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Wednesday 17 December 2008

Black Peacock Suit part 2

Black tortoise suit more like. My sewing mojo took an early Christmas vacation and only came back last night so sorry for the total lack of posts here. I think it only returned because I spent the afternoon showing a colleague's wife (who sews, hooray!) around town. We had a great time and I got lots of bargain fabrics, mainly plain coloured knits so I will be playing with those next. They're all in the washing machine right now!

Anyway, the skirt is complete, really happy with this pattern (BWOF 01/2008 127). The panelled front and back pieces make it easy to fit. The only changes I made were to swap the waistband for a faced waist, just because that is my personal preference and to interline the skirt with some leftover silk organza that matched. Why make a simple skirt when you can make a complicated one. Here I am wearing it with the RTW black jacket that will surely have fallen apart before I have got around to finishing it's replacement! The photo is a little dark I'll try and get better ones when the suit is finished.

Edited to add better skirt pics :


The jacket has been giving me lots of problems, all caused by the same thing. This is blindingly obvious to me now, and will be to all of you, especially quilters, but if you apply thick interfacing and canvas to a piece of fabric and then add multiple lines of topstitching, it shrinks! I should have started with bigger pieces and trimmed them after "quilting". I've had to really fiddle with the cuffs and collar to get them to work properly (no fabric left to redo those pieces) and only now is it starting to look like a real jacket. I also managed to find some interesting zips shopping today so I really do hope to get this finished soon. Yeah yeah I know thats what I said in my last post about a hundred years ago.....

The row of pins is marking where the multiple rows of topstitching will start. The instructions have you topstitch the pieces before joining them, but I knew it would be impossible for me to match the lines so I ignored that. Usually I ignore BWOF instructions at my peril so I hope this doesn't come back to haunt me later.

11 comments:

  1. Those zippers are great! Would you mount them on the outside so the tapes show like we're seeing in RTW these days?

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  2. The jacket is really coming along! Agree with Lindsay T that you should leave those zips exposed. I've never seen anything like them!

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  3. Ohmygosh Allison that jacket is amazing! You have really put a lot of time and effort into it and it shows!!! I really like the skirt too. Keep on working on it because it will be an awesome suit that you will be soooo proud of when it's finished!

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  4. The suit is coming along nicely! The jacket will be stunning when completed. Yes, what you've discovered is an old quilting rule: the more stitching, the more shrinkage.

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  5. Those zippers are way cool.

    Hindsight is 20/20, ya know! Your jacket is look fab.

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  6. I am no quilter but when I do quilt I do a whole section of fabric and then cut out the pieces - refer my oven mitt tutorial. I think then it would be easier to match up your lines - just like cutting out stipped fabric. It is looking good so far - good luck with the topstitching :) And I love that skirt, I have made 2 up as well.

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  7. Kick that sewing mojo in the pants cause I wanna see that gorgeous suit all together! I looks like it is going to be to die for!

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  8. The jacket is really amazing. Great attention to detail!

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  9. Love the fabric of your jacket, and the zippers are fantastic. Looking forward to the result.

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  10. Good job! The outfit will be stunning when completed!! And I love those zippers!

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