Instructions and Lessons

 Yesterday I was incredibly productive! I started by working on my press cloth. I bought a half yard of silk organza from Mood. It was about $16 in total with the cost of the fabric and the shipping. I spent some time yesterday making some narrow hems, and then adding a loop to the side so I can hang it. It is perfectly practical and will be really nice to use!

After the pressing cloth was created, I got to work on cutting out all of the 18 pieces in the red twill. Let me tell you - this twill is beautiful, but oh geez handling that much stiff extra wide fabric was a pain! I took my time and cut everything on one layer. It meant more time cutting, but I just couldn't be sure I could get everything on grain if I cut it in two layers. So I slowly worked my way through the cutting diagram and checked everything off as I went through. As I finished a twill piece that had a lining, I matched them up and set them aside with the pattern piece. It was really nice to see it all come together!

I got all of the twill pieces cut except four - and by the end of the night I knew I was too tired to keep going. So I set them up on the cutting table with the goal of cutting them first this this morning and completing the hood lining pieces. This morning I popped out of bed, cut them out, and then proceeded to knock out the three flannel lining pieces. I had plenty of fabric left to do some fiddly pattern matching and then I moved on to do the interfacing pieces. 

I cut each interfacing piece and pressed it on as I went - the idea being I wouldn't lose any pieces and it would be easier to focus one at a time. In doing this, I realized that two of the main pattern pieces are supposed to be cut on the right side of the fabric, not the wrong side like the rest. I figured it out as I was trying to understand how the interfacing pieces were supposed to work with them. These pieces are K - Top Right Facing, and L - Bottom Right Facing. This is written to the side in the booklet, and it also on the cutting diagram. But I missed it last night. Luckily I was able to flip one over and cut it down so I only needed to do one more piece out of twill. But it was frustrating nonetheless. 

My pressing cloth worked really well with all of the interfacing! There were definitely interfacing glue bits that came through - which was annoying. I am not sure if my iron was too hot or if I was doing something wrong, but it was good to at least have the press cloth to take some of that. I ended up washing my press cloth again to try and get that stuff to come off of it. I was mostly successful.

After doing all of the interfacing, I began working on attaching all the body lining pieces. I set aside the sleeves and hood lining pieces for now, and focused on the body pieces since I would need them first and I was most fresh in the morning to focus on getting them to match up. Since it is plaid flannel, I was very mindful of cutting out the lining to ensure the stripes were placed in the same spot for each side but it also helped me adhere them because I knew I needed to get the lines mostly straight. I used fabric spray adhesive (which came out in a similar way to silly string) to hold the lining in place. I thought I would baste the pieces together after this, but I didn't really seem to need to. It actually held in place really well. Plus, I am not handling all the pieces very much. I made some scraps with flannel and twill and then practiced flat fell seams and I could still see the basting stitches. Not sure if I am meant to rip out all the basting before doing any of the seaming but that seems like too much work for not enough gain. So I decided to just try with the spray adhesive and see how I get on.

Another thing I worked on today was the label. I wasn't really sure what I wanted for a label, but I knew I wanted something that stood out a bit. I had to do it now because the first step for assembly with the jacket is adding the back yoke to the back piece. This was my time to add something bold, otherwise I would stitch through the back yoke. I decided I would do my name and add a "Circa 2023" and a "Bespoke" labels from Kylie and the Machine. To create my name, I first tried to draw a capital A and then stitched over that and used my machine embroidery to write "ndrea". But it wasn't quite coming together. I opted instead to just use my machine to embroider my name, and then add the two Kylie labels below. I did this on a scrap of twill. I turned under the edges and top stitched it to the middle of the back. I sort of eye balled it. Here's hoping it isn't too high...

I worked on the back yoke and tried to get the top stitching to work. I used a triple stitch to try and make it more noticeable and I managed to do it just fine on my scrap fabric.  It looked great - and I tried it on the yoke. Well, that didn't work. I got a few inches and then it got off. No longer were all three stitches lining up. I ripped it out twice before deciding I needed a break. I then sewed up the fronts. I will come back to the top stitching shortly. I am sure it is a case of it just being so thick and the feed dogs not moving things along. But I am out of brain capacity to troubleshoot it tonight.

Also, I have a printed pattern I bought last year and I am using that instruction booklet as I work my way through this. I just pulled up the electronic version I have for the electronic copy, and the instructions differ, which is frustrating. Namely the front yoke is pressed down in the printed booklet and the online sewalong, but it is pressed up in the electronic version. I am new enough at this that I am not sure why it is one way and not the other... More to think on for that. But currently the front yoke and front are assembled and pressed down. I will deal with the top stitching tomorrow.

 Next steps:

1. Figure out the triple stitch thing. Or don't. And wait a bit.
2. Compare the instruction versions - electronic and printed booklet. Decide which to follow.
3. Move on to pockets! So exciting!