suit fitting

Finally!

We've been waiting and waiting to get this suit fit, and today was the day.

The trousers are really too long, but that is easily fixable and since I had barely enough fabric to make this, I thought better too long than too short.

So this is a 2 button SB early 1930's inspired suit, and it is my favourite fabric so far of all the fabrics I have been given to work with. I don't know where it came from, but when they tried to order more, it was unavailable.

I had made up a quick toile because I didn't have extra fabric in case I goofed, so the fit is pretty good right off the bat. The sleeves need a bit of tweaking, they are cut with a dance gusset to allow more movement without pulling the body of the jacket too much.

Other than that and a tweak to adjust for his lower right side, there isn't too much to change, so finishing it shouldn't be too troublesome.

The difficult part may be finding buttons that we like in the correct size range. When waistcoats were more common, you could always buy four sizes of matching buttons: overcoat, suit front, waistcoat and cuff buttons. For quite a while now, the waistcoat has been out of style and that size of button almost non-existent. I can't remember what line size it is off the top of my head, but it measures 5/8". Since the buttons need to match, they will be a challenge to locate.

If anyone has a source for them I'd love to know about it. Remember they must be traditional suiting buttons though!

pleated trousers

We are making very slow progress, because our fittings are requested but not being scheduled. Today though, we did get one of our guys and I thought I'd show you his trousers.

These are a first baste up, I cut right into the fabric for him, (after I checked that his measurements were current and correct.)

an aside about measurements: It makes me frustrated to be met with resistance when requesting updated measurements. I can't stand it when people say, "Oh, he never changes". Last week was one of those situations where I had cut into the real fabric for someone who I hadn't seen or made anything for in at least five years, only to find that he had lost 5 inches from his waist!! Waste indeed!

One thing about these trousers that you probably cannot see from this photo is the correction for bow legs. Which means the correction worked! Yeah!

The correction involved cutting the pattern at the knee level and opening the outseam about 1/4" and overlapping(shortening) the inseam by the same amount. So far so good.

Now for the dilemmas. The crease line. After altering the pattern, the centre of the lower leg runs off grain, and in a plain fabric you can't tell, but in a stripe it is obvious. I thought that since there were pleats, I could use this to my advantage.

Most of the other trousers I have made for this show have outward pleats, but I found that I couldn't keep the crease on grain with an outward pleat. If the crease was on grain through the upper trouser, the lower leg was off, but if I lay the pattern out with the lower leg (from the knee to hem) on grain (stripe) I could convert these to forward pleats.

Forward pleats naturally swing the centre front off grain, which isn't great with striped fabric, so I usually try to avoid that.

If you look closely at the stripes, you can see how the front has gone off grain, but I think in the end it is less obvious than the crease line not following a stripe in the fabric.

OK, so one more outstanding first fitting to go. Maybe I'll get that tomorrow? Scheduling is a nightmare with a cast in repertory, everyone's needs are priorities, but we only have a few more weeks to get this one ready for tech dress.

Tomorrow I'll be marking the alterations to the suit jacket that goes with these trousers, as well as the sparkly shirt and trousers which this actor/dancer wears. More to follow as we get things on their way.

Hand worked Buttonholes

Hand worked buttonholes are a hot topic these days on the discussion forums.
A sign of bespoke craftsmanship and a badge of honour to many, and subject to discussions of technique and materials to use, from needle size to which brand of silk thread and gimp.

Obviously, buttonholes needed to be made by hand before the invention of a machine that could make them and even then, the machines were, and are, expensive and generally limited to factories which could justify the expense.

Many people who are interested in the craft of tailoring are keen to learn these hand sewing skills and all the power to them. I too, learned the art of the hand sewn buttonhole and was equally enamoured of it.

I think for me the pleasure wore off after a time, due to the volume of buttonholes we were making at work because we didn't have a machine. Hours and hours spent on the buttonholes(always under time pressures too). Some people made them more beautifully than others and there were debates about the nicer form, whether an elongated teardrop shape or a pronounced keyhole was better, but I have to admit that some of the nicest ones you will see are found on vintage coats.

One of these vintage coats appeared in a fitting the other day, to be used in a show. It was a cutaway coat, I'd say from between 1910 to 1920 anyway, and look at these buttonholes.

Not bad for their age, don't you think?

We got a Reece industrial buttonholer at work around 15 or so years ago and to be honest it was a relief to have it. If you are good making them by hand, you can do one in 20 minutes, but now it is maybe a minute each including the prepping before going to the machine. If you have 90 buttonholes on a period costume, or even just a dozen or so on a suit, the time saved is enormous.

Some may say that hand sewn buttonholes aren't needed on costumes, and that may be true if you have options. We didn't, but now we do. The downside is that some of my colleagues have never made a hand sewn buttonhole, so that isn't good for maintaining traditional skill sets. The upside is that it is a skill that can be learned and there are people still interested in having that finishing touch on their garments.

trim trauma

We were running out of the trim that we used on our uniforms and I bet you didn't know that trim is getting more and more difficult to source. Like many products that we use, many manufacturers, especially in North America have downsized or gone out of business completely, which leaves us in the lurch.

So, it's a long story but the buyers found someone who was able to make us more trim.

When you try to get a replica of something made, you know that it is never going to be exactly like the old product, but live in hope that it will be close.

Well the new trim came in this week and it wasn't until today that we had really had a go at using it.

Not so good.

I really never thought much about how trim is made, and really, if it works for us, it works, and we use what we are given.

The new trim doesn't want to bend nicely. Yes it is a different colour but we can live with that I guess, but it is uncooperative. Why?

Well the base or interior of the trim tells the story. The old trim is created over a flat 1/4" wide woven braid that is very flexible as you can see in the picture.

The new trim has many many strands of coarse thread bunched together inside. It does not like to bend. The strands are really tightly packed. I was able to cut a length of trim and painstakingly pull out 6 or 8 strands which made it more flexible but still isn't as bendable as we would like.

Sigh..........but now I know.

sequined T-shirt

Here we are ready to fit our sequined T-shirt.

It has been flat mounted on a nude coloured lycra, then basted together with a zig zag stitch. I didn't cut it with too much ease, so I have seam allowances to let out if I need to make it bigger, but it doesn't look bad on the stand.

The front placket area has been stay stitched and Silvia found a bit of shiny fabric to simulate the collar fabric, so, just waiting now for the fitting to be scheduled. No control over that scheduling, and we didn't get it today, so I am crossing my fingers that it happens tomorrow.

I may have to attach it to a dance pant, I should have prepped one!! Maybe I can do that first thing in the morning.

FYI: a dance pant or pantie, is a stretch brief that is attached to a shirt. Usually the shirt hem is shortened so it is only hip length where the dance pant is attached, and it reduces the bulk of a tucked in shirt, and keeps the shirt from pulling up out of the waist of the trouser or at least limits the amount that can blouse above the waist. It also keeps the costume looking the same every time it is worn.

The trouble with attaching this t-shirt it to an inner pant is that this shirt is a pullover, which means that the pantie will have to be detachable at the front so he can put it on.

That doesn't make it better for a possible quick change.

Hmmm.......well we'll see how much time he has to change in and out of it and how bulky it is tucked into lycra trousers.

And you thought oh well, it is just a t-shirt, simple right?

the sparkly part of the job

Today I received the sketch and some reference for something sparkly! yeah!

The sketch is lovely but I will just show you the reference here which is a look worn by Gene Kelly.

I have to make a pair of flat fronted period cuffed trousers in this lycra with vertical spakly stripes and a golf type T-shirt in a stretch net with broad bands of tiny sequins.

How much fun is this?

The pants are already cut out and in a basket ready for the next lucky stitcher who finishes what they are currently working on. (I can't tell if they are looking forward to it or not, hmmm...)

The shirt required a little sample in black and white drill for me to figure out the contrast placket, facing and collar which will be in a solid sequined fabric in silver. The body of the shirt will be flatted onto a flesh coloured base fabric so it will appear to be see through, but that will conceal the construction details of the placket and facing. The shirt fabric you can see at the neck of the stand where I pinned it before trying out my collar idea.

I think it is going to look great, and it is fun to do a little bit of the glittery bits amongst the wools.

This look should also be ready for a fitting next Friday when our designer is in house.

making progress on our suits

We are making progress with our suits and here is the one that I squeezed out of the smallest amount of yardage!

It has patch pockets and in the first photo you can see that we supported the wool where the pockets are stitched on with a piece of bias tricot fusible. I use fusible very sparingly, if at all, but this is one area where it makes sense to me to use it. If you didn't use fusible, a piece of silesia would be the traditional support behind the pocket stitching.

The jacket is now ready for the sleeves to be basted in for our fitting, which should be next Friday if everything goes as planned.

Once we have the fitting, I will mark any alterations for fit and change anything the designer would like changed. The sleeves will come out, the shoulders opened, since they are just basted. The collar will be taken off, and then the roll line is taped, and the lapels can be properly pad stitched. The fronts will be taped, the lapels and front linings put in before the shoulders are stitched finally, then we are on the way to being finished with this one.

Did I mention already that I love this fabric? Very period, good weight and drape, so it is very nice to work with.

Today I also managed to get the information on the sparkly part of the job, so stay tuned!