Lansing Clippers Sew

 Jacket 6 – Lining Now it is time to tackle the facing, lining and creating the inside pocket, and collar.   The inside pocket is a welt pocket usually on the right-hand front.   When using a full lining, the front lining is joined to the front/lapel facing.   After joining the facing and lining, I marked and then thread traced the pocket placement.   The thread tracing adds a step but simplifies the creation of the pocket opening.   With the placement lines thread traced on both the facing/lining and on the pocket piece, it was very easy to line up the pocket.   Once I was satisfied with the placement, I basted the stitching lines.   Basting may seem unnecessary, but it meant I stitched a nice even box for the welt.   At this point, I took a deep breath and paused for a couple of days while contemplating slashing the pocket open.   Up to this point, mistakes were reversible – just a little ripping out of stitches.   An error here meant the front would need to be recut.   After a d

  Jacket 5 - Construction of the Outer Jacket . Now I am ready to put the parts together.   I have two jacket fronts (a left and a right), the back, and two sleeves carefully checked to be sure they are mirrors of each other.   I have been known to end up with two right or two left sleeves.   So, I took extra care to be sure I got these correct.   The fronts and back go together easily.   I have to keep the chest piece out of the shoulder seam but as it is only tailor basted, it is easy to fold back.   It’s beginning to look like a jacket. Next is setting the sleeves.   This is where having the notches marked is helpful.   I could find the front and back notches and the shoulder seam point on the sleeves but the back notch on the jacket seems to have disappeared.   Ugh.   Fitting the sleeves was more challenging than it needed to be.   I finally measured where the back notch on the jacket should be and then fitted the sleeve.   I usually would just pin and sew but this time I baste

 Jacket 4 – Internal construction There are a number of steps to constructing the inside support for the jacket.  The first is applying the interfacing.  In most of my garment sewing, I use fusible interfacing.  It comes in a variety of weights and is quick to apply.  But it is not so good for a fine wool jacket.  I tried once using fusible horsehair canvas on a jacket front (for myself) and it wasn’t good.  The fabric was stiff as a board!  I reheated it and pulled it out and started over with a sew in.  Based on this experience and everything I have read about men’s jackets, I am using a “sew-in” interfacing.  I am using hymo canvas, which does not have animal hair woven into it, to create a full floating canvas.  This piece covers the jacket front from the shoulder seam and lapel to the front hem, Wikipedia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating_canvas ) says this about floating canvas: In tailoring , a floating canvas is a fabric panel sewn inside the front of a suit jacke