Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Almost Finished with My Coat!

Oh, I'm getting excited! I'll try to take pics in a day or two when it *should* be done. Most of the lining has been bagged, just have to work on the sleeves. A small area between the side seams and front facing was left open for hem fiddling/handsewing. In a previous post, I mentioned by sewing pitfall--inaccurate sewing. I have to work at being precise. Therefore, my front hems at the CF weren't aligning perfectly. I fudged it, now I have to fudge the lining on the one side.

Claire Shaeffer's instructions in her "High Fashion Sewing Secrets" book appears to be very sound IMO. I'm trying to follow her instructions for bagging a lining to a T. Next coat/jacket, I'll use the Palmer/Pletsch instructions in "Jackets For Real People" to make a comparison on the instructions.

Shaeffer's instructions are very clear and the diagrams are good. It would, however, be a little confusing to a newbie sewer, but with much thought one could work it out. The concept of bagging a lining can throw you at first, but it is not really hard. It has been a long time since I've bagged a lining, maybe 15 years. So it's a common sense type of thing, yet has that "new" feeling to me. It's nice to have solid instructions rather than relying on the pattern. That is something I wish I had many years ago.

My one piece of advice for a sewer who is bagging a lining for the first time? When the instructions tell you to pull the jacket through the opening in the sleeve (as per Claire's instructions), DON'T let go LOL :) ! Keep pulling until it's done. Don't set it down to do something else because when you go back to it, you'll be saying, "Now which way do I pull???"

I'm off to ready myself to do the sleeve hems. Gotta get some food in my tummy so I'm ready to go with this.

1 comment:

angie.a said...

Ooh I can't wait to see!! I've been avoiding a jacket pattern for a while now because I don't want to bag the lining. I used to do them, but it's been probably 8 years or so. I'm chicken!