Lined Waistcoats

Good Morning to all my faithful readers. I'm back from our 12 week travels in Australia, recovered from jet lag and back in my sewing room that I SSOOOoooooo missed while we were away. My sewing room was the first place I made for when we got home, even before putting the kettle on!! It was great to put a weekly update of our journey but now I'm back to blogging about sewing.

My first make was really a continuation of where I was before we set off. That is my new direction into a more tailored look, jackets with linings and to add to this a more everyday garment that suits our on off summer weather - a Waistcoat.

It took a lot of research to find the look I was after, I wanted it fairly fitted but longish. I didn't want a bolero style or collared masculine look. Neither did I want a straight long boxy shape. After finding an old Burda Style design in the very first copy of this magazine that I bought back in December 2012 which I modified with my SFD Body Blueprint, I had the idea on paper.

First I made a muslin from an old sheet to check the fit. This turned out pretty well so I went ahead and cut out the pattern in some blue fabric I had left over from a recent pair of trousers and added the lining from my stash.

I had all sorts of issues with this version. First of all I made the mistake of sewing the shoulders and the side seams of both the fabric and the lining. Big Mistake!! The easiest way to make a lined waistcoat is to sew ONLY the shoulder seams of both lining and outer after all darts etc have been sewn. Then after pulling the garment through the shoulder seams to the right side it's now easy to sew the side seams from the outer fabric right up and on through the lining seam, leaving a gap in one lining side to turn the garment back to the inside to sew the hem.

 

The end result was a wearable muslin but somewhere along the way the fit was no longer as perfect as the original muslin. I can wear it as a loose garment but no way could I button it up. I also felt it would have benefited from some welt pockets.

So with some stretch denim left over from my Valentine Jeans, I set about making a much improved version. I am so delighted that at last I have not only learned how to do welt pockets but they no longer scare me. I have used a method I found in a Palmer/Pletsch 'no fail' jacket pattern and it works so well for me every time.

I also tweaked the fit and now I can add buttons that do up comfortably but the waistcoat also feels fine unbuttoned.