Mr. Lauren, Please!

This week the Sunday Style magazine in the New York Times was devoted to men's clothing, clothing worn by men with stunning looks and come hither gazes. Hmmmm, this was going to fun to look at. The coveted inside cover and first and second page were plummed up by Armani, beautiful clothing and men. The next two pages were devoted to a Ralph Lauren advertisement. A man about as handsome as handsome can get is in a classic power suit with hands evenly placed on what one would imagine is the board room table. Then it took my breath away.

OK, first, please forgive these pics. If you can get your hands on this Sunday's NYTimes Style magazine, you will have much better photos to see than what I could take here. I took pics of the glossy pages as best possible. While not good, they still make my point so I decided to publish them anyway. Now that the disclaimer is out of the way..............

What's up with this suit? Here's what I see:

* the roll line on the left facing lapel is like, where? The lapel appears to be just one big folded over flap. The right lapel looks fine.

* Is that lumpy fusible in that left lapel? It sure looks like it. It is far more evident in the actual magazine photo.

*The right shoulder appears Ok but that left one ----a little droopy?

* Wrinkles  where the chest shield would/should be?  Maybe that's why the left lapel is folded over so far!

* What do you see? Am I imagining, being too critical of probably my favorite American designer, a man whose clothing I would love to wear every day? What do you think?

Now, if you keep turning pages in this mag dedicated to the peacock in every male you will see Burberry, Gucci, etc...... There garments all fit exquisitely and are beautifully tailored by comparison. Here is some Gucci for you:

See the difference?

And here's a Botega Vanetta coat with gorgeous tailoring.

I think the difference in quality, fit and tailoring is near embarassing, Mr. Lauren. What happened here?  Who had editorial control? And if a little old sewist in the boonies notices these things, is there something deliberately being fed to the readers of Style NYT? I am just so surprised at what I see.

If you continue throughout the magazine it is page after page of exquisitely tailored, beautifully dressed men, none of whom are photographed in less than perfect, albeit photoshopped (?) perfection.  Every designer imaginable is represented. The Lauren suit fell far short. I am disappointed. I love Ralph Lauren's esthetic, his all American signature style. His garments are classy, tasteful and so very American. I even think this power suit is beautiful but the fit and technique are surprising me. Sigh,,,,,,,

Again, these photos were the best of many I took and to really appreciate this try to pick up the Style magazine from Sunday's New York Times. Anxious to hear your opinions.......Bunny

Butterick 5960, the Cashmere Coat

Erma Bombeck is famous for saying, "the grass is always greener over the septic tank." Well, the snow always melts over the septic tank up here. Behind me is a still remaining, very icy foot and a half of snow. I couldn't stand on it for pics or I would sink in. The walks and drive are out as they are glare ice. And as it was, right up until hubby started clicking I had on my Yak Trax so I wouldn't fall and break a hip! So over the septic tank it was! 

I like this coat and know I will get years of wear out of it. It is very comfortable and has room to go over a suit jacket or big sweater comfortably and nicely. I really like the retro sleeves with their expanding length and deep cuffs. This coat is very warm.

Here are the deets:

Pattern:  It is Butterick 5960, a Katherine Tilton design.  What is it about those Tilton women that seduces me with their designs? I love them but have not always had good luck with them. This pattern had it's issues as well but in the end I am happy. The biggest issue is it's "bathrobe" nature. That's fine. It's a classic, no closure, shawl collared wrap coat, just like a bathrobe. But trust me, this pattern really needs more structure. I added what I could with tried and true tailoring techniques that you can see in the preceding posts, techniques like stays, lots of basting to control while pressing, padded hem,  etc. But the collar just does not know where it wants to go. It does not have a specific roll line. In the pattern photo it wraps back all the way down to the hem but there is really no structure to hold that look. I find the collar lays best for me with the back up and the shawl part going just to the waist. I basted it in to do this with silk thread and used a lot of steam. But if you can work out a taped roll line on this I think you would be very happy.

I do absolutely love these retro looking sleeves. They are the kind you often see on swing coats from the fifties and have deep cuffs and lots of room to accommodate a sweater or jacket. One fussy little thing to be aware of with this wide open cuff is that it does show the lining, of which mine is off white. If I did it again I would make the bottom 3-4 inches of the sleeve lining out of a fabric that matches the color of the fashion fabric of the coat, FWIW.

On Step 16, be aware that you  are instructed to close the top and bottom of the pocket with a "tight zigzag,...stitching through all thicknesses." This will put that stitching on in a way that will not let you sink your hands in the pockets. You only want to stitch through the top center pocket seam.  In other words, if you put your hand in your pocket, what is on top of your hand is what gets the "tight zigzag". 

The lining pattern includes an interior pocket between the facing and lining. I chose to not bother as I really didn't think I would use it and it would add more bulk.

Does it look like the pattern? Yes. It has the same roominess but I think mine is better controlled and the extra tailoring gives it a bit more polish.

Fabric:  The fashion fabric is a 70% cashmere/30% wool blend from Fabric Place Basement in Natick, Mass. Go there if you ever have the chance. It is one of the few remaining mega fabric stores in the country. You won't regret it.

This fabric is gorgeous and literally glows. I hope you can pick up on a bit of that in the photos. It feels and looks really luxe up close.

The lining is an acetate/poly called Kasha that I purchased online from Vogue Fabrics in Chicago.  They always have a great selection of colors on this often hard to find  fabric and the price is reasonable. Kasha is the lining you see in fur coats. It is a shiny, heavy satin on one side and a flannel on the "wrong" side, therefore providing a lot of warmth to the garment and still having a bit of finesse.

There is a strip of colorful binding between the dour black cashmere and the Kasha lining that is simple poly print charmeuse from Joanns.

I made a sash out of the fashion fabric on one side and faux black leather on the other side. That came from Walmart. Their faux leather is the only thing I ever buy in that fabric department and it really is quite nice.

The garment uses traditional hair canvas for interfacing and well washed 100% heavy cotton flannel for the interior stays. That provides a bit of extra warmth.

Construction: The garment construction on here is really pretty straightforward if you choose to just follow the pattern. Just watch out for that pocket issue. If you think the shawl collar "lay" looks not to your liking I would get a good sewing book, like Vogue or Reader's Digest and follow their instructions for a tailored shawl collar. Build in the roll with some stay tape and pad stitching if you can.

Another issue with the instructions is that the lining is never secured to the fashion fabric other than being stitched together at the facing edge. It will billow out and drive you nuts. I secured the lining to the FF (fashion fabric) in between the two at the lower armscye and along the collar neckline. I secured the upper and under collar, after matching their seams, with catch stitching and a bit of slack. I didn't want anything pulling oddly. I also secured the seam where the lining meets the facing TO the princess seam line, which matches, all the way from the shoulder to the hem. The coat fell much better once this was done. I used a catch stitch between the lining and FF.  That billowing lining  would have driven me to distraction.

Also, I ended up taking out my catchstitched lining hem and adding a facing so that the lining length was 3/4 inches longer. I faced the lining with some ivory Ambiance I had, cut on the bias. That was then catchstitched to the lining fabric. The reason why? The lining hem edge barely covered the top edge of the coat hem and I wanted it to cover it nicely, not some places yes and others no, just barely. I followed the exact measurements on the pattern for folding and cutting the FF and lining hems. I suggest you cut your lining hem 3/4 inches longer than the pattern specifies.

I added 1/2 inch shoulder pads which the pattern does not specify. This also helps remove the bath robe effect.

Here are some links to some of the construction posts:

Lining with Kasha
Interfacing with Hair Canvas
Marking and pressing
Padded Hem
Pocket Arrowheads

Conclusion:  This is a classic  design that is not complicated. There are no notched collars, bound buttonholes, welt pockets, etc but you still end up with a really nice classic coat. Again, I love the sleeves. Make this if you can go the effort to add in the additional tailoring to give it some more structure and keep it from looking bathrobe-y. I think it also looks a lot better with a belt of some sort. It is not a difficult to construct coat. I'm happy with the results.

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And what is that little tidbit of sparkle  that you've never seen on my finger  before, the one in the leather stitching photo? It's my new wedding/engagement ring. Same hubby, new ring! Many years ago he proposed to me with a really pretty Tiffany set diamond that his entire family chipped in for him to buy for me. I will never forget their kindness to him. I loved the Tiffany setting but as they can do from being set so high, the stone popped out  and needed to be reset three times over the years. The last time was twenty years ago. I decided to put the diamond in a safe deposit until I could get a completely different setting. College bills set in with the kids, etc, and it just stayed tucked in its box for years. 

Flash forward many years and not long before her death my Mom gifted me a piece of estate jewelry my father bought for her. He always loved estate jewelry and bought her numerous pieces over the years. This piece was a bit "different" and she seldom wore it but it had at least a lot of sentimental value. She wore it with my Dad when he was alive and then passed it on to me. It had one diamond slightly smaller than my ring and six smaller diamonds as well. When hubby asked me what I wanted for my birthday last year, I blurted right out " to get my diamond reset". 

We worked with a really fine craftsmen in New Hampshire, James Cook, and I am really pleased with the result. He is a true artist and you can see his gallery here. I now have my original diamond back and on the side are the small diamonds from my father's gift to my late Mom. To say this ring means a lot to me is an understatement......Bunny

Cashmere Peekaboo!

Unless you 've been hijacked by aliens sucking you up into a UFO and spiriting you away to the planet Selvedge, you know that the East coast is in the throws of miserable weather. We have about 9 inches since last night and more to come all tonight and tomorrow. My plans for a wonderful photo shoot out in the snow just didn't work out. I did try. It was blowing sideways and I had to do this close to the house so I could change my accessories. This was the best pic I could get:

The snow is about 2 feet deep behind me. I am standing in a path that just keeps filling up. You can't see my awesome boots but I think you can see this is one awesome coat and its Warm!

So right now, with this nasty weather, this pic is the best selfie I can get . I am going to either take more outside when the weather stops its aggression or stylize the coat on Ms. Dumdum and you can get my drift. I'll have another post shortly with lots of deets and better pics.

Hubby found this on our back porch full of snow yesterday, a delivery from Fabric.com. On the left is a heavy home dec all cotton for a spring/summer jacket and on the right is a fabric that is far far nicer IRL. It is a linen/cotton blend in the color "denim". I tell you, it stinkin' glows and is gorgeous. I am thinking summer jumper/dress a la lagenlook for that one. More to come on these.

Hubby and I are off to the North Shore and New Hampshire for the long weekend. Hopefully the drive won't be too interesting. Take care all and stay safe in the weather.. more on the backside....Bunny

She hems and haws!

I had to show the piece de resistance first, didn't I? You probably were tempted to turn away from that hem title but look at that back neckline! Pretty cool, eh? I have run a folded strip of poly charmeuse all around the facing from hem, around the neck, and back down to the other hem facing. The charmeuse is sort of a tie dye look varying from navies, greens, to oranges and back, just the right tiny pop of color this dark coat needed. It's on the inside between  the lining and coat facing. I added my hanging loop chain and did a feather stitch on the pleat as well. I am going to make a label but that will go on the front facing, the better to impress when I whip open my coat!  {; )

So now lets get down and dirty with the hem situation. It took a LOOOOONG time, people. Bear with me as this was no simple hem. This pattern is basically a bathrobe with cool pockets so I really feel the additional touches of tailoring are going to hopefully take it out of that realm.

First I wanted to "pad" the hem. Nothing says homemade to me more than a pointy hem. Padding the hem will add a nice roll to the edge and add weight to the bottom so it will hang a bit better. I had enough howling wolf flannel to cut bias strips with a bit of piecing. I butted them up and pinked the top edge for no transferral. Where to place the strips? They extend on the bottom straight edge a quarter inch past the fold. when the hem is folded up the flannel is short enough to be well hidden. Did I say these were bias?

The bottom edge of the strip is catch stitched to the coat as well as connecting the abutting edges.

Once that was done the hem was folded up and basted on the edge with the silk thread again. In case you forgot the silk thread doesn't leave marks when steam pressed. Next I pressed just that edge on the wrong side on a thick towel with steam and a press cloth.

Check out that nice padded edge! Yahoo!

The top edge was bound, flipped over and stitched in the ditch with a bias strip of the same charmeuse edging the facing. There really is not all that lint on my coat. I had to do some adjusting so you could see the details.

The hem is now basted closer to the top about 3/4 of an inch from the edge. Are you counting how many passes I've made on this hem? I told you it wasn't a basic hem!

The bound edge is given a good steam press with oaktag under the seam to prevent showthrough, once again.

The top of the hem is flipped back and catchstitched to the coat. 

A completed, invisible, padded hem! Muy lindo, verdad?  These linty pictures are giving me the creeps as my coat fabric is so pretty in real life. I hope that comes through with the final photos. Thanks for bearing with me and my hem obsession. How many passes did you count? 

1. Catchstitch flannel to coat
2. Baste bottom edge
3. Apply bias binding
4. Ditch stitch bias binding
5. Baste top of hem
6. Catchstitch hem

I think that was all! So it was time consuming but I think it is worth the effort. The lining is sewn in and all that is left is sleeves and connect them to the lining. Almost there!.........Bunny

Dibs and Dabs on B 5960

If you are thinking of making this coat and so far I would recommend this pattern, you may want to book mark these posts as I have done much that is not in the pattern instructions. Let's talk about stays first.

A stay is something that helps  hold a garment's intrinsic shape. It doesn't shape the garment, just helps it keep it's shape. Stays can go all sorts of places. There are waistline stays, pockets stays, all sorts of stays. Stays don't move, are flat and "stay" in one place. For our purposes here the stay will have a several functions. First, it will maintain the shape of a very heavy garment. Whew, I didn't know how heavy till I started connecting the pieces yesterday. This WILL be warm. To maintain that shape it is critical the stay is on grain with the garment. This is no time to cut a partly crooked piece from a scrap. Since there is no more howling wolf fabric I used a perfectly sized well washed piece of heavy navy blue flannel. I took the back piece from the pattern, laid it on grain just like the fashion fabric. This piece extended about 5 inches below the armscye. Cut!

Then I took my crotch curve and shaped the back of the stay at the bottom edge as you see above. 

Next, that edge was cut with pinking shears to help eliminate any transfer of the edge to the fashion fabric while pressing. 

Done! If you are one of my astute followers you have noticed that the pins on side are inserted differently from the other side. I will be sewing the stay on with a half inch SA starting at the center back neckline. As I detest sewing "on the left" I inserted the pins so those big yellow heads aren't in the way when I flip over the piece to sew the other side from the CB neck down. The bottom edge hangs free. 

Cashmere does not like much ironing so I am ironing my seams only at this point. that will change as I go along. I am trying to fuss as little as possible with this fabric. So that center back ridge will press out. 

Stays will also be put into the side front pieces. The second reason to use a stay here is to "fill in" my hollow upper chest. I learned that trick many years ago. In a more tailored jacket I would do the flannel stay and attach a "chest piece" of hair canvas. But this is a bathrobe type coat, not a trim blazer, so the hair canvas is left out. 

The third reason for the stay in this construction is to add a bit of good old fashioned warmth to the mix here. I've done this combo before, coating+Kasha+flannel interlining. It makes a very warm coat, even in my challenging climate. 

This project has had VERY little actual machine sewing but there has been much handwork. I wanted to make sure the upper collar favored the under collar so rolled it to the under collar, pressed it, basted it in place with silk thread and pressed it again on a thick terry towel.  It's looking good. 

Another bit of handwork I did that's not mentioned in the pattern involves the outer pocket. I basted the pocket opening shut. This is important to get the pocket bag to set right for topstitching. Ignore the lumps. There are lots of bigheaded pins underneath.

Next in the process is finish up the pockets and topstitch. They are a unique construction. That shouldn't take too long. Then it will be on to installing the sleeves. Now For some thank yous!

 

Check out this fabulous print that I won from Rhonda Buss! Her blog, Rhonda's Creative Life is fabulous. Rhonda loves to draft patterns and every week shares her latest designs with her followers. Stop by and check out her mad skills.  But if you have already been following Rhonda you will  know that besides her gifted design abilities she is one of the most generous people you could find. Her recent pillowcase project will blow you away. Week after week, day after day, she shared photos of the hundreds of pillowcases she collected, all hand sewn, and donated. There's lots about it on her blog. Recently she shared a giveaway for some of her Valentino prints and this lucky blogger was thrilled to have her name drawn. Thanks, Rhonda! 

I am not a machine embroiderer. Bless those who are, but it is just not my thing, at least at this time. But somehow I clicked on the Sew News site to check out something to do with machine embroidery. It seems they were running a 12 days of Christmas giveaway. Got my name picked for that one too, Day 3! I won two sets of fabric paint markers. They have brush tips and are permanent on fabric. I am looking forward to playing with them and my mind is twirling over what I could do. Thank you, Sew News!

I did go out and buy a few lottery tickets at this time but, alas, no such luck!

And last but not least, a peak at my next project:

Woohoo!....Bunny

"Overdressed............................."

OK, what do we have here? I see gray cashmere. There's a flannel interlining. Seams are catch stitched down to the interlining. Peeking out in the upper left corner is a bit of the silk charmeuse lining. Hair canvas with some tricot fused to it to build out the back. My narrow shoulders need that double interfacing with the weight of this coat. All in all, a pretty well made jacket that will last me years.

I had this out today to open out the lining and take in the sides. I always felt the original pattern was a bit boxy, something fellow PR-ers seemed to also find. So today I opened the coat up and built in some shape by taking the side seams in at the waist. About 1 3/4 inches total was removed. It looks much better. I should get lots of years wear out of this classic princess seamed jacket. It's well made and of quality fabric.

This is not a brag. This  is all to make a point about the "high cost of cheap fashion" as the rest of the title of Elizabeth Cline's book "Overdressed" says. If this were cheap fashion the following would apply:

• It would be made of some poly blend or all poly or even "faux wool" which I mentioned in yesterday's post, something using up our petroleum resources and causing pollution in the process. 
• No interlining
• No catchstitching
• No custom fit
• No silk lining
• and certainly no retro fitting the garment because number one, it was cheap to begin with and the seams are near non-existent.  Number two, most people don't know what good fit standards are anyway today. But you do dear sewists. 
• It would more than likely be  donated to a good charity who really doesn't want it either because of it's crap nature and it would eventually end up in landfill. Or, it could go to the back of the closet with mound of other cheap, easily replaceable forgotten fashion.
• The coat would have been constructed using  labor practices that would make you cringe.Our economic competitors evidently don't know or care about the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire.

You know what quality garments are and what it takes to make them. Your clothes, should you choose to go the well sewn, good fabric route will last far longer than the trash put out by the subscribers to Fast Fashion, the Targets, H&Ms, Walmarts, and truthfully, nearly every clothing retailer  dotting our landscape.  You won't be contributing to the massive carbon footprint taken up by tens of thousands of cheap fashion factories. You won't be contributing to horrific labor practices either. You sew.

I know you can tell I just finished reading Cline's book. EVERYONE should read this, not just sewists. You will be so proud you sew. I am proud you sew. This is not new stuff. I've been hitting resale shops since I was a teenager. I've also been making nearly all my clothes and doing serious recycling since then as well, way before the word even existed. It's fun. I enjoy it and its very satisfying. Cline just seems to put this all so well into words. She uses loads of interviews, facts, figures, and trips around the world she personally took to make her point.

So I will get off my high horse now but you are totally welcome to join me. Make your clothing. Use the best fabrics you can afford. Take every class you can. You are impacting your world when you do.....Bunny

Vogue 8307 in the final stretch!

As I pull into the final stretch of my semi-tailored fleece jacket, the lining as been touched by the sewing witches. The back lining piece, which was different from the back jacket piece came up one and a half inches shorter than the rest of the lining which forced an unattractive additional piece of fabric to be added. I am not sure if this was mis labeled by Vogue or I cut it wrong as the bottom piece has been chucked at this point. I was not going to make the full length coat in my future so cut the bottom pieces of the pattern off and committed them to the landfill. I just knew it would come back to bite me as I tend to save everything. Anyhoo, I thought a picture was in order of how I dealt with the ease in the lining. As we all know, little extra pleats can appear out of nowhere in an armscye or princess seam. I approached this by doing a second row of pins a couple of inches back from the stitching pins. This helped control the fullness and kept it from going under the presser foot.

I did understitch the lining with a lightening stitch, a la Nancy Zieman, changing my thread colors as I went from the black facing to the grey silk lining fabric. I really feel this jacket needs a back neck facing to which the lining attaches and would give a more professional look to the innards. At this point the inside is my private world so I am finishing up and moving on to the next project.

What would that project be? A few quiet hours spent with my embellisher!