My colorblocked jacket has gone beyond any expectations I have set for the project.
Category Archives: Project Planning
The Colorblocked Jacket, Part 1
My course in Apparel Construction at City College of San Francisco this spring encompasses three major projects:
- A sleeveless sheath dress
- A pant or pencil skirt
- A machine-tailored jacket, made with fusible interfacings
So here I’m beginning a new blog series on the first project for the class, the sleeveless sheath dress. Careful readers will note that project isn’t the same as the title of this article, so some explanation is in order. Continue reading
The Blue Plaid Shacket, Part 4: Pockets and Cuffs
Sorry to keep everyone in suspense with the shacket project!
I’ve been busy with some other non-sewing related projects. One of them is to assemble an application for dual Italy/America citizenship. To be recognized as an Italian citizen, I have to put together an astounding array of documents, including birth, marriage, death and naturalization certificates for my ancestors up through my grandparents. I’ve been working with my sister on this project, and although it is fun, it is a lot of effort.
Plus, I’ve been doing some other sewing stuff not related to this project (more below). Anyway, here’s a status update.
The Blue Plaid Shacket, Part 3: Lining and Styling
Between personal life, the holidays, and other hobbies, work on my Shacket project has progressed at a rather stately pace. But I have made a new muslin that represents some real forward progress on the project.
Muslin B
With Muslin B, I wanted to check and validate the fitting changes from the first shacket draft, this time with linings and interlinings in place so I can take into accout the volume they add to the finished garment. But this muslin was equally useful to practice lining insertion, and to help make style decisions.
I am using fuschia bull denim for the outer fabric, black polyester fleece for interlining, and yellow polyester charmeuese for the lining as described in my previous article in the series. To me, the colors look garish, but others at the sewing studio commented the fuschia denim and yellow lining actually went together. Who knew!
The Blue Plaid Shacket, Part 2: Fitting
In the first installment of this series, I drafted a pattern block for the shacket based upon a dress-shirt pattern I had fit to myself. I enlarged the garment and drafted a new sleeve based on a draft from a textbook.
I stitched up a trial garment from actual muslin fabric and posed for these high-fashion fitting photos. The grainlines are marked by vertical lines, and cross-grain lines (used to evaluate horizontal balance) are also marked. I got this technique from Sarah Veblen’s fitting courses, but it’s also basically the same thing that Don McCunn’s pattern-drafting book does with gingham fabric for his trial muslins. It gives you visual cues so you can see how the grainline of the fabric hangs on the body.
