I definitely have to make another one of these.
I’m wearing the first one I made almost every day now. (Its so warm and comfortable…and the color goes with everything!) Mill Direct Textiles
has some stretch fleece in a few different colors. (The Rainshed is
also a good source, though the last time I ordered they only had one
color in stock.)
I’ve got just about all the materials I need for my first fully lined wool suit. I’ve chosen Burda 1/07 #113 and #111 as the pattern.
I love the inverted pleat pockets and the seaming of the skirt. Very European, and different from the average corporate suit.
I’m using a heathered black wool crepe from FFC
for the fashion fabric. I had an unusually bad experience the first
time I ordered from them, but this time had no problems. (I read this a
lot online - they seem to have a 75% success rate). For the lining I’m
using black ambiance bemberg.
I’m a bit up in the air about interfacing. I have a considerable amount
of armo weft that I would like to use but I’m not sure if that’s the
best choice for this fabric and style. Whatever I use will be
interfaced to a black cotton lawn
underlining. (From what I’ve read in quite a few places fusible
interfacing doesn’t work well with wool crepe, and should be interfaced
to an underlining instead.)
These are the buttons I picked out. (The background is the wool crepe.)
Like the buttons, the topstitching thread will also be silver.
Last night I worked on preshrinking the wool crepe. This suit
requires about 2 1/2 yards, so I cut out 3 from my stash to accommodate
for shrinkage. I know most of the sewing gurus would probably have a
heart attack if they read this, but I soaked the length of wool crepe
in a basin of lukewarm water with Eucalan wool wash. I didn’t agitate
it at all, just gently placed it in the basin and soaked it for about
15, 20 minutes. Then I very gently squeezed the water out, and rolled
it in a towel to absorb even more of the water. I let it air dry
overnight, then used a steam iron to smooth out the wrinkles and shrink
it even more.
I did end up with a bit of felting after washing it, but it was so
minor that most people would have a hard time noticing the difference.
(I really don’t know why sewers are so afraid to do this. It is so far
from being anywhere near
ruined.) It feels a bit softer too, probably from the lanolin in the
wool wash. Since I don’t plan on wearing this very often I will
probably end up not washing it, but rather just brushing and airing it
(esp. the jacket). But at least now I know its OK if I get caught in a
rainstorm while wearing it. I don’t really care for the idea of dry
cleaning, so with the exception of leather my rule is that everything I
make must be able to take a little water.
Next will be preshrinking the ambiance lining and armo weft
interfacing. (The cotton lawn is easy - just throw it in the washing
machine a couple of times.)
I think for this one I’m going to make a muslin first. Normally I’m
a rather fearless sewer and can’t even be bothered to tissue fit. I
just estimate, cut, start sewing, and and try it on a few times for
alteration purposes. Surprisingly this has worked for me so far.
However, I’ve never made a Burda jacket or skirt before, so I’d like to
get an idea of what to expect with ease before I cut into the fabric.
I’ve already spent $90 to $100 on supplies for this project so I really
can’t afford to screw up. Oh, yes, there’s also the whole fact that
I’ve never made a suit jacket before.
Just finished this today:
First thing I’ve made recently. I used a taupe stretch fleece from The
Rainshed. I will say it isn’t one of my better projects. In general I
don’t like working with knits, and this one was twice as hard to work
with because of the thickness.
I had some issues with the zipper. What ended up happening is I didn’t
account for the fleece being a four-way stretch knit, and the zipper
ended up being lopsided. I ended up chopping off the uneven part of the
collar and using some binding around the raw edge to disguise the
unevenness. Looking back now I should have interfaced the front before
putting in the zipper. It works, but it could have been a lot better.
One thing I do like about it is the fit. It is a bit hard to tell
from the picture but in person this is fairly fitted and very
comfortable. I did go a little larger on the bust than usual because I
wanted to make sure there was enough room for layering.