Cashmere Jacket Continues.....

Two posts in less than 24 hours! But I have been blessed to be able to spend a lot of time in the pink cave the past couple days. Today's emphasis was on the cashmere jacket. I started with basting all of the seams on the upper bodice together and then a trial fit. You can see that the princess seams needed a little tweaking. After that and a quality press, I think it looks a lot better. I know once the skirt is connected there will be further tweaking. I am v. concerned about the back as I am v. slender there and there seams to be a lot of extra space in that area. my normal problem. I am thinking however, that once the skirt is connected things may, a big may, fall into place. I feel like if I fit the back now it will be over fit and not indicative of the only slight hourglass of the pattern. So I am going to wait on any adjustments to the back until I get the skirt on. I may be crying for help at that point. Don't hesitate to tell me what you think, now or anytime. All comments are greatly appreciated. Now some details and an apology for the self photos:

If you remember, this jacket is totally interlined with well shrunk cotton flanelette. We live in one of the coldest areas of the country. Saranac Lake, 20 miles up the road and the same elevation as us, is the official coldest city in the country. This morning it was 14º at 7:30 am. We hit 40 below at least a few times every winter. So a cashmere jacket with a flannel interlining is just what is needed around here.

After the seams were stitched and before serious pressing, the flanelette was cut away in the seam allowances. You may remember that this was glued down with Sobo glue. After trimming close to the seam line, I do a quick steam press and the unwanted flannel lifts right off. I firmly believe in reducing bulk whenever possible in sewing (thanks, Roberta Carr) so all extra interfacing and flanell is cut away. All cross seams are cut on the diagonal as well prior to sewing.

A proper "tailor's press" made a big difference in the hang of this bodice. Once everything was trimmed away all seams were pressed as sewn, then pressed open over a ham or seam roll to provide shape. When tailoring I like to use a dauber. I make my own.
It is a folded piece of the cashmere, wound up tight as I could, and then held together with an elastic. When I press my seams it is with a dry iron. The seam is finger pressed open over the seam roll. The dauber is dipped in water. Then the dauber is used to wet thouroughly the valley of the seam. Nothing else gets wet or steamed. A press cloth and dry iron are then used on the seam to press. The piece is left to dry to a cold touch undisturbed.

The collar was attached this afternoon and I will put the skirt together before attempting the bound buttonholes. Those buttonholes will require some serious sampling before committing to machine.

This jacket is blah, lets face it. I will wear it with a grey fox hat so that will be nice, but since my personality does not allow me to leave anything plain and blah, I have been thinking how I could embellish this. Its a classic look and I want to maintain that. Given that, my plan is to prickstitch all the seams for emphasis. I will do some samples with regular buttonhole twist, maybe some other threads, and definitely a silver metallic thread. I am leaning heavily toward using the silver metallic thread for the prickstitching (love that word). I think it would be a subtle accent appropriate to the fabric and style. We will see how this develops. Design is such an evolution sometimes.

I will leave you today with a picture of the 16 inches of snow we got this week. I took this when I woke up, a little after sunrise. I am so not ready for this..........................Bunny