Thursday, September 11, 2008

Order of Construction

There are or will be individual posts dealing with instructions for every phase mentioned here. This is just an order of construction to guide you along the way.

  1. Muslin for fit.
  2. Cut apart muslin to use as pattern OR transfer all changes to pattern tissue
  3. Cut fabric
  4. Cut underlining/interlining
  5. Make interfacing pattern pieces
  6. Cut interfacing/hair canvas
  7. Mount underlining to fabric
  8. Make Bound buttonholes in right front (if using bound buttonholes)
  9. Mount interfacing/hair canvas to front and shape with pad stitching
  10. Mount interfacing to undercollar and shape with pad stitching
  11. Stitch side front to front and make pockets.
  12. Stitch side back to back and mount shoulder interfacing/back stay
  13. Stitch shoulder seams and attach undercollar
  14. Attach front lapel/facing and upper collar
  15. Stitch side seams. Place wigan in preparation for hemming later. 15a. attach interlining layer to add warmth if you skipped the underlining in favor of a loftier interlining.
  16. Make sleeves.
  17. Set in sleeves
  18. Insert sleeve heads and place and insert shoulder pads
  19. Construct lining
  20. Insert lining
  21. Make hand or machine worked buttonholes if you didn't make bound buttonholes earlier.
Some of you may have other design elements to be concerned with, so be sure to think through your construction in light of your own coat and its particular design.



I'm seeing some posts saying that you're confused about cutting/underlining/interfacing and the tape/wigan/sleeve heads and shoulder pads and what to do with them. Hopefully this clears up some of the confusion.

as far as the supplies in your package:
  • The tape will come into play after pad stitching the lapel and collar.
  • The wigan is used to interface the jacket hem and sleeve hem, and is not coming into play yet. If you do not have the package, or wigan, you may want to cut bias strips of hair canvas, or save some of the hair canvas for bias strips to cut later, to interface your hems.
  • The sleeve heads and shoulder pads go in after the sleeves are set.

3 comments:

Melissa Fehr Trade said...

Perfect, this is right where I am - I've sewn the body but stopped at the sleeves because I was unsure about the sleevehead insertion. I've got to get a move on, though, because my sewing room is being demolished sometime in October! eek!

Meg said...

This list is really helpful. Thanks!

Hsiung said...

Hair interlining fabric