Tailoring a jacket

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Am I right in thinking that everyone who enjoy sewing clothes, there are one thing that completely daunts you? Me, I have never dared to tailor a garment. I know the theory, but I have never dared to try it. My wardrobe list, however, contains several suits, jackets and coats and I have known for quite some time that I really need to do something about my tailoring fear. Luckily for me I am not alone in my longing for something tailored, so a couple of friends and I are going to gang up together to help and support each other. Tomorrow we are going to meet up for the first time.

 

My immediate needs are a brown suit in silk noil, a grey suit in wool flannel and a brown jacket for a sport suit. As the silk noil suit probably shouldn’t be overly tailored and I don’t have any wool flannel yet, the sports jacket it is. I also think it may be a good idea to start there and work up for a more fitted jacket for the grey one. I have a pattern, a reproduction one from New VintageLady.

 

I have fabric as well, dark brown wool with a discreet plaid pattern in thin off-white lines. I need to make a mock up so I can get some fitting help tomorrow and I also need to sit down and think through what I need more like lining, buttons, interfacing, etc. I’m also going to read through New Vintage Lady’s own account of making her pattern.

 

Also, if you have managed to miss it, check out By Gum, By Golly's tailoring project.

 

 



Spring/summer 1944

The practical suit

The suit was very much a staple in the wardrobe of women in the 40’s, as it had been in the decades before and after. You got married in a suit, you worked in a suit, and you shopped in a suit, travelled in it or took a country walk. It could be dressed up with a hat and jewelry, thus stretching the wardrobe for those on a meager budget. In short, it was a very practical combination of garments, the most common combination being a jacket and a skirt.

Coco Chanel in the 1940's.

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A suit can also be in three pieces, with a matching coat. (Add a waistcoat and you get four...)

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Of course, it doesn't have to be a jacket with a skirt to add up to a suit, it can be with a dress too, like this lovely design from 1951 by Mollie Parnis.

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And, for a woman, a suit doesn't have to be made in the same fabric top to bottom, like this one by Balmain in 1949.

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The most classic of suits. With small variations, this style can be found in most decades.

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A more outrageous design that probably wasn't worn by the average woman. It's nice, though.

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Grey and pink is a lovely combination.

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But so is navy and grey.

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And pink and black is a rather classic combination too.

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New Look

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A late 1940's suit

When I was 19 my grandmother Greta gave me a suit she wore in the late 1940’s. I remember her telling me that it was made up for her by a seamstress and that it was in “the new style”- the jacket has no shoulder pads and the skirt was a long, pencil skirt, not an A-line. It was made in heavy hound tooth’s wool in red and navy blue. In my early twenties the suit fitted me perfectly and I wore it a lot. Sadly I cut off the skirt to make it a lot shorter, but to my defense my grandmother heartily endorsed that. All her life she re-made her clothes to prolong their lives and she thought it only natural that I would do the same. Well, I sure wouldn’t have done that today, but it’s a bit too late to regret it now. On a side note; I have a whole box of my grandmother’s 1960’s dresses that has one or two seams opened awaiting a change that my grandmother never got too. Basically they just need to be sewn together again to be serviceable. One of them is in red gold lamé…

Sewing update

Most of my vintage patters have been purchased from New Vintage Lady. Even if I could change smaller patterns to fit me, I’m a bit too lazy for that and NVL specialize in larger vintage patters, even if she has smaller sizes too and I have always been very pleased with my shopping experience. Yesterday I got a few new patterns.

This suit is 2 inches too small over the chest, but I’m not too lazy to change a pattern for that. I really like the jacket and I’m thinking of making this one in brown silk noil for one of my spring suit. I just have to decide on the design of the blouses- there is to be one in brown and one in green for this suit. The jacket has a detachable collar and cuffs, so I’ll probably do those in green too.