40s jacket progress: the outer shell

Last Monday I started cutting out all my pieces for my Sew for Victory jacket. And let me tell you, fabric, underlining and lining... that's a lot of cutting. Phew.

So far things have been going pretty well, so I thought I'd catch you up on the assembly of the jacket shell.

One thing you may find interesting is that I'm paying very little attention to the actual instructions in my pattern. Why? Two important factors: the lining is sewn in entirely by hand and the collar is assembled more like a blouse, not like the way I've come to find is more typical for jackets and coats. Instead, I'm mostly following general assembly instructions from the book Jackets for Real People: Tailoring Made Easy (I have learned so much from this book!), and referring to my pattern and other resources when needed.

Anyway, one of the design details on this pattern is the patch pockets on the chest. They mimic the patch pockets with flaps on the original Eisenhower military jackets but instead of a flap, the chevron shape is just a band across the top of the pocket. The pattern's instructions on how to line the pockets was a bit fussy, so instead I wanted to try a tailoring method that has self facing and lining on the inside. But that left me figuring out how to work that out with the shaped pocket band. There was some serious head scratching, a junked pocket and some and trial and error involved!

In the end I added 1" to the pocket band piece to turn inside to form the facing. I machine basted on the seam allowance of the band, then clipped and turned in the edge and hand basted them shut. Here it is from the front (you can just of see the green basting stitches along the shaped edge):

(By the way the color of my fabric is all over the map in these photos. Above is probably pretty close to real life. It's a very, very dark forest green.)

And from the back, below, after trimming the seam allowance slightly (and apparently not very evenly I see). In case you're wondering about that pink thread, I basted the center line so I'd know where to pivot when I stitched the band to the pocket.

I stitched the band to the pocket front, and then trimmed the seam allowance to reduce bulk (not mentioned in my pattern). Here they are both from the back:

Then I sewed the lining to the pockets with right sides together (I interfaced the mouth of the pocket on the facing side but forgot to photograph it). Because you cut the lining piece about 1/8" smaller on all sides it makes the fashion fabric roll in a bit, and there's no chance you could see the lining sticking out. See? No one will ever know (but you) that my pocket lining is beige.

(Oh see how the pocket is off from my marks? That's come back to bite me in the butt and I'll likely be moving the pockets.)

I invisibly attached the pockets with a slip stitch by hand.

Here's a photo of them sewn on. Be forewarned the fabric looks terrible in this photo. While I am having some issues with the fabric nap crushing easily when pressing (even with just steam and my fingers),  and the pockets show it the worst, I don't think it looks quite this bad! The photo is washed out so it makes it look worse and makes the fabric look really blah. I promise it's nicer in person.

Above you can also see the green hand basting to keep my underlining to my bodice pieces (and stay stitching along the neckline, which I did on each piece before assembly). I didn't show it, but after sewing on the pockets I basted them shut with silk thread to keep them from gaping while assembling the rest of the body.

Now enough about pockets. The next thing of interest is I added a back stay to my jacket. This is a piece of firm muslin or something similar across the upper back and shoulders, and supports the shoulders and armholes. I stitched it to my underlining/fashion fabric before sewing the fronts to the back.

When you use a back stay, I learned you don't need to tape the shoulders when you sew the front to the back since it provides support and structure, so I didn't. You can see how the back stay looks when the front is sewn to the back, below. You just pink the edges so there's no chance a visible seam or overlocking could show through the fabric.

Moving on to the collar... my pattern only had one collar piece, but all my resources suggested a center seamed under collar cut on the bias to lay better, so I converted my pattern. Now I said before I wasn't going to pad stitch the under collar or use extra fusible interfacing marking the roll line, but I used hair canvas (also cut on the bias) as sew-in interfacing. Between that and my wool fabric, I very easily shaped it nicely around my tailor's ham with some steam. (I did measure the height of the roll line at the back of the neck as a guideline for where to roll the collar.)

Tip: don't painstakingly pin, then hand baste, then sew on your under collar... inside out.

Because you'll have to do it all over again the right way.

This was the first time I got to use my point presser!

I graded the seams of the under collar, pressed them open and then catch stitched both under collar seam allowances open.

The sleeves were next. My pattern has about a 4" long vent at the back of the wrist going into the cuff. I first basted through the underlining and fashion fabric to keep things together and also basted the patch (right sides together) to the sleeve piece. (By the way the long diagonal basting stitches you see I added when I realized my fabric and underlining were shifting around a bit on the sleeve.)

I followed tips from a vintage sewing book. I sewed up the side of a center chalk line, decreasing my stitch length about 1" before and after the top, and then stitched a second line along that upper inch for security. You can see that best on the underlinling side:

After slashing and pushing the patch to the inside I pressed it (with steam and my fingers) so it would stay flat on the inside.

I understitched the seam allowance to the patch to make sure the seam would stay rolled towards the inside. I did it by hand since the seam allowance was so tiny. I forgot to show it but I also catch stitched the patch to the underlining fabric to keep things in place permanently (those instructions were in my pattern).

And then I basted the vent shut with silk thread twice: the beige silk thread is to help keep the seam rolled correctly until a final pressing towards the end, and the blue is to keep the vent shut so it doesn't stretch out while assembling everything else. The beige will stay until the end, and the blue will get removed when I slip stitch the lining vent to the sleeve (yes, I have to do that all over again on the lining too).

Setting in the sleeves went like normal (two rows of ease stitching before setting it in worked beautifully for my wool), but then came what felt like days of struggle getting the sleeve heads and shoulder pads just right! Who knew those little buggers could be so annoying.

A sleeve head is a bias strip of lofty fabric that gets sewn to the seam line up and between the notches of the sleeve cap, then pushed (along with the seam allowances) inside the sleeve. It helps support the top of the sleeve from crushing in and making dimples.

 You can see below what the sleeve looks like before you push the seam allowances and sleeve head into the sleeve compared to once it's in place. Nice, huh?

I had a hard time figuring out exactly how far to put in the sleeve heads and if and where they should be trimmed, but I think in the end it works. Between the sleeve heads and the shoulder pads (that I sewed in three times before ditching them and making smaller pads and then sewing those ones in twice), it all might be a little more than my frame needs. I think it would definitely be too much for a suit (I would need to trim down the sleeve heads and make the shoulder pads even thinner, I suppose), but I think it's appropriate for outwear. In the end I think the shape came out nice and I could probably fuss with it for days yet, so at some point you just have to step back and stop!

And here's the shell of the jacket. Obviously the cuffs and bands aren't on it yet, since that won't happen until the lining is inserted, which will also add the upper collar (so you're just seeing the interfacing).

The only change I will probably still make is to move the pockets about 3/4" away from the sleeves and about 1/2" down (they are even, I just didn't place the jacket very neatly on the dress form). There's a little bit of wrinkling in a couple of places, but nothing that I'll lose sleep over. I'm really quite pleased with how it's looking so far.

I'm also learning a lot, and discovering I enjoy the elements of hand sewing (incuding oodles of hand basting) that are going into this project. It not only gives me a lot of control in certain places, but it breaks up some of the machine sewing.

I had a lot of time to sew this weekend so I'm already pretty far into the lining at this point. I'll be talking about that next. So far so good! Hope you're enjoying this behind-the-scenes look into my first jacket. :)

Sharing "How to Tailor a Woman's Suit" from 1946

Last night I stumbled across a great vintage sewing resource completely by accident!

I was searching for suggestions on how to tack the center back pleat of the lining on my Sew for Victory jacket. I just wanted to do something slightly more decorative than simply sewing it a couple of inches at the top, middle and bottom like I've seen several resources suggest. My pattern tells you to use a bar tack, but I thought for the fun of it I'd look for other ideas.

Well my keywords ended up uncovering a true gem! It's a free digital copy of a 1946 publication by the U.S. Bureau of Human Nutrition and Home Economics Agricultural Research Administration (say that ten times fast). It's called "How to Tailor a Woman's Suit" by Margaret Smith.

Get "How to Tailor a Woman's Suit" from Google Books here

If you look closely in the corner, you can see it was received by the University of Minnesota Library on April 4, 1946.

It's 24 pages of vintage tailoring information for a woman's suit, including the jacket and skirt. Pretty amazing!

You can view the ebook here, in Google Books. Just in case that link changes in the future, you can search for it by the terms "miscellaneous publication issue 591 tailoring" (don't leave off the word tailoring, or you'll end up finding a version of it that isn't available digitally).

Now when you follow the link you can choose several options—to view it on the web or download it for a tablet or smart phone using Google's free Play Books app (that's how I downloaded it to my iPad). You can also save it as a PDF file in the upper right-hand corner of the web page:

The description at the beginning of the PDF explains the copyright has expired so it's in the public domain. However Google's usage guidelines don't explicitly state if you can or cannot share a copy, so just to be on the safe side I'm letting you all know how to download it for yourselves.

If you have any interest in vintage sewing or tailoring, definitely check out this little jewel of a resource! I'm just thrilled I stumbled across it.

Oh by the way, I didn't forget about the original search that led me to this pamphlet. It suggests you cross stitch across the center back pleat with silk thread or buttonhole twist. I may do just that. :)

40s jacket progress: supplies and such

Today is the next installment in my jacket progress for Sew for Victory!

First, thank you all SO much for your comments and congratulations on my interview in Knit Now magazine. I'm still kind of reeling from that. :)

♥ ♥  ♥

But back to my project. I'm getting ready to start on my actual jacket which is exciting!

Now as you know, my pattern isn't a fully tailored jacket. It has lots of casual elements like sleeve cuffs and bands below a gathered waistline. But I've still been been doing tons of reading on tailoring techniques and supplies that may be helpful for this project for an outerwear newbie.

I admit it, I was initially overwhelmed by thinking about all the things I needed (or had to decide if I needed!), things I didn't necessarily need for normal dressmaking. It would have been easier if I had been sewing a modern pattern like Colette Anise or Sewaholic Minoru (and did you see Tasia's new trench pattern?!). New patterns like these outline supplies better and do some hand-holding. For a 1940s pattern... it's all up to me.

So I did a ton of research and carefully thought through the steps that my project would involve. What supplies did I already have for each step? What did I need to buy for certain tailoring techniques I wanted to use? What could I get away with not having?

Here's a list of supplies I decided I needed for my first jacket project. Not included are the super obvious like scissors, seam ripper, etc (though I included underlining and interfacing). These supplies fall more under the umbrellas of "things you may not necessarily already own" or "things you may not have thought about"...

A point presser. For collars, cuffs, etc. I really wanted one anyway! I ordered one from eBay, but Sunni sells them here. (I thought about a tailoring board but was already spending a lot on supplies for this project.) Money well spent, let me tell you!

A tailor's ham and seam roll. I already had a seam roll, but I wanted a ham to better shape things around the curve of a body.

A point turner. I always have just used the pointy end of my seam ripper or a knitting needle, but this is an inexpensive tool so I thought it would be better to finally have the proper thing, especially since I was already ordered from a site that sold them. TIP: one of my tailoring books said bamboo ones can catch on certain fabrics, so they recommend a plastic one.

Matching threads. I had to think about so many more threads than I usually do! I'm not doing hand-tailoring but if I was, I would need silk thread that matched my fashion fabric. Since I'm doing hand-worked buttonholes (if I like the results), I need buttonhole twist and gimp. And for basting certain seams to roll them in slightly (look many photos down this page of the Anise sew-along and you'll see the basting stitches) before pressing, I also need silk thread, but contrasting so I could see it. And of course all-purpose thread that matches my fashion fabric and my lining fabric.

Okay I'm not using all that thread, but a lot of it!

Stay tape. To stabilize the shoulder seams (like Tasia shows here). I already had some, or I could have used twill tape. Or saved some selvages for this purpose!

Sleeve heads and shoulder pads. Sleeve heads are a long bias strip of lofty fabric (like fleece) that go inside the top of the sleeve cap in jackets and coats to help support the sleeve at the top. Liz was kind enough to give me sleeve heads (thanks Liz!). As for shoulder pads, I made my own following my pattern's directions (although I started with 8 1/2" circles not 10"). Here they are on my sleeve roll:

No one will ever see that blue serger thread since they'll be sandwiched between my lining and fashion fabric, so that'll be our little secret, ok?

Marking pens and/or chalk. I was going to order some special chalk just for wool and wool blends, but I tested my chalk and it came out fine on my fashion fabric, so I'll use it (I don't love it but I forgot to order something else I was going to try, grr). For marks on my interfacing and underlining, I'll use one of my erasable highlighters (Pilot FriXion). The marks disappear when pressed. I haven't decided what I'll use on my lining fabric yet because that didn't occur to me until I was typing this. See how many supplies are going around my head?!

Underlining fabric. I decided my fabric could use a bit of structure. After pouring through my sewing resources, I had a couple options I liked: underline it with cotton batiste, or underline it with fusible weft insertion interfacing. I did two samples and I liked it better with cotton batiste, especially when Liz brought up a great point: my bodice and cuffs are gathered areas, and the fusible might be stiffer than I wanted. She was right, so batiste it is.

Lining fabric. I'm using rayon bemberg. I've only recently started to line some of my projects, and started off with polyester lining. But for pretty much the same price you can get rayon bemberg (about $6 or $7/yard). It's lovely, machine-washable, and as a bonus it's just perfect for vintage sewing! If you can tell, I'm converted. lol But do some research and test what you might like. Blazers have slick lining for ease of getting on and off but not all casual or sporty jackets do. You could try flannel, cotton voile like Gail recently used, twill, etc. (My RTW raincoat is lined with fleece for warmth.)

Above is my lining on the left (don't ask me why I picked such a boring color), muslin in the middle for my back stay, and my underlining fabric (organic cotton batiste) on the right, all before going in the wash.

Interfacing. For my project, I'll need to interface a few places. Now this isn't nearly as big of a deal as a tailored jacket with lapels and a roll line. I'll need to interface the collar, the bands at the hem, the patch pockets, the cuffs, and the front facings. And I'll make a back stay out of muslin, which you can think of as sew-in interfacing in this case.

I'm going to use hair canvas for the first time as one of my interfacings. It's great for structure and stability and is also pliable. You usually use it in hand or machine tailoring methods where pad-stitching would be in order (collars, lapels), but you can also just use it as sew-in interfacing, which I'll be doing. (I got that idea from Liz... get used to me saying this a lot during this process since she's my go-to expert on sewing techniques!)

I will likely end up using a layer of fusible interfacing in some areas instead/in addition. Various weights of fusible interfacing are often used in fusible tailoring methods, particularly weft insertion interfacing. It makes a great interfacing for dressmaking, too, which is how I have used it! I buy it from Fashion Sewing Supply here. I used to hate fusible interfacing back in the day when I didn't understand that there were options outside of the nonwoven interfacings I would buy at my local JoAnn's that made things stiff as a board even when they were marked "lightweight". This is a whole new world! (ETA: Jen at Grainline Studios just did a post today on her two favorite fusibles, check it out!)

Anyway, supplies aren't the most thrilling topic, but I wanted to talk about it a bit since it took so long to piece everything together. Maybe it will help someone out there. :)

As you can see above my pattern pieces are ready to go. Tonight I'm ready to have a cutting fest... one of my least favorite stages in the sewing project truth be told, but it will mark really starting the jacket so I'm excited nevertheless!

I'm featured in Knit Now magazine!

Don't you love the feeling when you can finally share something you've been keeping under your hat for a good long while??

I was interviewed for Knit Now magazine, a British knitting magazine, and the issue went on sale today! I'm their featured blogger in this issue!

A full page spread and everything, would you look at that!

It's issue 19, and I'm on page 62 (the page opposite is an article on British yarns). I don't have my hands on a paper copy as I'm in the US (I need to get one!) but I can share a PDF version of the page. Click here to see the full page!

Hopefully my answers don't sound too cheesy... argh, always hard judging yourself in hindsight. ;)

If you are in the UK you can probably find it anywhere magazines are sold, and I believe it might make it over to the US at some retailers too. You can also download a digital copy here through the iTunes App Store (download their free app first and then you can select which issue to purchase, I believe it's $5.99). And you can order the issue online for £4.99 and have it delivered internationally, too.

I'm just thrilled. I really thought it would be a little blip in a corner of a tucked away page, not an entire page in the middle of the magazine. Thanks so much to Knit Now editor Kate Heppell for contacting me and including me in this magazine.

Well, what can I say, I'm tickled pink!

40s jacket progress: the muslin

Well everyone, I am now fully ensconced in my Sew for Victory jacket project!

For my project posts going forward, I'll add a little sidebar that links back to every post I tag with "sew for victory". I hope it may help someone in the future watching me take on the challenge of outerwear for the first time. Plus, I know at least two of you have this same pattern but haven't sewn it yet either! ;)

I'm going to try and not write too too many posts on my progress since I know there are probably a lot of you who aren't interested in this topic. So each post may be lengthy so I can condense topics for those who really want the sewy nitty gritty!

(Maybe you'd be more interested to know that I'm cooking up a design for myself to re-create Fiona's stranded cardigan from the movie "Secret of Roan Inish"? Oh wait, I'm just that kind of nerd? Moving right along...)

Anyway, if you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen a couple of photos of my muslin in-progress. Muslins sure aren't very exciting looking, are they? I hate doing them and avoid them when I can. But for this project, it was a necessary step.

I used a somewhat heavy, stiff cotton muslin. Since it's just a mock-up of the final pattern, I omitted the facings and upper collar (just pressing the seam allowances in), as well as the facing for the band at the hem. (Good call on those of you who pointed out that the band was probably faced while the cuffs were folded in, causing that piece to seem smaller than I expected... you were exactly right!)

Here it's shown on my dress form, with socks mimicking the shoulder pads (thanks for that tip, Liz!). If you're sewing a jacket, do not forget to use shoulder pads (or a stand-in for them) in the fitting stage, otherwise the fit will be off. Plus, you may end up making your sleeves too short, since the shoulder pads will take up some of that length!

I'm quite pleased with the overall fit in general, although looking at a muslin is pretty lackluster, isn't it? You really do have to have some imagination to see through it to the final project. Quick thing to point out: I only bothered to do the cuff on the left sleeve, so the right one is just hanging free. I also haven't added the patch pockets on the chest.

The body doesn't have much going on and it's not a fitted style, so there's not too many things that could go wrong in theory. The sleeves are 1" too long (you can see I pinched that out of the left sleeve). The bodice is at least 1-2" too long on me, which I expected as I have a short torso and this is always a problem for me, but I haven't pinched that out on the muslin yet. So the final jacket will look slightly less blousy and shorter. It will hit me just below my waist like the pattern photo... meaning no inseam pockets like I thought I might add, as they'd be too high and look funny.

The one pattern change I made before the muslin was to narrow the sleeve at the wrist. It's shown as a very billowy gathered cuff, but I wanted it a little more trim (more like real Ike jackets). Not including seam allowances the sleeve is about 14" around at the underarm and was the same at the wrist.

I slashed my traced piece up the center and simply folded out the excess and smoothed the bottom. It was a lot of width so towards the underarm I ended up sort of flattening out a slight bit of excess into a small tuck in the pattern... this is probably verboten but I did it anyway. And you'll see my sleeve hangs nice and straight, no drag lines or anything (even on my body):

The only other change I had to make with the narrower sleeve was to move the circles that indicate where the sleeve vent goes or it would have hit my wrist in the wrong place. I simply moved it over the distance I omitted from the width. I wasn't sure if that would actually end up in the right place (I couldn't find any resources online that pointed to a standard for this) so I didn't slash it until after I'd set the sleeve in, but it was just right. There was a notch in there too but I forgot to even move or clip it, oops.

(Btw all my gathers look like complete crap and more like pleats... sorry, I don't try for precision with that on muslins!)

Even though I didn't add the pockets, you can see the placement below. The front darts end right smack in the middle of the pocket. The pockets obviously won't look quite so big without the seam allowances showing!

I did have a couple of minor trouble areas. The collar, for one. I don't know what the heck the problem was, but after stay stitching my neckline, clipping it so I could attach the under collar smoothly, I had an excess 1/4" collar between the shoulders, even though the other markings towards the front matched fine. Huh? So instead of fretting too much about it I re-cut the piece without that extra 1/4" and it was fine.

The bands at the hem were also a little funky. The front band (P below) was curved at the edge where it attached to the back band (R below) but the back piece wasn't. You can see the notches don't match either and the back piece is taller, but if you eased the back into the front, it would match.

Below is what the instructions say... nothing about easing. But you can see the seam isn't curved, they show it sewed straight. I think it's trying to show the ease on the inside of the pieces with those slightly squiggly lines. What do you think? How would you deal with this? I have half a mind to just straighten this all out with no ease, I must admit.

So what things are still up in the air?

I'm not sure how I'm going to want the collar to fall. As the pattern shows there's really no open lapel, even though you could make it that way if you look at my below photo. It's hard to decide with the muslin I think, so I'm planning to make that decision once the jacket is constructed. I'm not doing bound buttonholes it'll be okay to wait until then, since I won't have to do the buttonholes early on. What do you think? Button all the way to the top or leave it with the notched collar open?

And the last thing: the cuff is fitted like a dress shirt. I can't get it on and off without unbuttoning it. The buttons will be big, so it's not like it would be difficult to do that. I guess it's just an odd concept for me since I don't own any outerwear with tight cuffs, even though it's clear from the pattern pictures that it's meant to be pretty fitted.

I kind of want to keep the fit of the cuff true to the original pattern but I wonder how annoying it would be. Below it's compared to the loose-fitting (slip on) cuff on one of my vintage Pendleton 49er jackets. (Which gives me an idea... if I end up having a hard time gathering my wool fabric, I may just make pleats instead.) I think I'm leaning towards keeping it as-is. How about you?

Phew, that's a lot of muslin talk. I'm ready to start the jacket soon! Obviously I have a few decisions to make before I cut my fabric, and I need to trace off my final pattern pieces. Next post I'll be talking about the decisions I've made about underlining, interfacing and supplies.

Hope you are having fun with your Sew for Victory project! :)

My Sew for Victory project: first steps

I know I don't frequently talk a whole lot of shop during the construction of the garments I sew or knit, but I was thinking of doing it a bit with my Sew for Victory project. It's the biggest project I've ever undertaken, and I know a lot of you seemed excited by the idea of this project, so I thought I'd do more than simply show how it turns out in the end. And if you're new to sewing coats or jackets too, maybe you can learn a little something along with me. Are you game?

As you may recall, I'll be sewing Hollywood 1678, a jacket modeled after WWII battle jackets and very similar to a windbreaker style at the time.

I like the collared version of View 1 the best but decided to do standard buttons up the front instead of the fly front. It will look like View 1 but with buttons, looking more or less like my mock-up below. 

I ordered two fabrics, and decided on this forest green wool flannel. It's really hard to capture correctly, but this is as close as I could get. It's a really deep, dark color.

For the lining I opted for a beige rayon bemberg. Rayon is of course a very appropriate choice for 1940s, and lots of people love this lining. Of course I managed to stain it within 2 minutes of it being in my possession so don't ask me why I went with a light color...

The problem with the fabric is that it's so dark green, the vintage buttons and the silk buttonhole twist I ordered are too light. The buttons might still work, but the thread... not so much. I'm going to handwork buttonholes for the first time so I really don't need to call that much attention to them. Ha ha.

I ordered it from Britex and it was the darkest green they had (labeled Forest, but not really forest green in my book). Any ideas for an alternative? Maybe I should do black buttons and thread. (Wish I had thought to order black buttonhole twist too!)

Where am I so far? Yesterday I cut out my muslin pieces. I didn't want to have to do a muslin but there was no way I was going to work my first jacket without one, especially as I want to make sure I work out the gathered cuff sleeves correctly and do my melding of Views 1 and 2 right. Just for fun, here's the chart of pattern pieces for my unprinted pattern. I'm slightly boggled why the sleeve cuff band is taller than the band on the bottom of the jacket (when it's clearly the opposite on the cover picture), but we'll see how that plays out when I'm sewing.

Can you see the crazy deep dart on the Front A and B pieces? It ends inside the pocket. The photo below shows the dots for where to line up the pocket, with the center dot in the middle being the end of the dart.

By the way, see that pink pen? It's a Pilot FriXion erasable highlighter and oh my goodness, I'm in love. My mom got me a set for Christmas, having heard that they work well on fabric and that the ink disappears when you press it. So far I've found that to be the case on every natural fabric I've tried it on (of course, I always test first). As someone who seems to be plagued by disappearing ink reappearing, chalk either rubbing off before I can use the mark or not coming off, etc... can I just say I love these for light-colored fabric!

Anyway, the only change I made prior to the muslin was to narrow the sleeve towards the bottom. Even though it's gathered into the cuff I didn't want it quite as billowy as the pattern shows. For everything else, I decided to leave the pieces as-is to see how the muslin fits.

My original intention was to construct the jacket and the lining as written in the pattern, in part to stay true to the pattern for the sew-along and in part because I've never made (or lined) a jacket before! However, I've been a good little study bug lately and have been reading everything I can get my hands on relating to constructing jackets, lining jackets, and tailoring. I'm going to change how the jacket lining is constructed. Mainly because I don't want to insert the entire lining in by hand like my pattern suggests. But here's an interesting historical factoid about that! I've had the incredible fortune of reader Nadine sending me tons of photos of an actual military Ike jacket she owns so I could see some of the construction details! (Nadine, I can't thank you enough for that!) She owns more than one and the construction details aren't all the same on each, but the one she showed me has the front lining pieces sewn by machine to the front facings, instead of being sewn by hand. Pretty neat!

Anyway, since this jacket business is new territory for me, I decided to take a cue from Liz, who showed the list of couture techniques she wrote out when she was sewing her Macaron Redux. I started notes on techniques and ideas that I plan to use in this project.

I know this list will get a lot longer soon!