Susan Khalje "The Classic French Jacket" Day 4

Day 4:  final fitting in fashion fabric, Make adjustments, clean up seams, feLl stitch lining in place

Every fabric behaves differently and in my case I needed to let out the bust area a little.  That is why large seam allowances are great! 

On my fitting adjustments; the bust area was let out, we also raised my neck edge front and back ½”.  Side seams were given ½” as well for more wearing ease. 

My shoulders were adjusted a bit on the bodice front pieces I think about ½” again.   I am also a symmetrical so adjustments are on going for me.   Interesting how the fashion fabric and quilting tightens up the fabric. 

 My back turned out great, with just a little ease adjustment across the back. 

Clean up the seams and onto Fell stitching the lining.  

Hard to show but after the seams were cleaned up you basically over lap the lining and fell stitch along seam line.  

My vest all cleaned up with the appropriate ease.  

So happy with the fit.  This at these shows you the process I went through.  Exciting news follows.......

Susan Khalje "The Classic French Jacket" Day 3

Day 3:  Thread tracing and reinforcing the shoulder area, quilting, and tying off

Continued to Baste organza on Side Fronts, Side Backs and various areas for reinforcement.

We then placed our fabric pieces, matching grainlines on top of the Wrong Side of the lining.  See the photo of Karen below which shows that step more clearly. 

Continued to outline with thread and reinforce various areas with the silk organza.  There really is no interfacing used in this jacket.  This allows for a wonderful fit.   

We had to be careful that the grain of the silk organza and the grain of the jacket fabric were both on grain.  You can sort of see that in this picture.

I like this picture as Karen's fabric and contrast shows very well in pictures. We worked from the bottom upward.  Once every piece was thread basted

we then set up to machine quilt our fabric and lining together.  Check out Karens blog:  fiftydresses.com  

We set up our sewing machines to quilt our fabric and lining pieces together.  I finally was able to use my walking foot for my Bernina, which I admit before this time I rarely used.  The Walking foot keeps the slippery lining and more stable fashion fabric from shifting.  I used a longer stitch length (word to the wise if you have to take anything out this will save your sanity!)

I quilted vertical lines following the white vertical threads in my fabric.  Again, showing why it is important to purchase good fabric that stays on grain. Another shout out to Mendel Goldberg Fabrics, NYC!   Need to be careful and leave an appropriate distance between quilting and seams as we now spent the rest of the day and evening tying off threads.  Tedious but well worth it.

I then basted the jacket together along the seam lines, beginning and ending at the edges of the fabric.  Here is the inside of my jacket laid out flat, remember we have not dealt with sleeves yet.  

Here is a picture of the outside of my jacket at this stage.  

The best is yet to come! 

Susan Khalje "The Classic French Jacket" Day 2

Day 2:  Show and Tell fabric combinations, trim and lining, fitting the muslin without sleeves

 Show and Tell!  Here are some of the classmates fabric, and trim combinations.  Beyond  beautiful, and very dangerous as it makes you want to make all of these jackets!  

                                            

                                            

                                            

                                            

                                           

I love this picture of Susan as she goes through each selection with beautiful Joanne!

This is the Vogue pattern we used.  A very good Basic and I would highly recommend it.

Then onto our first series of fittings:  

Adjusted my hem in the back.

 I had adjustments at the shoulder.  Susan worked on my left side, for a symmetrical fit.  

 I had adjustments made to my side back piece.  See the difference from the right side.

 Again, came back to the shoulders to adjust.  I have broad shoulders so this is an adjustment that is common for me.

  Raised my neckline as well. 

 Tada!

 I just wanted to show the time and work Susan puts into each and every fitting.  This fitting was unique to my body type, every class member was fit according to her body type.  Susan has an amazing gift with fitting and is so patient, note her concentration.

I then transferred my adjustments to my muslin and cut the seam allowances off my muslin.  Note we did not deal with the sleeves yet.  This was our Chanel type Vest.

Cut the fashion fabric out minus the sleeves.  Laid out the muslin templates on the fashion fabric.  Checked the crosswise grain as well, (see my T square) to be sure that it’s exactly perpendicular to the lengthwise grain.  Lengthwise and crosswise grains can shift so need to take care.  I cut my pieces out with Large seam allowances. This is really important and helps if you mess up says the voice of reason here. 

I pinned on all of my pattern pieces while matching my plaid.  I basically made certain that the bottom seam lines hit the plaid at the same place.  I also used a L-Square ruler to make certain I was even with my plaid on each side.  A T-Square ruler would work great for this as well. 

  

 My generous cut out and then thread traced.  I used a Japanese basting thread from Shibori Dragon, was great but hard to see on this fabric.  I am going to order some others colors as I think pink would have shown up better.  I ended up doubling up some turquoise thread I just happen to have.

Susan did an outstanding job of this fitting.  It was worth the entire class for that alone.  More good news around the corner.....

Susan Khalje "The Classic French Jacket" Day 1

I don't know if you have ever binge watched a favorite TV or movie series, but I wanted to share my class experience going to Susan Khalje's "Classic French Jacket Class."  This was so much fun and I only wish everyone could have the opportunity to go to one of Susan's classes.  So enjoy!

 Day 1:  Shopping in NYC

We met at Susan’s husbands business, “Khalje rugs”.  This is the back entrance where we arrived daily.

Took all my sewing stuff up to our work space, where we will be sewing all week.  Funny walking in and not knowing a soul, when at the end of the week we were all on first name basis!

We then piled into a van and journeyed to NYC.

My trip of 9 ½ hours the previous day caught up with me, and my fellow travelers took pity on me and let me sit more forward.  I was really feeling a bit woosey.

Susan gave us a couple of jackets to wet our appetites.  The jackets were beautifully done and fun to examine on the way into the city. 

Susan entertaining us while driving to NYC.

The New York Skyline coming into view!

The expensive and narrow Holland tunnel.

At last we arrived at the incredible Mendel Goldberg  Fabrics NYC!  

Mendel Goldberg Fabric; here I am with Alice, owner and woman of extraordinary taste.  She not only gave a history of her shop but patiently helped us find the right fabric and lining combinations.  Alice and her staff were such a pleasure to work with.  The fabrics were so beautiful, and there was such a wide variety.  Hard not to find multiple combinations of boucle and linings.

Boucles

Boucles

Linings

Linings

Fabric and linings chosen, then uptown to M & J Trimming.

This store had an incredible assortment of trims to coordinate with our fabrics.

.......... and a few buttons to choose from.  Drive back to Baltimore and fall asleep clutching fabric, lining, trim and buttons.  Susan has the rest of the materials for us in her shop.  Keep following big news at the end.......

A New Start!

I started this blog two years ago to only get distracted by real life.  With the push of my oldest daughter and the desire to get myself organized and accountable with my sewing, I am going to give this blog my attention.  From heirloom to couture I am eager to share what I have learned.  So here goes.

Welcome to my vintage corner

The wonderful Carol Harris took this picture of me at the beach.  This vintage section of my blog with focus on heirloom sewing, which Carol is the master of!

Contact Me

For more questions or to contact me, my email is gossamerthreaddesigns(at)gmail(dot)com

Bazaar 1908 Little Girls Cloak

Close up 

Bazaar 1908

Here are some fun ideas from the turn of the century early 1900's.  I love the picture of the sweet little girl with the cloak.

Weldons Bazaar 1908 London