Sorry, Lynn, this isn’t about tapestry, cut pile or card weaving. I did two of the three of those last week, and hoped to do the third, but this past weekend was really all about pattern drafting, pattern layout and sewing.
Installment three of the “Fit and Style” class I’ve been taking in Palm Springs was just Barbara and I – our other two classmates ended up having conflicts. Rather than trying to reschedule, Jeanne was kind enough to go ahead anyway and the session ended up going in a very different direction. We both had fabric ready to be cut and sewn, so after we drafted, tested and finalized our skirt basics (that went fast, BTW), the three of us started talking about what we really wanted to do. Barbara was hell-bent on making her skirt as she’d never really warmed up to making the shirt, plus that fabric wasn’t woven off, so her choice was easy and small enough to be finished before heading home on Tuesday. I was also having second thoughts about the simple shirt now that my production fabric was done. I wanted something a little, well, MORE from that fabric, so we decided to use the Horoscope Shawl and companion fabric to make a casual jacket.
As a reminder, here are the two fabrics I used:
The warp yarn is the same in both – Webs 14/2 Alpaca/Silk. I started with the light grey (the light warp yarn in the left-hand fabric) and dyed in 12 colors to match Bonnie’s warping plan. For the original shawl, I put a stripe in between each major section of the plan using the dark grey and wove it off with the same. For the companion piece, I used the leftover dyed warp, threaded in some-what random stripes and filled in the gaps with the undyed light grey. I wove this off with some single, tweedy, navy blue wool. They both went into the washer but the shawl received a brushing to soften the fabric and raise the nap. Sett was 24epi for both, plain weave.
After having made one kimono, without any special sleeve treatment, I knew that I wanted something just a bit more fitted and without as much bulk in the sleeves. I’d also come armed with four yards of muslin so Jeanne had me draft a simple jacket starting with my basic so that we could try it on and see where we could make simple modifications to give it a bit of fit and shape but still finish it before the weekend was over. I drafted the body, incorporating my shoulder slopes, and attached a simple rectangular sleeve. Neither of us liked that, so we went straight for a modified-T sleeve.
Again, a simple modification, so I attached that to the muslin on the other side, sewed the whole thing together and we looked again. The last modification before diving into drafting the final pattern was to taper the sleeve rather than having a simple rectangle. Overall length would be driven by how much fabric was there and that didn’t need to be done until the body was sewn. We pinned the muslin to get the sleeve shape in the ballpark and then used that to draft a paper pattern.
So, pattern pieces in hand and a test-fit out of muslin and it was time to go. We did some calculations for the button band and decided do a separate facing piece for the collar. Bottom hem would be addressed when we got there – either self-facing or with scraps from around the studio. Time to cut.
I don’t have pictures of the cutting/assembling process as we were moving really, REALLY quickly. I was up against it in that Sunday was cut and sew and we were still doing a bit of winging on the pattern. Jeanne was ever at hand to help me think through both the cutting and the piecing. I learned how to do the button band properly (something that absolutely eluded me when making the first kimono), we prevented mistakes by talking things through, figured out why the muslin was behaving oddly in the sleeve corner in front (my front is 1/2″ longer than my back due to shoulder curve) and just generally talking about how garments worked. While this was a “simple” pattern, it was nearly at the extreme of my ability. Given my pace, she offered up part of Tuesday morning to finish things up to where I’d be confident to complete it at home and that spurred me on enough to get the body sewn, button bands and collar facing attached, and the sleeves cut and attached before going to bed. That left closing the side seams/sleeves and addressing cuff and hem facing in the morning.
Next morning, we started bright and early at 7:30a and, by 10a, I had a finished jacket. Button bands, cuffs, collar facing and hems needed to be hand stitched down, but the rest was done. Button holes could be done on my own time. I jumped in the car, had a long and heavily delayed drive home (accident on I-5). I unloaded, had dinner, turned on the Tivo and started hemming. By 11p it was done, ironed and placed on a hanger. Today, I woke to this:
Honestly, I love it. It still has the overall fullness and shape of the kimono, but the bulk under the arms and on the body are gone. The jewel neck gives it a wonderful finished look and doesn’t disturb the overall vertical feel of the jacket. The two fabrics are absolutely different, but work together in a subtle and pleasing way. I’ve one minor issue with a seam under the left arm, but I can address that at my leisure. It’s totally wearable as is and I expect I’ll be wearing it a lot.
Detail of the set-in sleeve:
There are a lot of seams coming together here, and once we incorporated the difference in front/back length, it all worked out. Symmetry point of the sleeve is NOT where the shoulder seam hit – we had to bias it toward the back by 1/2″ and then all was well. I also learned about releasing this seam so that the fabric could lie flat.
Button band/hem facing:
The button band has interfacing to help stabilize as well. Sewn at the top and bottom, right sides together, before turning inside-out to give the sharp corner. Bottom hem facing was simply tucked inside the button band before tacking down. Facings all came from the companion fabric where possible, and are symmetric where possible.
Stripe sort-of matching:
When deciding how to cut the sleeves, I chose to mirror the overall colors of the horoscope shawl in an effort to disguise the set-in cuts as well as give a flow to the garment. I’m really happy how it worked out and looks deliberate – because it was! I also took pains to ensure that stripes matched at the shoulder seams as a misalignment would drive me absolutely batty. It wasn’t hard at all and I’m glad we did it.
So there you go. A busy weekend, lots of fun and learning, and I now have a pattern that I am confident I’ll use again and again. I need to raise that armhole opening by half an inch to better match the sleeve as I had a lot of easing to do, but I’ll do that when I make another one and then I’ll transfer to tag board. And, I’m already thinking of another one. And, AND! I feel confident enough that I could alter it a bit further to even take out more of that sleeve bulk. Yeah, this has been so worth it. Just fabulous.
And now I need to go dye some yarn. What did you guys do this weekend?
That is just WOW! Good for you! I’ll have more questions later (after work), but I can tell you I spent the weekend at the sheep & wool festival, and then in my garden, interspersed with lots of spinning Shetland. Two and a half hours of spinning Shetland equals one Matchless bobbin’s worth of singles. More later…
OK, now for the long version…
So, remind me – what did you start with for a pattern for the jacket? Did you start with the kimono pattern and then inset the sleeves, etc.?
What do you mean by “releasing this seam so the fabric would lie flat?”
Why not just use/alter a commercial jacket pattern? One with a classic set-in sleeve, to get rid of all or most of the sleeve bulk?
So what’s the next fabric you’re going to weave for a jacket?
I’m so proud of you for taking fabric you had woven as a shawl and making it into a jacket! I’m going to have to look again at some of my handwoven fabrics, I can see.
Ok – and now for the answers!
I didn’t start with any pattern other than my bodice sloper. We knew that an unstructured jacket is simply a big rectangle that’s slit up the middle and we also looked at the base fabric (the shawl) to see if we needed to piece the back. That answer was “no”, so I just made a muslin that was as wide as the fabric and incorporated the shoulder seam from my sloper. We guestimated a rectangular sleeve, sewed it onto the muslin and then looked. It was pure iteration and drawing on pattern paper and then transferring to muslin until I liked it.
As for “why not alter”, mainly because it was a spur-of-the-moment decision to make a jacket and we didn’t want to take the time to go to JoAnn or elsewhere. Plus, Jeanne knows how to draft a pattern and this was basically a dead-easy thing. As for classic set-in versus the modified-T, a classic set-in would have meant drafting a basic for a full sleeve. The bodice didn’t have sleeves – only the armhole opening. So, rather than going through the process of drafting a basic sleeve, we tried to (again) do something that’d serve the purpose but still be relatively quick. I could raise the armhole more and that would make for a less-bulky-still sleeve, but I didn’t want to go any higher. I’m happy with the bulk that’s there. The updated body and the shoulder shaping allow it, in my mind, to work well.
And, as for “what’s next”, I think it’ll be that cotton/wool that I enjoyed so much at the end of my shirt fabric. Or, some other kind light-weight blend. It needs drape as well as body for the pattern to work. Maybe something out of all 10/2 cotton. Who knows? I’m just tickled that I feel confident enough to make another one. :-)
Oh, and as for releasing the seam. There are seams in the underarm where there’s a corner cut into the body (think the bottom of the sleeve) that meets a corner of the sleeve. At that seam, I clipped the corner of the body so that the fabric wouldn’t pull against itself and it can lie flat. I’ll see if I can take/draw a picture. It’s like notching the outside of a curved piece of fabric so that it can lay flat. Make sense?
Woot!
Yep, that does make sense – I know exactly what you mean about notching a seam allowance to make it lie flat.