Present Joys

Day 13: tue, 17 sep 2013. Anna and Julia are scared of my loud floral trousers.

I made these swim trunks for myself a few months ago. The trunks were cut from a modified trouser pattern which I drafted myself. They are made from 100% cotton shirting with a nylon mesh lining, 6″ zipper fly, elasticized half-waistband in the back, and a 3″ inseam. A fun little project.

Here it is: The project I’ve been working on for the past two months. My first genuine tailored coat. I’d made sack-coat-like garments before, but nothing with interlinings and padstitching and all those other things that go into a fine garment. I began my creative process by spending three weeks drafting coat patterns and cutting muslin test garments, with the help of a lot of old, digitized tailoring books. Then I bought fabric and dove right into the construction, working as purposefully as I could. It was a wild ride.

This garment was really cheap to make because the fabric isn’t that great. The suiting is brown hopsack 100% linen from Jo-Ann Fabrics, which I bought on sale. I didn’t use any actual hair canvas on the inside; all the interlinings are various loose-weave muslins which I just pretended were hair canvas and handled as such. The nicest part is the lining, which is real Bemberg rayon.

It turned out pretty great. Setting the sleeve was a nightmare, as was making buttonholes. (They look awful, I’m afraid! That’s 90% of the reason this is a one-button coat.) But overall it looks better than I hoped it would, and it fits really well. Turns out three weeks of pattern fitting and adjustment really pays off. If I were to do this exact same project for a second time, I think I could do a much much better job. Despite its flaws, though, this is still the best-fitting coat in my closet, and because of that, the most comfortable. I’m already itching to start another!

The last three shirts of the summer. I actually finished these several weeks ago, but I’ve been so busy with other. In the interest of completeness, here they finally are! Visually, these aren’t too exciting. Especially because they look very wrinkly in these photos. But they’re probably the three best-fitting shirts I’ve made yet—and that’s the goal! Two of these shirts are made from Kaffe Fasett’s shot cotton, one in periwinkle and one in crimson. The other is a slightly heavier cotton-print polka dot—my first polka dot shirt. All three are from Sew to Speak.

All three of these shirts are practical, good things to have in my wardrobe, and I’m looking forward to wearing them a lot this fall. I’ve already made good use of the bright red one by wearing it as part of a cowboy costume for Vacation Bible School! It has the most exaggerated spearpoint collar I’ve ever made. But I’m becoming quite comfortable in spearpoint collars so it’s not a big deal!

I finished these shirts in early july. Since then, I’ve been tailoring a coat completely by hand. Though it is very rewarding, it’s been taking a lot of time. I’m almost finished with it, and will have it done in time to go back to school on monday. Photos to come shortly.

Thanks to everyone who’s been following along with my sewing adventures this summer! Here’s to making even more things in the future.

I haven’t posted any photos of new shirts lately. I promise it’s not because of laziness! I’ve been completely caught up in making a coat. The past week and a half have been spent reading old tailoring books and drafting patterns. I’ve learned a lot about cutting and fitting in the past few days.

So I’m making an odd jacket out of brown hopsack linen. This morning I cut out the fronts, made pockets, and started working on the interlining. I have no clue if it’s going to be any good, but I’m having lots of fun doing something different.