I have decided to sew a wool coat. Why a coat, you ask??? BECAUSE I fell in love with this fabric and book. PLUS, Connie at Modern Textiles, said “You got this!” I should add that I did sew a pair of pj pants once, so I was feeling confident.
Until I saw this (below).
Those are a LOT of lines. When I made the pj pants, I just traced my favorite pair of pajama pants for the pattern!! I didn’t have to cut out a pattern…especially one with 8 million lines and written in secret sewing language. Yes, there is a secret language, don’t get me started. Patterns also have secret marks on them, like the little notches I highlighted with a red arrow. Do you know what those are? They are used to match different pieces. You simply mark them with pins or fabric markers so when you have all your pieces cut out, you can match them up.
Guess what I thought you were supposed to do? CUT them out. I literally cut the fabric out of my pieces INTO my seam allowance. I now have all my pattern pieces cut out with missing mini triangle notches. Yep, that is NOT what you are supposed to do. I know better now. Two notches means the back and one notch means the front. My fail is your gain. You are welcome.
After that debacle, I had Kerry cut out my fabric because now I do not trust myself and this is expensive wool fabric. I can not afford (literally) another mistake! She is actually laughing AT me. I was not laughing.
Now it is time to get sewing. Ummmm….it says overcast ALL the edges. Hmmmmm…KERRY???? Again, more secret language. I need help in ENGLISH. She tells me that I need to finish all of the edges because it will look nicer that way. No fraying or falling apart. Arghhhh….that takes TIME. Have I mentioned that I don’t have patience??? I do as I am told.
At first, I start with a special overcasting foot on a regular sewing machine. I am afraid to use the serger. The serger CUTS OFF your fabric as you sew. How can I rip that out and repair my damage if I cut off my fabric? Overcast stitch is my answer…only it isn’t. See below.
Overcasting on the machine made it wavy. I broke down and tried the serger. Voila! Perfectly flat and FUN. I now need a serger. Darren, are you reading this?? I NOW NEED A SERGER!!! I want to serge everything.
The rest of my jacket goes smoothly because I completed it at the store with all the ladies expertise at my finger tips. I strongly suggest if you are starting to sew, you find an expert too. You can borrow mine from time to time, but they belong to me and I don’t share very much. 🙂
Until next week!
Cheers!
Andrea
