French jacket, thread tracing and quilting

After sewing some Vogue and Indie patterns with included seam allowances it was such a relief to work with marked seamlines once again! To quote Claire Shaeffer: 'The cutting and marking process is very different from that of home sewing. The couture method of construction is to match the seamlines, not the cut edges; therefore, seam allowances can be any width and are often trimmed after the garment sections are stitched together." (source: The Couture Cardigan Jacket). What??! In my neighbourhood that's the definition of regular home sewing! Who would have thought that even the first Barbie coats and aprons I produced during my childhood sewing experiments, as ugly as they looked, were made using couture methods! 

Over the years about 80% of my sewing projects started with thread tracing. And when I don't, I feel guilty for cutting corners. Goody two-shoes? Who knows, but it's really working for me. The markings are accurate, visible on both sides of the fabric, and unlike chalk markings, they do not disappear unless I want them to. Specially when it comes to putting in sleeves I really like the guidance of properly marked seamlines. Also, back in the glorious days of fewer fitting issues, using ample seam allowances near critical spots enabled fitting on the go, as opposed to making toiles. But I digress.

Speaking of ample seam allowances! I used 7 cm at the seamlines and about 10-12 cm at the hems. And I needed it, because that bouclé is fraying like mad.

After marking all seams and grainlines the next step was quilting lining and fabric together. Oi! How? Where? After comparing all instructions I could find in books and on the internet I started with a test run to determine the right stitch length and tension. I also had to pick a colour for the thread. Since the lining had all colours of the rainbow in an ever changing pattern there was no way I could find a colour that would match each and every flower on it. It was just as arbitrary to choose pink as it was to choose blue on the bobbin. Blue felt safer, in case the bobbin thread incidentally showed on the right side. The fashion fabric consists of threads going from white to dark navy and at least five shades of blue in between. Laying out several spools of blue thread on the bouclé showed how the middle tone almost disappeared, as could be expected.

After fiddling around I settled for stitch length 4.5 and tension 7. (The test row on the right)

Since the order of construction of a cardigan jacket is very different from a tailored jacket the quilting rows have to be placed very carefully. The quilting rows are all parallel to the grainline but they stop 3-5 cm from all seams and hemlines. You need that space later to turn under seam allowances and hems. I used a quilt ruler to determine where the first and last quilting row would be and then decided on the spacing of the rows in between.

This is the first panel. I'm happy to report the execution standard improved after a little more practice on the next panels. Also, this was before pressing and with long thread tails still showing at the beginning and end of each row.

Ahh, those tails! A gazillion of them, all waiting to be pulled between layers where they end up in a double or triple knot. Here's another reason why you should not work on a French jacket with any time schedule whatsoever on your mind. Because, seriously, how long can it take to tie those knots? Forever, when you're in a hurry. Not nearly long enough when you're mindfully working your way through these tiny knots on a sunny autumn day.