Saturday, June 08, 2013

Spring Coat - Progress Report 2

I have made a little bit of progress on my jacket since Wednesday's post and I thought I would share a bit of my progress.  First, the book I am using to help improve my tailoring skills, The Classic Guide to Sewing the Perfect Jacket - Tailoring

Source: Barnes & Noble


One more step before I could sew, adding interfacing for shoulder reinforcement.  I used  Fashion Sewing Supply's Fusible Hair Cloth Canvas for this part


Next up, the most apprehensive part for me - BOUND BUTTONHOLES!  A few weeks ago, I purchased,  Did You Make That's The Bound Buttonhole e-book.  What an excellent resource to help me make these bound buttonholes.  I used all the steps and made two test buttonholes, which went together very smoothly with the help of the e-book.  There was only one problem, the fabric I had cut for the welts frayed like crazy.   What next? That was the question of the day.  My first thought was to used a contrast for the welts, a denim I used on my pink Burda pants.  I made another bound buttonhole with the pink and put the picture up on Instagram for a vote on which fabric.

Do you have a preference?  The self-fabric won on Instagram, so self-fabric it is.  One thing from the pink denim I learned is the fabric did not fray and that made the process much easier.  At the end of the 
e-book, Karen has other sources for bound buttonhole tutorials.  That started me looking for another method for the fraying fabric.  I went with Sara's from Colette Patterns

The main difference - Karen's e-book as two small pieces for the welts, Sara's uses a large bias-cut rectangle and you fold the lips.  The larger piece worked better for my fraying fabric.

 I did use all the markings from Karen's e-book, wanted to make sure the buttonholes were straight down the front and level.
 Another change, I sewed my buttonholes on the wrong side.  My fabric has so much texture and colors, my basting lines were very hard to see.  This worked well and here is a buttonhole, between the wording.  I am so pleased with the two buttonholes on the yoke piece.

Next I attached the lower front to the yoke and the lines vertically match so nicely (it did take 4 times!).  I maybe should of matched the horizontal lines but this is pretty darn good and I am very pleased.

Now I plan on doing the last two bound buttonholes on the lower front.  I wanted to get the two pieces seamed together so the spacing was equal between the upper and lower piece.  Maybe I will get to these tonight, we will see as grandson is coming to spend the night.  His parents are having a get-away for their anniversary.  All four of us (hubby, twins and I) are so excited, I think the little guy will get spoiled a bit!


7 comments:

  1. Lori, I really like the bound b- holes both ways, self fabric and pink denim. Looks like this will be a beautiful coat. Have fun spoiling that grandbaby!

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  2. It's going to be great spring coat.

    And have fun with the GS!

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  3. wow, that bound buttonhole with the self-fabric is amazing! it blends right in!!

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  4. Anonymous2:43 PM

    This is going to be so awesome! It really looks great! Hope you had a great time with the grandson!

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  5. You will be the bound buttonhole expert after this! Looking good.

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  6. Don't you love bound buttonholes? I think it's the only way to go on a coat. nicely done, Lori!

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  7. That is going to be a beautiful jacket.... great tailoring techniques.

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