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janestarzFor one of my homework assignments I'm supposed to sew a bag-lined jacket with a hem vent. Officially, it's called the sewing technique for lining a jacket with "movement" added to the lining. There's a little pleat at the bust point and one in the center back of the lining just to make sure there is enough room to move in. It's one of the final sewing techniques we need to hand in and it's also one of the hardest.
Now, bag lining a jacket isn't really hard, if you have a good pattern (i.e. all the panels fit together) and you know what you're doing. Threads magazine has a comprehensive guide with detail pictures on which corners to clip.
It's basically nothing worse than sewing your jacket, sewing your lining and then attaching the one to the other, leaving a space open in the lining to make sure everything can be turned right side out again. The guide shows very neatly how to do this with a jacket without a collar.
In Rotterdam I learned to sew a full jacket, with mandarin collar (or with a collar and lapels), attach the facing and as a final step the entire lining was attached to the facing before hand-sewing the hem. Threads magazine attaches the facing to the lining and does all the important edges as a final step. I personally like the way of attaching the facing first, because it means you can understitch and have wonderful control over pressing all the edges of the facings before you have to work with some rogue lining. I love to press my collar edges well so that the seamline rolls just a millimeter under the edge so you can never see it.
In any case, as much as I know the theory of lining a jacket, it's a completely different ballgame when there's a vent in the hem. A vent is a little slit that allows for movement -- if you have one in a skirt it's called a kick pleat. (Imagine my joys of finding the right English sewing term....). In men's jackets there is often one in center-back or two right above the center of the buttocks.
The vent has a facing of its own to make sure if you look into the slit you will see your fashion fabric and not your possibly contrasting lining. This means you have a facing that extends out past center-back and is folded back for the top part, and on the bottom part the facing will go under your other center-back panel.
I am immensely grateful that we don't have to worry about which side goes over which side because the 3D mechanics of this sewing a vent are brain-aneurysmic. I mark all my lining pattern pieces with quilter's chalk on both sides and I'll see which side turns out to be the inside and which side the outside. Because you have one lining piece with an extra bit, and one lining piece that has a gap for the facing, and then you have to decide which side goes over the other side, the lining doesn't have a right- and a wrong side, and lining is always inside-out compared to your fashion fabric. ARRGH!
Our sewing technique book is really awesome. It has drawings and schematics and clearly labeled right sides and wrong sides of panels and lining. It explains everything step-by-step and as long as you look at the drawings and read the text, you'll be sure to figure out how to go about sewing things properly.
I was sewing briskly along, making good progress. We start by sewing the center-back seam and attaching the lining to the vent facing as the first steps, because if you don't do it as the first thing, you can never reach it anymore.
All the diagrams made perfect sense until I reached that one diagram that didn't. I was just about to sew the lining to the vent overlap facing. So you have extra fabric because it's the top panel and there's a little less lining. And then there's this straight corner you need to clip because you have the hollow side going into a not-hollow side....
I gave up. I started watching the Great British Sewing Bee on YouTube, to see awesome people make inspiring clothing. I ate chocolate and drank tea. And then I cut a whole new project to try again, abandoning my first attempt.
And I went wrong at the exact same point. The diagram is just not working for me. But I do have a sense of what it's supposed to look like, and in the end I laid everything the way it was supposed to and just worked from there. I clipped of a bit of my lining pleat at the bottom, because it was the only way I could make that particular turn, and ended up with a perfect vent in probably not the official way to sew it.
To be honest, I do feel that hand-sewing the lining with the seam allowances folded under seems like a pretty decent way to do this. There's a book of sewing techniques showing just that. But I am very glad I now have a "what the fuu...." piece I can bring in to ask for some diagram clarification so I can make notes for future projects and a "it's freaking done" piece I am happy enough with to hand in.
And that is all I did on King's Day. Sew homework, stress, re-pot my pumpkin plants and sew and stress some more. Maybe one of these years I will finally get around to enjoying events like King's Day like a normal person.
Now, bag lining a jacket isn't really hard, if you have a good pattern (i.e. all the panels fit together) and you know what you're doing. Threads magazine has a comprehensive guide with detail pictures on which corners to clip.
It's basically nothing worse than sewing your jacket, sewing your lining and then attaching the one to the other, leaving a space open in the lining to make sure everything can be turned right side out again. The guide shows very neatly how to do this with a jacket without a collar.
In Rotterdam I learned to sew a full jacket, with mandarin collar (or with a collar and lapels), attach the facing and as a final step the entire lining was attached to the facing before hand-sewing the hem. Threads magazine attaches the facing to the lining and does all the important edges as a final step. I personally like the way of attaching the facing first, because it means you can understitch and have wonderful control over pressing all the edges of the facings before you have to work with some rogue lining. I love to press my collar edges well so that the seamline rolls just a millimeter under the edge so you can never see it.
In any case, as much as I know the theory of lining a jacket, it's a completely different ballgame when there's a vent in the hem. A vent is a little slit that allows for movement -- if you have one in a skirt it's called a kick pleat. (Imagine my joys of finding the right English sewing term....). In men's jackets there is often one in center-back or two right above the center of the buttocks.
The vent has a facing of its own to make sure if you look into the slit you will see your fashion fabric and not your possibly contrasting lining. This means you have a facing that extends out past center-back and is folded back for the top part, and on the bottom part the facing will go under your other center-back panel.
I am immensely grateful that we don't have to worry about which side goes over which side because the 3D mechanics of this sewing a vent are brain-aneurysmic. I mark all my lining pattern pieces with quilter's chalk on both sides and I'll see which side turns out to be the inside and which side the outside. Because you have one lining piece with an extra bit, and one lining piece that has a gap for the facing, and then you have to decide which side goes over the other side, the lining doesn't have a right- and a wrong side, and lining is always inside-out compared to your fashion fabric. ARRGH!
Our sewing technique book is really awesome. It has drawings and schematics and clearly labeled right sides and wrong sides of panels and lining. It explains everything step-by-step and as long as you look at the drawings and read the text, you'll be sure to figure out how to go about sewing things properly.
I was sewing briskly along, making good progress. We start by sewing the center-back seam and attaching the lining to the vent facing as the first steps, because if you don't do it as the first thing, you can never reach it anymore.
All the diagrams made perfect sense until I reached that one diagram that didn't. I was just about to sew the lining to the vent overlap facing. So you have extra fabric because it's the top panel and there's a little less lining. And then there's this straight corner you need to clip because you have the hollow side going into a not-hollow side....
I gave up. I started watching the Great British Sewing Bee on YouTube, to see awesome people make inspiring clothing. I ate chocolate and drank tea. And then I cut a whole new project to try again, abandoning my first attempt.
And I went wrong at the exact same point. The diagram is just not working for me. But I do have a sense of what it's supposed to look like, and in the end I laid everything the way it was supposed to and just worked from there. I clipped of a bit of my lining pleat at the bottom, because it was the only way I could make that particular turn, and ended up with a perfect vent in probably not the official way to sew it.
To be honest, I do feel that hand-sewing the lining with the seam allowances folded under seems like a pretty decent way to do this. There's a book of sewing techniques showing just that. But I am very glad I now have a "what the fuu...." piece I can bring in to ask for some diagram clarification so I can make notes for future projects and a "it's freaking done" piece I am happy enough with to hand in.
And that is all I did on King's Day. Sew homework, stress, re-pot my pumpkin plants and sew and stress some more. Maybe one of these years I will finally get around to enjoying events like King's Day like a normal person.
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Date: 2015-04-28 12:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-04-28 03:38 pm (UTC)