Taking a Break

I'm taking a little break from working on my FSG 1945 jacket. It is coming along fine, but it's hard to be motivated to work on a jacket when it's been over 100 degrees every day. Here's my progress so far. I'm ready to cut out and sew the lining. That will also help the collar to roll more nicely than it looks here on the dress form.












I don't know what has happened to my dress form, but she is having a serious posture problem. This is a vintage dress form and you adjust the measurements from a series of bars with screws and wing nuts on the inside. I have all of the proportions right, but she is leaning forward and her butt is sticking out. It's kind of hard to tell how anything will fit or hang with her standing like this. I'm not really sure how to fix her. I've tried, but this seems to be the best I can get.















There are still so many things I want to make to wear NOW. I got some linen the other day from Fabric Store and decided to put it to use. I bought McCalls 5664 a while ago and it looked like it would be a good match for the fabric. I am doing it in all white (no colored bow) so that it will go with more colors. This also is taking a little longer than I thought it would.








This time I was smart and looked at the other reviews on Pattern review. Because of what I had read, I decided to go ahead and add an inch and a half to the front to make it longer. Well, when I got to the point to try that on, I realized that it was still a couple of inches shorter in the front than it was on the sides! There are wide gussets on the sides, so I used my curved ruler and took about 3" off the side seam, curving down to the hem at the front of the gusset. I also ended up taking another inch or so off the back, because since there are no darts in the front, added length is needed there, even if you just want it to hang evenly all around.

This blouse has a placket in the front and I am pleased with how mine turned out. I think the key to making a good placket is to mark carefully. This one didn't turn out perfectly, but unless you are examining it (which you will, when I put up a picture!) it looks just fine.

I've got the collar sewn on and just need to slip stitch the inside of the collar band. Hopefully I can get the sleeves and hem done tomorrow and I will be finished! I could get it finished tonight, but DH needs me to run a few errands with him. My back is protesting anyway from too much sewing today!

1945 progress - sleeve

I've been working on my jacket little bits at a time. You can see here that I have all of the pieces of the shell sewn together except for the sleeves. At this point, I realized that my pocket was too large and would be running into the seam between the facing and the front, so I cut that down smaller. As you can see, there are a lot of seams in this jacket! But, that's the great thing about it, because you can really get the fit right - which always seems to be my nemesis!






I really like to use my tailor's board when making a jacket or shirt. You can really get into those tight spots and press everything well. People at my work always say that my clothes don't look homemade (thank goodness). I tell them it's because I spend more time at the ironing board than the sewing machine! Good pressing really makes a huge difference.













OK, so now the fit issue. I started this jacket by cutting 12 in the shoulder and then tapered to a 14 at the hip. I could tell that the upper bodice was too big, so I cut the pieces down to a size 10 above the bust and resewed them. I then removed 3/4" from the shoulder and tapered it down to the original seamline at the bottom of the armscye. I still have too much fullness above the bust, so I am going to need to take some more off the front bodice above the bust. Also, I think I need to take the sleeve in a little bit, since I orignially cut it as a 12 and I probably need to cut it down to an 8. I am trying this on over jeans, but I can see that I'm going to also need to take it out a little in the hip area.

1945 Progress

I got to do a little sewing tonight. Last night I sewed the center back seam, and the plaid did not match at all. It took me forever to rip out black thread on this black background boucle! So tonight, I basted the back pieces(4), side seams, and shoulder seams together with yellow thread! I was expecting to have to make a lot of fit adjustments, but this seems to fit nicely across the back as it is.

I'm not sure how much room I need to leave here for the sleeves, but it seems like the armscye's are too big. Maybe I need to move the shoulder point in a bit?

Also, it seems like there may be some excess fabric just above the bust at the armscye. I usually have this problem and always feel like things would fit better if I took a dart at the arm. This has a princess seam that goes into the arm, so maybe I should take it in a little there.

What do you think?

a welt pocket

I have been cutting and fusing for the last three evenings. I took this picture last night of the pieces I had fused so far. Each of these is a double layer. That's a lot of cutting and fusing!! I love the fusible underlining that I get from Nancy Erickson. All of the pieces that are not interfaced are fused with this underlining. It is just enough to help the boucle hold its shape, and keeps it from raveling all over the world. Tonight I cut the underlining for and fused the center backs, side backs and side fronts. Finally I am finished with that part!!

The first thing you do in this patter is to make the welt pockets (if you choose them over patch or inseam pockets. I decided to make a practice one first. The instructions in this pattern were so easy and clear, that it came out almost perfectly the first time. (I say almost, because you can see a little bit of my stitching, but I was using contrasting thread for practicing anyway. This wouldn't show if I were using black.) Unfortunately, the beauty of the welt pocket is kind of lost on this fabric, but I wanted to do it this way anyway. The green stitching you see is the whipstitching that holds the pockets closed during construction. It will be removed (in the real one) after construction is completed. Maybe tomorrow I'll get to sew one seam :-)