Hallo my precious darlings, it has been so long, and I have not been in touch. Other more pressing things have taken my time and I was torn away for a time. However I have still had needle and thread in hand, and here is some wonderful news, a completed project to show you.
A coat made from a pattern found in the collection of The Brain Watkins House in Tauranga. The pattern was adapted from the enclosed free pattern in a Best Way sewing magazine to the style of one of the illustrated coats in the magazine. It is from the early 1900's, and the finished coat stays true to the cut of the era.
Here it is in all its Autumnal glory.
I thought I would show you some of the inner workings of the coat, and here you can see the horse hair interfacing used on the lapels. This wonderful fabric is getting hard to find, it is the tailor's sculptural medium.
Worked with pad stitching as shown here, two layers of fabric can be made to hold form and shape. Its a wonderful thing.
Here is the collar, with completed pad stitching.
Pressing is as important as sewing in tailoring, and the tools of this trade, rounded pressing pads, baby muslin pressing cloths, and sleeve boards are indispensible.
And of course I have to show you the button, only one, but this was the biggest button in my collection. So there it is finished in time for the oncoming winter, and we know what that means don't we, I can buy some more fabric, or a pattern or .......... Tee Hee and Away!
If you want to follow the development of this coat here are the links in this blog to the posts.
gorgeous! I love the applique, particularly.
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ReplyDeleteyou are sooooo talented & im coming round this week to give you a big hug mmmmwah xx
ReplyDeleteYaay the button is on. That can only mean one thing. The ladies get to take Autumnal out for champers. Ohhh darling.
ReplyDeleteHad to rewrite the above post, it just didn't make sense. Thanks Lauren, it was fun to make. I really wanted to make a statement about hand crafts, and how undervalued they are today. After working with a collection of Victorian clothing it struck me how much time went into each piece of clothing, and how much detail there was. It must have been months of work in some cases. Our attitude to our clothing is today. As I am writing this I am realising that I have to do a post about this. So come back and check it out.
ReplyDeleteJust gorgeous darling, beautiful work you talented wee thing.
ReplyDeleteOh fabulous! It looks amazing! I hope I get to see it in person in June at the Textile Symposium!
ReplyDeleteI hope so too Leimomi, I am looking forward to the symposium, but my health has not been too good so I am just hoping that I can make it.
ReplyDeletejust love your work. wow! can you tell me where you purchased your pressing pad? if you made it, what length, width and depth is it? and did you fill it with wool clippings or wood shavings? thank you
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