Pantone Contest Shift

The Sewing

I finished my Pantone Color Contest entry two days early! Unheard of--just ask my editor. I did that so that I had time to figure out how to review the patterns and make an entry in the contest, which is held at Sewing Pattern Review. I figured it out and this is my entry photo. Upon seeing it, my first thought was Yowza--I have to shorten that coat. It never occurred to me that I might have to shorted a 1966 pattern until I saw it with the shift. So...I'll be shortening the coat before I post its photos.

On to the shift. I decided to use McCalls 5799, the lines of which
complimented the style of the coat. I found a pale yellow crepe at Jo-Ann's to underline the sheer lemon chiffon I bought at Britex. I so love this chiffon. It's not nearly as pretty in the photos as it is in person.




I was afraid that sewing sheer fabric was going to be a nightmare, but it wasn't. I referenced the November 2006 Threads Magazine 127 (on sale here for only $3.50) and followed the techniques for seaming and hemming a sheer fabric.

To cut the fabric I placed a layer of tissue paper on the floor and laid out the fabric as a single layer. The tissue paper kept the fabric from shifting as I cut one pattern piece at a time, matching the design. I like the way the waves match up the back seams.

To make the seams, I sewed once along the seam line and then again 1/8 inch away, trimming close to the second stitching.

To hem, I sewed 1/8 inch from the raw edge, then turned it twice and stitched. Both finishes came out well.

I understitched all the edges to keep the lining from rolling out and showing.

I didn't want to mess with a zipper in chiffon/crepe for fear of waves, so I simply sewed the back center seam up to within 6 5/8 inches of the neckline and then added a button and loop closure. I'm pleased to say that I actually tried on the shift before lining it and yes, I could get into it with only a 6 inch opening. So glad I didn't pull my usual stunt of finishing the garment and then discovering the opening is too small.

And finally, I didn't line the shift in the usual way, with wrong sides of the fabrics together. The seams of the lining would have shown through, so I put the wrong side of the chiffon against the right side of the lining and finished all the lining seams with chiffon fabric to clean up the inside a bit.

And that's the end of this shifty business.

Return of the Bound Buttonhole

I am not a coat-making novice. I enjoy making coats and jackets and last year I tailored two wool frock coats for the Great Dicken's Fair in San Francisco.

Neither of these frock coats (one is hanging in the background) had bound buttonholes. The directions did fantasize about me hand binding slashed buttonholes, but I ignored that part...just as I considered ignoring the buttonhole directions for my 60s coat, once I found out about them.

I'm notorious for forgetting to buy at least one key component of my current project, so last weekend I carefully read the directions before starting my coat. In step 5, I was startled to discover instructions for making seven--count them, seven--bound buttonholes. Oh, happy day.

Again I was tempted by my 1955 Singer buttonholer, but the reason I'm sewing retro is to learn and practice new techniques, so even though I was smacked around by a bound buttonhole while making the Sew for Victory jacket, I decided that I needed to suck it up and try again.

I followed the pattern directions--I was pleased that this pattern actually gave directions, unlike the 40s jacket which tersely commanded "Make bound buttonholes"--and made a practice buttonhole. It came out cute as a, well, button. Perfect.

But I'd fallen for this before--being lulled into a sense of false security by a perfect practice buttonhole--so I made a second.

Scary little dude, eh? Let me explain that I made a couple errors on this one (no kidding--right?) I wasn't as careful with my grain lines, but the big mistake was that I didn't tie off the thread ends by hand on the back. Instead I back stitched, and the stitching on the scary side started to come undone. No more back stitching.

Fraying was also a problem with this silk linen fabric.

And when I tried to stitch the little triangle to the welt ends, there was no triangle. It had frayed away.

To deal with the fraying, I reinforced both the welt strips and buttonhole area on the coat front with knit fusible interfacing. It was light enough not to add bulk to the narrow welts, but kept the fraying to a minimum. I had a triangle to stitch!

I marked the buttonhole placement with thread as the pattern said to do.

 The fabric strips for the welts are very narrow:

To make certain that my grain lines were perfect, I carefully placed the strips and then taped them into place instead of pinning or basting. The tape worked excellently.

I drew the stitching line on the welts--which were only 1/4 inch wide when folded--then  tied off the thread ends on the back (three knots and snipped 1/8 from the knot). I can thank the scary second practice buttonhole for this grain-line/thread-end vigilance, so as frighteningly as it turned out, it was worthwhile.

By employing a great deal of sweat and anxiety, I ended up with seven nearly perfect bound buttonholes, four of which are shown above prior to being sewn shut. They're very delicate looking and I'm quite pleased.

The big lessons:
1) Never give up, never surrender.
2) Make more than one practice buttonhole, just in case.
3) Don't hurry.
4) Experiment with tape.
5) Don't turn your back on the cat.

Pantone Color Contest 60s Coat~ Rough Draft

I love this coat pattern and it takes less yardage than any of my other 60s coat patterns—only 2 5/8
yards of 54 inch fabric. Ironically my muslin fabric for the Pantone Color Contest is the color of mud. It is, however, the proper weight and only cost $1.50 a yard.

The jacket went together easily. The only problem is that the princess seams are made for a larger busted princess than myself.

I solved this by pinching out the excess and marking it with chalk on the side panel. 

Then I took took the seams out of that part of the muslin and matched the chalk line on the side panel to the regular stitching line on the front panel. 

The result was a much better fit. There's a tiny pinch, but that's because I didn't release the sleeve seam.

Since I was happy with the new fit, I took apart the muslin, ironed the side panel and adjusted the pattern piece.

The sleeves were 1 ½ inches too short. My husband, a child of the 60s, quickly explained this to me—women wore gloves in the 60s. Sure enough. I decided to lengthen the sleeves by 1 ½ inches.

The only other issue is the belt. The smaller coat pattern I bought came from a university home ec department. It had a penciled note on the front saying to add length to the belt so that it would lie nicely. I made the belt without lengthening it, and this is the result. 

I'd rather not have the coat cinched in, so I lengthened the pattern piece. I can always take it back in if necessary.

After spending two days with my mud colored fabric, I'm very, very excited to finally tackle some color! 

60s Coat ~ Prologue

The Sewing

I’m excited for my 60’s coat and shift. I was very young in the 60s, but I remember the styles so well.  Or maybe it's all those reruns I watch. I've had several 60s patterns call out to me as I've perused eBay and Etsy, which means they are now in my collection. In my world, Call out = Buy button. 

I decided to make this coat, McCalls 8353 from 1966. The design reminded me of an Easter coat my mother once made me, so I bought the pattern in a size 10, which is three sizes too small. Less than a week later I found the same pattern in a size 14—much closer to my size, which means less pattern grading. I debated about buying the same pattern twice, but eventually pushed that Buy button. Now that I'm grading, I’m glad I did.

The fabric is a silk-linen blend that I bought at Britex on my last trip to San Francisco. It has a wonderful drape. I’d planned to buy something in green or blue to make the coat, but this color shouted out to me. It’s so 60s and so me.  I love wearing orange. Being able to wear orange almost makes up for not being able to wear camel, a fashion staple that turns me an odd color and has people asking me if I feel all right.

 

The shift fabric is chiffon and I’ve decided that it’s Lemon Zest, another Pantone Spring 2013 color. This is good because the Pantone Color Contest calls for two pieces.

I’ve only sewn chiffon once before, but it was low-cost chiffon and I wouldn’t have curled up in the corner sobbing if I’d ruined the garment. Of course it went together easily. This chiffon is a bit pricier—to the point that I only bought 1.5 yards. The fabric is railroaded, meaning that the lines go selvage to selvage or crossways. I’m hoping the waviness of the lines adds a vertical component so I don’t look like a box when I wear the shift.  

Now my only question is which shift to make.  As you can see, I’m going with contemporary patterns and I plan to make a (hopefully wearable) muslin of each before deciding. I've started with McCalls 6123. 

Nora is helping. As usual.