In my last jacket post I showed you the collar and all the padstitching. I forgot to add this picture. This is from the undercollar side and it shows the turn of cloth. I has always read about it and it made sense but I never got anything that was a great example. This collar is a good example of that. The upper collar is a bit longer and wider which causes it to slightly turn to the underside.
from Threads magazine (here's the whole article):
Why does it matter?
On a beautifully sewn collar and lapel, the enclosed edges turn neatly under to the wrong side, and the seam is not visible from the "public side" (the side that shows when the garment is worn). If the turn-of-cloth isn't taken into consideration, the upper collar and lapel area of the front facing "steal" some fabric from the under collar and lapel, causing the seams to curl back to the public side.
On a beautifully sewn collar and lapel, the enclosed edges turn neatly under to the wrong side, and the seam is not visible from the "public side" (the side that shows when the garment is worn). If the turn-of-cloth isn't taken into consideration, the upper collar and lapel area of the front facing "steal" some fabric from the under collar and lapel, causing the seams to curl back to the public side.
After the collar I attacked the arms. These are two piece sleeves with bias-cut canvas in the sleeve cap and sleeve hem. This sleeve has a rounded sleeve vent.
Here's my free sleeve form. I use a giant cardboard tube. It's comes from the bulletin paper rolls at school. They are stout so I can press on them many times before I need a new one.
The sleeve vents were very fiddly and took me a whole day to put together. When I say "whole day" I mean a whole day with kids "helping". I probably could have gotten it done in a few hours if I was alone. It's a lot of hand sewing and it's all pretty small.
Here's the finished vent from the outside. It's weird because there is a raw edge on the inside. I'm sure that isn't how it's supposed to be but it's there and the lining won't cover it because it goes all the way to the hem. I read the directions repeatedly and I think it's the way it's supposed to be although it doesn't seem right.
Next, I lined the sleeves. You line the sleeves before you set them on a couture jacket. To attach the lining to the sleeve, turn both of them inside out and loosely sew the seam allowances of the lining to the jacket. Turn them both right side in and voila . . .
. . . lined sleeve.
For the sleeves, I machine basted, pin basted (see Ann's tutorial about this), and hand sewed them in. Once it was okay, I machine basted them. Then, I permanently sewed them in.
Don't sew over pins. I did but it was nerve-wracking. I use the tip of my tweezers to push down unruly parts of the sleeve.
Here it is from the front. I have it pinned shut and it's not exactly lined up correctly. There are no shoulder pads in here and I'm debating not putting any in at all (shush! Don't tell Linda!). It fits better without them but I am worried about the chest caving a bit because I am pretty hollow between the shoulder and bust. This jacket has a layer of horsehair canvas in the entire thing plus it has a quilted shoulder region. So there are two layers of horsehair in the shoulder area. What do you think? Do I do the shoulder pad thing anyway? It makes the armhole (armscye?) really tight.
The back doesn't fit as well as I would like. There is a bit of a bubble between the shoulder blades. I'm not sure how to get rid of it but maybe a good pressing will do it? Then the mighty swayback is also there although not bad. At this point, I don't think there is anything I can do about them. I don't mind cutting my catchstitches and re-sewing but I don't think that is what needs to happen.
You can see the top bubble when I pull my arms forward. It's almost like there is too much fabric vertically. We added an inch to the back so it might be that there is too much fabric there. I really struggled putting the sleeves. I took out and put in the right sleeve about six times. After that I was worried about the fashion fabric so, even though it's not perfect, I think I'm going to have to let it go or risk destroying the fabric.
I still think it looks okay especially from the front. I do think I forgot about fit and focused on the details too much.
I still have to figure out the shoulder pad thing, put in the main lining, add buttons, and do some handstitching.