The big day arrived, and on a perfect spring afternoon I walked my beautiful daughter down the aisle. We both made our clothes for this special day. I, of course, am wearing the suit I made for the occasion. My daughter "reinvented" the Irish linen skirt that her mother wore for our wedding. She lovingly [...]
With the jacket fronts complete I moved on to the sleeves. It was a nice break from all the detail work (pockets, taping and pad stitching). The sleeve construction is really quite simple, it just gets fussy where the lining meets the vents. A wide strip of pocketing cut on the bias is basted into [...]
The wedding took place on Martha's Vineyard last weekend. To say it was a fabulous time would be a huge understatement. Not only was it the most extravagant wedding I've ever attended, it was a chance to spend time with my far-flung children. They were truly the "icing on the cake" of the whole affair, [...]
I had a feeling that the waistband would be time consuming, and man was I right. I used the construction techniques from Roberto Cabrera; and while I love the results, there are probably much easier, and faster, ways to finish off a pair of pants. The waistband is constructed before sewing up the crotch seam, [...]
I've launched into the pants. My plan is follow the pattern directions for the front slant pockets, but I'll defer to Cabrera for the back welt pockets. Why you might ask? Firstly, his directions are crystal clear and there's a line drawing for each and every step. Secondly, I can totally ignore all the fiddly [...]
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 [...]
I took a much needed break from this project. It's easy to forget just how labor intensive a tailored jacket can be. But it's time to get back on the horse, as they say. When I left off I was completely baffled by the collar construction. I read and reread Cabrera's instruction to the [...]
I'm making steady progress on the wedding suit. It's been awhile since I've done any tailoring, so the amount of basting and handsewing has been a little overwhelming at times. I'm using the Roberto Cabrera book on tailoring which is usually helpful, but tonight he has me totally baffled about constructing the collar. It's almost [...]
I know that many of you enjoy seeing the tailoring process, so this post's for you! For some, this may look like torture, but I actually enjoy all this hand work. Maybe you do too. It may look complicated, but in reality it's pretty basic stuff. There's a real sense of constructing something as I [...]
Wow, it's been ages since I've posted anything. Spring sort of happened, (although most people in the Northeast are still in doubt), and life got a little hectic. Still, I've managed to make some progress on my Martha's Vineyard wedding outfit. I guess one could say I've been productive but silent. Still, I have a [...]
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