Random Thoughts

[stracci2000]

We are two months into homeschooling and we are working on quotation marks. I told “J” that the question mark after tea needed to be inside the quotation marks. Well if you look really closely in between the lines, there it is.

Yes kids are very literal at this age but this one is just trying to be the next Jerry Seinfeld.

You can't make this stuff up!
I think you have a pretty smart kid there, Yada!

 

[YadaYadaYada]

You can't make this stuff up!
I think you have a pretty smart kid there, Yada!

He comes out with some doozies! He is very curious about death, that leads to some interesting questions and conversation

 

[Arcadian]

That is gorgeous! I was having a hard time picturing it when you posted the fabric and have been hoping you would share the completed project. I love the fabric and that dress is just stunning. I'm picturing that being dressed up or down with jewelry according to where you wear it. Truly beautiful work!

Thank you! Its been worn 4 times already. Its really nice and so comfortable. Fits like it was made for me I have another thats in the que behind a couple of jackets.

I just finished the toile for the 5th time for that jacket, but its the perfect fit now.

 

[Arcadian]

y'all area bout to get my whole brain at the moment...lol

I will put it up so some of you have a reference point if you want to follow along. This is my muslin. If you have a Chanel jacket, then you're going to recognize this silhouette. It is NOT a Chanel its an Arcadian. I just want to make that clear so they can't come after me.


Now I'm at the point of finally cutting out material. So yesterday I went through my stash to start making decisions of where to start first. and putting a jacket material with a lining, as well as considering the buttons, trim, etc.

I will not be doing a entirely hand sewn couture jacket, meaning, I will try to do as little hand sewing as I can get away with. I don't have that kind of lifestyle ...lol

But you get to see where my love of fabric and gemstones intersect:

I'm not sure I'm ready to cut this one out yet because oooo those plaids!! Honestly I can do it but will need to really study the fabric a lot. The plaid is my outer jacket material and is This and the black and white silk which will be the interior lining is from here. The buttons are now sold out, but they're a vintage 1980's black opal czech glass.

I know its hard for some to envision with a pile of fabric, especially one where the stripe isn't going in the right direction the peridot green stripe goes horizontal though the darker green strip is on the vertical.

Next is where I'm having analysis by paralysis. This is the outer jacket material
You're only seeing one side of it and this side is black, the other side is navy. I will go with the black to the outside.

First image is with a vintage black/white metal and enamel button. Its a pretty classic look and I have opportunity to use whatever color silk I have. I have a lovely yellow and caribbean blue as shown below. I could use one of those. But....



A more fun button option is these vintage brushed gold metal and glass buttons from the 1980's. These are the smaller, I have 1 inch buttons that look exactly like this but not pictured. If I go this route it means black lining. I would not do a white lining on this.


These are my more colorful silk lining options (its 4 yards, more than enough but its deadstock meaning, this is it, I can't get more)



Currently this fabric is on my dining room table (my defacto cutting table) and I go stare at it every few hours.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

A customer came into work today wearing a ring i also have
I love the setting but hate the darkness of the almost black, blue saphires

Her's was black looking too

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

This image came up on my google thread
i thought what a cool gemstone

I think its actually an Australian seaside saltwater swimming pool

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

so .... jist like my Bruce Springsteen habbit i dont volunteer too much on the $$$$ to Gary so he doesn't really know what ive been up to on etsy buying all these wrong size and fake beads

yesterday a wee box from China was at the front door with some silver beads to help extend one of my troublesome Whitby jet necklaces

he asked what it was ?
i told him some inexpensive (hopefully stirling) silver beads from China to make a necklace fit again because none of my necklaces seem to fits anymore due to fat neck

he though this was so funny

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

y'all area bout to get my whole brain at the moment...lol

I will put it up so some of you have a reference point if you want to follow along. This is my muslin. If you have a Chanel jacket, then you're going to recognize this silhouette. It is NOT a Chanel its an Arcadian. I just want to make that clear so they can't come after me.


Now I'm at the point of finally cutting out material. So yesterday I went through my stash to start making decisions of where to start first. and putting a jacket material with a lining, as well as considering the buttons, trim, etc.

I will not be doing a entirely hand sewn couture jacket, meaning, I will try to do as little hand sewing as I can get away with. I don't have that kind of lifestyle ...lol

But you get to see where my love of fabric and gemstones intersect:

I'm not sure I'm ready to cut this one out yet because oooo those plaids!! Honestly I can do it but will need to really study the fabric a lot. The plaid is my outer jacket material and is This and the black and white silk which will be the interior lining is from here. The buttons are now sold out, but they're a vintage 1980's black opal czech glass.

I know its hard for some to envision with a pile of fabric, especially one where the stripe isn't going in the right direction the peridot green stripe goes horizontal though the darker green strip is on the vertical.

Next is where I'm having analysis by paralysis. This is the outer jacket material
You're only seeing one side of it and this side is black, the other side is navy. I will go with the black to the outside.

First image is with a vintage black/white metal and enamel button. Its a pretty classic look and I have opportunity to use whatever color silk I have. I have a lovely yellow and caribbean blue as shown below. I could use one of those. But....



A more fun button option is these vintage brushed gold metal and glass buttons from the 1980's. These are the smaller, I have 1 inch buttons that look exactly like this but not pictured. If I go this route it means black lining. I would not do a white lining on this.


These are my more colorful silk lining options (its 4 yards, more than enough but its deadstock meaning, this is it, I can't get more)



Currently this fabric is on my dining room table (my defacto cutting table) and I go stare at it every few hours.

is this finished yet ?
i love the metal buttons

 

[Lookinagain]

When you raise your daughter basically alone after divorce, this says to me, no matter how hard it was, it was all worth it.

 

[Arcadian]

is this finished yet ?
i love the metal buttons

Oh gosh I wish!! I've allotted myself about 200 hours to this project, but of course life gets in the way....

And, I got really finicky. I changed gears twice since my last post and instead of a 2 piece sleeve, I forced myself to draft a 3 piece sleeve. 2 isn't anything to sneeze at, but 3 is couture nirvana.

Next, I changed which fabric to use. Again deceptively simple. But the fabric while ridiculously gorgeous, literally unravels after you cut it so must be handled with a lot of care. It took me 6 hours to line it up on the table JUST to lay out the pattern. I had to ensure that it matched up, down, and across the body.

If I timed this correctly, I should have the "vest" portion of the outer fabric at least partially finished by Sunday. Does mean that I'll be basting the entire thing by hand first to ensure nothing moves when I do the permanent sewing.

I have not yet cut the sleeves out because I want to ensure that I don't create a problem if the plaid doesn't line up. so they will be cut out next to last (pockets are dead last)

Also being couture fabric, It wasn't inexpensive, about $60.00/meter. In total I'm using 3 meters because I have to pattern match. The silk organza interlining is $16.00/meter and the lining was purchased on sale (thankfully!) at $12.00/meter. Buttons were 30 dollars (thankfully not each!) and then there's the trim. I haven't done that yet but I've got some ideas and tons of yarns here.

with everything I've used on this one jacket, about $500.00 minus my labor which will be far underneath the thousands it would cost to just buy one. But, they can get it done quicker by a large margin...lol

an excellent short which shows only a small amount of what goes into these things. I will be doing TONS of hand sewing...

 

[tyty333]

@Arcadian

So, do you take the sewn-together muslin that you have on the form apart after you sew it and use that to cut out your "real"
fabric?

I would never let myself work on $60/yard fabric....unless, maybe to make a square pillow. I could probably handle that!

Can you post pics after you get the "vest" part done? This is like watching jewelry making...I like to see all the steps/parts!

 

[Arcadian]

@Arcadian

So, do you take the sewn-together muslin that you have on the form apart after you sew it and use that to cut out your "real"
fabric?

I would never let myself work on $60/yard fabric....unless, maybe to make a square pillow. I could probably handle that!

Can you post pics after you get the "vest" part done? This is like watching jewelry making...I like to see all the steps/parts!

Yep! When I took apart the last toile, I also had to remove all the seam allowance too. This left me with what looks like a very small pattern...lol All the info needed to sew these together is replicated to the fabric. I will use chalk for some things like marking front and backs as I can do that on the organza, but to mark grainline, I'm using the pattern of my fabric.

So I have a really big pic here so you can see the thread tracing on the back side of the fabric. And this is also where I have to be careful when putting it together. front and back look a lot alike, so absolutely need to stay observant.

I used Fluroescent orange thread because its the one I could see and follow because of all the colors in this fabric. Yellow wasn't gonna work. I need to probably get some in pink and green. Also to combat this fabric from shredding so much, I ended up serging the edges so I would not lose so much of it.




little blurry but I used my very long dining room table to cut out everything (it has 2 leaves, may as well put it to use! The soup can was part of the weights that I used to hold the fabric in place. Sometimes you use what you have available.



I try to always add notes for myself on these. this is at the hip



Follow the orange tracing, and you'll see my outline



I do have other fantasy tweeds that are dead stock produced for other designers which was about 12-13 bucks a yard, but it is NOT on the level of this stuff.

The first one is always the doozy they say...lol I'm sure eventually I will find shortcuts to making these!

I will absolutely post the vest.

 

[tyty333]

Thanks @Arcadian !

The amount of time and effort you are putting into this just amazes me. I can sew...but I would never take on something where I had
to design my own pattern (I don't have one of those sewing mannequins anyway).

I mostly just buy clothes and tailor them to fit me better. I have a smaller waist than hips so waistbands always seem to gap in the
back. I don't know how many pants I've "fixed" but it does get old (and definitely not fun sewing). At least you turn out beautiful pieces!

 

[Arcadian]

Thanks @Arcadian !

The amount of time and effort you are putting into this just amazes me. I can sew...but I would never take on something where I had
to design my own pattern (I don't have one of those sewing mannequins anyway).

I mostly just buy clothes and tailor them to fit me better. I have a smaller waist than hips so waistbands always seem to gap in the
back. I don't know how many pants I've "fixed" but it does get old (and definitely not fun sewing). At least you turn out beautiful pieces!

Its an enormous learning process for me, which I think serves me well in the future. 2019 I made a promise to myself to not purchase clothing (so far I've kept it except underwear!) and if I wanted something, I made it. I've had more successes than failures at this point thankfully!!!

I'll still use commercial paper patterns (why not you know?) but being able to build my own personal blocks makes things fit so much better because the garments are now truly tailored to my measurements.

I'm doing things that I honestly didn't know I could do until I did them. And I think if you're motivated enough, you do it. We do it here with our jewelry right? And its really no different.

So seriously, don't sell yourself short, you like me altered probably who knows how many pieces of clothing to fit and that does go a very long way to even understanding construction. There are COUNTLESS patterns out there for these types of jackets but none of them fit me .....some of them were just plain badly drafted. So I decided I would learn to make my own block for the jacket and work from that instead. I started with this book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0135018765 then I paid for some video classes . My first draft of this jacket was so ridiculous...lol and I think you guys saw starting draft 3 or 4 (draft 1 I couldn't even get on...lol)


To understand the Chanel aspect of construction, it helps to watch some videos.

this one is exceptional, which is the update to Karl Lagerfeld's Signe Chanel.

Also what keeps me going is the thing I see in my head. So bit by bit, I worked to get it right and in some cases let instinct guide me (but then I had to ensure I could still move so had to learn to add ease...lol)

For fitted garments, even if you start with commercial pattern its only a basic starting point and can be considered a starting block. You still have to change it to fit and that could mean a ton of adjustments. Having a dress form helps a lot, because it can be a lot of tiny little movements just to get things right.

I'm admittedly scared to create a pants block but I have to at some point.

 

[Arcadian]

And an update:
I have...a lot of work to do. But this is it in its glory. I've already taken it apart and started the matching process. I wanna kinda put pockets on the parts that are really bad and call it a day but, I'll persevere... Its all a learning process and even though I kinda wanna pull my hair out a bit, still kinda fun. Should have stuck with something that was a little plainer though

Ignore the bottom, it will at some point when I'm finally DONE get hemmed

 

[TooPatient]

The good news is I have substantial self control and don't bring home nearly as many books, plants, or animals as I want to. The bad news is that still means a fair number coming home
Never more than we can read or properly care for. Except plants... There may be some losses. (Watch the fur baby thread for more photos to come!)

 

[tyty333]

Its looking good @Arcadian ! How do you keep the edges from unraveling while you work?


I would love a short version Chanel jacket. Maybe I'll get inspired one day and attempt one?!? It would have
to start with a pattern I could alter though. I couldn't start from scratch. Plus, it would have to be a fabric that
wasn't plaid so I didn't have to worry about matching patterns. Plaids sure are pretty though.

I haven't made it all the way through the video you posted...but wow! Didnt know they designed/made their own fabric
and trim. Some of those pieces were amazing! I liked the jacket that had a contoured pulled-in waistband.

Had to laugh at the soup can weight...One designer I follow on IG uses rocks to hold his patterns down!

Looking forward to seeing more progress!

 

[Arcadian]

@tyty333 here's the non plaid version. this is a pretty lovely 100% cotton boucle tweed and when they put it on flash sale I couldn't help myself! . They had 2 types of black, this one and another more slinky black fabric. (yes I bought both, of course!) Still quite see through but has much more heft to it and doesn't unravel if you look at it too hard like the more finicky couture stuff. The other black is much more along the lines of couture level tweed, and very pretty but also has to be treated with kid gloves. (will have to end up hand sewing it together)

For this one like the last one I started off with placing the fabric and thread tracing. being its a solid color I could just kinda hack away and do 2 instead of 1 at a time. Still had to thread trace them all however!!

I thread traced the entire thing (including sleeves) in about 3 evenings or roughly 6 hours. Thread tracing is actually quite relaxing I have to say.....



I'm working on this current because I need a break from the rather frustrating plaid one...lol The plaid one is being sewn by hand because me and the machine are fighting with that one. So it will be a much slower process.

However this black one went together really well. No matching so thats a plus of course! And the machine found it to be agreeable. I'm just using a basic straight stitch machine with a walking foot and LOTS of pins.



when I'm home alone my dining room turns into craft area... looks like a fabric explosion in there currently...lol


and why yes, I really had to remove all that damn thread....my fingers hurt so much right now! and once I'm done I have to remove all of it (of course!) Probably the worst of the process.







To this point its a week of work! but I still lots of work left to do as this is really just a vest at this point though the sleeves are sewn and I checked to be sure I sewed them correctly, hence why they're up there. But I do have to hand sew them on along with the sleeve head and shoulder pad (I may not use a shoulder pad though, just sayin!)

For the lining I chose a very lovely pinkish red silk for the lining and because this tweed is still quite see through, I had to add a couture type interfacing that will not affect the drape, but give me enough coverage to use whatever lining I would like. Silk organza wasn't doing it for this thing. I still could have quilted the lining to the fabric but honestly I feel like not doing so is a better choice here.

So the next few months of this jacket :

1. putting on the sleeves making sleeve head and shoulder pad.
2. add the lining.
3. make my trim, then sew it on. might not even be in the same weekend!
4. add pockets and pocket flaps.
5. sew on buttons
6. breathe....lol


Once I get the sleeves and lining in, I'll be going back to the plaid one and sewing the back and fronts together.

 

[tyty333]

Oh, wow! This is lovely! You'll laugh...I actually google to find out the difference between tweed and boucle last night. What I found
said that tweed was usually a bit easier to sew (but I'm sure it really depends on the individual fabric). The looser weave of tweed looks
like it would be harder to sew than the black you posted above.

I went on Pinterst last night and found a lot of pins on sewing/creating these types of jackets. I found a Vogue pattern that seems
to be popular. Also learned that Chanel hand sews the linings to the fabric before assembly and they put a chain around the bottom of the jacket to make it lay well. Interesting stuff!

I was trying to figure out which jacket I could get the most use out of if I got the nerve to attempt one. I like the short one (waist length)
with 3/4 sleeves that I could wear in early winter and later winter/early spring. I also like the long one that goes over your butt that
could be worn all winter here in FL.

Something like these...

short one


Long one


Long one


Mine would be...
- no plaid so I don't have to match seams
- no buttons (so I don't have to do button holes.) I guess that makes them more like a vest with the look of a jacket?
- minimal trim to help keep it more casual (bonus...cuts down on work too )

Do you make your own trim? I found pins on Pinterest for that too if you need ideas but you're probably already on top of that!

Thanks for sharing all your pics...I enjoy seeing the progress!

 

[Arcadian]

Oh, wow! This is lovely! You'll laugh...I actually google to find out the difference between tweed and boucle last night. What I found
said that tweed was usually a bit easier to sew (but I'm sure it really depends on the individual fabric). The looser weave of tweed looks
like it would be harder to sew than the black you posted above.

I went on Pinterst last night and found a lot of pins on sewing/creating these types of jackets. I found a Vogue pattern that seems
to be popular. Also learned that Chanel hand sews the linings to the fabric before assembly and they put a chain around the bottom of the jacket to make it lay well. Interesting stuff!

I was trying to figure out which jacket I could get the most use out of if I got the nerve to attempt one. I like the short one (waist length)
with 3/4 sleeves that I could wear in early winter and later winter/early spring. I also like the long one that goes over your butt that
could be worn all winter here in FL.

Something like these...

short one


Long one


Long one


Mine would be...
- no plaid so I don't have to match seams
- no buttons (so I don't have to do button holes.) I guess that makes them more like a vest with the look of a jacket?
- minimal trim to help keep it more casual (bonus...cuts down on work too )

Do you make your own trim? I found pins on Pinterest for that too if you need ideas but you're probably already on top of that!

Thanks for sharing all your pics...I enjoy seeing the progress!

I started out with several of the vogue patterns which can be trial by fire....lol And each one of them had things I didn't like, most of them did not fit me properly and every adjustment came at a cost.

The good is that this pattern at least for the body is pretty basic. But being able to make one strictly to my measurements is what I needed. I've got a muscular build and unless you're a very slim something, you have to adjust the crap out of the ready made patterns is my experience.

But, if you choose to do it, go with V7975. Even though its a 2 part sleeve, its got the pieces you'd want. Toile is necessary as its super close fitting.

Joanns craft store should have them on sale for 5.99 this weekend I think.

I will be making my own trim absolutely and of course, applying the chain. I haven't decided if I want to attempt to do a real braid via crocheting or if I will just use bias cut fabric and fluff it out. I'm pretty far from that at the moment so I have some time to think about it. You could use store bought and some people do and its fine. I haven't liked ANY of the store bought stuff though.

Also, quilting the lining is something that isn't always done at Chanel as my understanding is that it depends on the outter fabric. I've seen some things quilted and others not. I've seen some without linings at all. So I think its case by case. I can certainly see why its necessary on a loose tweed like my plaid versus a tighter one like the black jacket. I did a test quilt for both and it helped tons for the plaid. It made the black jacket too rigid.

With the black, I've shaped the fabric quite a bit, went back and made sure I like how it looks. Fairly happy with how its turned out thankfully and this weekends adventure should be easy (just the lining, I'm good with linings)

This is the quilting sample that I started with to ensure I liked it for the plaid jacket. Quilting has its own other set of issues. One being that you have to be really precise (I used a walking foot). I think this one is a size 3.5. The other is that you can quilt only 2 inches from top to bottom and one inch from where your edges are, and thats for every piece. then you have to knot your threads under the lining so they don't come loose.

This is a silk hobatai using 2ply silk thread to quilt.


Boucle/Tweed /Fantasy Tweed is pretty much all the same in terms of these jackets. And in fact, look at LintonTweeds... Every Wednesday they have a flash sale so its one way to get your feet wet. I will say that if you're unsure, stick with cotton or mostly cotton, especially if you want to be able to wear it down here. some of the wool and poly mixes can be pretty hot.

https://lintontweeds.com/product-category/fabric/flash-sale-wednesday/

Still, for a cheaper tweed, FabricMart has lots of them right now on sale. https://www.fabricmartfabrics.com/Manager-Blowout/ or https://www.fabricmartfabrics.com/Boucle-Fabric/


https://cloningcouture.com/ Mary is an excellent resource.

for videos:

You may consider the shorter jacket as an FYI

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

when things dont arrive on time sometimes you just need a little faith and patients (more so for inexpensive items - and non- perishables)

i brought something on etsy and didn't even get one single update about it
its just got to 5 weeks - i was thinking maybe i should ask a question ?
but it was in the letterbox all the way from India today
very nicely wrapped and looks exactly like the pictures

phew

 

[tyty333]

Thanks for the links @Arcadian ...I'm going to take a look around and see what I find of interest.

V7975 is the pattern I found that seemed to be pretty popular. I haven't sewn a whole garment in ages! If I was going to make one
now would be the time to start so I could be done in time for winter.

I think making your own trim would be so much fun. Lots of different things to try. I saw the ones that have the crochet that you
braid threads threw or the ones that are just "fluffed" unraveled fabric. You can have lots of fun with your plaid one. Your black one
looks like you would go a little more conservative? Definitely have plenty of time to figure that out though!

 

[Arcadian]

Thanks for the links @Arcadian ...I'm going to take a look around and see what I find of interest.

V7975 is the pattern I found that seemed to be pretty popular. I haven't sewn a whole garment in ages! If I was going to make one
now would be the time to start so I could be done in time for winter.

I think making your own trim would be so much fun. Lots of different things to try. I saw the ones that have the crochet that you
braid threads threw or the ones that are just "fluffed" unraveled fabric. You can have lots of fun with your plaid one. Your black one
looks like you would go a little more conservative? Definitely have plenty of time to figure that out though!

Indeed. This weekend I worked on the lining. Oh my word...lol I'm glad to be using crepe de chine over charmeuse only because its not as slick. Its still fiddly and must be wrangled into place. I have to finish tacking it to the body and may do that while I'm in meetings this week.

I'll be working on the lining next weekend as well as I only did the body and not the arms (which means I have to cut out and sew those together too ) I scared myself this morning because I took the arms off the dress form and put them in my chair....lol that was silly of me of course!

The plaid jacket....I finally have it taken apart, I've found a couple ( ) of mistakes that I made and now I'm taking the steps to put it back together. Slowly of course. The black will be done with a very short fluff. I think it will look better that way and I'll get more uses out of it. not to mention after all said and done, quite heavy! The plaid is where I'll do something pretty crazy.

 

[tyty333]

So I went through all the different hand-me-down feet I have for my machine and I don't have a walking foot .

I checked them out on Amazon and they are not too expensive. I really need to go look at some fabric and decide
if I'm going to be serious about making a jacket. I've got so much going on with my kids right now and a last-minute
vacation before school starts that I don't have any time for sewing. Once school starts I should be in a better place
though. Doesn't mean I can't buy stuff and be ready for when I do have the time!

Any major progress to show @Arcadian ?

 

[Arcadian]

So I went through all the different hand-me-down feet I have for my machine and I don't have a walking foot .

I checked them out on Amazon and they are not too expensive. I really need to go look at some fabric and decide
if I'm going to be serious about making a jacket. I've got so much going on with my kids right now and a last-minute
vacation before school starts that I don't have any time for sewing. Once school starts I should be in a better place
though. Doesn't mean I can't buy stuff and be ready for when I do have the time!

Any major progress to show @Arcadian ?

Tomorrow I should have both the outer sleeves sewn on! The lining is only part sewed, which was done by hand. (that was such a pain) . I still have the sleeves to go.

For walking feet, you'll be fine as long as it fits your machine. All of my walking feet came with their respective machines thankfully. However I can't mix them up! The Juki one will not fit a computerized commercial machine (will work for an industrial though!)

Also one other tidbit with boucle, If you get it from any other place aside from Linton, you'll want to ensure its properly shrunk. That means you'll need to steam press all of it prior to sewing. Linton prewashes and steams all their tweeds and because they supply couture houses, they do it so there's no question of having to prep the fabric before hand. Nonetheless, I still steamed a small section prior to ensure there would be no shrinkage (none to be had!)

I have some Elie Tahari deadstock boucle which is gorgeous, however not knowing anything about it aside that its a cotton/synthetic mix, I'll ensure I press it prior or take it to the dry cleaner and have them steam it for me. (they're used to it, they did it for a length of wool...lol)

To keep my seams from being weird/wonky, I sew from one direction only. I learned that on the denim jacket I did (I'll be doing another soon as a diversion...lol)

 

[YadaYadaYada]

What is it about the top shelf of the refrigerator? In our house, no other shelf apparently exists so everything gets crammed onto the top shelf. The top shelf could be overflowing, something falls off and it gets shoved right back on that one shelf.

Maybe this is just my house!

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

What is it about the top shelf of the refrigerator? In our house, no other shelf apparently exists so everything gets crammed onto the top shelf. The top shelf could be overflowing, something falls off and it gets shoved right back on that one shelf.

Maybe this is just my house!

nope but what drives the OH up the wall is i operate on the front 5 inches of any surface
at anytime my life is prime for falling off the edge
one time in my old job i came back from a break and my workmate had moved all my stuff to the very edge of my desk ...and i didn't even notice

 

[tyty333]

This is what makes me nervous @Arcadian ...I don't know what I don't know! Like the shrinking of the fabric. I figured it was Dry
clean only and that there would be no shrinkage (silly me). What about tweed? Same thing as far as shrinkage?

 

[Arcadian]

This is what makes me nervous @Arcadian ...I don't know what I don't know! Like the shrinking of the fabric. I figured it was Dry
clean only and that there would be no shrinkage (silly me). What about tweed? Same thing as far as shrinkage?

9 out of 10 times, your fiber type isn't going to be that much of a challenge Its how its weaved that will sometimes make you want to pull your hair out.

But no need to be nervous, I promise!! Its super easy once you get it figured out and understand the science of different fibers. These types of tweeds can have tons of fiber types, and shrinkage amounts can depend on what its made of, so it makes sense that you know its content.

Tip: If your tweed has any wool, linen, cotton, viscose, silk, there's room for it to shrink if its not been properly prewashed or steamed, and it could do so unevenly. This is where testing a sample comes in.

This jacket requires LOTS of pressing. You want to press your seams flat not only on the outter fabric but the lining. *you'll need to have 2 types of pressing cloths. I use silk organza as my lightweight one, and a white cotton rag as my heavy weight one*. when you get to sleeves, you'll especially understand why you want to do some preshaping of the shoulder area and why the iron becomes your best friend!

Any fabric you get thats a blend, treat as the most sensitive of the fibers. For instance, if you have a silk/wool blend tweed, treat it more like the silk fiber instead of the wool. If its a cotton/viscose, then treat it more like viscose. If its linen/cotton, then its a free for all ...lol (kidding, treat it more like cotton)

If your tweed contains lurex or any shiny fibers, you want to really be careful in how you press because heat can discolor it (use a heavy pressing cloth here lowest heat possible)

If your tweed is mostly or fully synthetic (poly, nylon, acetate) then treat it like the most heat sensitive of the 3.

My black is full cotton. I treat it more like quilting cotton except for not washing it! Cotton can shrink and it can do so in the craziest of ways if not prewashed. Even though its from Linton and they prewash for you, trust but verify is necessary! My plaid tweed is a mostly cotton base with poly and some silk thrown in for good measure. This means cutting a 2 inch square then pressed it with lots of steam, let it cool, then measured it after to see if there was shrinkage. In either case of the plaid or the black, no changes to my test squares, so that meant no need to bother pressing out the length.

HOWEVER, if there HAD been changes, I would have had to press it all out. Thats a hot job let me tell you...lol Its why the last one I had to do like that, I took it to the dry cleaner.

So to that end, especially if you paid a lot for the material, you'll want to have an idea of how its going to act. Even if you didn't you still want to know how its going to act if you're putting effort into it.

I would make it very easy on yourself to do one thats single fiber if you can.

For instance:

Z30829 - Light Beige Cotton Textured Piece Dye Fabric

Linton Tweeds is proud to present this couture fantasy tweed fabric. Designed and woven in Carlisle, UK. Limited stock available.

lintontweeds.com

Thats a light cotton. Grams per square meter (g/m2) is 215, which while not as light as a tshirt, still makes this wearable in warm climates.

Anything over 300 is going to be quite warm. And yes you can get some wools less than 300 and some cottons over. G/M2 has to do with how densely weaved the fibers are, and not much to do with the overall fiber itself.

L30757 - Pink Pale Blue and Green Textured Couture Fabric

Linton Tweeds is proud to present this red and white tweed fabric. Designed and woven in Carlisle, UK. Limited stock available.

lintontweeds.com

I like this one as well because you COULD match it across, or, not at all, won't hurt anything if you don't! Also the weave is very nice. Not too tight but tight enough and has a lot of fun and interesting fibers woven in.

gm2 on this one is 220.

Here's a list of all the ones under 250 https://lintontweeds.com/fabrics-by-weight/page/5/?weight=under-250

The science of sewing is what awakens my inner nerd...lol

 

[tyty333]

OMG...you know so much @Arcadian ! I never even looked at fabric weight before. Full disclosure, I've never bought fabric on-line.
Always been able to see and feel it in person. So much easier but then you don't get the selection.

I saw that first fabric you linked and noted that it was %100 cotton...nice. I did not see that second one you linked. Its a little more
"fun" and could go with jeans or black pants. To be honest, I would want to stay on the low-end cost-wise for fabric being that I have
a great learning curve and lots of possibilities to screw it up! I'm still trying to work up the nerve to attempt the simplest of jackets.