Almost done...

Terrible week for blogging here - many apologies.. However, on the good side, very nearly almost finished Polly... this week was my last class at LCF (got a certificate and EVERYTHING.. ) and as expected everyone was in a real rush to get finished. Thankfully I wasn't in that much of a rush... and had basted the peplum to the top part of the jacket before class, so I just needed to decide on the position of the pockets and stitch it, and then of course there was Putting In The Lining to do. And shoulder pads.

The tutor told me to sew the shoulder pads to the seam allowance, just next to the stitching of the set in sleeve, and aligning the outside edge of the shoulder pad with the edge of the seam allowance. Which I did. On the machine. Not sure if I was supposed to stitch them on by hand?... the shoulders have a little body in them but I used no sleeve heads so they don't have the nice round 'puff' at the top.

Which reminds me - THIS FABRIC IS HORRIFIC. It is really stretchy and frays easily - in hindsight I should have interfaced the whole thing. I put some seam tape on the shoulder seams and also on the underside seam in each sleeve - think it could end up losing its shape after a couple of wears. The shoulders are already wider than they were on the toile.

Anyway. The pattern instructions for finishing the jacket weren't great... there was no facing or interfacing at the hem (despite the fact that in one of the drawings there looked to be some shading indicating interfacing, there was no actual instructions to cut any out or fuse any on) so the tutor suggested I interfact the depth of the hem, which I did. Then I had to catchstitch the hem about 1cm into the hem allowance from the edge. By hand. With a needle and thread. And my fingers. By hand. You may be ascertaining that hand sewing is not my forte... It actually didn't turn out too bad, but I haven't yet finished the bottom hem.

Was actually easier to attach the lining than I thought it was going to be. Once I'd catchstitched the hem, I sewed around the out side edge of the lining from the bottom of one side of the jacket right around the neck and down the other side (see pic left), which left the bottom hem edge and the sleeves left to do. To attach the lining to the sleeves (which have a facing on the inside) I basically put the jacket on as if I was wearing it, which pushed the sleeve lining into the sleeves. I then folded the edges of the lining and the sleeve together at the edges (how it would look when finished) and put a pin in, and then put my hand between the shell and the lining of the jacket at the back and pulled the sleeve back through (does that make any sense?) so I could then put the edges of the lining and the facing together and pin them. Sewing the sleeves is a little tricky as you have to sew all the way around what I guess is the wrist, and move the rest of the jacket around that....

Anyway, so I did that and MIRACULOUSLY, it worked! I will post some more pics when I have finished off the hem. The last thing to do will be to get a buttonhole put in for the closing at the front.... Didn't have time to do either of these things in class but it shouldn't take too long to sew the lining to the hem and I think the buttonhole I might get done professionally somewhere....