killchallawishlist

[silverfoxstole]

And… it’s done!

Took just over a week and the seam ripper got a workout but the Dark Eyes coat mark II is finished:

I had to make a few more adjustments/corrections as I went along:

The day after I set in the sleeves I noticed that the right shoulder dart was slightly too far forwards, which meant the sleeve head and shoulder pad had to come out so I could unpick the top of the seam and move it to the right place, something that helpfully removed the one little tuck I’d ended up with at the same time. Unpicking resulted in the fabric tearing so I had to take some extra on the seam when I restitched it, but this actually hid some of the holes from where I’d taken out the topstitching the day before which was a plus so I won’t complain! I also took the sleeves up by 3/4 of an inch when they proved too long even for someone with gibbon arms, an adjustment I must have made before but didn’t make a note of on the pattern.

Because I’m never satisfied I changed the collar again, rounding the ends slightly as it still looked too pointed. It was too high as well but I think I may have taken a bit too much off when I cut it down; not much I can do about it now. After I’d attached everything and topstitched I realised that it wasn’t meeting the lapel on the left side by about a centimetre which meant yet more unpicking to put it right. The edges aren’t sitting completely flat, something that’s annoying but that’s my fault for not rolling them over far enough when doing the topstitching.

The front edges were sticking out at an angle towards the bottom so I took some more off the seam to level them out.

When I made my first version, not knowing what the lining looked like I used up some ladybird satin I had left from a coat I’d made a few weeks before but this time I went for plain navy lining fabric which I think is probably more accurate (I could be wrong, of course; for all I know Paul’s hiding a funky lining in there. I know I would!):

I thought I’d put some photos of the two versions side by side so you can see the differences. The major changes were: returning the back side panels and creating the belt; shortening and shaping the collar; adding the pocket detail and the false bound holes behind the second row of buttons; topstitching round all eight buttonholes. I also felt when wearing it that the first coat was too short so I increased the length by a couple of inches. With hindsight I wish I’d narrowed the lapels a bit as they’re a lot wider than the collar but by the time I noticed it was too late to change as I’d already made the bound buttonholes. Never mind!

For comparison, old coat on the left, new on the right:

Overall, I’m really pleased with the way it’s turned out. It looks much more like the original, which is what I wanted, and though there may be tweaks I’d make if I was able I always feel that way; I’m never 100% happy with anything I make as I can always see room for improvement.

Obligatory dodgy mirror selfies to finish; I’ll try and get some better pics if I manage to wear it out somewhere in the next few weeks. You’ll probably have noticed that my version buttons up the opposite way round and that’s because - apart from the frock coat where it didn’t matter - I’ve never worked with mens’ patterns and changing the crossover would just confuse me. The shirt and waistcoat for my NotD cosplay both button this way and I wear my watch chain on the other side as well; I think that’s probably partly what Paul was referring to when he said upon seeing me in May that it was like looking in a mirror!

[silverfoxstole]

New Dark Eyes jacket progress report #2!

I’m happy to say that the back went together without a problem (wish I could say the same about the sleeves, but more on that later). When I made my first version last year i had no idea what the back actually looked like so I opted to take out the princess seams on the pattern and forgo the belt as I thought it would be too much of a faff to do in pleather. This time, having finally seen a couple of pics that (sort of) show the back I decided to be more accurate, which involved making a belt with a buckle. Fortunately I had some practise with buckles and eyelets when I made the belt and gaiters for my NotD cosplay so I knew what I was doing. On the gaiters I made the mistake of punching holes which ended up being slightly too big so I had to secure the eyelets with fabric glue; this time I just made small slits with a seam ripper and pushed them them through so that they fitted snugly. The belt came together quickly, and I was very surprised that with the help of a handy knitting needle I could actually turn two tubes of this fairly thick fabric the right way out!

When I cut out the pieces I was intending to place the belt at the existing point on the pattern, between the back side panels. Looking closer, however, I realised that on the original coat the back is just two pieces and the belt actually starts at the side seams so I just measured the extra distance and extended the belt pieces accordingly.

I made a few small adjustments to the fit when I stitched front and back together, taking the sides in and curving up towards the underarm seam to give it a bit more shape as I don’t like garments to be too boxy; I’m on the small side so I tend to get drowned in fabric otherwise.

Back and front together I attached the collar…

…and took it off again. This pattern has a collar and stand, which I junked and drafted a soft collar when I made my first version last year. Looking back at photos afterwards, however, I realised I’d made it too long and narrow so, wanting to rectify this, I - you guessed it! - shortened and widened the collar piece. After I’d tacked it on I still wasn’t happy as it was a bit too pointed so off it came and I ran up another one having taken some off the end. Left is the first attempt, right the second:

I’m happier with it now!

Yesterday I spent wrestling with the sleeves. Setting in sleeves is not my favourite job and in this sort of fabric it’s especially tricky. There’s no way to do it without using pins so I just have to accept holes around the sleeve. I’m not expecting anyone to get close enough to see them!

As you can’t press faux leather because it’s essentially plastic, the only way to flatten seams is to topstitch them. This is fine as long as you can get the seam under the sewing machine, but on a sleeve it’s impossible to do both because once you’ve sewn the second seam you have a tube. So, I topstitched the outer seam and tacked the seam allowances of the under seam to the sleeve. It’s not as flat as the topstitched seam, as you can see here, but it’s not as bouncy as it would be otherwise:

It was something of a fight to get the sleeves into the armholes but I managed it eventually with just one very small tuck! For all the other seams I pinned inside the seam allowances as I hate working with quilting clips, but here that went out of the window as when you’re easing in sleeves you need a lot of pins! Fortunately as I needed to take an extra centimetre at the top they didn’t make much of a mark. I did though make the mistake of deciding to topstitch the seams and had to unpick when I realised I needed the seam allowances to attach the sleeve heads. This means I’m left with holes all the way round but as I said above, I’m hoping no one will get close enough to notice! I can live with it; I’d rather have a properly-fitting coat with needle holes than one that looks wrong with none.

Et voila: one inserted sleeve:

Once the sleeves were in it was time for shoulder pads. The first coat and jacket I made had no tailoring in them (I grew up in the 80s and connected shoulder pads with power suits and Joan Collins so left that part out) and it showed. I don’t go for full-on pad stitching and hair canvas but you do need both shoulder pads and sleeve heads to make the sleeves hang properly and I as I’m hollow-chested I always add a shield made from wadding as well so that the front doesn’t collapse:

And that’s the shell completed!

Now I have to do half of it all over again to construct the lining!

[silverfoxstole]

New Dark Eyes jacket progress report!

It’s taken me two days and two bobbins of thread but I’ve finally got the front panels done:

They took so long because I had to make bound buttonholes, and more than I thought. Last time I just made five - four for the front buttons and one inside - but when I started to look closely at photos of the original I discovered that there are also (presumably false) bound holes behind the extra buttons:

That meant I had to make another three, and also add some faux leather patches behind them to hide the lining:

The yellow is canvas left over from a bag I made a few months ago, which I decided to use up instead of forking out for interfacing. It works fine and gets rid of some scraps that aren’t big enough for anything else. Unfortunately as you can see from the top photo my topstitching round the buttonholes went a bit wide which is extremely annoying. I was trying to avoid the presser foot becoming stuck trying to get over the several layers underneath.

Today I attached the front and front side pieces (this won’t be an exact replica as I’m adapting a pattern I already have but it’ll be as close as possible) and stitched the pockets together which gave me more grief than it should have done, mainly because I decided to try and mimic the topstitching on the original:

Of course, you can’t unpick on faux leather as it makes holes so I just had to aim and hope for the best! It’s not as straight as I would like but there’s nothing I can do about it. There is a lot of topstitching on this jacket, which is unfortunate as topstitching is really not my forte! The pocket pieces got caught up more than once and I had to extend them as for some reason they weren’t big enough to get my hands into; I must have used the wrong pattern piece, so I now have seams inside the pockets. Oh, well. At least they won’t be seen!

I have to say that as far as the fabric goes, I’m really pleased. It handles well and has no problems with an ordinary presser foot which is great. And it only cost £7 a metre which is even better!

Tomorrow I’ll try and get the back together. This will mean making the belt, which will involve eyelets and a buckle. That should be fun…

[silverfoxstole]

It’s finished! The Dark Eyes jacket is done! 🥳

This is the first time I’ve ever tried to replicate an existing garment for myself, but after making a mini version a few weeks ago for Eight Bear I had a hankering after one. I dithered for a fortnight over whether I actually needed it or not before just deciding to order the materials anyway.

As I’m intending it for general wear it’s an interpretation rather than an exact (or as exact as I could make it) replica. I opted to modify a pattern I already had instead of altering a men’s style to fit me which given the inevitable need for multiple toiles would have taken more time and patience than I really wanted to devote to this project. I also figured that using faux leather for the first time I’d be better off with a pattern I know and which I could easily adapt. The one I used is the Vogue V1467 women’s pea jacket which I’ve made twice before, but the V8940 men’s version would be a good starting point too, requiring minimal style adjustments.

To make it look more like the Dark Eyes coat I removed the back princess seams and did away with the belt as there was no way I was going to try and turn a tube of pleather right way out! I also re-spaced the buttons, reducing them to eight rather than ten, and drafted a softer collar, though I did notice when looking at photos again after it was done that I should have made it shorter and wider, which is annoying but it’s too late now and I’m not being slavish anyway. I kept the front princess seams both for fitting and because they’re part of the pocket construction. The buttonholes are bound. I could have topstitched round them but as my topstitching wouldn’t win any awards decided they were better left as they are.

The fabric is a heavy weight faux leather and was surprisingly easy to work with, moving generally smoothly through the machine with the aid of a roller foot. I did end up having to use pins but I tried to keep within the seam allowances and they’ve not made too many marks. Unfortunately there are small holes around the arm seams where I had to unpick when the sleeves wouldn’t go in easily; there wasn’t much I could do about it but hopefully no one is going to be staring at my shoulders enough to notice them! Pleather can’t be pressed for obvious reasons so I had to either topstitch the seams to flatten them or stitch down the seam allowances to the jacket shell. As I have no idea what the lining of the original is like I opted to save some money and use up the ladybird satin I had left over from the coat I made back in January.

All in all, though there are a couple of things I’d do differently were I to make it again I’m really pleased with the way it turned out. It took me about six days from cutting out the pieces to sewing on the buttons, at two or three hours a day.

And of course I had to take some dodgy posed mirror photos:

Now, where did I put my sonic screwdriver?

[silverfoxstole]

After pretty much a whole weekend’s work, the coat is finished! 😎

It took me most of Saturday to get all the machine sewing done (adjustments to the lining, attaching the lining to the shell, attaching the collar and last bit of topstitching) and I’d forgotten how distracting it is to work in a room full of other people. Usually I’m up in our spare bedroom and unless I’m using a pattern I’m really familiar with I prefer not to listen to music as if I’m singing along (as I do) I’m more likely to make mistakes. Working at the dining table I was having to really concentrate on what I was doing, which wasn’t easy as my mother was watching darts and the guy calling the score sounded like he was about to have an aneurysm!

Last time I used fusible canvas interfacing but as I wanted to get everything from one place and save on postage I decided to go for traditional sew-in stuff on this occasion. That was fine, though time-consuming (and saved my bacon when I belatedly realised I’d cut and sewn it to the facing instead of the front), but if I use it again I’ll only interface one piece of the collar and stand rather than both; it’s quite thick and the collar has ended up a bit bouncier than it would have been with one less layer. The thickness bent two needles when I was topstitching the stand; in the end I had to resort to finishing it off with the heaviest I had left, which happened to be a jeans needle. It did the job!

Yesterday I did all the hand finishing: slipstitching the lining to the cuffs and hem, cutting and securing the bound buttonholes and sewing on the 16 (!) buttons. As I added seven inches to the length and changed the half lining to a full one I had to draft the latter from the pattern pieces I had and thought there would be plenty of volume, but when I came to pin it before stitching the hem I had a horrible moment when it looked as though it wasn’t going to fit. Thankfully it did (just!); if it hadn’t my only option would have been to add a triangle of fabric at the hem, something that would solve the problem but not look as neat, which would have been a shame after all that work.

Annoyingly, the buttons on the belt aren’t central but that’s the fault of the pattern markings. I could have made another belt, as I did with the pea jacket when I noticed the same problem, but I had so much trouble trying to turn two layers of wool, two of interfacing and two bound buttonholes the right way out that I just couldn’t be bothered. I can live with it; I can’t see it anyway. After several failed attempts at trying to get the markings for the buttons in the right place I ended up putting the coat on the ironing board and sewing them on standing up. I moved the closure across a couple of inches from the markings on the pattern as I wanted it to be more fitted; this gives me the option should I put on weight again of just moving the buttons to give myself more room!

Overall I’m very pleased with the way it turned out. I wear my pea jacket a lot and I like the style so it made sense to extend it into a coat. The only other adjustment I made to the pattern was to increase the depth of the pockets, as what’s the use of pockets you can’t properly put your hands in?

Here’s how it looks on (with a flash of my ladybird lining!):

[silverfoxstole]

Coat progress report: the shell is done!

It’s taken me about three days to put together, I think. The bound buttonholes went in quickly, but after having sewed it all up minus the sleeves I discovered that I needed to make some fitting adjustments as any excess fabric was really obvious in such a light colour. I found that some had to come out in the front princess seams, which is a fairly normal alteration for me as I’m very narrow across the shoulders with a small bust, and also at the sides and across the back. Boxy shapes don’t work when you’re small as extra fabric just drowns, and the back belt was pulling where there was too much fullness in the back seam. Fixing this involved unpicking most of the topstitching I’d already done, which was a faff, especially since the thread pretty much blends in and I had to take my specs off to find the stitches but the fit is much better now.

I didn’t take any photos of the interior tailoring when I was making my pea jacket so I thought I would this time. You can see the shoulder pads and the sleeve head (just) as well as the wadding I added as a chest shield to stop the fabric collapsing where I’m a bit hollow. I’m glad I was posting about the jacket as I’d mentioned having to take an extra centimetre at the shoulder to bring the sleeve head up and extending the dart, something I’d not made a note of elsewhere.

The sleeves are hanging OK, and the back looks much better with the excess removed.

Next job: a couple of adjustments to the lining and then attaching it to the shell, which will involve carting everything downstairs to use the dining table as I haven’t got enough room to manoeuvre this thing around anywhere else!

[silverfoxstole]

Coat construction is underway!

As I went for traditional navy and gold buttons for my jacket I decided on something a bit different this time. I was going to buy some fabric in charcoal grey but then I saw the silver grey wool mix you can just see here on the facings and plumped for that instead. Grey hasn’t been a colour I’ve worn much in the past as I always associated it with school uniforms, but I thought it would make a change as there was no green or burgundy fabric I could find within my budget, and black is too harsh.

I spent a good couple of hours yesterday cutting out all the pieces (and thought I’d be walking about like Quasimodo today my back protested so much) and another two and a bit sewing on the interfacing. I decided to alter the pattern and toile on Tuesday and I’m glad I did as I discovered I’d added too much length, which meant more faffing about with tissue paper before I could get any cutting out done!

As you can see, today I put the lining together. I chose to use satin as it has a bit more structure than lining fabric, which I hate sewing because it’s so flimsy. I ended up with more than I actually needed, which is annoying; sadly no one in the house seems to want something that makes them look like a ladybird so I’m not sure when the excess will get used. It was my intention to use the lining to fit but though it looks enormous when I try it on I’m loath to alter it too much in case the coat ends up too tight around my bum and thighs. I’ve tacked the shell together and found where I need to remove excess fabric at the arms and across the upper back but I’ll leave any actual alterations to the main seams until I’ve got it properly together.

Next up: twelve bound buttonholes! Boy, am I looking forward to those… 🫤