Vogue 1571--Anne Klein Jacket in Yellow Boiled Wool

I was so happy with my most recent sewing experience with boiled wool that I decided to make another one, this time using a designer pattern from Vogue.

This pattern by Anne Klein was part of the Vogue Winter/Holiday release 2017.  The description on the pattern envelope and website doesn't say much about the jacket except that it is very loose-fitting with back yoke extending into sleeves. It would be useful to know that this jacket:

*has no collar, no closure, no lining

*has a pair of inseam pockets 

*has bracelet length sleeves

*has gusseted sides

I posted a complete review of the pattern at the Pattern Review website so what I am posting here are more close up pictures of the finished jacket and its innards. 

I used the same fabric from last project but this time in a different color called honey yellow.

For the Hong Kong finished seams, I made my own bias binding from a lightweight woven cotton. 

To make it easier to sew the binding in the ditch I used the blind hem presser foot.

For a great tutorial on Hong Kong finished seams including how to make your own continuous bias binding, check out this Itch to Stitch tutorial. 

 Front sleeves are set a few inches below the shoulders.

No real back armhole seam.

Gusset that is an extended piece from the sleeve connects the front and back pieces.

That center back seam and yoke are actually extensions from the sleeves proper. 

Side view showing how the sleeves form the back yoke and side gusset. 

 View of the inside showing the Hong Kong finished seams.

 I love how the insides look smooth and clean even without lining. 

As mentioned in my review, there were a few things about the instructions that bothered me. However, I still love this pattern because of the clever design lines and can't wait to tackle it again. This jacket in boiled wool from Mood Fabrics is perfect for the warmer winter days when it is not  subfreezing! Because it is loose-fitting, it is also great for layering over a thick sweater. 

Sewing with Boiled Wool -- Simplicity 1540

Last month, my husband ticked off the one and only thing on my Christmas wishlist--a woven leather bag in the most gorgeous dusty rose shade. It inspired me to sew a matching coat or jacket so I browsed online for the perfect fabric match.

I found the perfect match in this solid boiled wool from Mood Fabrics. It is a blend of 60% viscose/40% wool in Deauville Mauve. 

I searched for coat/jacket patterns that had boiled wool as part of the recommended fabrics and settled for Simplicity 1540.

I was attracted to the unique collar options. I thought to myself since winter usually finds me wearing my outerwear most of the time, why not create a stylish winter wardrobe?

 I made view D which features an oversized pleated collar. 

Since I already posted a review of the pattern here at the Pattern Review website, this blog post will be about the challenges I faced sewing with boiled wool and how I tackled them.

Preparation

   Dry cleaning or hand washing were the recommended method of cleaning the fabric as noted on the Mood website.  I have pretreated wool fabrics before by using steam or the dryer but opted not to pretreat this time as I was planning to have the finished garment dry cleaned. 

Pattern Layout

 My fabric had some nubby texture and a barely discernible nap. There was a definite right and wrong side. I marked the wrong side and the direction of the nap to make sure all pattern pieces were laid out correctly. 

Sewing tools

   *polyester thread

   *universal size 70 needle

   *longer stitch length (3) on Juki F600 and even longer for topstitching

   *walking foot

Tackling Fabric Thickness

   The resulting seams created by sewing this medium weight fabric were quite thick. I could not use hot iron to press them open because I did not want to distort the fabric or flatten the nubby texture so I had to rely on finger pressing assisted by my handy dandy pressing tool. 

To make sure the seams remained open after pressing, I topstitched the seams down. 

View of the topstitching from the wrong side. 

 I trimmed down the seams after topstitching. 

  The pattern I used involved a lot of pleating and darts on the oversized collar. To help lessen the bulk, I sliced the darts open to be able to press them open. 

View of the darts on the wrong side of the collar. 

I also used Clover clips instead of pins to hold the layers together prior to sewing. 

   To work around the bulk when sewing the pockets down, I just trimmed off the allowance around the pocket edges and did away with folding in as the fabric did not ravel. 

Stabilizing seams

   As when sewing knits, I stabilized certain areas of the jacket with seam binding. The fabric had a minimal amount of stretch and it wouldn't hurt to be proactive. 

Seam binding along the shoulder seams.

Along back waist seam. 

Sewing Process

I discovered while sewing through the thick texture wool that some of the fibers tended to snag on my walking foot. Strangely enough, it only happened to the left side of the walking foot. This was easily solved by putting a piece of tissue paper over the fabric while sewing. 

And as with quilting thick fabrics, I reduced the pressure on my presser foot by one notch. 

Interfacing

Going by the information provided in "Fabric Sewing Guide" by Claire Shaeffer, I skipped the application of interfacing on the front facing because my fabric was already thick and had enough structure. 

After all is said and done, I would say sewing with a fabric that did not ravel was quite enjoyable. I was tempted to add a lining to the pattern just because I was accustomed to a lined outerwear but decided to embrace the design intended for a nonraveling fabric. 

Jacket Closure

One last thing I'd like to share is the button treatment. The jacket only needed a simple closure in the form of snaps but I am not a fan of snaps. To dress it up a bit, I applied a couture technique to the snaps and wrapped it in a silk fabric in the same shade as the coat. It was easy to make, pretty much like making a  fabric yoyo. 

Here are more pictures of the finished jacket.

Butterick 6385 Sewing with Mohair

This post is mostly about my experience sewing with mohair coating fabric. A more detailed review of the pattern used is posted here.

I am making a serious attempt to sew through my fabric stash and because the weather is getting colder, I decided to tackle my cold-weather fabrics. It so happens that there is a Plaid Sewing Contest going on right now at PatternReview.com so I thought this was a good incentive to finish a project.

I bought this Mohair coating plaid from Mood Fabrics last year. I fell in love with the pastel shades. It is loosely woven but stable.

This is the wrong side of the fabric.

Unfortunately, while trying to research on how to sew with Mohair, there was not a lot of available information. I learned as I went along with the construction. 

Choosing the Pattern:

Because my fabric was loosely woven and had a plaid design, I initially planned to sew a cape. However, I thought I would not get much use out of it as I prefer traditional coats. So I eventually settled for Butterick 6385 which is  a fitted coat with princess seams, back yoke, forward shoulder, two piece sleeves and collar variation. It reminded me of the popular J. Crew Lady Day coat. However, because my fabric was not tightly woven, my finished coat did not really look that fitted.

Mohair Notes:

From Claire Shaeffer's Fabric Sewing Guide, "mohair is the best known and most commonly used hair fiber. It comes from angora goats which are raised in the US, Turkey and South Africa. Recognized by its fluffy, lustrous appearance, it feels soft and silky."

1. Pretreatment: 

    Dry cleaning is recommended. However, having two yards of mohair fabric dry cleaned was too costly so I tested a small piece before proceeding with Pam Erny's wool shrinking method. This involved putting the whole fabric in a dryer with a wet towel running it on high for 20-30 minutes. 

2. Cutting the pattern:

   *Mohair has a nap so it is important to remember this when laying out the pattern pieces. To help me remember, I usually pin a small piece of paper to the fabric with an arrow indicating the direction of the nap. 

    *Plaid matching. Janet Pray has a very helpful video tutorial on matching plaids. For pieces requiring two (as in two side front, two side back, etc) I cut one piece first then used that as the pattern for the second piece. That made it easier to match the plaid pattern. 

    *I cut the yoke and pocket flap on the bias purely for design but made sure that the facing was cut on grain to minimize stretching. 

3. Interfacing and Underlining: 

   The pattern calls for fusing an interfacing to several of the pieces. Because mohair has a hairy nap that does not take well to hot pressing, I skipped the fusible interfacing and underlined all my pieces with silk organza. I  quilted it along both horizontal and vertical grains so the mohair would not sag with time. 

4. Sewing tools

  *My fabric was woven with no stretch so I used a universal needle size 80. 

  *Thread was Guttermann 100% polyester. 

  *Aside from the straight stitch foot and buttonhole foot, I also used the walking foot which was essential because my fabric was thick. 

   *For topstitching, I used longer than normal stitches (no. 3.5 in Juki F600). Otherwise the short stitches tended to disappear in the nap. 

   

   *Although most of the seams were topstitched, I still needed to press open a couple of them. To avoid flattening the hairy nap, I put a terry cloth underneath the right side of the fabric. I then steamed the wrong side and pressed gently using my handy dandy mini pressing tool shown in the photo above. Because my fabric was underlined, I was able to sew seam open by catchstitching to the organza. This was done only in areas which were not topstitched. 

5. Buttonholes

   *It was impossible to mark the buttonhole placement using the guide included so I just measured the distances and used basting stitches to mark them down. For my coat, the center front line was 1" from the front opening edge. The distance I used between buttonholes was 4". 

  *I tested several buttonhole stitches and decided the large and thick keyhole worked best. (Buttonhole pattern 08 for Juki F600). 

   *I used basting thread to mark buttonhole location. 

   *I placed a piece of Totally Stable paper over the area to be sewn to avoid needle getting stuck on the hairy fibers. I also protected the surrounding fabric area with a large piece of paper while trying to manipulate it underneath the buttonhole foot. 

I recycled some buttons from an old blouse. I thought the mismatched sizes were a fun touch!

To anchor the outside button to the fabric, I used a smaller button on the wrong side. I borrowed this idea from my store bought wool coats.

7. Lining

   *I used silk charmeuse for the lining and it's a good thing that the pattern does not require one to stitch the lining hem to the coat hem along the entire length. As it turns out, the lining hem is just left free and that worked well for mohair because as mentioned above, it has a tendency to sag so it is best to leave it separate from the lining which is stable. 

Here are pictures of the finished coat:

My coat appears significantly shorter than the pattern photo because I wanted a "car coat" length. 

Final notes:

Although I love my fabric and the final product, I probably will stay away from hairy fabric for a while. It is just too messy and left a lot of hairy fibers everywhere! The pattern however is a keeper. I definitely plan to use it again. 

Butterick 6385