The Sewing Place

Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - Popeye09

Pages: [1]
1
Technical Help / Re: 70's double breasted suit poject
« on: December 28, 2020, 18:01:19 PM »
If you're watching youtube videos, this series might be of interest:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6tlEoqDKT0&list=PL6wdXAvg4DOEngOR93SkkVK8Tb0AvmwJv

It's not a tutorial, and I'm not saying you'll want to copy it exactly, but for inspiration and picking up little bits and bobs it could be good. I've made a few jackets and coats with tailored canvases made by basically eyeballing something vaguely similar to what he's doing here, and they've come out okay!

My personal thoughts as a non-tailor who's bodged made a handful of jackets, take from them what you will:
* I agree with all all the comments about wool. If you can find one that's climate-appropriate, then wool (or at least a high-wool blend) is so much nicer to work with and coax and steam into shape.
* Don't waste any money you spent on a nice wool by balancing out the budget with a cheap, unbreathable lining!
* If you can source the materials, tailoring a canvas lining is involved, and time-consuming. It'll almost certainly take longer than the actual jacket it supports. But it's also very doable, if you want to go for it. Also, constructing a jacket (never mind the rest of the suit) is an involved bit of sewing to start with. So you're already investing quite a bit into it. Is it worth the extra? Your call.
* If you don't normally baste seams before sewing and use pins instead, do yourself a favour and make an exception for setting in your jacket sleeves! (pin in place, hand baste, take out pins, sew)
* Similarly if you don't normally make toiles, consider doing so for the jacket.
* The most important bit of the fit is in the collar and the shoulders. Everything else kind of hangs off that.
* If you're going to go for a quicker fusible interfacing approach but want to try and do a modest bit of tailoring, you might consider attempting a properly tailored canvassed collar. For a reasonably small bit of padstitching, it'll probably add the most class!
* Your pattern will probably call for shoulder pads, but don't forget some sort of sleeve head too. You don't need anything special for them, just whatever you have lying around of the right weight and stiffness. I tend to use strips of scrap canvas for support with a wider strip of scrap domette or self-fabric on top to soften the shape.

2
In the wardrobe / Re: Cross grain jeans?
« on: November 14, 2019, 18:38:10 PM »
@snoozi soozi  Yep, they're Thread Theory's Fulford pattern. With additional horizontal seams obviously!

3
In the wardrobe / Re: Cross grain jeans?
« on: November 14, 2019, 10:45:19 AM »
Just a quick update, they're done! (and apparently the same colour as the door  0_0)




4
In the wardrobe / Re: Cross grain jeans?
« on: September 11, 2019, 22:06:03 PM »
Cheers all!

5
In the wardrobe / Cross grain jeans?
« on: September 11, 2019, 00:03:02 AM »
Let's say for sake of argument that I had a couple of denim remnants that had enough surface area to squeeze two pairs of jeans out of, but the lengths meant that I could only get the main fronts and backs out whole for one pair. I could get the second pair out by piecing together a couple of legs lengthways and trying to make horizontal knee seams look like a trendy feature.

Alternatively, the second set of fronts and backs would come out whole if I cut them on the cross grain. My gut instinct is that maybe denim is a directional enough material that weird stuff would happen if I tried this. Am I right? Is it crazy talk? Or would it work?

Any advice/experience gratefully received, otherwise I'll start thinking how to make flat-felled knee seams look intentional. :D

(It's a 10 or 11 oz non-stretch denim, for what it's worth.)

6
In the wardrobe / Re: Mans tweed jacket
« on: April 04, 2019, 10:59:04 AM »
I think it should be possible. There shouldn't be anything that's intrinsically unmanageable, it's just a case of taking each step at a time and not expecting to be able to rush it.

I'm not sure if it's particularly any more like sewing a shirt than sewing dresses would be. Sewing tweed is actually one of the nicest fabrics to work with! Maybe the structural elements (canvas or interfacing or whatever methods you use) might be one of the important differences to look out for in making a jacket?

7
Fun with Fabric / Re: hair canvas for waistband
« on: March 11, 2019, 17:45:37 PM »
I think it's probably one of those things where you'd want to feel it in your hands to get an idea, but I think you'd be looking at body canvas rather than chest canvases. I have made trousers with a fairly stiff linen canvas before and while it worked, I think it was a mistake unless you like very rigid waistbands!

8
I don't really have a "stash" as such in that I don't tend to buy fabric pre-emptively, I just get it for immediate purposes. I do have a box of off-cuts left over from previous things though. And I'd been planning for ages to make a tailor's ham and sleeve roll with some leftovers, but I hadn't got round to it. So thanks to this challenge for bumping me into actually getting around to doing it last night!



De-stashed length (drumroll please)...

...12".  0_0

9
Fun with Fabric / Re: Do you wash fabric?
« on: January 07, 2019, 14:32:09 PM »
To me, it seems like such a small effort to prewash it that it would be silly not to!

As well as any shrinkage issues, if the fabric was folded or squashed or whatever (say it came through the post) then by washing, drying and ironing it seems to make laying out and cutting easier because you've relaxed it and removed any strains that were in the fabric more throughly than if you just ran the steam iron over it.

10
Fun with Fabric / Re: Toile fabric
« on: December 06, 2018, 16:07:58 PM »
If your cheap toile fabric is light in colour that's always a bonus too, since you can draw any fitting markings straight onto it with marker pens.

11
Technical Help / Patterns: tight back advice
« on: December 06, 2018, 02:16:16 AM »
Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone could help diagnose something? I've had a bit of a "google" and while there are many instructions of different adjustments, there are so many I'm not sure entirely what I'm after!

The recurring problem seems to be that often things seem to fit okay if I stand still and have plenty of ease across the chest and generally have good movement in the arms, except when I move my arms across my body in which case it pulls tight across the back, straight across between the middle of the armholes. I'm sure it means I have terrible posture of some description but it doesn't necessarily seem to be a problem up and downwise (it's not like hems pull up at the back or anything), but more acrosswise. I know when previously attempting (unsuccessfully!) to draft a body block there was a significantly bigger difference between my shoulder-to-shoulder measurements in the back and front than seemed to be expected.

Does that ring a bell with anyone to what this fitting issue is called so I can work out which of the myriad of pattern adjustment techniques I ought to have a look at? Many thanks for any help!  :D

12
Technical Help / Re: Handsewn buttonhole novice
« on: November 23, 2018, 11:02:00 AM »
Kenton's do silk buttonhole thread, that's what it looks to me like they're using to sew the buttonhole in your video. But they don't do the gimp I think. Is this company any use for that? (I haven't used them myself)

https://www.theliningcompany.co.uk/threads/button-hole-gimp/button-hole-gimp/

(I've just noticed they have a menu of buttonhole silk colours too. No more cross-referencing a colour chart scavenged from the recesses of the internet against Kenton's massive drop-down list of numbers, wahoo!)

13
Sewing Machines / Re: Walking Foot
« on: November 16, 2018, 02:26:48 AM »
I tend to leave mine on unless I need a special foot or I specifically want to ease in a seam.

But times when it seems especially useful are going through heavy layers or sewing across seams or other lumps. So topstitching a jacket edge say, or flat felling jeans seams. It also sews Lycra like a boss.

14
In the wardrobe / Re: Winter coat
« on: October 27, 2018, 14:57:26 PM »
I have previously marked on buttonhole positions with a bit of basting thread and then tried then out the positioning with safety pins before cutting them once the coat is made. I've often wanted to shift them about a smidge for the actual hang of the finished thing, so maybe that's a bonus of doing them later on?

(If it coincides with snooker on the telly, I'm always happy. I reckon one hand-sewn buttonhole per frame is a good speed!)

Pages: [1]