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Morphing the Manequim sweater pattern to my size

20 January 2012, 13:56

If you remember from earlier in the week, my next project is to make this collared sweater from the June 2011 Manequim magazine:

Since the pattern is only in one size, “Small”, my strategy was to take an existing long sleeved teeshirt pattern that I know fits me well, trace that, then trace the neckline area from the Manequim pattern overlaid onto it and morph the two together. For simplicity’s sake, I wanted to keep the collar piece as unaltered as possible.

Here’s that wonderful diagram again showing how the Manequim pattern fits together, so we all have an idea in our head of what we’re aiming towards:

While overlaying the Manequim pattern onto mine, I wasn’t quite sure what I should use as the “frame of reference” to align the two patterns together – should I use the Centre Front & Centre Back? Or the shoulder seam/armscye corner?

In the end, it turned out that sorting out the Back first was the key to making the bigger changes on the Front piece work, since the Back of my teeshirt and the Back of this pattern were much more similar.


I’ve shaded my final pattern shapes in blue here to try to make it clearer. The original teeshirt pattern is (mostly) at the cut edge of the paper. Ignore the red lines – they were misaligned tracings!

First, I placed mark 1 at the shoulder/armscyce corner, then measured the distance between 1 and 2 on the Manequim pattern and placed it the same distance apart on my pattern. Then I measured the distance between 2 and the corner on the collar pattern (I labelled this “a” for my own sanity), and marked this distance on my pattern as the edge of the shoulder seam, also marking this “a”. I then realised that the distance between “a” and the Centre Back (5) was absolutely going to be longer than between “a” and 5 on the collar piece, so I drew a nice neck curve there, measured it (with my Japanese pizza wheel tool), and had to add a bit of length into the collar piece to make it match. C’est la vie.


Addition to the Collar piece…

Having completed the Back piece, I then moved on to the Front, which only has a very short shoulder seam (between marks 1 and 2), because the collar takes up the rest of the width there. This is actually really similar to the shoulder seam on Paco’s Draped collar tunic pattern actually!

So I aligned the shoulder/armscye corners of the Front and Back, and marked that 1 on my Front piece. I then marked 2 at the same point where it matches up with the Back:

On the Front neckline, there’s a mark 3 midway down which shows where the collar overlap stops, so I measured the Collar piece between 2 and 3, and drew a line of the same length on my Front piece. Then I measured the Collar piece between mark 3 and mark 4 (the Centre Front), since I knew that whatever neckline curve I drew on my piece between marks 3 and 4 had to be this same length (unless I changed the Collar piece again, which I didn’t fancy doing).

So with a bit of finagling with my French curves, I got a line that was the same length, though you can see my neckline will be slightly higher and wider than the Manequim pattern, but I’m thinking that shouldn’t be a big deal.

Here’s the pattern pieces again:

I did all of the above on Wednesday night, but I also went and traced that Burda February dress at the same time. You may have seen me tweet about it at the time, but this was a total beast to trace. I must’ve traced at least a hundred Burda patterns in my day, but following red lines printed over pink shaded areas was really tough, even for me. If you don’t normally trace your patterns with the pattern paper on top, you may want to make an exception for this one!

And finally, a link for your Friday afternoon – I’m totally fascinated by this interactive analysis of US and UK high street clothing brand sizes! Give it your measurements, and it’ll show you how you correspond to various brands’ sizes. Though I found it kinda unnerving that my exact measurements were the default! Am I really Ms Average??

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Upcoming January sewing

17 January 2012, 14:36

I’ve finally emerged from the craptacular flu (which then turned into bronchitis) that I’ve been under since Dec 28 – thank you for all your well wishes! For me, it really feels like the new year, 16 days late!

The Ruby Slip was my first garment of 2012, but my second and third aren’t far away…

Grey flannel trousers


Just before Christmas, I met up with Claire for lunch and she gifted me a massive length of wonderful dark grey flannel. It’s so soft and lovely that initially I thought a dress, but then realised I’m likely to get much more wear out of a really chic, comfortable pair of dress trousers. So on Friday night I traced and cut Burda Jan 12 #122, mostly because the issue was handy, but also because they looked to be a great basic. These have the illustrated instructions for this issue, but I could sew trousers blindfolded by this point, so the instructions didn’t make much difference to me.

I sewed this on and off over the weekend and nearly completed these despite hardly being at home. As a nice tie-in to my previous garment, the pockets, fly underlap, and waistband lining are all done in the pale green silk leftover from my Ruby Slip.

These are finished apart from the hem – I added 11+ cm onto these to be full length rather than “my god my ankles are cold” like the original pattern…

Manequim sweater

Mentally, I’m already on my next garment – the collared sweater from the June 2011 Manequim magazine:

The pattern is only offered in size “Small” (whatever that is, I doubt it’s me!), so I’m going to trace the collar piece and the neckline shape, and morph these onto a standard long sleeved teeshirt pattern (either my KnipMode one or BurdaStyle’s Lydia, whichever traced pattern I find first).

Happily, last year there was a discussion thread about this pattern on PR, during which there was a lot of discussion about its construction. User aonori made this super useful diagram, which really gives me an “Ah-ha!” moment for how the collar goes together:

I’ve got some awesome ex-Versace sweater knit from Ditto in Brighton that I’ve been wanting to sew since I bought it last winter, but it’s really narrow so everything else I’ve tried hasn’t fit on my 2m piece. I did a preliminary, pre-tracing layout and it looks good for this, though.

(No, I’m not sick of grey yet, thankyouverymuch!)

February Burda dress

And finally, like a ton of other sewing ladies, I am head over heels in love with this dress from the February 2012 Burda magazine. My issue arrived this weekend and I want it even more now. LOVE. Because I’m trying not to buy more fabric, I’ll be making it (probably) in some royal blue viscose jersey from my stash (also from Ditto), though temptation to buy some nice ponti roma from Tia Knight is strong!

PS: A big hello to my granddad, who’s learning to use the internet for the first time and apparently checks FehrTrade every day. Hi Pop!

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New Year's Progress Report

29 December 2011, 19:07

Back on the 17th I set some bold goals to finish by New Year’s:

I thought it was time for a little progress report, seeing as how I only have a few days to go…

  1. Paco’s Drape Collar Tunic – I sewed this up in an evening before Christmas. Though I had to get very creative in order to get long sleeves out of the 2m of sweater knit I bought… Note to self: Buy more yardage, or shorten the body length next time!
  2. Clover jeans – I just finished these! I’m totally loving the fit and the (IMHO) improved pockets, too.
  3. Holly’s maternity maxi-dress, Burda 08/2008 #125 – Having no place to cut the fabric of the enormous skirt pieces, I actually took it along to work yesterday and cut it out on the big (and empty) lunch table at lunchtime! The few guys left in the office already think I’m weird anyway. Shrug. In any case, this is now ready to sew!
  4. Ruby Slip – I wanted to cut the skirt pieces at the same time I cut out the maxi dress, but the low table height was killing my back by the time I finished with the maxi dress. I don’t think this will take long to sew together if I can ever find somewhere to cut the single-layer, bias layout… A good cutting area is my new productivity choke point.

So there you have it – two down, two to go. If I’m looking at it objectively, the jeans and the maxidress are the most time consuming, so I’m halfway through on those, too.

We’ll take some photos of the cowl sweater and jeans at the weekend, but until then, I thought you might enjoy photos of Bosco “helping” me sew my jeans*.

God, I love my vintage hand-crank Singer for topstitching! It really is a beautiful piece of engineering…

*When in doubt, post cat photos.

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Piling up...

21 December 2011, 13:24

The number of posts I want to write is piling up at an alarming rate, and I have no time to do anything about it, what with work being crazy busy (I hate all of you who get tons of time off at Christmas – I only get 3 days off in total! And my days have mostly been solving one problem, and having five new problems pour in while I was fixing the one, then moving on to the next in a To-Do list which never, ever gets cleared.) and us spending all our weekends working on the boat (last weekend we spent 15 hours building the subfloor down there. No, don’t feel jealous – the boat blog is being neglected, too).

So rather than stress about the amount of things piling up, I’m going to present my pile to you in pictorial form.


This is what James’s desk looked like this morning. It’s supposed to be my temporary cutting table while we’re building in the hold. How can I possibly cut the bias Ruby Slip or Holly’s maxi-dress fabric on this?? I’m pretty sure Bosco isn’t responsible, though he does look a bit shifty there…


I finished my vintage midi skirt ages ago, but have had zero time to document, or photoshoot or anything. So here’s two photos to test the hem length (which is why it’s just basted here)


I sewed a little waistcoat for James’s nephew out of this Tardamask fabric on Spoonflower. It’s got hidden pockets inside! He’s 7, and the biggest Dr Who fan ever, so we’re excited to see his reaction on Christmas.


My pile of pattern magazines to scan is threatening to consume us all. And one Manequim issue went missing, too. grrr (my subscription has been extended, but I would’ve preferred a replacement).


This is the gorgeous (and spendy!) lace I bought at MacCulloch & Wallis on Friday for the bodice of my Ruby Slip. It’s a seafoam green and brick-coloured stretch lace, at 18cm wide.


I met up with Claire (Seemane) for lunch last week (was it last week already?) and she gifted me this wonderful grey flannel which is just so soft! Yayy, you all know I love grey flannel! She also gave me a sticky ruler for when I have a cutting table again (see above).


My copy of the BurdaStyle book finally arrived, along with the dress I made for it last summer. Since I got to choose a size, it’s a 44, so I’ll photoshoot it at some point here. But yes, it’s very exciting to see all that hard work in physical book form!

And to end it off, the obligatory “I’m really sorry I’m crap at replying to comments right now” line. But it’s true! Seriously, it’s not just you guys, I haven’t got time for anything apart from work, sleeping, running, and boatwork right now.

Can I ask Santa for some chillaxation time please?

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Grey flannel outlook ahead

5 December 2011, 16:14

My next two sewing projects to share with you both use the fantastic, charcoal grey, ex-designer poly/viscose/lycra flannel that Neighbour Helen gifted to me just before they set sail for the continent. If I didn’t have the fibre content tag still attached to the fabric, I’d assume it was a cashmere or wool flannel, it’s that lovely!

The first use of the flannel is actually already finished and could’ve been spotted in the swankier parts of Spitalfields on Saturday night – an amaaaaaaazing sheath dress from Burda magazine:

I’ll avoid a long story to explain the Why, but you’ll have to wait til next week to see the photos. But trust me when I say it is a truly stunning va-va-voom dress!

Then this weekend I decided to jump right in and use up the remaining ~2m or so of the flannel and make the vintage Maudella midi skirt pattern I bought in Sheffield a few weeks ago:

Midi skirts are super fashionable right now, but the length is totally out of my comfort zone, so what better way to try it out than with fabric that’s already made a successful garment? I figure this extra yardage is double “free” too, since it was a gift and I never expected to be able to make two things from it!

I’m making View 2 (seen in my attempted tech drawing above), and the pieces for it and View 1 were already cut to size 18 (my size, judging by the pattern, eep!), which made it easy to just lay on the fabric and cut. There was also some traced tissue for a random cape(?) pattern in the envelope, but it didn’t look interesting (or vintage) enough to warrant saving.

In any case, there are only three pattern pieces (skirt panel, yoke, and waistband), so it should be a stupidly quick make. Though I am slightly concerned that the front and back use exactly the same pieces… Is this normal for gored skirts?

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A wool maternity coat - nearly there...

23 November 2011, 14:20

As you recall, last week I underlined Holly’s maternity coat and created all five bound buttonholes, but I had the day off work on Friday so I was able to make loads of progress over my long weekend! In fact, her coat is now 95% finished and ready to hand over, so I thought I’d give you a rundown of what I got up to…

I’m making this maternity coat from the August 2008 issue of Burda, but after the first muslin we made some design changes (namely, eliminating the band and gathered sleeve caps) so it won’t look exactly like this tech drawing:

As I constructed the shell of the coat, I took the extra step here to catch-stitch all the thick wool seam allowances to the flannel underlining. I started off just doing this on the sleeve seams as I feel the bumps are most noticeable during wear there (and therefore most likely to get annoying quickly!), but I carried on and just catchstitched everywhere.

I wanted this coat to be as nice for her as one I would make myself, so why not? I also noted that Gertie was asking last week how to make the seam allowances lie flat on her coat – well, the answer is catch stitching!


(I forgot to take a photo of all my stitching before lining it, though, so you’ll have to make do with a shot through the “window”!)

Once I’d finished the shell, I moved on to constructing the lining using a gorgeous ex-Roberto Cavalli, purple floral print poly satin from Stone Fabrics that is just SO Holly! Even though it’s polyester, it’s one of those high quality ones that just feels wonderful, even if it was rather slippery and not for the faint-hearted.

When cutting out the lining pieces, I simplified the upper back to eliminate the curved, horizontal seam. There wasn’t much shaping going on in it anyway and I figured the tiny darts wouldn’t be missed when I added the ease pleat in the centre back, and it makes it look much nicer inside.

Once the lining was complete, I joined the front and back facings together, and then attached these to the lining. Then it was time to sew the facing to the coat exterior around the opening (ie: “Bag the lining”). Then I did something a bit different, based on feedback from lauriana: I flipped the coat right-side-out partially to pin the hem in place, then flipped it wrong-side-out again to handstitch the hem together. Then I clipped and trimmed the seam allowances and flipped it right-side out the the final time. This gives the hem a nice, crisp edge, but keeps the lining from showing through or being too short! Perfect! Thanks very much, lauriana!

With the lining and coat right side out, I then tacked the lining to the coat seam allowances at the underarms, centre back, and vent to keep it all from shifting around too much during wear. Since I did bound buttonholes, I also then needed to clip and handstitch the reverse of each bound buttonhole on the coat facing, as well as behind the in-seam buttonhole.

At this point I tried on the coat, and instantly discovered a problem, as the right sleeve lining wasn’t sitting well, and felt oddly constricted.

I’m still not sure how I did it, but somehow I managed to insert one of the lining sleeves in upside-down (so the shoulder was attached at the underarm and vice-versa). Now, to my credit, there is neither a shoulder seam nor an underarm seam on the sleeve piece and my notches all looked the same. But by the time I discovered it, it was too late to really unflip and re-sew it by machine, so I unpicked the whole armscye seam and restitched it all by hand. I’ve never set in a sleeve by hand before (go go fell stitch!) but it actually really did give me more control on the slippery satin, and it only took me a Radio 4 podcast or so to do it.

Then I hemmed the coat sleeve hems and the sleeve hem linings by hand, like I do for all lined sleeves, really. I took this photo as I was about to stitch the sleeve linings, because I liked the look of the linings rolled to the outside!


(My Union Jack mug was a gift when I finally got my UK citizenship!)

And voila! A finished coat, ready for Holly to collect on Friday (the first night we both had free). It’s only missing the buttons, but she’s bringing those with her, so I’ll sew them on as she waits.


(It looks a bit deflated on poor Susan, but she hasn’t got the boobs or the belly to pull off the look right now, poor headless girl!)

We usually have problems taking photos after dark, but I’m going to really try and get some of her wearing this for you, because I’m really pleased with the job I did on this!

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A wool maternity coat - basting and buttonholes

15 November 2011, 14:01

If you recall from last week, my next project is this maternity coat from the August 2008 issue of Burda, which I promised a very good friend:


(The issue date is still wrong above – it is indeed in the 2008 issue…)

After we sorted out the fitting and design alterations (including a second, quick muslin fitting of just the upper bodice in the pub toilets on Saturday night!), my first step was to cut out all the pieces in the green wool and then again in the black cotton flannel I’d bought to underline the spongey wool coating and give it a bit more structure. The coating is wonderful, but I’m a bit concerned about it bagging out in places, and I wanted to give it some added stability as well as a bit of extra warmth (though if warmth were my primary concern, I’d call it “interlining” and attach it a bit differently!).

Here’s all the pieces hanging on the line in my tiny sewing room:

I then hand basted all the layers together around the edges of the pieces, plus through the darts, and then also marked out the placement lines for the five bound buttonholes:

To my dismay, I actually ran out of both colours of silk thread, so I had to finish up with regular Gutermann Sew-All thread (Oh the humanity, first world problem, etc!). As I was nearing the end of the second spool, I prioritised the silk for the stitching I knew I’d need to remove later (like the bound buttonhole markings), as the biggest advantage of the silk thread is how easily it slides out when you need to remove it. I then finished up the outer edge basting with the Sew All, since it’ll be hidden in the seam allowances anyway.

Here’s a view inside my trusty little Gutermann hand-sewing tin (which you can see closed in the left photo above) – all the things I need to sew on the go!

Then, after I finished the boat’s insulation on Sunday (yeeeeaaaaahh!!), I sat down and made the bound buttonholes.

I’m happy to say that I’ve progressed in the last few years from never doing these before, to now not having to refer to any instructions to do them! Though this time around I went with 1/4” welts rather than my usual 1/8”, as the coating is quite thick and I thought it fitting on a coat like this.

That’s a sample buttonhole from my silver tweed jacket for comparison’s sake. The buttonholes are the same width – just the welt thickness is changed. I’ve had this sample buttonhole in my button drawer since I made the jacket and I’m not entirely sure why I’ve kept it, but it’s useful here for seeing the real-life difference between the quarter- and eighth-inch welts.

There are actually going to be six buttonholes on the front of this coat, but the sixth lies very conveniently at the empire joining seam, so I’m going to make that an in-seam buttonhole instead.

A housekeeping note:
Thank you all so much for your wonderful comments on my green Clover trousers! There are so many emails I really need/want to reply to, but I’m frustratingly extremely busy and stressed and overwhelmed with work right now, and I’m struggling to find ten minutes spare to sew a week, and if given the choice between sewing and emailing, sewing wins every time. So please accept my apologies for being a bad emailer, I just have to accept that I can’t get everything done in a day that I want to, and leave it at what I can achieve.

And Holly’s getting cold and her belly’s getting bigger, so you know where my priorities lie.

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A beginner's knit maternity dress

2 November 2011, 14:52

Just to make things absolutely clear – no, I am not pregnant!

But my very good friend (and beginning sewer!) Holly is, so I’m doing some maternity sewing for her over the next few months, and helping her to sew a few things for herself, too. We’ve already had an afternoon session converting regular trousers to maternity versions (and I’m thrilled to report that she’s since gone home and done a few of these herself, too!), but it’s down to me to start the “from scratch” garments.

The first project was to make a “wearable muslin” of this Burda knit dress from June 2010. She picked this pattern out of a lineup, and it’s actually great for a beginner. The seamlines and construction are pretty straightforward, and you get a lot of bang for your buck with this, as there are two sleeve variations and two length variations!

I traced off all the different versions, and used the double tracing wheel I picked up in Budapest to even add the seam allowances on for her, too (something I never bother to do for myself, as I prefer my patterns without).

For this muslin I used some viscose jersey donated by Claire (Seemane) specifically for muslining purposes. The print is definitely too wild for me, but it might come in handy for Holly while she’s got a limited wardrobe. I don’t think it’s an ugly print by any means, and I could see her toning it down with a black or navy jacket or cardigan.

To document the most construction steps possible, I made her the dress version with long sleeves, as I figured it’s getting cooler and she could use the longer sleeves.

She came round on Saturday to try on the dress (and take the dress and pattern pieces back with her!), and to my delight, a straight 44 fits her PERFECTLY. Honestly, no pattern alterations needed! It really fits her well, but I didn’t want to subject her to photos, and besides, we couldn’t escape outside anyway since James was painting the deck, so I’m afraid you’ll just have to image the dress on her.

As this is going to be her project to sew a few of these dresses for herself, I’ve taken it upon myself to create some beginner’s instructions for her, including some ham-firsted drawings! I’ll share them with you, too, when they’re ready.

The other muslin she was fitting at the weekend is for the coat I volunteered to sew for her. Because hey, it wouldn’t be winter without sewing a coat, and I don’t really need one this year! She picked this pattern from the August 2008 issue of Burda, though I said I would not be making this in the suggested leather, no way no how!


(Ah, I got the issue date wrong above – it is indeed in the 2008 issue…)

She bought some gorgeous olive green, spongey wool from Ditto Fabrics for this, and some very pretty floral, Roberto Cavalli satin from Stone Fabrics for the lining. As the wool is quite flexible and I want this to be a bit warmer for her (she’s got to wear it at least through January and into February, I’d wager), I also bought some black flannel from Chawla’s to underline it (Chawla’s unofficial, next day shipping as standard is awesome!).

But before I get to the cutting, we decided there are a few changes to make to the pattern first. Overall, the fit is perfect across the back and shoulders, and the sleeves are the right size and length, so tonight I’ll be making the following changes:

Happily these should all be straightforward, though I actually have to look up how to do an FBA as I’ve got the luxury of never needing them myself!

I also gave Holly a bit of homework, too – to buy some 1” buttons so I can just add them on at the end, rather than waiting to do the bound buttonholes until I have the buttons in hand. This way, since I know their size, I can just do the bound buttonholes and carry on with the coat. We’ve been very lucky so far that our October has been warm, but I need to get a move on so she’s not (literally) caught out in the cold!

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Mobile sewing weekend report

25 October 2011, 14:23

I’m beginning to feel like my draped suit (Burda September 2011 #126 and 127) is dragging on forever, so it’s good that I am making progress in the few snatched snippets of time available to me over the past few weeks. I hope you’re not getting too bored yet!

We were out of town this past weekend, up in Sheffield visiting two very good friends of ours in their new place (a house with his’n‘hers sewing machines! We slept in a room with a vintage Bernina!). It’s about a 3.5 hour drive from London, so there was ample time in the car for handstitching, but it did require some planning ahead to get the suit in a state ready for it.

Going back to my earlier To-Do list from last week, I was able to finish the following on Friday night before we left:

I also prepped about 5 lengths of grey and pink thread with beeswax before leaving so that I wouldn’t get horrible tangles while doing all the handstitching. I never used to bother with beeswax, but it seriously does help cut down on the excess tangling, so the time spent waxing and pressing the thread in advance really does save you time and frustration in the long run.

Then, in the in the car ride up to Sheffield and back (and, err, also in the KwikFit waiting room while we had new tires put on) I was able to:

I just love how that hot pink satin piping turned out! You can also see my lace hem tape on the skirt here. This was a pack of lace tape I’d bought at the Amish dry-goods store in Perry County last year, paying 50 cents for it, and with a 1986 copyright on the package!

So, the only things left to do are:

And, err, unpick the machine stitching on the skirt lining’s hem and make it an inch shorter, because it’s slightly longer than the skirt’s hem, d’oh! That’s what I get for finishing the hems out of sequence in order to get all the machine sewing done before we left…

But in any case, it’ll definitely be done by the weekend so I can get a photoshoot done while it’s light out! HOORAY!

We had a fabulous time in Sheffield, and since I’d never been there before, we got the grand tour of the best sights (okay, ice cream mostly!), and I picked up a little souvenir in the Nichols Building antique centre.

I saw Maudella New Look 6126 in a small stack of vintage patterns and I just had to have it:

First of all – it’s a midi skirt, so it’s SUPER fashionable right now, and a silhouette I haven’t tried yet. It’s also a multisize pattern in my size range, it’s in good condition, and it was only £2, hooray!

Maudella Patterns appears to be a Bradford (Northern England) sewing pattern company that, by the mid 1970s, were published under the New Look brand, but the contents were entirely controlled by Maudella (hence the Maudella branding all over the instructions inside!). This is a new-to-me vintage pattern company, and there doesn’t seem to be much online about them or their history (no Wikipedia page! omg!). However, I did find this Radio 4 Women’s Hour programme about them which aired in 2002, so if you’ve got RealPlayer installed, you might be interested in a listen.

I’d love to say I’m going to do something quick and easy after this suit, but I’ve really got to make some progress on a maternity coat for a friend before the weather goes much colder!

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Draped jacket - no ordinary lining

19 October 2011, 14:02

There’s been only slow and steady progress on my draped suit (Burda September 2011 #126 and 127) this week as there’s been little time to sew, but I did get a few hours of “me time” in on Sunday evening after my insulation work was done for the day.

Those few hours were enough for me to finish the entire shell of the jacket and skirt, but I needed a clear surface to cut out the lining fabric, so that was delayed until last evening (my running group was cancelled this week, freeing up an evening). Since the wool suiting has stretch, I didn’t want to negate the benefits of that with a non-stretch lining, so I pulled out one of the few stretch wovens in my stash – a blisteringly hot pink stretch satin I’d bought from Fabric.com last year (and came across in my mom’s suitcase before the wedding). Despite it being polyester, it actually feels wonderful and it was worth the price to be such a high quality lining.

I’d already cut into it for the pocket linings of the jacket and skirt, but when I laid it out full, I realised exactly how narrow it was, and that there was no way I could fit all the jacket and skirt pieces out of the 1.5 yards I had. So at this point I resigned myself to having mixed linings. Strangely, home sewers tend to avoid this, but every time I’ve done this in the past, I’ve gotten tons of compliments on how “designer” it looks! I thought about where I’d need the stretch the most – the skirt and the sleeve linings, and cut those in the pink satin, then had a rummage through my bag o’linings for something suitable to line the body of the jacket. I had to reject a few outright (not enough fabric, too white, too red, not slippery enough, etc) and settled on some dark green Cupro that’s been in my stash for years. I know I used it to line my faux fur jacket, so it’s been there at least three years!

Happily there was plenty enough there, it feels nice on the skin, and didn’t look awful with the grey and hot pink. As I was sewing together all the green pieces, it occurred to me that it would really tie the two lining fabrics together nicely if I added a pink piped edge between the green lining and the front facings on the inside. It’d make the green/pink lining look more intentional, give a splash of colour when I open the jacket, and because the facings go fairly far inside, a bit of piping wouldn’t affect the draped edge.

I had just enough pink satin leftover to make a length of piping long enough for both edges of the front lining, and I basted these in place to make my life a bit easier when I go to join the lining to the jacket later this week.


(The green looks quite black here, but that’s just down to how dark my sewing room is at the moment!)

Funny, but constructing and basting the hot pink piping really took me back to the first time I’d ever sewn piping, which was also hot pink, paired with green – my world-famous Glastonbury dress!

So by my count, what’s left to do on this suit:

It looks like a lot listed out like that, but in my mind, it definitely only feels like another few evenings to completion!

Even though this suit is dragging on a bit for me and I’m itching to move on to something else, I’ve already decided to handsew the hems rather than bag the lining, as I always think it gives a nicer edge when I take the extra time. We’re off to Sheffield this weekend to visit some friends, so I’m hoping I’ll have some of this suit at a point where I can work on it in the car. Hand sewing in the car – it’ll be like our French road trip all over again!

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