Tweed

My latest project is a real thinker. You’ll see why in the picture below. It’s a loose tweed with rich, deep colors of olive, rose, white, grey, and more.

It’s heavy and wants to sag. It’s a perfect challenge. The most useful style for me is an overcoat. Something without a lot of detail, no darts that would add thickness. And I’m a casual person. With some elegance too. I prefer an unstructured look generally. Soft. So that’s my goal here. I picked a jacket that I’ve made before. Usually I’ve made it with structured fabrics, so this will be different. But at least I’m confident with the fit.

What steps should I take to make this fabric hold it’s shape and yet be casual, relaxed?

Today, I’m thinking about how to cut the pattern pieces. I am worried that the threads will unravel. But how fast? If It will hold for even a few minutes, I can cut it out one piece at a time, going immediately to the serger to finish the edges. If it won’t hold at all, I need to thread mark the pattern pieces and cut at least 2 inches larger. Then I can serge the too large edges. I did an experiment – I cut a small piece and looked at the edges. Although it was obvious that it wanted to unravel, it was holding its shape enough to get to the serger and finish the edges. So I cut piece by piece, serging each piece as I went along.

I could have used the selvage as a trim, but looking at it, I didn’t think it was interesting enough to do that. Sometime we can discuss what would be entailed in doing that. It’s fun to add trim from the fabric, and not hard, just time-consuming. Here’s a photo of the selvage. For now, take a look, I think you’ll agree.

There are so many more things to discuss. Be back soon. Thanks for reading and I welcome input.

Peg