Almost finished or A rack of suits

Oh, we are almost finished the project!
I started bagging up the suits today. I tagged them and double checked everything.
It is very gratifying to have accomplished all this work.

We made five complete tail suits, which included altering the shirts, adding dance briefs and quick changing the bow ties by snapping them to the collars.
We also made 9 other suits, five of which were three piece suits, plus an extra pair of trousers.
We put period collars on the shirts, and quick changed some of them as well.

I put the last eight buttonholes in today as well, so that is done too.

I need to box up the remaining fabric, finish up my paperwork and arrange delivery. I am looking forward to seeing them worn when the show techs.

Next week I start back at my regular gig, and I will be working on three very different shows: Fiddler on the Roof, Mary Stuart, and Blithe Spirit. It should be interesting, and I will keep you posted.

Reece industrial buttonhole

I am starting out the New Year with the end of the current project in sight. I have to say it was difficult to peel me away from taking a well deserved break over the holidays. In fact finishing the project was looming ever larger in my mind to the point where I was feeling overwhelmed with the  thought of getting back to it.
In the end, once I started it wasn't as big as it had become in my imagination.

Today, for instance, I headed over to Evan's place to deal with the buttonholes. I have about 76 buttonholes to put into the various jackets and waistcoats, and I am going to use his Reece industrial buttonhole machine to do them.
I remember the days when we had to make the buttonholes by hand, and as satisfying as it is to do that, it takes time- probably a good 15 to 20 minutes per buttonhole once you know how to do them and you get into the groove. Luckily, we have acquired a couple of these machines at work, and they do a very good job and save a vast amount of time and money. Evan has invested in one of his own, which is the one I will use for my job.

This machine will make either a regular keyhole buttonhole or an "eyeless" buttonhole. It uses two threads and a gimp, and stitches a knotted chain stitch over the gimp.
The buttonhole is marked on the wrong side of the garment- usually by chalk marking a lengthwise guideline and a cross mark for the centre of the "eye".  I have thread marked the placement on these white epaulettes, as I don't like to mark up white fabric with a coloured line. The area around the buttonhole is stabilized by hand basting, after the marks are made.
The size of the buttonhole is regulated by a sliding mechanism with a wing nut on the right side of the machine bed. It will make buttonholes from approx 3/8" up to 2 1/2" long.
The gimp and lower thread feed up from the underside, and the needle thread is on top.
There is a cutting blade that automatically cuts the keyhole and a portion of the length, which I asked to have removed in case I don't get the positioning correct the first time. I can easily unpick the correct thread and pull the chain stitch out quickly in order to redo the buttonhole again.

The garment is placed wrong side up on the machine bed and clamped into position as you can see here. Once it is clamped in position, you engage the clutch and push the finger lever to start the process.
The spreaders engage and pull the fabric taut, as the stitching starts. The upper portion of the machine moves from front to back and returns as the stitching is complete. It is loud and fast. Under 5 seconds per buttonhole I would say.

Once it is finished, the clamps release and you pull the needle thread gently, then clip it and pull the garment out, catching the lower thread and gimp under the holder and then cut the thread, leaving a tail of threads hanging off the garment and also on the machine.
All that remains then is to secure the threads and remove the basting, cut the hole and sew on the buttons.

So, I did some today, and I will go over and do the rest on Monday and we will be 76 steps closer to finishing.

year end thoughts and photos

Year end? Where did the time go?

I had planned on doing some posting while I was guiding Lela through drafting and fitting body coats, but it fell by the wayside due to her mother's illness and subsequent passing. We did get through quite a lot of drafting and fitting but I didn't have the wherewithal to document it as I have done in the past.

These are a few of the last things we've been working on- the tailcoats with the Ballet gusseted sleeves- they don't hang as cleanly as a regular sleeve it is true but you can raise your arms! The fitting I did last week was for these checked trousers with a dark grey jacket. I don't know why I like the checked trousers so much, but I do! I guess they feel rather cheery and they stand out compared to the more sombre grey suits that we had been making.

On Friday, we collectively decided that it was time to put down the shears and needles for a break before Christmas. I have 76 buttonholes to do (by machine of course) so I got all those marked and basted and ready, planning on getting over to my colleague's place to have them done when I was just hit by fatigue and I gave in to it. They can wait until the New Year. I just need a break, so I am taking one, since it has been a very busy year so far.

I wish each and every one of you a Merry Christmas and all the best for 2013!

Tailcoat layout

I have been so busy these last few weeks. All I can do is check in here and show you what is keeping me so busy.

On my table is the last two of the five tail suits chalked out and ready to be cut.

I have an extension piece that is piano hinged to the length of my table so that it can be extended to allow 60" wide fabric to be rolled out flat. This is so helpful when cutting capes or other large projects. In this case, I am cutting five sets of tails so I can utilize the fabric better with it laid out flat. As you can see here, in one trouser length, I can also lay out the front, back and side panel of one tailcoat as well as the front of the next one. When I lay out the next pair of trousers, I can get the next tailcoat back, side and the skirts of two tailcoats. Once that is done, I can cut all the sleeves.

As of Friday afternoon, I had all five pairs of trousers bundled separately with all their components and all five coats in nice little bins awaiting sewing. I have all the period collar patterns made and cut out for the men's shirts, so for all intents and purposes, I am finished the major cutting work until I can fit again.

Monday I think will be a day off just to catch up with all the things I have been neglecting over the past month, then I have a week and a half of instruction with Lela to finish up her training. Funnily enough, we will be delving into body coats. I have a fit model lined up and think that a tailcoat and a frock coat are in order, as well as some period styling discussions. I am hoping we can document a bit of that process here.

That should take us into December and one or two more Ballet fittings before Christmas, then it will be after the New Year to fit all the tail suits before starting back at the Festival.

Where has the time gone?

Onto another project

 I haven't really been neglecting posting here on purpose, honestly!
I have been very busy finishing up the one project while getting onto the next one at the same time. It wasn't supposed to work like that, but it did and it was a bit crazy at the studio.

I have 9 suits and 5 tail suits to make and I had to get all the patterns made and everything cut into fabric and basted up for fittings in Toronto on Monday of this week.

So, I had Denise, Lela, Emma working on the first project and had to bring in Jennie to meet the deadline, with Silvia putting suit jackets together for the second project. As the first project wound down, the others joined in, and we got everything ready to fitting stage by Friday afternoon.

It is always a bit nerve wracking going into fabric based on measurements that you didn't take, and that can be over 10 years old! Really. It sometimes happens that a dancer is measured when they join the company as an apprentice, then as they mature, adjustments are made on the fly, but the measurement sheets aren't updated. I know it sounds like an easy thing to do, but it is often crazy busy, and well, it happens.







So sometimes I luck out like I did in my first fitting here, where the dancer was pretty close to the numbers on the sheet, just a bit bigger in the hips. I just have to take in a bit in the upper body above the waist and move the shoulder line in marginally. I have to tweak the trousers a bit for size as well.
Everyone of these guys noted how long the jackets are, which they are not for 1920, but in comparison to today's fashions they are.
I have to say that it is a pleasure to fit dancers- they have incredible posture and pretty ideal shapes overall. They usually have built up their trapezius muscles and lats, full seats and substantial quads, but even amongst those similarities there are still differences.
For instance I have a two dancers, both 6'2" one with a 35" chest and 27 1/2" waist and 37" hip,  the other is a full 42 chest with a 34" waist and 44 hips.
It makes for interesting and challenging pattern making.


Now that I am home from doing my fittings, I have to regroup, look at the measurements I took and go forward from here, taking things apart and remarking and getting all the linings cut.

 I plan to have Silvia, Denise and Emma back to sew next week so there is a lot to do in the next few days to get ready for them to return.

For tonight though, Happy Hallowe'en!

 Friday.
 The contract is done and shipped.

 I feel exhausted. Could be the wine.

 Could be the weather- we suffered through the cold before the  boiler turned on in the building and as soon as it did the   weather warmed up. Now we are too hot. Running the a/c in October!

What is it about small versions of things- they are too cute! This was the smallest size waistcoat. I hope they send me some photos of whoever they cast to wear it!
















I think I will take the week-end off since I can hardly stand to make another pattern right now. I think I have made patterns for 8 suits and cut them out in the past week and a half while supervising the finishing of the project that just shipped.
One more week to prep for 11 or 12 fittings on the 29th and 30th.
I am not going to think about it now.
I'll try to get back to some kind of regular posting soon.

My busy week

I have had a very busy week. I am going to try to take as much time off as I can this week-end but I know I should get into the studio tomorrow to keep the ball rolling. I got back from Boston last Sunday night, went in Monday morning and started in on my week.

Boys tailsuits:

I have to finish altering my patterns for these tailsuits, so I can cut them out and get them going.

I was very happy with how they turned out. 

I basically made four sizes based on heights that I was given. 

All the body length measurements were spot on for the sizing, it is just that I made everything a bit big through the chest and waist for these guys. Well, better a bit big than too small I say.

It is so much easier to pin excess in than rip things apart to let out or worse, to guess how much more you may need. This is important because often the fittings are very short, I think I didn't have anyone longer than 25 minutes. It felt a bit crazy, but that is what we are up against sometimes.

I cut all the trousers on Monday and Tuesday and Denise has most of them together already, I have Lela on board cutting shirt dickies, then she and Denise will switch to making coats next week while I then cut the waistcoats.

For Mr. B: 

I fit his suit on Wednesday.

Here is the trouser pattern to go with the suit jacket that I was drafting here.

As you can see they do not require a lot of fabric, just a metre is enough.

This gentleman prefers to wear his trousers under the fullest part of his belly and you can see that I have cut the front waistline down to accomodate this.

He is definitely not and easy shape to fit and I have to make some more adjustments now that  we have had a fitting. I think I should make the legs a bit narrower now that I see the pattern with fresh eyes.  I still have to mark the alterations on the jacket for Silvia, who is making this. 

I also went in to Toronto on Thursday for a fitting with a 1920's suit on another project, which I was very happy with. I managed to shop there for linings for the boys tailsuits and waistcoats, buttons for the suit above and his next suit to come and dropped off fabric for covered buttons as well. I got caught in rush hour traffic on the TTC, and just barely made it to the train station for my trip home.

Friday was spent altering the tailcoat patterns, shipping fabric (which is a mound of paperwork), shopping for more supplies, and then updating and doing work on the computer.

Next week looks about the same. I think I will go and put my feet up and have a glass of wine.