Thursday, February 21, 2008

Leather Jacket Pt. 2 (in which the sheep runs short)

Tuesday night was not very productive, considering the amount of time I technically had to sew. The television was turned on by others and somehow the endless primary process sucked me in again and I sat there and watched pundits repeating themselves, interspersed with occasional speeches by candidates, almost all of whom got cut off so that the next, more interesting speech could air. Shouldn’t we all be tired of this by now? But I’m not.

Which is good, because He Who Controls the Remote finds politics endlessly fascinating. He could watch sports. I’m not complaining.

Around 10:00 p.m. I gave in and went to the workroom for a while. I was too tired to sew at that point, but I cut out the rest of the pieces for the jacket. Only one issue with cutting - try as I might, by the time I got done cutting the big pieces (both backs, both sleeves and one facing - there wasn't along enough piece of leather to cut the second facing in one piece. (Close your eyes, imagine spectacular hissyfit. Then double it).

It's the problem with working with leather - animals don’t come in standard sizes, and that little lamb apparently was about 2" shorter than he needed to be. It's pretty much a non-issue, though - I pieced the facing, sewed it and glued the seam flat and it will hardly even be visible in the finished jacket. It's at the very bottom and there will be a lot going on there anyway with the lining attaching there. But grrrrr, anyway.

Now I have lots and lots of decent-sized leather scraps. I foresee a few things trimmed with leather in my future, yes I do.

Wednesday morning I had to get up early to send someone off to work, so I got a few minutes of peace in the workroom and sewed the back darts - 2 on each side. Then that night, after Project Runway, I split them and glued them flat. I thought I'd have time to clip-fit the jacket and see if I'm still on track as far as fit goes, but I was tired again. My entire office has the plague and I'm trying my best to stay healthy, but staying healthy seems more tiring than being sick.

There is a pattern piece for front interfacing, but none for the back. I recently read Palmer/Pletsch's "Easy, Easier, Easiest Tailoring" and liked their explanation for putting interfacing in jacket backs when the pattern doesn't call for it. I decided that the leather I'm using is so soft, a little stabilization couldn't hurt, so tonight I cut an interfacing piece for the back based on the shape suggested in the book.

I have plenty of iron-on interfacing, both knit and woven, but no sew-in for some reason. Since I can't iron the interfacing onto the leather, I figured I should venture out to buy a yard of sew-in and use that. Besides, the only interfacings I had at the moment were white, and I was afraid that would show through the lining as a color variation.

After all that, I do intend to do it my way and brush a light coat of adhesive to the back of the leather and adhere it to the interfacing rather than putting any more holes in the leather by basting it on.

I also picked up 2 yards of acetate lining the same color as the satin I had intended to use. I took a good look at the satin last night and realized that it was older than I thought and I didn't want to risk shred after all my hard work. Lining a leather jacket is going to be tough enough; replacing a lining is further than I'm willing to go. And I'm not paying someone else to fix a garment that I've made.

1 comment:

Carolyn (Diary of a Sewing Fanatic) said...

This is fascinating! I have never made a jacket from leather so it is really interesting to read along with your progress. Can't wait to see the finished garment!