The pace at The Tailoring Academy continues to be brisk. We receive a schedule each week with the expected amount of progress that will be necessary to start the following week. I'm almost always slightly behind, so I usually use the workroom on Friday to play catch up. Our instructors are available in the morning [...]
OK. Work continues on my "Covid 19 Blazer". When I left off I was talking about fitting issues. Namely, my curved upper back, and how I address that. This happens with just about every pattern. The center back seam is quite straight, which makes the collar pull away from my neck. It looks bad, and [...]
While I'm self isolating (and I hope you are too!), I've decided to take on a tailoring project. It's interesting to see what the sewing community is turning towards during this troubled time. Doing a deep dive into one's stash seems to be popular. Or maybe breaking out that fabric that's always seemed too [...]
OK. This exercise is completed, and it's been a journey for sure. At one point I was screaming louder than the collective scream heard from coast to coast a few weeks ago. My strategy was to take a break, go to yoga class, breath and then calmly return to the whole mess. Yes, it got [...]
Maybe you caught this little post from Sewing on The Edge which linked to an article about a minimalist / capsule wardrobe? While my wardrobe is hardly minimalist, I do try to make clothes that I want to wear. Still, there are clothes that I've sewn that, for one reason or another, I NEVER wear. [...]
The fitting battle continues.... First, thanks Mrs. Mole for your suggestion. I took your advice for my Dowager's hump, and the result is perfect. Plus it was extremely easy. Here's what it looks like... I sliced across the back at yoke level, and swung the top half up to create a curve at the upper [...]
I went ahead and made a quick and dirty muslin, and I'm SO GLAD I did. I wasn't far into the process before issues started popping up. First up, the sleeves had way too much ease in the sleeve cap. It might be fine for a leisure suit jacket (some shoulder pads would be [...]
I'll admit it, I look at some fashion websites. It's a good source of inspiration for me, even if 99% of what's shown is a perpetual theme and variation on one thing -- Black. I'm just NOT that person.And don't get me going on sleeveless jackets for men! I've been drawn to the work of [...]
All that remains on the jacket are the finishing details, things like sewing on buttons and adding some pick stitched details. These are all little projects that can be done in little snippets of time. If I have a few minutes I can sew on a button or two. But my deadline is looming, so [...]
Yesterday I launched into the Jedediah pants muslin. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I cut the size 36 thinking that the 34's would never fit. Wrong! They ended up way too big. Frightening. All I could think of was Betty Draper in her jodhpurs! They looked great on her, on me?... Not so much. Lesson learned.....go [...]
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