some of my loyal readers know, I broke and dislocated my shoulder early in May. I just got out of the ’strapped up and slung’ stage and entered the “physical therapy’ stage. I find it really difficult to get in and out of fiddly clothing. Most of what I am wearing these days are made out of knits (preferably with some lycra in them) and with a fairly open neck in them. Although this dress doesn’t have an open neck, per se, it does have enough room because of the slit in the back and the button-loop closing for me to gather it all up, get my arm that is healing into one armhole, get my head into the neck opening and then get my good arm into the other side. Pull everything down with one hand, find a volunteer to button the one button in the back, put on a belt and voila! As easy a dressing up experience as I was going to find. Yes, it does have inset shoulders. And my biceps are about 13″ around. Generally, I am pretty self-conscious about my arms, but let’s face it, with a broken shoulder, I have the attitude that comfort comes first. And, my arms are big. That’s the way it is.

I made this dress even more easy: I used bamboo and lycra jersey (which I got from Fabricmart) and lined the bodice with some nude net from Joanne’s Fabrics (you can find that in the section where they have all the fabrics for dance costumes). It’s very soft and stretchy. Using a knit meant that I could downsize this – I usually have to use a Vogue size 18 or 20 AND do an FBA. With the knit and the measurements of the pattern, I graded from a “16″ at the shoulder to an “18″ at the side seam.

Any changes: I also raised the bottom of the armscye an inch on both the front and back bodice pieces because I knew I was going to wear this with a racer-back bra (which worked really well). And instead of lengthening the bodice front to accommodate for the needed bust length, I added a 2″ insert at the waist. THAT is what I used to put in the elastic (I used 1″ elastic and just sewed it directly onto the 2″ insert and then sewed the insert to the bodice and then to the skirt). It gave me a little bit more of a ‘blouson’ in the bodice but worked really well with the elastic (I am not a big fan of putting in casings and stringing elastic through casings and all of that). I used very lightweight weft-insertion stabilized in the hem and the back slits. I don’t have an overlock machine but this works really well on my sewing machine with knits. No skipped stitches.

Accessories: There are all sorts of accessories tricks that you can do with a dress as plain as this:
Fabric flower at the neck or the waist. Long dangly earrings. When I saw this belt at Chico’s, I was able to convince myself that the price tag was worth the money. This is a belt I can wear with dressy clothing. I felt like a zillion dollars in it; it dressed up the dress wonderfully, took the attention away from the big bruise (it takes a long time to get rid of one of these from a fracture) on my arm, and gave me the feeling of being very very dressed up.

Why do I not have a photo of the dress? Well, I have to say that the reason I don’t is that my very efficient husband decided to get up and do all the laundry this morning and…it went into the laundry. Another time.

Anything I’ll do differently next time (and there will be a next time because I can’t think of a nicer, easier, cooler dress than this one turned out to be)? I think I’ll stabilize the edges of the neck and the armholes with the same weft-insertion interfacing that I used in the hems and the slits. That’s really about it.

But after analyzing the problem with the trial run, I realized that the leather I had was no thicker than the wool felt I had used. As a matter of fact, it was thinner and more pliable. I got the leather as a grab bag ‘bundle’ from Fabric Mart Fabrics. They also sell whole skins but I wanted to make a few smaller things first. I also changed the interfacing I had used to shirt collar fusible, which gave me a little bit more body but definitely left the clutch ’slouchy’ which is as it is described. The next time I make this, I will probably go ahead and buy a smaller skin so that I will have enough leather to make the whole purse out of the same material.

I made this one basically the same way I did the other one, with one change: I’d left the top open and bound it with a two-inch strip of leather, leaving enough at the meet points on the flap to tie a bit of a bow, which I think dresses it up a bit. Then, I sewed through all the layers just underneath the leather binding to close up the top. In addition, as you can see from the picture, this is a brown and black purse, a little bit less formal than a plain black purse but was necessitated because there was not enough of any one type of leather in the buncle to make an entirely brown or black clutch. So I have sort of a ’spectator clutch”.

The only new technique I used with this was gluing the leather where I put the zipper in the opening in the front. I centered the zipper, marked the ends and sewed the ends. Then, I folded over the seam allowances where the zipper was going to be, glued those down with Fabri-Tac Permanent Adhesive ™ and left that to dry for a couple of hours before I sewed in the zipper. I also used a leather needle in my sewing machine and regular thread.

Again, this is the Hot Patterns Plain and Simple Clutch. I do recommend a run through, even with muslin, so that you get the whole technique in terms of working with the lining.

For one thing, it’s non-directional. It has no warp or weft. It is not knitted. It just IS. And because of that, there are things you can do with it that are more difficult to do with woven or knitted goods, and most of the time, those things are fun and interesting: accessories, trim, that sort of thing.

And now Aunt Toby has to tell you a secret: I am accessories mad. I have always loved them. It’s genetic: My mom had purses out of every skin except I think for fish(and that only because it had not been developed at the time, I think), including several out of species that are frankly out of reach or endangered (same diff) at this point. In many cases, she had shoes that matched the purses. Although if you went through my drawers (well, what holds my clothing etc., not..ahem..the other sort), you’d find more scarves than anything else (I am passionately fond of scarves), I do love a nice purse, an interesting handbag. And my big beef in life is that either I can’t find them or if I can, they are usually out of reach in terms of price. Very annoying indeed.

And the one class of purse that I can NEVER find, either in the size, material, color or price is a clutch. Not one of these:minaudiere

These are not clutches. They are interesting and sort of, IMHO, “carry-able jewelry”, but I am the sort of person who imagines social occasions ending with my being in a mess, needing to call and pay for a cab, a small injury…that sort of thing. You can’t carry a wallet, lipstick, credit cards, a cell phone, Bandaids™, car and house keys, etc. in one of these. At most, you carry A credit card, A lipstick, one of those weeny and flat cell phones, and a car key that actually will get given to the valet to park the car, so you won’t have to put it into the bag at all. Actually, I have seen hard cases for sunglasses that were bigger than some of these socalled evening bags.

Aunt Toby requires something capacious. Not that I want to be able to carry a tire iron, a set of vicegrips™, and a roll of duct tape in my evening bag (although goodness knows, I have had an evening where the experience ended with the DH requiring all of these, but they were in the trunk of the car and were used to haul up and secure the exhaust system so that we could get home in one piece). But invariably, when I go out, I will meet someone who either will want to give me their phone number and email address (or vice versa), or wants my recipe for making biscuits or home-made noodles, or the URL for fabric or interesting covered buttons or canning supplies (all of which Aunt Toby has had tattooed on her brain and can be called up on a moment’s notice). And that requires a pen and at least a small pad. And perhaps a calendar (you see where this is going, I am sure).

Enter: Hot Patterns Plain and Simple Envelope Clutch. Hot Patterns Clutch
“Oversized, lined, slouchy Clutch has a carrying strap on the back and closes with a zipper under the front flap; flap also features concealed magnetic closures. Clutch is completely flat, and the interior has 1 large zippered pocket and a smaller open/cell phone pocket.”

I had already bought some leather, but being the ‘belt and suspenders’ person that I am, I decided to give it a trial run. Not exactly a ‘muslin’ because I wanted it to be something that I could use as intended if it worked out. I also wanted to give a trial to some interfacing that I thought would work well, Pellon™ Peltex. It’s described as ‘firm’ – it’s also described as being a substitute for foamcore™ and cardboard. That should have been a clue that it might have been too firm for the project but I soldiered on.

Aunt Toby is very very bad when it comes to reading directions. My brain doesn’t seem to work the way that the technical writers’ do, and many times what gets me through are my 40+ years of sewing and the drawings and diagrams. In this case, what got me through was Ann Steeves’ experience with the pattern Ann Steeves’ Review
and my giving it a good think in terms of what I thought it looked like on the inside at the after end. (Please note: I did contact the lovely people at Hot Patterns and Trudy offered to ‘fly me in’ using emails, but I am a very stubborn sort of person and seem to feel the need to figure things out myself, even if I end up doing it wrong).
The difficult part for me was visualizing what was happening on the inside on the lining pieces, which have, on one piece, a zippered pocket, and on the other piece (because it comes in two separate pieces), a patch which is separated into a regular pocket and a pleated pocket for a cell phone. The individual techniques involved in making the purse are not difficult at all; here is the list of techniques:

1. Cutting out the pattern pieces. If you are making this from leather, using some sort of marker on the back side of the material is key – you don’t want to use pins to mark this.
2. Cutting out, trimming for seam allowances and then Ironing on interfacing. The interfacing I used produced something that would substitute for a portfolio – very stiff. I need to find an iron-on interfacing for leather that will give it some substance but still allow for the slouchiness.
3. Putting in magnetic fasteners. Marking these on the back of the material is key. Also making sure that you put the opposite part in the proper place on the other side of the front so that when you close the clutch, it will actually lock in place. it helps to give this a trial run before you put the fasteners through the material.
4. Putting in centered zippers. You will need to have 1, 10” zipper for the pocket in the lining and 1, 16” zipper for the opening into the clutch (which is NOT in the top of the bag. You need to visualize this as a grocery bag with the top stapled shut and the opening in one side. That is where the other zipper is going to go).
5. Straight stitching, trimming and cutting corners – this will help give the corners shape.
6. Rolling. (rolling? – yes, rolling) There are several points in the process where you will need to roll the body of the clutch in order to make the sewing easier. One of them is putting on the strap on the back (see Ann Steeves’ photo at the link above). The other place is once you’ve attached the lining pieces to the seam allowances for the opening zipper and then want to sew the lining together. It really helps in terms of sewing the lining pieces together if you roll the front of the bag into a cylinder to keep it out of the way of the needle. Then, when you want to fasten the back of the bag itself to the front, you will want to roll the lining into a cylinder to keep it safe as well. Needless to say, putting Pellon™ Peltex on the felt did NOT make rolling easier.

So, here are the two places where I think people might get frustrated and how to do them.
The front of the clutch:
Once you’ve ironed on your interfacing (if you are going to do that) and put on the magnetic closures corresponding to the marks on the pattern, go to the corresponding lining pieces. One will have a pocket with a zipper on it – do that and put that on the lining piece to correspond to the markings on the pattern. The other one will look much too long for the other piece of the front of the clutch. Don’t panic! This will be folded to provide a protective flap at the entry to the purse.
Put the top and bottom pieces of the purse front together using the magnetic closures – the edges where the zipper is going to go should line up. Baste that edge together, flatten out, and then put in a centered zipper (this is where the bigger zipper goes). Remember, if you are making this out of leather or faux leather or Ultrasuede™ or something like this, don’t use pins..use tape or something because you don’t want to make holes).

Take the piece of lining with the zippered pocket. With it facing you with the pockets opening up, fold toward the wrong side, 5/8”. Take that fold and place it right up on the tape of the zipper, on the larger piece of the bag front. Visualize when you put your hand inside that zipper, it will go into the pockets to pull out your cell phone, right? Tape that down. Flip that over and using a zipper foot, sew next to the original stitching you did to put the zipper in, BUT NOT ALL THE WAY TO THE OUTSIDE EDGES. Remember, we’ve got the be able to roll this thing around to put the lining together and then do the bag outside seams, so you only sew these lining pieces down to the bottom stop and at the top stop.

Take the other piece of lining for the front of the bag – it’s plain right – no pockets, nuthin’. It also looks too big for the other half of the front of the bag. With the wrong side of the bag front facing you, line up the top edge of that top piece of the bag with the top edge of the lining piece. Smooth the lining down to where the other side of the zipper tape is. Secure that in the seam allowances and stitch the lining on the tape all the way through to the other side of the bag. You now will have about 4” of flap. There are directions on the pattern sheet to handle this. Here is what I did (because I am annoying this way): visualizing what I felt this was meant to look like (that is, that there would be a flap across the zippered opening), I folded under a 5/9” hem and sewed that. Then I folded the flap again and secured that against the place where I had sewn the lining to the zipper tape and sewed through all of this. This produced this situation:

Then, with the bag front and the bag front lining facing me(just like in the picture), I put the back of the lining on top and sewed that on, rolling up the bag front as I went so that I would not catch that. You can sew the lining all the way around because you do not need to turn that inside out. At that point, I had this situation with the bag front. My kind assistant opened up the zipper so that you can see the opening, the pocket AND the other zipper, which is part of the zippered pocket in the other part of the lining.

At this point, what you have facing you is the right side of the front of the bag. Placing, right side to right side(making sure you get the strap in the right spot), the back of the bag on top, and rolling away the lining as you go, I sewed three sides of the bag, leaving the fourth open so that I could cut and trim the corners and turn it inside out, putting the finished lining bag into the inside of the purse. I then ironed down the seam allowances at the bottom and sewed those closed to finish the bag.

Materials:
Bag: Wool Felt
Lining: Polyester ‘technical’ taffeta
Magnetic Closures: two sets
Zippers: 1, 10”, 1, 16”
Interfacing: Pellon™ Peltex

Will I make this again: You bet, but with something softer than Peltex, which I think would make terrific bills for newsboy caps but just ruined the look of this. However, having said that, I actually like this; it’s sort of portfolio-y and my son made the observation that it would be a perfect way of sneaking in a mini-laptop into an event. He would think of that.

There are all sorts of patterns around – every one of the socalled ‘Big Four’ has at least one. One of the most popular is the one at the top of the post, Vogue 7975, which has been in their catalog for at least 3 years and is still in their collection and available for purchase. I’ve sewn it three times already, the first time for my younger daughters’ wedding (yes, thank you; we like him very much) and I’d had the pattern in my stash for a while before that. It’s still in Vogue’s collection. Here is ONE of Lindsay T’s versions of this same pattern as a Chanel-type jacket: LindsayTSews black Chanel jacket

But my point with this discussion today is that what I’ve made out of the same pattern is not a “Chanel Tribute” jacket. From a personal style standpoint, I can’t see myself in something with a lot of trim on it (which is one of the hallmarks of the jacket. See how the pattern artist has cleverly inserted that idea in your head already from the cover?). I’m really not an ‘embellishment person’. As you can see from this photo, I went a bit out on the limb with the buttons (which I got from JoAnn’s and are horn with metal inserts), and the lining (which is from fabric.com and was part of the Vera Wang tsunami, the items of which are practically all gone at this point). The jacket itself is from wool plaid and unlike a Chanel-style jacket, I kept the wool facings at the edges and the back of the neck rather than run the lining right to the edges and quilting it to the fabric, which is usually a pretty loosely-woven boucle.

My point is this: When you have a basic pattern that you’ve worked all the bugs out of, a TNT (tried and true) as it were, you can make it in anything you want and it will look different. Every Single Time.
I’ve made this out of champagne colored brocade with 3/4 length sleeves as part of a wedding suit. I’ve also made it out of a silk tweed with a coordinating dress for a family event (and that reminds me; I need to take a look at it to see what else in the closet I can pair it with). This time, I made the jacket and a matching pencil skirt as a suit. Where I work is pretty casual (think Dockers slacks and golf shirts), so I don’t have much use for a wool suit, but when I want one, I’ve got one.

I’ve also got the rest of a wardrobe plan as well –
Forest green boucle for a coordinating skirt (because while if I wear a suit to work, I’ll be accused of going out on a job interview; if I wear a skirt and a coordinating jacket, especially if it’s with a t-neck or something informal like that, no one takes a lot of notice)
Forest green wool jersey for a dress and I think I have enough for a top as well.
I already have several pairs of brown pants that I can wear with the jacket and a brown wool skirt

So, as they say, I’m all set.

But I do know a couple.

One is that with wool (and probably all animal fiber based) fabric, there is almost nothing you can’t do if you have a steam iron and a wet cloth. It helps if you have some of the niftier tailoring equipment such as:
A ham: Tailor’s Ham
A Seam Roll: Sleeve Roll
A Sleeve Board: Sleeve Board

I happen to have my great-grandfather’s sleeve board ( he worked as men’s suit presser), but I don’t have any of the other equipment. If you look at the photograph, you’ll see my ‘jack of all tools’ – it’s yellow and it’s a bath towel.

In this case, after I had sewn in the sleeves on this jacket I am working on now, the seam just did not look really nice, so the first thing I did was that I took another towel (a guest size towel), dampened it, rolled it up and doubled that – that became my ‘ham’ and I shoved that into the top of the sleeve and then with another damp pressing cloth on top, I shrank the top in a little bit so that it was smoother. Then, I removed that towel and took a different towel – the bath size – and I rolled THAT up into ‘arms’ and shoved those into the sleeves. As you can see, they literally go from almost the bottom of one sleeve, all the way across the form ’shoulders’ and then down into the other sleeve. I then pulled the roll slightly up at the top of the sleeve so that the roll is a little bit ‘fatter’ there so that it would firm out the top of the sleeve a little bit and I set that on a drying rack over our hot air registers to dry and set the top of the sleeve.

Not that I don’t want people to buy tailoring equipment – but many times you can use what you’ve already got at home.

There’s a whole lot of keeping score going on out there in Blogistan because it IS the end of 2009 and as creatures of habit, we seem duty bound to look behind us and try to get a grasp on ‘oh, what a good boy am I”. If Aunt Toby turns around like that, she gets a major spasm in her neck that no amount of hot showering, massage and drink will assuage. I’m reading great reams of lists of accomplishments – I am amazed that people had time for regular bathing and going to the toilet. Honestly.
Life ain’t a contest.

In my case, though, I will admit to a little bit of ‘what worked and what did not.”

Gardening:
Worked: Anything from the cabbage and beet families and potatoes
Disaster: Tomatoes and peppers (from the same family as potatoes but the blight carried everything off

Chickens:
Worked: Light Brahmas are still chugging along, though they do seem pretty sensitive to temperatures under 30 degrees in terms of laying eggs.
Disaster: Zip ties on the moveable pens. I think the plastic degrades in the sun.

Sewing:
Worked: Doing one thing at a time and finishing that.
Disaster: Can’t think of a thing at the moment.

So far, so good. Looking forward to 2010:
Chickens: We’re going to get more chicks in the spring, probably earlier than we did this year. The basement thing worked well until it got nice enough to put them out under the lights in the barn. I don’t know if we will get more Light Brahmas or go with something else like Delawares.

Gardening: I’m going to pay a LOT more attention to ‘blight resistent’ in the descriptions for seeds this time. It was very upsetting to not be able to get any tomatoes this summer when I wanted to can. We had no sources for local tomatoes at all, even up in the Syracuse area. Total washout.

Sewing: Well, the DH has already put in a request for several short sleeved dress shirts, so that is ‘on the spike’ as they would say, along with a gor-gee-ous piece of light weight tan wool shirting (with black reindeer!!), which I’m going to make a long sleeved shirt for him out of. I might even try making him a pair of dressy slacks that would go with the shirt so that he has a pair of slacks that he can wear that are not part of a suit. For me, I’ve got forest green wool jersey knit to make a dress and brown and forest green plaid flannel to make a jacket and a skirt for myself. Those three things will keep me going through to the spring.

But see..no resolutions…

Did the coat look like the art work on the front of the envelope? (does the finished garment EVER look like the art work on the front of the envelope?) In a general sense, yes, but I made two major changes: I wanted more flare, so I widened each piece below the waist. And I lengthened the coat because I’m going to be wearing it to walk to work … in Upstate New York. Also, because of the spongy nature of the fabric, I eliminated the pockets in the front and I’m not sorry I did that.

What changes did I make to the construction: All pieces of the fabric were fused with lightweight interfacing. I interfaced the fronts of the coat with hair canvas with an extra bias layer in the shoulders and across the yoke in the back. I interlined the entire coat (including the center 70% of the sleeves) with a light weight 100% wool flannel that I ran through the hottest water in my washer to shrink it. I put a large pocket in the lining of the coat. I eliminated the center seams in the back.

What changes would I make if I make this again? Well, I really like this coat – it comes with various cup sizes in the bust, which is really a great help in terms of getting it to fit correctly. I can see making this again in lighter weight fabrics. The changes I would make would be, first and foremost, that I would cut off the ‘facing’ on the front. It’s not big enough, so I didn’t really have enough to work with in terms of putting in the back buttonholes for the bound buttonholes in the front. I’d then draft a whole new facing for it and I’d also draft a back neck facing as well. Although I really like the basketweave wool that I used, it has a spongy texture that really does not take advantage of the pleats in the back. This design really requires a much lighter fabric – probably a heavy flannel would work but that would not make for a very warm coat.

Now, let’s get down to where the brass tacks meet the road: Did I save money by doing this? I’m going to stick out my neck here and say, “Yes” and here is why.
1) The inputs (without charging anything for my time) came to about $60.00. Could I have gone to a retailer and bought a coat for $60.00? Yes, with some looking, I could probably have found a coat. Would it have been 100% wool? No. Would it have had a wool interlining and heavy flannelized satin coat lining with an interior pocket? No. Would it have fit ME? (this is an unfair question to pose since I’m short and stumpy, and have short arms – the sleeves on even petite sized clothing is usually 2 inches too long on me) The answer continues to be “No”. Even if I could have found a coat for $60.00, I’d have had to either do alterations on it or taken it to a tailor to do alterations on it to make the sleeves fit me.
2) As I have discussed before, RTW coats, even the nicest I could afford to buy, are made badly, do not fit, and usually have sleazy, cheap acetate linings that shred out..sometimes in less than a year’s wearing. Since a lining is very much ‘the business end’ of a coat, once a lining goes, you must replace the lining. This raises the ‘lifetime wearing cost’ of a garment tremendously if you have to take it to a tailor to do this. Yes, I have the skills to replace a lining in a coat, but why should I have to invest my time and money to make up for the manufacturer cheapening the goods like this? Buying a coat and then having to invest in a new lining a year later is false economy. The difference in the cost between regular lining and heavy duty lining was about $2.00 a yard and the heavier lining will keep me warmer and will last for years.
3) One of the reasons linings shred out so quickly is that the manufacturing process usually works this way in terms of the lining: They make the body minus the sleeves. A separate operation makes the sleeves. The lining body is inserted into the coat (usually by bagging) and then the sleeve lining is inserted into the sleeves at the hem end; the lining is flipped and pulled through the outer sleeve and after the sleeve itself is inserted into the body of the coat, the seam allowance of the sleeve lining is folded under and slip stitched over the armscye seam. The number of coats that I’ve owned where this operation has resulted in total lining seam failure has been…almost 100%. Although a lot of the issue is the failure on the part of acetate as a fiber, the technique used in putting in the linings speeds up the shredding and tearing at this area of the coat. I made the lining complete – with the lining sleeves inserted in the body of the lining. And then I inserted the lining into the coat by hand, invisibly stitching it to the seam where the collar meets the coat (because there was no back facing) and down each side of the front facings. I also stitched it through the shoulder seams and the shoulder pads to connect it there and at the sleeve hems and at the bottom hem. I did not fasten it to the armscyes since that is the point of failure.

And how do I stitch ‘invisibly’? Once I have the lining pinned into the body of the coat (and I use various ‘landmarks’ to do this to make things like the side seams, the armscye, the yoke in the back the center of the neck and so on to line up. I also put a pleat or fold into the lining at the center back/center neck), I start at the center of the back of the neck and stitch where the edge of the lining meets the edge of the body material. I put the needle into the exact spot where the thread came out with the stitch before. I’m also holding my hand underneath the body of the coat in that spot and make sure that the needles doesn’t come out to the surface of the outer fabric. So, I go in one direction from the center neck out to one edge of the front. Then I go back to the center neck and stitch out to the edge of the other front. Then, I go back to where the folded lining edge meets the facing (and making sure I have a little bit of play in the lining fabric here – if you make the lining tight, you’ll just rip it out when you wear the coat) and stitch down from that upper edge down toward the bottom edge. Then I go back to the other front and do the same – again, I always start at the top and work to the outside; then I start at the outside edges and work down. Sometimes this is awkward but you want to always go in the same directions and since the last act for this will be taking up the bottom hem and then attaching the lining to that, you will want all the stitching lines and pressure to go down in that direction. The last task then is to take up the bottom hem of the outside fabric (if you have not done this already), steam press that down and stitch that down (usually done with a cross-hatch across the edge and into the body of the coat – also done invisibly). Then, leave the coat to hand overnight and then take up the hem. Again, I like to leave about 1/2 inch of play in the lining when I stitch it to the bottom hem so that it is not too tight when I put the coat on.