marking fashion fabric

The pieces to be interfaced with hair canvas need to have the stiching lines thread traced onto the fashion fabric alone so i decided to mark them with the white wax tracing paper, which dissappears on ironing. 

baste underlining to fashion fabric

 

Silk organza pieces were basted to the fashion fabric along the stitching lines using a single strand of yellow embroidery cotton.

cut out fashion fabric

I had 2 pieces of this fabric - one 3.25 metres that was intended for the jacket and a short skirt and one 2.5 meter piece intended for pants. 

I held the two folded pieces in my hands and thought I choose the heavier (3.25M).

I gave the fabric a light steam with the iron on the wool setting and decided which was the "right side" and lay out the fabric on my tabel draping the excess over the ironing board.

I pinned out the sections to be cut out using the silk organza pieces and the actual pattern for the pieces to be interfaced with hair canvas.  I worked in layers completely filling one length of fabic with pattern pieces then folding it and working on the next length until all the pieces required were pinned on the fabric. 

It was dissappointing that even pinning on the single layer and leaving very few substaintial scraps that I has used the entire lenght of fabric - until i measured it and found I had cut the whole jacket out of the 2.5M length, which left 3.25 which should make pants and a short skirt.

Unfortunatly I did not take any photos of the cutting out process being a bit too involved in working out the most efficient way to place the pieces.

cut out and mark hair canvas

Pattern pieces requiring hair canvas were cut out in silk organza (shown above) and then stiching lines, markings, grainlines and notches were traced onto organza using dark blue wax tracing paper.

cut out and mark silk organza

Pattern pieces requiring underlining were cut out in silk organza (shown above) and then stiching lines, markings, grainlines and notches were traced onto organza using dark blue wax tracing paper.

Making the pattern pieces

As the muslin had be adjusted in all the sections, except the collar so much from the original pattern I had to make all the patterns for the facings & linings from the second muslin.   

Although the muslin pieces could have been used as a pattern for the  silk organza underlining and hair canvas interfacing I decided to make new pattern pieces from tracing paper. 

The collar pieces and cuff interfacing I did not make a pattern for as they were unchanged from the original.

The most complex pattern pieces I needed to draft were the hem interfacing (shown below) and the front facing.  The hem interfacing was drafted by joining the back, sideback, side and side front together at the hemline lining up the stitching lines and then measuring up 4 inches from the hemline to form a strip that would fit along the hemline.  The front facing was challenging as the front piece contains a dart under the lapel, but the front facing did not, so I needed to trace some of the front pattern then shift it to account for the dart to trace the neckline and shoulder seam. 

 

Muslin #2

This time I went with a 100% plain cotton quilting fabric - the seams did not pucker anywhere near as much but it creases fairly easily.

In this muslin my adjustments were:

- more FBA
- lengthed at waist another 5mm
- lifted shoulder and armhole 1 inch rather than the 5/8ths in the previous muslin.
- brought the shoulder to sleeve seam in 1/2 - 3/4 of inch over top of shoulder and around the back of the jacket, and this seemed to solve the extra under arm fabric problem.

Photos are terrible - I really need to invest in a better camera.  Also the jacket is not hanging straight in the front photo - due to the lack of a sleeve (I hope)

After three days of making muslins and alterations I am pretty satisfied with this and ready to mark out the final pattern and cut the silk organza a fashion fabric.  Yay !!!