Down One

My “Patch Work” is done. Patch’s struggles ended on Sunday. He wanted to go to The Stitchery until the very end.

Patch Discovers The Stitchery Mirror August 2009

It’s About Time

I have been thinking about this post for the past month. I miss what used to be a big part of my life: sewing and then sharing. So it’s time to break the silence.

These days it’s all about Patch

As soon as I scraped myself off the ceiling about the sudden death in my family, Patch entered what looked to be time for more surgery to remove his latest crop of tummy tumors.

But there are too many tumors to do surgery. So we did chemo to shrink them. And found the cancer had spread to his lungs and possibly his brain. He’s had some strokes or brain malfunctions and ends up with problems like missing the door by a foot and a half or loses some abilities like walking or hearing or seeing. Right now he’s not able to keep anything down.

But still Patch has good days and bad days.

So he’s resting except for bathroom and sick breaks if I’m lucky enough to catch him in time. Everything changes all the time and I’m on a dog watch and cleaning, cleaning, cleaning.

In between I have been slowly working on a bodice and skirt sloper following the techniques given in the book The European Cut by Elizabeth Allemong.

I have made mistake after mistake: taking my measurements wrong (especially in getting a waistline that isn’t level), putting on weight and taking it off, misreading the directions, inaccurate drafting measurements, and for the life of me cannot get 2 photos of the same muslin that reveal the same “problems”!!! This is ridiculous. I’m made slopers that fit before and drafted (and draped) my own patterns. My focus is elsewhere.

All I wanted was a solid sloper on which to base alterations to the Edith Head pattern, Advance 9291.

I’m in a sloper slump, something I’m sure others have suffered through and survived, and I will pull out of this as soon as the weather warms with Spring.

I am absolutely am not going to cut short this dog’s life to get the freedom I think I want. He’s as much a part of the Whole of Life as I am and he cannot be slighted any chance to live it. My needs can wait for the time being. I know he appreciates having a real home in the meantime. Dying alone will not be in his future.

And I hope to be back to producing sewn garments soon with Patch sleeping by the clear glass door in the sewing room and next to his buddy, Gaely GoLightly.

Raglan Lining: Notes

The following notes were made as I researched the creation of a lining for the Orange Plaid Coat. They are not intended to be exhaustive of the subject and will be best understood if you are in the midst of hand drafting a raglan coat lining. This is not a Tutorial.

I spent more time making and fitting the lining than I did making the coat. I had to piece in extra lining fabric at the top of the sleeve/neck facing area where raveling had depleted the 1/4″ seam allowance. Careful matching and basting of all the seams is how I discovered why and where the lining pulled. Lining must not pull in any area of the garment.

The lining is made with 1/2 to 1″ extra ease vertically from the vent up to the join with the back neck facing. Horizontally extra ease is added at the side seams as well. I added extra length to the front lining which I caught up into a dart, cross stitched at the underarm and at the front edge where the lining joins the front facing, the extra east allowed to open in the middle.

Cut lining using the fashion fabric pattern, making allowances for the desired depth of the back center pleat in the lining and 1/4″ seam allowances at the front and back facings. Cut at least 1/2″ extra length above the back center vent and at the side seams and width in the front and back.

Fitting the lining into the coat:

First fit and pin the shoulder pads to the fashion fabric. Machine stitch the sleeves seams together and insert them into the body of the lining.

In raglan sleeved styles the sleeves must be installed into the lining first, unlike set in sleeve style where the sleeves are inserted by hand stitching after the lining is fitted into the body of the garment.

Place the lining into the coat turned face down on a flat surface. Smooth the lining across the back neckline, folding out and basting the center back pleat and across the shoulders, matching the seam lines at the back facing and at the armscye.

Hand stitch the sleeve allowance to coat seam allowance at under arm seam. Leave space at the lower end, the sleeve hem, for stitching the lining to the fashion fabric by machine at sleeve hem as you would when “bagging a lining”

Anchor shoulder pads through both the fashion fabric and the lining by basting in the seam allowances of everything including the shoulder pads. Baste loosely to avoid compressing the pads but make sure they are held in place.

Straighten the grain of lining at shoulders across the back of the coat, pin or baste, adding ease in lining where possible

Pin or baste neck edges, in a downward direction throughout the back, across the shoulders and down the front

Smooth down mid seam and side seams, check hem level against coat hem, mark and machine stitch double folded hem into lining, making sure it is evenly 3/4″ shorter than the garment.

Hand stitch front facing to coat front with loose stitches

Leaving ease at vent beginning of vent, join to coat at vent edges by hand stitches

On the issue of whether to hand stitch the sleeves into the coat or to machine stitch, stretch in either methods has proved in this test to be the same: http://tuttofattoamano.blogspot.com/2010/01/mythbusters-shoulder-seam-elasticity.html