Gertie Coat Done! Butterick 5824

Y'all.  I made a coat.  I am seriously amazed and pleased:

 I impressed The Carpenter into taking some photos this morning:

 I can't believe this coat turned out exactly as I envisioned:

 Here's the back:

 The lining ended up being easy to sew, plus it makes the coat feel luxurious:

A few notes about the push for the end.  Hemming this coat ended up being not as bad as I feared, given the skirt on this thing.  The skirt edge of this coat is curved, so the raw edge is longer in length than the coat itself.  I ran long basting stitches along the raw edge of the skirt in order to gather up the bottom of the hem to the coat.  (Gertie shows you how to do this here.)  I used my longest stitch (stitch length 5 on my Bernina) and I used red thread in my bobbin, so as to better see the bobbin stitches that needed to be pulled (I used a safety pin to pull up the bobbin stitches).  Using matching thread would have made it extremely difficult to see the bobbin stitches.

Then I turned up the hem 1 1/2 inches and pressed the curved hem. The camelhair wool cooperated beautifully, as it has for this entire project.  I'll admit that this is the first time I have ever actually gathered a curved hem like this - when I'm making a dress that calls for this sort of hemming technique, I just put a smaller hem in it using hem tape and call it a day.  But I wasn't going to get away with that on this heavier and deeper hem.  Fortunately, it all worked wonderfully.

Then, instead of handstitching the hem to the coat, I used my blind hem stitch and did it by machine.  Much, much faster.  Then I pressed and steamed the heck out of it.  

Last were the buttons - I used the button thread I previously purchased and they went on with no problem.  And I was done!  With the exception of sewing the "Gorgeous Fabrics" label into the coat and doing the little bit of hand sewing on the bound edge of the skirt facing to the hem.  I'll do that tonight, but I wanted to go ahead and get photos now, since The Carpenter and I are leaving tomorrow for Italy for vacation.  I won't be taking the coat (the temps aren't going to justify lugging this to Italy), but when we get back it will be late autumn and I'll need it.

Last thoughts on this project:  I realize that by coat standards, this was an easy coat.  The shawl collar is very easy.  But the full skirt does make this coat a challenge - more to cut out, more fabric to buy, more coat to shove through the sewing machine as you finish the back of the buttonholes, etc. If you are rank beginner, a shawl collar coat with less of a skirt might be a better choice.  On the other hand, you have Gertie's step-by-step instructions, which are wonderful and I believe made my completion of this project possible.

Also, for those who are shorter in height, the skirt on this coat might overwhelm you.  I realize that at 5'5'' with a fairly standard frame I am lucky that this coat fits me right out of the envelope with no alterations needed.  

This coat was an experiment for me in "slow sewing" which I'm not used to.  I think taking my time on this project also made the completion possible.  Beginning in the spring, when coatings go on sale is a good strategy.  I cut out and constructed the outer part of the coat before the hottest part of the summer began, and then I picked it up again in October when it got cooler, but before I needed it, which I believe is excellent timing.  I simply could not work on this coat in the heat of the summer, no matter how much the air conditioning was cranking  - this wool was just to hot to handle.

All my post on this coat are here.  I'm so pleased I want to make another coat!!! (Not with this pattern - I think one of these is enough - but my confidence level has been boosted.)  I'll definitely plan another coat come this spring.  : )

Hollywood Comes to Town; Coat Update

I did not get my coat done in time for the opening of the Hollywood Costume exhibit at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, but it ended up being such a warm night, I didn't need it anyway.  I wore my dress I made for my company's Christmas party last year, along with a big crinoline underneath, because my philosophy is, if your dress ain't poufy, it ain't a party.  And where else would such a dress be appropriate but at a Costume party?

The exhibit was fantastic.  I had such a wonderful time and I was surprised by how many costumes were on display.  The original exhibit was put together by the V&A museum in London, and how the VMFA got it, I don't know, but kudos whoever was responsible for bringing it to Richmond!

Photography wasn't allowed, unfortunately, in order to preserve the costumes, but they are well worth preserving.  One of the first costumes to greet me as I arrived was Brad Pitt's costume from "Fight Club", complete with the red leather jacket worn by his character, Tyler Durden.  I figured this was the closest I was ever going to get to Brad Pitt, mostly because of the retraining order, so I was swooning all other the place.  Soon after, I feasted upon Helen Bonham Carter's day dress from "A Room With A View" where Lucy Honeychurch gets a passionate, possessive kiss from George Emerson in the field of barley in Italy.  

I was dying to see how all the cotton, linen, and laces were put together, and as a sewer, I wanted to turn up the lights and the skirt of the dress to check out how the costumer finished the seam allowances.  But alas, it was not to be!

There was a whole Elizabethan section - costumes from movies about Queen Elizabeth I or set in that era - and there was Gwyneth Paltrow's dress from "Shakespeare in Love", the scene when she is presented to the Queen for the approval of her marriage to the Earl of Wessex - it was exquisite - and Judy Dench's Queen Elizabeth costume from the same film as well.  Both of the dresses are in golds and creams, and they radiate opulence, even in the dim light of a museum.

Other notables - Daniel Craig's 007 tuxedo from "Casino Royale" and Mel Gibson's kilt from "Braveheart".  (Daniel Craig's shoulders must be really, really broad, and his waist is tiny.)  And so many others.  I learned a lot about costuming; how each detail of the outfit supports the character or mood of the film.  What really struck me was how different making a costume is from sewing clothes.  Many of the films that encompassed a particular historical period contained costumes that were not strictly historically accurate - the costumes were "interpretations" of the period and the mood of the film and character they dressed.  It was fascinating.  

I have become particularly obsessed with Tippi Hedren's green suit from Alfred Hitchcock's film, "The Birds".  Made in 1963, her suit consists of a subtle green tweed dress with a boxy jacket with three-quarter sleeves.  I looked at it and literally said, "I could make that."  I never cared for the film but I love the outfit.  What really surprised me were the patch pockets on the jacket - they reach all the way to the hem of the jacket, which I thought was a unique detail.  So I've been trolling the internet for more photos of the costume, and I have bought a 1962 pattern with a similar jacket and I've bought some wool tweed from Fabric Mart.  My obsession isn't quite complete, as I am sure I will return to the VMFA to check out that suit ensemble prior to making my own version!

So all I can say is:  go.  Go, and you will be amazed.  The exhibit is here until February, and I will definitely return.

But progress was made on the coat:  I finished the backside of my bound buttonholes, and I'm glad I did because I was worrying about it.  Gertie instructs you to use some silk organza if your wool is prone to fraying, but with the fusible interfacing, I figured I could do without it.  I think my first effort is pretty good:

I also went out and bought some thread specifically designed to sew on buttons:

I got it at Hancock's, and I figured I needed it because my metal buttons are heavier than the usual plastic buttons I use - and because they are shank buttons, using my sewing machine's button foot wasn't going to work.  I want to make sure once I sew these buttons on, they aren't going to come off.
Onward to hemming and finishing!

Butterick Coat 5824 Progress!

Today was the day when the outer coat and the inner lining came together in step 32 - very exciting!  But before I took that exciting step, I decided to do a little finishing work on the raw edge of the lining facing.  This isn't in the instructions, and Gertie suggests you finish this edge after hemming with a little seam binding or bias tape but I decided that finishing this edge before doing the hem would be easier.  Here is the edge I'm talking about:

Because the facing is fused with interfacing, this edge probably isn't going to unravel, so this finishing effort is for aesthetic reasons only - it will look prettier - and thus is completely optional.  To finish the edge I first cut two strips of the lining fabric one inch wide:

Then I pinned it to the edge and sewed it with a quarter inch seam:

 Then I folded the strip to the back of the facing, pressed it, and then stitched in the ditch on the right side to secure it:

 Here's what the back side looks like.  The edge of the strip is raw, but that is okay because it won't show and it will be enclosed between the outer coat and the lining:

 

This is generally how this edge will look like once I get it hemmed:

Most of the edge will be covered by the lining and by the hem, so only a short amount of my binding strip will show.  I probably spent way too much time on this step than was warranted, but I think it makes the coat look more professional.

Finally, the time had come for the actual joining of the coat and lining (step 32).  I did a bunch of pinning, and then I marked the hem seam at the bottom of the lining facing on each side of the coat to ensure everything was even:

 After sewing the above, I trimmed the heck out of that corner so it would turn properly.  Gertie instructs you to cut notches on the curved collar seams so your collar will lie flat, so I did, with my trusty tailors point scissors which worked great:

 She then instructs you to grade the seam allowances - the lining seam allowance from the waist up should be longer than the outer coat seam allowances, but the lining seam allowances should be shorter than the outer coat below the waist.  I trimmed the shorter seam allowance to a quarter of an inch, and the longer to about 3/8 of an inch.  It ended up being easier than I thought.

Next, you press those seam allowances open - this allows you to achieve a crisper edge later, and I did this step, but only up where it started to become difficult to press the curved collar seam - I left that alone and hoped for the best.

Gertie used silk thread to baste the coat layers in place before pressing and steaming the heck out of it to get the seamlines to roll to the underside.  I skipped the basting because that involves handsewing, and just used my hands to manipulate the layers of fabric so the seam would roll to the underside.  It helps that I am working with dark fabric, so any seamlines are difficult to see anyway.

So now I have a coat!  It still needs a ton of finishing work, but the basic pieces are together.  This was my first chance to really try it on, and it looks good.  Sleeves are a good length, everything looks good.  Whew.

And it feels heavy.  I'm glad I didn't go with a heavy wool - I can't imagine how heavy the coat would be if I had used a traditional coat weight wool.

The next step is finishing the back of those bound buttonholes.  In an effort to procrastinate on that step, I searched high and low for the buttons that I had bought for this coat so I could see how the buttons would look with the coat, and only after an exhaustive search did I finally realize that I had only bought buttons for this coat in my own mind - no such button purchase ever happened in real life.  I am now at that age where if I just think about doing something, then somehow my brain registers it as "done".  Pretty soon, I'll be able to hide my own Easter eggs . . .

The expensive fabric store, the one that sells a myriad of cool buttons, closes at 3:00 pm on Saturdays, so if I wanted to have any hope of finishing this coat this weekend, I knew I needed to hop over there and pick them out.  This is what I got:

 And here is a blurry photo of a trial run - the buttons are just laid on top of the bound buttonholes as a preview:

And that is where I stopped for the day.  I was tired, and knew making the openings in the front facing to match the buttonholes was going to be fiddly work (which includes, sigh, handsewing) so I gave myself permission to continue another day - hopefully tomorrow!

More Progress on the Coat Sew-Along . . .

I spent today taking care of those last steps before the coat lining and outer coat are sewn together.  The first is step 17 in the instructions, where you cut bias strips from your interfacing and fuse them to the hemline of your garment fabric.  Instead of cutting the bias strips when I initially cut out the pattern pieces, I waited until the skirt of the coat was constructed so I would know how many I needed.  Most patterns have the finished lower width of the garment printed on the back of the envelope, but Butterick 5824 doesn't.  

So I cut the 3 inch strips on the bias, and the instructions tell you to fuse the strips 5/8 of an inch below the hemline on the wrong side of the coat skirt.  Given that the hem on this coat is one and half inches, I did the math and that means that you need to place the bias strips 7/8 of an inch from the edge of the skirt like so:

I used my seam gauge to measure the 7/8 inch and then I pinned the interfacing strips with silk pins to the coat skirt.  I probably didn't need to do such careful measurement and placement - getting the strips a little above or a little below 7/8 of an inch isn't going to make much difference.  

I used plenty of steam to fuse the strips, pressing over the pins initially, and then removing them after the strips were fused well enough.  Then I used a lot more steam for the final press:

You can see that the ripples at the top of the interfacing strip were completely eliminated by the pressing:

The interfacing strips are going to provide a stable surface for the coat's hem, and reinforce the coat's bottom edge.  (In hindsight, I probably should have used black interfacing for this step as the lining of this coat is free-handing, but I wasn't going to put this project on hold just so I could order black interfacing and wait for it to arrive on the off chance that a breeze might cause my hemline to show one day.) 

The second step was hemming the lining.  The instructions have you hem the lining now before you attach the lining and outer coat together because it is easier to deal with just the lining.  Hemming the lining just means folding the lining edge up 5/8 of an inch, and then folding the raw edge towards the folded edge, and then top stitching.  It's simple, but not easy.  My polyester lining needed lots of heat and steam to get a good crease for both folds, so I experienced a lot of burned fingers.  It was fussy work, and this coat skirt is, as I have mentioned before, really, really voluminous.  I spent an hour and forty-five minutes getting the lining hem pressed, pinned, sewn, and pressed again.  

I took a break at that point, and contemplated going ahead and attaching the lining and outer coat together, but I decided to wait for another day - one thing I have learned on this project is that sewing when you are fresh and energetic yields much more pleasing results.  And it is more fun.

I've been reading and re-reading Gertie's posts on the final steps which are really helpful and contain tips that aren't in the pattern instructions, i.e. how to grade the seam allowances depending on the collar roll line, etc.  Hopefully, I'll be able to complete step 32 of the instructions next weekend.

It's That Coat Time of Year . . .

For most of September and October I was in a sewing funk, despite the fact that I made a dress (which I haven't blogged about yet) and I half-heartedly began cutting out a new dress (which I haven't even finished laying out yet).  I think the funk was because of two things:  1) we were in between seasons and I couldn't seem to get much enthused about sewing for summer or winter; and 2) work has been exceptionally busy and I've gotten so behind that my mind is too cluttered to sew.  And here I thought I sewed to escape work, but it turns out that I'm one of those people that needs to be caught up at work and on top of things in order to free my mind for sewing.  So having experienced our first frost, and feeling pretty good about work last night, I announced to the Carpenter that Saturday would be The Day to return to my personal coat sew-along, Butterick 5824, the coat that Gertie designed.  

When we last left off (on June 23rd!), I had completed the outer shell of the coat, and I was feeling pretty good about the whole project.  My bound buttonholes weren't perfect, but they functioned, and I was starting to hope that this project might actually happen!  Then I did what I usually do - I continued to research it ad nauseum by Goggling the pattern number and reading every single blog out there that made this coat.  And I found that a lot of bloggers seemed to cease progress at this exact point, where the outer shell of the coat was constructed.  This was puzzling because so many of the bloggers were amazing seamstresses - how could this be?????

After exhaustive reading, I could only surmise that Perfection had reared its ugly head.  Many of the bloggers seemed stuck on - what appeared to me - imagined imperfections in their work.  There were beautiful coats in progress, but I think a lot of the coats just weren't coming together according to the vision of the maker.  I suffer from this malady as well, and I try to remember that sometimes art happens when you create something that you didn't intend.

I think the other reason that some sewers stopped making progress was the realization that the next step was making the lining, which was basically making the entire coat all over again.  No small feat, given the amount of skirt on this coat. 

So the very next day, on June 24th, I decided to cut out the lining.  I figured that if I didn't get the lining cut out, I could procrastinate on this thing 'til spring, and by finishing the cutting out it would boost the odds that this coat got done.

Fortunately, I found that the lining pieces could be cut in a double layer lay-out, contrary to the instructions.  I also found that I had bought seven yards of lining fabric, which is the twice the amount I needed.  That was puzzling - did I click "add to cart" twice when I bought it from Gorgeous Fabrics?  I don't know, but having that much fabric allowed me to stop worrying about conserving fabric, and I just laid down the pattern pieces and got everything cut out that Monday evening.  Yay.

And there the lining pieces sat for the next four months.  It felt good to pick them up this morning and put together the bodice lining, and the skirt lining, and then join the two together.  Here is the finished lining:

I finished my skirt seam allowances by pressing them together, rather than open, and trimming them to 3/8 inch.  I then used my overlock stitch on my Bernina to keep them from unraveling.  I had no troubles with the lining construction except for joining the lining to the outer collar at the pivot points:

For the life of me, I couldn't get everything to match up, and my lining kept bunching up on me.  I tried sewing with the collar on top AND with the lining on top.  Finally, after repeated attempts, I just called it done and moved on.  It a lining anyway.  No one is going to see it but me.  But it is perplexing because I had no trouble with this step on the outer shell of the coat.  Beginner's luck, maybe?

But other than the pivot points, the slippery lining wasn't that bad to work with, and I think it is going to be perfect for this coat.  I'm getting excited about getting it done (again), and I hope to have it done in time for the opening of the Hollywood Costume exhibit at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.  I would love to wear it to see this exhibit which was organized by the V&A Museum in London.

The next step is to join the outer shell and the coat lining together, but first, I want to hem the lining before attaching it to the coat (it will be easier to hem with less coat to deal with), and I need to cut my bias strips from the interfacing and fuse them to the outer shell hemline (which is step 17 of the instructions).  

So onward and upward.  I have to remember not to let the perfect become the enemy of the good; or, done is better than perfect!

We have bound buttonholes . . . and more!

 My personal coat sew-along continues with Butterick 5824, and if you recall, I felt my two biggest challenges would be 1) all the cutting out, and 2) the bound buttonholes.  Well, after the cutting out, the first thing you do is the buttonholes.  So for better or worse, I would be getting the hardest part (I felt) out of the way at the beginning of this project.  I used Gertie's instructions from her book, and practiced with some cotton from one of my shirtdress projects about a month ago.  Not bad for a first try, although I machine stitched around these; I just wanted to get the order of the technique at first, so I didn't bother with handstitching:

Gertie recommends that you use scissors called tailor points to cut your buttonholes.  Gingher makes some good ones, but has re-named them "craft scissors" these days, probably as a wider marketing technique since there are few tailors out there, but lots and lots of crafters.  I bought them at Joannes and they are the most awesome scissors ever made because they are wickedly sharp right up to the points.  You need them to cut the little triangles in the ends of the buttonholes.  

I found that making the buttonholes in my drapey camelhair fabric more fiddly than making them in stable, and thinner, quilting cotton.  But I pressed onward, and was reminded once again that perfectionism is not only the death of creativity, but the death of productivity as well.  So without further ado, here are my coat bound buttonholes:

 Okay, not great.  But they will be covered by, you know, actual buttons.  Plus, I am fairly confident that these bound bottonholes will not become unbound, so I think we have achieved the goal.  In the end, I was pleased enough, but then I remembered, I'm not done with these bound bottonholes - stage II occurs at the end of this project went you have to make the corresponding openings in the facings.  I'll worry about that later.

After the bound buttonholes were done, the bodice came together fairly easily.  I was very glad that Gertie posted a video on how to sew the bodice front to the bodice back at the neckline.  I guessed right, but I liked having the video to confirm I was on the right track, rather than silently worrying that I had done it all wrong and one day my coat would fall apart.

After getting the bodice together, the only thing left to do was sew the skirt portion to the bodice portion (because, remember, I sewed the skirt first) and voila, I have a coat facsimile:

 The above photo was taken indoors.  This photo was taken out of doors:

 I tried it on and it looks awesome, but the 90 degree heat did not allow any photographs of me actually wearing it - one of the drawbacks of sewing your winter coat six months early.  I am really pleased the way this project is coming along.  My biggest challenge has actually ended up being trying to mark the fabric.  Alone, my usual white pen is useless, as is carbon paper, and tailors' chalk.  I ended up using all of these devices to mark darts, circles, and buttonholes:

I used the red thread to mark the circles - I don't know if my thread marks could be call tailors' tacks, since I'm not sure I did them right, but I got 'er done.  I found the best method of marking on this fabric was to use the tailor point scissors for marking notches, and then, right before I was going to sew a dart, use the carbon paper and tracing wheel between the pattern and fabric.  As soon as I removed the pattern, I traced over the dart with the tailors chalk, and then immediately pinned and sewed the dart.  Even as I pinned and sewed the lines were disappearing on me.  And ironing removed all marking entirely. 

So steps 1 through 16 are done!  I'm letting the coat hang for awhile to see if the skirt stretches before I interface the hem.  The next steps for me will be to cut out the lining (cutting out again, sigh), and making the lining bodice and skirt, attaching them together.  Bascially, I have do everything I just did, but with lining fabric.  It's like making the coat twice.  Good thing I started this six months early!

Parting shot:  A photo from the early 1930's from the Library of Congress.  It was taken in Coffee County, Alabama, which is one county over from Cotton Creek, AL, and I like it because it reminds me of the house my father grew up in.  (He was born in 1936.)  His childhood home looked just like this - no paint, with a fire place and a stove.  I imagine this is how his mother cooked:

Apparently, That Coat Isn't Going to Sew Itself

So I cut out my garment fabric for my personal Butterick 5824 coat-so-along, like three or four weeks ago, and I guess my unconscious plan was that if left alone long enough, the coat would just rise up and sew itself.  Unfortunately that hasn't happened, so I decided this morning was The Day To Start.  I began as I usually do:  with the skirt.  I know this is unorthodox.  One usually begins with the bodice of any dress or coat, not the skirt; the thinking being that the bodice is more complicated to fit and you can easily incorporate any changes in your side seams to your skirt after you have sewn your bodice and figured them out.  But since I don't bother with such things as muslins and fitting (!), I like to start with the skirt.

For several reasons.  First, after I have spent so much time cutting out a project, I just want to jump into it and start to sew.  The bodice of a garment is usually more complicated, and the skirt portion is usually just straight sewing.  By beginning with the skirt, I feel like I am starting off with a bang!  Second, by beginning with the easier skirt portion of the garment, I can get used to the drape and feel of the fabric, how it behaves while pressing, and any other weird characteristics.  I can also check out how my marking tools are working on the fabric.  Third, when I am in the middle of a project, and I have finished the (what seems like a really complicated) bodice, I get frustrated when I have to stop and make the skirt portion.  I prefer to have the skirt done already, so when I get my bodice done (finally), I can just sew the two together, and voila! have a reasonable facsimile of a dress or coat.  Again, it fools me into believing that I am making great progress, dear readers.

And I had added incentive to begin with the skirt on this project because of the dreaded bound buttonholes.  Beginning with the bodice meant that the bound buttonholes would come a little too quickly for my liking.  : )  Never underestimate the sin of sloth, y'all.  I am lazy as hell.

The skirt went together with no problems.  Wool is usually a pleasure to work with, and this camelhair wool is particularly so.  It presses beautifully.  I did discover that my white marking pen doesn't work well with this fabric because the marks just disappear under the steam of the iron, so I am going to have to figure out some other system when it comes time to make the bodice.  Having my marks disappear on me with the skirt was no big deal because it was easy to remark them, but the bodice will have way more marks and complicated indicators.  I'm not certain what I am going to do, but I may be forced to use the method I have avoided for eleven years:  tailor's tacks.  Let's just hope it doesn't come to that.

I went ahead and finished the seam allowances since the lining is a free hanging lining.  I used my sewing machine's overlock stitch since my serger is on the fritz and it needs servicing.  I've never really bonded with it anyway, so I usually rely on my Bernina overlock stitch.  My method was to sew the seam, then finish the seam allowances for that seam, then press.  Then I moved onto the next seam.  Which is different than normal - I usually sew all the seams and then finish all the seam allowances.  But with the sheer number of seams involved here, I decided I would rather finish them as I go than to finish them all at once because I would find that incredibly boring.  It took me about three hours to make the skirt.

There's a whole lotta skirt to this coat as it is a full circle skirt.  I tried to get a nice photo so you could see the color of the fabric, but today is a dreary sunless day.  Here it is:

(Someone showed up for her close up.)  I had to use my wide angle lens to get this whole skirt in the photo.  You can't see the fabric very well, but you can see the color - this is pretty true to life.  It is a dark, dark green - nearly black, but not really.  I'll try to get a close up of the fabric when there is more natural light.

Most of this coat is skirt.  By putting together the skirt pieces, I was able to free up lots of cut out table space:

Since I often sew things out of order, I check off the steps I have completed on the directions:

So I have completed steps 1, and steps 10 through 15 of this project.  Yay!  By completing the skirt and freeing up my cut out tables, I was able to then cut out another shirtdress, the New Look pattern 6180:

I'm making view "B" the blue on the far right lower corner.  This may be the summer of shirtdresses.  I may have to make every shirtdress pattern currently in print.  : )

Cutting Out, Phase I: Complete!

My personal coat-sew-along on the Butterick 5824 1950's coat by Gertie continues.  One of the two challenging aspects of this project was upon me:  cutting out.  My goal was to get the camelhair wool garment pieces cut out and then rest on my laurels for awhile.  As Gertie has mentioned, the layout for cutting is single layer.  Which means you have to cut one pattern piece, remove the pattern, set the cut-out fabric piece aside, flip the pattern piece over, cut the second piece, put the two layers together (carefully matching the edges), and then reattach the pattern piece to both.  And remain aware of which side is the "wrong" side for each piece.  This is not for the faint of heart.

I knew I needed a day where I was well rested and there was plenty of light because my fabric is such a dark green, it looks black.  This Saturday morning was the day.  Gertie says you need two hours for the cutting out process. I was doubtful that I could manage that, so I timed myself just to try to make the process sorta fun.

On the coat sew-along Flicker site, I saw one photo where a sew-alonger laid all her fabric out on a large tile floor in her house.  I envied her large surface space until I realized she was going to have to crawl around on her hands and knees on that hard tile to cut out her coat.  Here was my cutting set up:

It basically consists of two tables, end to end, in my living room to handle the sheer volume of fabric.  In retrospect, I should have put the tables side by side to make a wider surface so that none of the fabric hung over the sides, but by the time I figured this out, the Carpenter had already left the house and I didn't want try move the tables by myself. 

You know how all the sewing books tell you to make sure your fabric doesn't hang off the table when you are cutting out to avoid distortion?  Well, I never paid attention to it and never had a problem with it.  But my camelhair wool is both drapey and a somewhat heavier weight than what I am used to.  And I found with my first pattern piece, number 6 (which is the side back skirt pattern piece), the fabric was definitely distorted.  When I put my two number 6 pieces together after cutting them out separately, I discovered the hemline was a little too long on one side and a little too short on the other, but I decided this wasn't catastrophic as I could compensate when it came time to hem.

So from then on, I spent a lot of time moving the fabric around in order to pin the pattern pieces, while also making sure none of the rest of the fabric hung from the tables.  As you can imagine, this process got easier as I continued to cut because my fabric yardage decreased as I progressed.  But it required that each piece be pinned and cut one at a time.

I also discovered while cutting the first pattern piece that I laid my pattern so that nap on my coat will go up rather than down.  I suppose it doesn't matter which way your nap goes as long as it goes all the same way, but I would have preferred it going down.  But let's pretend this is a deliberate design choice on my part rather than a result of my inattention to detail, shall we???

One decision I needed to make was which fabric to use for the pockets.  Gertie suggests using the wool fabric for that portion of the pocket closest to the body, and the lining fabric for the other side of the pocket, to reduce bulk.  But I hate wearing gloves in winter, and I have a tendency to jam my hands in my pockets to keep them warm, so I cut all four pocket pieces from the camelhair wool to make my pockets as warm as possible.

After two hours and seven minutes into the cutting out process, I took a break and made myself brunch.  Then I went to the fabric store to buy more pins.  I could have gathered errant pins by walking barefoot in my sewing room but I went the wuss route and just bought more.

I resumed in the afternoon, and by the time I finished, I probably spent about three and half hours cutting out.  This does not include marking - I'll mark the pieces as I use them.  I just don't have the energy for marking all the pieces right now.  I also discovered that I had nearly a yard left over.  I think this is due to buying a little more fabric than the pattern called for, and doing everything I could to conserve fabric while I was cuting out.  I used the leftover fabric to re-cut pattern piece number 6 again which made me feel immensely better - and I found that I had no problem cutting both pieces at the same time by folding the fabric.  So I am puzzled by pattern's instructions to cut this out single layer, at least for the skirt pieces.  I can only assume that the single layer layout is to conserve fabric, and the double layer may not work if your fabric is anything less than 60 inches wide.  My was, and I wish I had figured this out sooner.  I'll remember this, though, when it comes time to cut out the lining.

So the garment fabric is finally cut.  It isn't marked.  And I've decided to wait and cut out the lining when I need it - I just can't face it now.  The temptation is to jump in and start sewing, but I'm resisting this.  I see this coat as an exercise in restraint and slow sewing - virtually unknown to me - so I am making myself put this aside for a while and work on a dress I have in progress.  I have to remember this coat is marathon, not a sprint!

P.S. You may notice I didn't do a muslin for this coat.  I don't like muslins.  And yes, I realize I'm taking a big risk, but this is a coat, not a close fitting garment, and the finished measurements printed on the pattern lead me to believe I'll be fine.  : )

The Cutting Out Process Begins . . .

Having procrastinated as long as I possibly could on the new coat, I faced facts:  I was going to have begin.  First step:  pre-shrink my camelhair fabric that was not inexpensive.  Shrinking your wool before you sew it into a garment is way smarter than shrinking afterwards.  Gertie speaks of the dryer method, which involves putting your beloved fabric in a hot dryer with a wet towel and letting it tumble for a long while.  I have never tried this method, and frankly I am suspicious of it.  It sounds like an excellent way to felt your wool, if you are going for that.  I am not, so I was leary of putting my not-cheap fabric in a dryer and giving it a spin.  Usually, I pre-shrink my wool by pressing it with with plenty of steam on my trusty old ironing board.  But those prior projects involved wool skirts or dresses, not 6 1/2 yards of 60 inch wide fabric.  That's a whole lot of fabric to press on a twelve inch wide ironing board.

So I took it to my local cleaners and ask the young guy manning the counter to steam press it, but not clean it.  "You know, like a tablecloth."  He nodded, and seemed to get it, so I left my precious fabric with him, and picked it back up five days later, neatly pressed and hanging on a hanger.  They only charged me $ 7.49, so it was a major step forward for the great coat sew-along.  : )

Second step:  cutting out.  The dreaded cutting out stage- arrgghhh!  My first decision was whether to begin by cutting the garment fabric, the lining fabric, or the interfacing.  One thing I noticed about the skirt portion of the pattern was that the lining was to be cut several inches shorter than the garment skirt.  Normally, I just fold the extra length up and out of the way when cutting out the lining of skirt so as to not cut the skirt pattern pieces, but this skirt is a circle skirt - folding it up isn't practical.  So I considered tracing the skirt pieces to specifically make the skirt lining pattern pieces, but this skirt consists of four different pattern pieces.  I have neither the time nor the energy for that.

So I decided the garment pieces would be cut first, and the lining later, and I would actually cut the skirt pattern pieces shorter while cutting out the lining.  This caused me a bit of distress because I like to have a pattern intact in case I ever use it again.  But to alievate my concern and give myself permission to cut those skirt pieces shorter when I cut out the lining, I made a deal with myself that when the Butterick patterns go on sale again, I'll buy another Butterick 5824, so I'll have an intact pattern should I ever decide, however unlikely, to make this coat again.

THAT issue finally resolved, I decided to start by cutting out the interfacing first.  Mostly because of laziness.  The pattern only requires two pattern pieces, number 11 and 8, to be cut from interfacing.  Plus, it makes more sense to me to cut the fusible interfacing first, fuse it to the garment fabric, and then cut out the pattern piece.  In essence your interfaced piece becomes your pattern.  This ensures that your interfacing and garment fabric perfectly match in shape and size.  It makes no sense to me to cut your garment fabric, then cut the interfacing piece, and then try to match the two up when you fuse the two together.

Pattern piece number 11 is the skirt front facing.  It is a rectangle, so rather than use the tissue pattern to cut it out, I just pulled out the rotary cutter and cut a rectangle of interfacing 6 7/8 inches wide by 29 inches long.  Then I put the pattern piece on top of my interfacing and made my markings.  That piece is on the far left:

In the middle is pattern piece number 8 which is the upper collar and front facing.  The piece on the right is an optional step that Gertie offered here.  The purpose of this extra interfacing is to support the undercollar.  Because I was the kid that always did the extra credit homework at school, I knew I had to do this completely optional step.  Plus, my camelhair wool really is pretty lightweight, so the extra support is probably warranted. 

To cut this piece out, you have to draft your own pattern piece which follows the roll line of your collar.  I followed Gertie's instructions, going so far as to move my laptop to my cutting table so I could refer to it step by step.  I had to look at the photos several times, but I think I managed to draft the pattern successfully, and then I cut out my two fusible pieces as directed.

As this point, the only interfacing left to cut was 3 inch bias strips to be used on the coat's hem.  I thought about going ahead and cutting these bias strips since I had the rotary cutter and mat out and ready to go, but I decided against it.  I wasn't sure how many bias strips to cut (the pattern doesn't give the skirt's circumference) and I was pretty sure that if I went ahead and cut these bias strips now, I wouldn't be able to find them when it came time to actually apply them to the skirt.  So I'll wait on that step.

Whew.  That's enough for now.  And all I managed was cutting three pattern pieces of interfacing.  See why this is going to take me six months to make this coat????  : )

I'm Really, REALLY Late To This Party

I'm just a hem away from finishing Vogue 8648, but I wanted to blog about joining Gertie's 1950's Coat Sew-Along.  Here's the pattern, Butterick 5824:

I love my Pendleton winter coat, but it just got me through my third or fourth winter and it is starting to look a bit worse for wear, so I'm all excited about sewing my first coat, despite the fact that it is Spring, not Fall, and Gertie ended her Sew-Along like, six months ago.  I am not to be deterred.  This is all part of my master plan.  No, really.

Ok, the actual story is that I found out about Gertie's Sew Along when she announced it, but I knew there was no way I would actually be able to choose my fabric and gather my supplies in time to begin with everyone else.  I am a ditherer.  I knew it would take me months to select just the fabric I wanted, and I didn't want to feel like I was choosing and sewing with a deadline breathing down my neck - that's too much like work.  So in my mind, I gave myself six months to get it together, thus giving myself another six months to actually sew the coat - plenty of time before next winter.  I must say, I don't know how to make sewing a coat any less stressful than that.

And dither I did.  First, I waited for a $ 1.99 sale of Butterick patterns at my local Hancocks to obtain said pattern.  Then I went to work looking for the exact right fabric.  In my mind, I wanted something, I don't know, red, maybe.  With cashmere in it.  That was the dream.  In the end I went for this from Gorgeous Fabrics.  It is not red, but a green so dark it looks black.  But I didn't buy it for the color, I bought it for fabric content.  It is made of camelhair.  Did you know that camelhair fabric is made from, you know, actual camel hair?  I did not.  I thought the term referred to the color, since most camelhair jackets men wear are a camel tan color.  But I learned that camelhair is made from the wool on the underbelly of the camel which is very warm and very soft.  And this particular camelhair is very light and drapy, something I felt was perfect for this coat design which has a whole lot of circular skirt to it.  Stiff and heavy is not what this pattern needs.  I was particularly interested in a wool that was VERY warm; if I am going to all the trouble to sew a coat, I want it to be worth my time - this coat needs to be the warmest garment ever fashioned . . .

Then of course, I had to wait for it to go on sale.  I bought my lining at the same time, same place, also on sale, here.  It's a seafoam green and a drapey rayon, so it should get the job done. 

Finally, there was the interfacing.  Gertie recommended this Pro-Weft medium-weight fusible interfacing from Fashion Sewing Supply and it arrived this week.  So I am officially out of excuses.  The coat must be begun.  I only have six months until cold weather shows up again.

I am very intimated by this project, so again, I'm going easy on myself and giving myself six months to get 'er done.  All of Gertie's posts for this project are here.  From reading the pattern instructions and Gertie's posted instructions, I think my two biggest challenges are going to be 1) cutting out; and 2) the bound buttonholes.  Cutting out involves the camelhair fabric (all 6 1/2 yards worth of 60 inch fabric) and the lining, and the interfacing.  Setting aside the fact that I am a slow-cutter-outer, the layout of the pattern pieces involves cutting one layer at a time - which is a huge PITA. 

And my experience with bound buttonholes consists of trying a practice buttonhole once, like nine years ago and saying, "nah", and proceeding to make stitched buttonholes instead.  But I think this fabric and project deserve bound buttonholes, and blessedly, there are only two.  I'll give it a go.

Because this is a big project for me, I'll be working at it a little at a time, with other projects in between.  This is unusual for me; I prefer to work on one project at a time, completely finishing and putting everything away before starting the next garment.  This gives me a sense of accomplishment and order.  Well, what little order I can manage in a sewing room with no order whatsoever.

My plan is to blog about my progress and my thought process on how I approach a project like this (since I absolutely did not have time to do the blogging I would have liked on my wedding dress), but I predict what my blogging will really reveal is how neurotic I am.  Won't this be fun???  : )