Sewing the Steffi Jacket: Making Head Way

So, I got over myself and started sewing the jacket together.  I'm almost done with the actual jacket part and am hoping to start on the lining by the end of the week.  Above you can see one of the sleeves.  I figured out why the one sleeve on my muslin was all cockeyed.  I didn't line up the sleeve seams in the right way therefore the sleeve wasn't set into the jacket correctly.  Well that is why I sewed a muslin first.  I've made good markings on my sleeves and body of the jacket so that won't happen again. 

Here's the body all sewn up and ready to go, Now I just have to sew the collar to the body and the facing, and set in the sleeves.  This is where my fear started to come up again.  My big question was how do I put the lining in? My question was answered by Gertie on her blog.   She made a coat in 2010 and video blogged about it every step of the way.  It gives great information on tailoring and the vlog about inserting the lining calmed my fears and made me realized that my first instinct to make both the jacket and the lining separately was correct.  The coat vlog laid out how to attach it and hem it and all the important things I needed to know.  I feel confident moving ahead in my Steffi sewing.  I think I will make my deadline too.  How exciting. 

Looking Back: Sewing the Steffi

This fall I attempted to sew my first tailored jacket.  It was a challenge that I was apprehensive about at first, but I am glad I took it on.  This project really added to my skills as a seamstress and the finished project was exactly what I wanted.

Here's the Links to Sewing the Steffi Jacket
Muslin and Fabric Choices
Finishing the Muslin
Fear Based Procrastination
Making Headway
Sleeves and Silk
The Lining
Final Touches 

Sewing the Steffi Jacket: Finishing the Muslin

I am finished with the Muslin for the Steffi and will soon embark on cutting out the lining and well the rest of the jacket.  It went together pretty easily and I was surprised at how well the muslin came out.  I only ran in to two small problems, but I'll get to those in a minuet.  Here is a photo log of my progress. 

I sewed a lot of the pieces together the sleeves for example were two pieces so I sewed them first and set them aside for when I would need them.  I then sewed all the front and back sections to their partners. and then connected them at the shoulder.

It was weird to not sew the side seams up first, but it was clear that if i decided to do that the yoke wouldn't fit in right and I would be kicking myself later.  This is a bout the time I realized that something wasn't right about my color pieces.

Problem number one and two happened one right after another and while they were easily fixed they did throw a wrench in the works and once they were sorted I called it a day.  What happenend was first I didn't cut my collor pieces on the fold, easy enough to fix I had enough extra muslin fabric to remedy that problem.  The second problem came when I went to sew the yoke together and realized I was missing a pattern piece.  I though search under the bed were my pattern storage is did not turn up the missing piece.  It was a smallish piece and i was able to print it out on one sheet of paper and had just enough fabric to cut it out.  The only problem is that out of all the other pieces of the pattern this tine little crescent of fabric is the only pattern piece that does not have the seam allowance incorporated in.  Weird but not the end of the world.

On my second day of sewing I put together the yoke, sewed in the collar and the yoke in one piece and set in the sleeves which was a bit scary.  One came out better than the other and I am going to go back and take a look at the better one so I can replicate it.  But here is my finished muslin.

I love the back of this jacket I find something very pleasing about the seam lines. 

A little rumpled, but pretty snazzy for a test and some cheap fabric. 

It fits! I don't need to make any adjustments to the pattern. 

Next week I plan on having my silk lining cut out and sewn along with some practice button holes and maybe even the wool cut. 

Sewing the Steffi Jacket: Final Touches

As promised, pictures of my progress with the Steffi. 

Basting the lining and jacket together in preparation of sewing the facing on.

Completed basting ready and waiting for the facing.

Facing sewn on and sleeves hemmed.  This is when I started to realize I was almost finished.  And I still needed to go buy buttons.

I under stitched the facing's seam allowance.  It gave the edge of the jacket a nice finished look to it, and it made the front of the jacket and the facing lay a lot nicer when i steam ironed it.  I am defiantly doing this more in the future.  (You can see that I hadn't taken out the basting stitch yet in this pic.)

In the end I did decide to finish the facings edge with bias binding, and it just so happened that I had some vintage bias binding in navy.  (Side note: I need new fabric scissors.)

The Bias binding took a big chunk of time to complete, but the final look was worth it.

Bias binding attached and hand sewn to the lining.

Here's a close up of the finished edge.

Yesterday I also practiced button holes on my sewing machine the top three were my last attempts and my best.  I'm still nervous about the button holes, but I am ready and know exactly what I'm doing. 

Yesterday I braved the wind and the rain to buy these little buggers.  BUTTONS! I finally went out and bought buttons for this jacket.  I ended up buying fabric and there was tons of new stuff in the shop that I wanted to get.

There is one more day to my self imposed deadline to finish this jacket and I think I'm going to make it.  All I have to do today is make six button holes and sew 6 buttons.  And then voila, a jacket.

Sewing the Steffi Jacket: Sleeves and Silk

It's a river of silk!  I am making head way.  The past few days has felt like a struggle to sew, but I pushed threw it and now I am on to the lining.  The lining pieces are cut out and are waiting for me to only change the color of the thread in my machine. 

The jacket its self is hanging neatly on a hanger look very dapper and waiting for it's lining.  I might hem the sleeves before I start the lining.  I am really proud of how the sleeves turned out.  It took an hour to set them in and I wasn't sewing them by hand.  It was like complicated sleeve surgery where everything had to line up just so.  The one good thing is that after struggling with the first sleeve the second was a breeze to complete. 

The fact that this garment is coming together so nicely is getting me pumped.  The challenge of sewing this jacket has kept me on my toes and made me have to learn new skills.  As scary as it first was I am glad I took this project on. 

Here is one more pic of the sleeve, I am really excited about them.

What I am Sewing/Knitting

Now that my Steffi Jacket is finished I find myself wondering what's next.  Well I figured that one out, a few sewing projects that only take a couple of hours to complete.  I started this week with a trip to the fabric store and I got some great stuff. 

One of the first things I sewed was a simple gathered skirt out of this forest green silk cotton I had left over from another project.  I used Gertie's Gathered Skirt Tutorial Part I and Part II, and it came out great.  I will post pictures when I finally hem the thing (on today's to do list).

T-shirt Mini Dress

 Next I moved on to DixieDIY T-Shirt Mini Dress.  I bought some great slate colored cotton blend jersey at the fabric store for $1.98 a yard and I made this in about two hours from cutting to hemming.  It looks a bit blah on the hanger, but with leggings, a belt, my new black boots and my leather jacket it will be rock 'n roll chic.

I plan on making another one today with a coral colored cotton jersey that has been in my stash for months.  That's today's sewing goal (along with hemming the gathered skirt).

Tomorrow I plan on making myself this:

The Marie Skirt

 But with this Fabric:

I'm feeling a bit of a rock 'n roll vibe this week.  My weekend might be a me made one.  The last few project I've done have been classic and timeless and I guess I'm feeling like I need to have a few pieces that are a bit more edgy. 

Before I leave I also want to show you the cardigan I just finished knitting.  Fresh of the blocking board!

Not the best shot, but I plan on having the Hubs help me take some good photos next week.

Gray Day

I canceled my planed post today as I wasn't feeling it.  It's a gray, wet, chilly day here in Philadelphia and I am determined to finish my steffi jacket.  This afternoon I will be sewing the facing down, buying buttons, and practicing button holes on the muslin. 

I also will start packing for Thanksgiving and since I finished my plucky sweater and alpaca vest I need to figure out a new project.  I'm still rocking the sweater knitting right now and I'm itching to design.  Off I go to my sewing machine I will have tons of updates on the jacket tomorrow. 

Sewing the Steffi Jacket: Fear Based Procrastination

That's right I'm procrastinating, and it's because I'm scared, or at least nervous.  Sewing the muslin was easy, if I screwed it up it was no big deal the fabric only cost me $4, but if I screw up on the "real" jacket I'm out ten times that.  I guess it's this worry that is causing me to doubt my skills and my confidence.  I mean I made the Muslin with few difficulties and it came out pretty good.  I know this is all in my head so I took one step toward sewing this amazing garment.

I cut it out of the wool. 

 You have to start somewhere and If I am going to sew this jacket then I have to have the pieces to sew.  I was super mindful when I was cutting out this fabric too.  Making sure my grain lines were all lines up and parallel to salvage.  I even made sure I gave the right seam allowance to the back neck yoke piece. 

Taking my time and not hastily cutting out the pattern pieces really helped me feel better about starting this project.  I'm hoping to start sewing some of it today.  I know this fear is all in my head and once I start sewing I will get more confident with each seam.

Bustier III: Cups and Casings

My hook and eye tape finally arrived in the mail the other day.  I have enough for about three bustier tops, but I'll sock away the extra for a rainy day.

Things are going slow on the bustier front.  We've been busy and the weather has been so nice that Simon and I have spent a lot of time outside.  I have been making progress and here is what's been accomplished this week.

The seam allowances are too small to use as a casing for the boning I bought so I had to whip up some casing to sew into the bustier.  I made them about 1/2" wide, my boning is 1/4" and after I sew them in I'll lose a couple of 8ths of an inch.

All Pinned and ready for the machine.

Here's the right side of the bustier before I ironed it.  You can barely see the top stitching.

Here's the wrong side.  For having to improvise this part of the pattern I am really pleased with how it came out.

I was going to but in the bra cups next, but realized that the back band and the top half of the cups lined up after I had pinned one in.  I back peddled, pulled out a million pins and started over on the back band.

Now the bra cups were a pain in my side.  I've sewn curved seams before (the Steffi Jacket) but this was a whole new bag of suck.  The center seam on the bottom of the cup has to line up with the seam on the bodice part.  Then the seam that runs across the middle of the cup has to line up with the seam were the bodice and the back band are sewn together.  Oh, and don't forget that the center of the bodice meets yp with the top inside edge of the cup.

However after all of that I am quite pleased with how it all came out.  The best part is that all of my bits fit where the should.  

Next on the list of to dos:

-Straps

-inserting the boning

-attaching the lining

-attaching the hook and eye tape

-hemming or finishing the bottom, i'm thinking Bias tape, but we'll see.

Sewing the Steffi Jacket: Muslin and fabric Choices

Burda Style

I am in love with this jacket and have been for about a year.  I even bought the pattern and the fabric to make the muslin, but after Simon and I got married I was sewn out after making three dresses two ties and a bunch of other crafty bits the idea of sewing a tailored jacket with buttons and a lining seemed a bit daunting.  But with the weather cooling down and my desire to make clothes instead of buying them I pulled the pattern out of storage and the muslin fabric and I am going to do it I am going to sew this jacket. 

Here it goes, the pattern all laid out ready to cut the fabric for the muslin.  I am a bit of a fearless sewer (and Knitter) and I usually jump in with both feet, but I want to make sure I know how this pattern is sewn and how it fits before I cut the wool and silk for the real one.  I have expensive tastes and I don't want to f-up really good fabric.  It's not like yarn where I can frog it if I don't like it or if it doesn't fit. 

All the muslin pieces waiting to be sewn my poor little tomato is empty of all its pins. This will be today's project, start sewing the muslin together.

Before work I went to the fabric store yesterday, I had some Brithday money from my mom and decided that it was going toward my fabric. 

My original thought was to make it out of navy wool, but after seeing this forest green I hemmed and hawed about it for a few minuets. 

I finally decided to go with my original plan and make it in navy.  There was even this great lavender gray silk on sale that I got for the lining.  I do really love the green and if this goes well maybe I'll make a second in green. 

Sewing the Steffi Jacket: The lining

I finished sewing the lining.  Here is my progress. 

And here is the finished lining with sleeves and all!

First, I am a pro at setting in those sleeves.  After doing something 4 times one should improve.  The silk was so floaty and slippery it made me crazy trying to sew it.  I finally gave in and went pin crazy, it was the only way this fabric would behave. 

There is a week before Simon and I go up to my parents for Thanksgiving, can I finish this jacket?  I'm going to take a small bite out of it everyday.  Here is the plan of attack.  To day I am going to hem the sleeves first on the lining and then on the jacket.  Tomorrow will be hand basting (crazy right) the lining to the jacket.  Then on Friday the facing will get attached.  Now here is where I'm torn.  I think I'm going to use some bias binging to finish the edge of the facing so that the edge isn't bulky and it is easier to sew it down to the lining.  If this is what I decide I will be doing that also on Friday.  On Monday (I take the weekends off if possible) I will hem the sleeves and tack the facing down to the lining.  Finally on Tuesday I will sew the button holes.  This is the part I am super nervous about.  Good thing I have that muslin to practice on.  Leaving me Wednesday to sew the buttons on to the Jacket.  Oh, and somewhere in there a trip to the fabric store is required to buy the buttons, and finishing a sweater.  Wish me luck!