Underlining?

Posted on December 18, 2025 by mrsmole

The more I feel the two layers of wool and imagine them working (or not working) together, I feel they need something else to make them more stable and hold up under the pressure of many wearings and dry cleaning.

I have all of the Kennth D. King CDs and have been watching him on making jackets. He uses the technique of an underlining to attach the thicker and rougher interfacing known as “horsehair or goat hair or hymo” interfacing. It gives the sewer something to needle prick or grab unto when doing pad stitching. So watching the video and thinking about going off and searching for some thin cotton-like fabric to place under the horsehair, I realized that I have something that would be perfect…hold the phone…what about a perfect copy using the already used cotton muslin? It has all the markings already and is thin enough to lay flat.

Of course this adds more labor but what good would it be to have a limp jacket that you don’t want to wear over and over and get compliments??? All I had to do was open the basted darts and iron it flat to attach with pins before I do a zigzag stitch all around and then trim off the thick horsehair just inside the seam allowance thus making a “frame” of cotton that will not add bulk in the seams. So let’s try that out…

Sorry that the photo is blurry after being reduced but you can make out the shoulder on the top right and all the other red arrows point to waist lines and darts and pocket dart positions. For now I have not opened the tw0 neck darts but they will be flattened and then resewn as a unit later.

The muslin is pinned to the back of the wool and all the wrinkles will be smoothed down.

Then the horsehair is laid on top and re-pinned.

You can see the extra muslin that will be trimmed away to the actual edge of the wool.

Pinking shears keep all the layers from raveling away.

All edges neat and clean and ready for some hand basting and the eventual zigzagging just over 5/8 inch from the edge. Once that is done, the horsehair is trimmed away. Kenneth uses a Serpentine stitch in his video which again would result in less bulk than a regular zigzag stitch that could act like a satin stitch.

Just to get in the holiday mood, tonight we are going to see a local production of A Christmas Carol and indulge in a drink of the season…

good old eggnog         and rum.

Wishing all my readers have a serene last week before the 25th! Thank you for following along!!!

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Stiffen Up!

Posted on December 13, 2025 by mrsmole

When your client buys fabric, especially wools for a jacket/coat, the texture and thickness have to perform just right. If there is not enough interfacing inside, the finished garment will hang like a rag and not hold up after many dry cleanings.

With the pieces all cut out of the two colors of wool, I need to find just the right interfacing in my stash to make it all work well. Now the leading advice about interfacings is to not join unto the fashion fabric that is thicker that the original. We need something that resembles a softness and drape without making it look and feel very cardboardy. Every piece will also be lined with black Ambiance.

While the pattern calls for 3.5 yards of 60 inch fabric, I had to mess around with two 2.25 yard pieces in different colors of burgundy and different thicknesses. I folded back 2.5 inches to narrow the collar and had to reduce the length of the front of the jacket by 2 inches to fit it on the wool. Nancy said she didn’t mind losing some of the length in both those areas…whew!

The other things to decide on is…do I really want to use the type that requires lots of hand worked pad stitching like I would use for a tailored jacket?

Maybe not….the jacket is supposed to be soft yet strong enough to hold a nice wraparound collar.

Digging through my stash, I found all these types of interfacings that I have been buying and collecting for the past 50+ years while sewing for clients. Wherever I travelled or lived, in whatever country it was, I bought tailoring interfacing both fusible and sew-in. Some were bought in 10 yard pieces and some I bought a whole bolt…Lord help me!

Mainly all the pieces were fusible Suitmaker but in all the different colors I could find. Back in the 60’s and 70’s interfacings came in many shades from white to black and all the greys and beiges in between.

I decided to use the black nylon tricot fusible on the upper collar (facing) that will show when flipped back and also be attached inside to the main layer. It has to be pliable as the under collar as main body of the jacket will be stiffer to hold the shape.

With so many darts in the neck seams and the pockets and hems, there had to be a way to mark all the stitching lines so I made a paper template to transfer the markings on either the right side or wrong side of the wools. I tried using different marking tools and settled on the chalk triangle and a pastel chalk pencil.

The wrong side of the lighter burgundy wool has a black fused backing:

The pastel chalk pencil shows up better than the tailor’s pencil:

The neck seam darts:

The pocket dart and waist dart in the front:

The back and side hem darts:

At this point I am thinking that when they designated this pattern “FACILE”…someone must have had a real laugh!

With Christmas being two weeks away, I won’t be rushing to finish this project with long machine basting stitches as usual as Nancy, my client, will be stuck in Portland for a while and we will meet up again in the new year.The flooding in the Pacific northwest this year has been quite dramatic!

Also two days after Christmas, I will be flying to visit and help a friend who is having knee replacement surgery like I had for both my knees in the last two years. Knowing how helpless you are in those first few weeks, I just had to offer her my help as she is a widow and will need a driver to get her to the physicel therapy appointments and someone to cook the meals and keep up with the laundry. I had Mr. Mole step up when I was in that situation and it made such a difference when he could drive and cook and run the washing machine on his own while I spent most of my time downing pain pills.

I will be taking some sourdough starter with me to make some crunchy loaves and making and freezing all sorts of soups for her too.

So my friends, I wish you a very safe and healthy holiday season and will meet back in 2026! Thank you for following along!!!

 

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Getting Serious

Posted on November 10, 2025 by mrsmole

After surviving 3 weeks of a nasty virus and non-stop coughing and nose blowing, it was time to get to work on the jacket.

In the last post I had photos of some of the problems and now I can really address them and see what needs to be done before cutting out the wool fabrics.

There is the 1.5 inch slash and spread across the back yoke area which will be adjusted on the paper pattern as my usual way.

The collar is at least 2 inches too wide and would hang over the sleeve cap so it is just folded under to preview the loook.

Side view shows the curved back and also where the side seam is and where the hem dart is in line with it.

There are 4 hem darts in the front and two of them are cut so just opening them up shows that I will have to fill in the gaps with the paper pattern as we are leaving them out.

That’s one doozey!

While the pattern envelope shows the jacket does not close enough to cover the front opening, it will be cut wide enough to close properly and not expose any skin to get cold.

Next we have a bizarre side dart that also houses a pocket…never have done one of these so I will be very careful to follow directions! You can see I have marked the new stitching line to bring it closer to the body.

The side back princess seam is adjusted as well to be tighter.

Here is the side panel with two pieces #7 front and #6 back. Either I can take in the actual side seam .5 inch (1 inch total) or take the extra .5 inch off the curved edges. No matter which I choose,the adjoining parts of the jacket will have to be changed as well.

#6 side back panel will be trimmed where the “X’s” are marked. I cut the muslin in the XXL size just to be sure and now, It will be cut down to the XL size.

Same for the side front #7…excess will be trimmed.

Upper back #5 will get a patch to keep the curve. With a center back seam, this is done easily and no need for any neck darts.

Lets compare it to the original paper pattern:

Besides sewing, the garden sweet potatoes have been extracted and we ended up with this assortment. The purple sweet potatoes have come out pretty scrawny but when roasted on a sheet pan in the oven with olive oil and spices, they are delicious skins and all!

The cool part is, I can now start to make more “slips” for planting next Spring and not have to buy more online. The same with the regular orange sweet potatoes…one can be saved to make more slips next year as it is organic and does not have pre-emergent spray on it.

The butternut squash did not produce a lot of fruit but OH MY are they fat and heavy!!!! They reside on Mr Mole’s work bench in the garage all winter and will be used for soups and veggie side dishes.

Still make time to sit and do puzzles:

When Nadine is not hiding in bags or boxes, she also helps out with my puzzle making:

My sourdough bread making is still coming along with a little invention for keeping the top bread pan from shifting in the oven. Every time I tried using the top pan as a cover, the heat of the oven and spray caused it to slip off the bottom pan, so I inserted tin foil into the upper one to make it wider and it stayed in place.

The happy result:

Lots of small holes to hold the butter…yummy!

Thank you for following along and I hope all your sewing projects turn out great!  A deserted beach in San Diego and Mr Mole resting.

 

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The Try-On

Posted on October 23, 2025 by mrsmole

Let’s get started with fitting this Vogue 1263 muslin to Nancy:

From the back we see that there is extra fabric at the back princess seams and the collar is huge! The hem shaping darts are basted and ok for now.

I’ll be taking in the center back seam 1/2 inch totalling 1 full inch. Doing that makes the horizontal waist seam rise more that the normal curve.

 

Time to slash and spread:

The amount needed is 1.5 inches.

The collar will be reduced by 2 inches and the front princess seams will be taken in 1/2 inch like the back seams.

Snugging up the back princess seams give a more flattering shape.

The center lower back also will be taken in 1/2 inch all the way to the hem.

There is no photo of the front hem darts that will be opened to lay flat. Sorry I forgot to take a photo this time.

Now moving unto the “Little Somethin” Jacket:

We start with the back and see the drag lines pointing to the yoke line.

Keeping the straight line:

Slash and spread another 1.5 inches as the jacket before:

 

The front shows a need for shoulder pads with drag lines pointing to the shoulder seams and maybe later I will slash the front on the horizontal lines drawn.

The photo on the pattern envelope doesn’t show that the fronts can cross over each other for an Asian feel, but it works.

The sleeve needs another 3/4 inch to the cap to keep the horizontal lines in the gingham to be parallel with the floor.

So there is lots to do and mess with before we can get cutting the wool fabrics.

Nancy will be button shopping when she returns to Portland.

Last week, Mr Mole and I flew down to SoCal for a couple days to visit two of my grown children and two grandchildren. We made a quick trip down to San Diego with a rental car and were lucky enough to get out unto the I-5 freeway before it was closed for military maneuvers at Camp Pendleton Marine Base where live ammunitions were fired near the freeway. Some of the stray bullets etc were found resting on local police vehicles, so the danger was real!Here is a one video from the scene:  https://www.youtube.com/shorts/CHdVvVkk3Eg 

While away, we both managed to catch a severe chest infection so this week at home has been for recovery with lots of coughing and sneezing. I’m hoping that next week I can get back to sewing and some garden harvesting before the first frost. So excited to have butternut squash to keep in the garage over the winter to make soups!!! Then we will be checking the grow bags and raised beds for signs of the purple sweet potato experiment…fingers crossed for a decent harvest!!!

With Halloween a week away, so many of my neighbors have decorated their houses with ghosts and bats and spiders to make it all seem creepy for the little kids collecting candy. I think that this year we will see more inflatable costumes especially since the frog and dinosaurs and unicorns have become so popular from the Portland peaceful protests up north.

May your Halloween celebrations be safe and filled with laughter and happy children filled with candy!!!

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Muslins to Go

Posted on September 25, 2025 by mrsmole

In my last post I shared the Vogue jacket 1263 made up in muslin for Nancy. She has also mentioned that other jackets have caught her eye, so I will be making more muslins for her when she comes back for her first try-on of the 1263.

So far I have made the muslin for the CNT A Little Somethin’ Jacket

It is simple with collar/facing that folds under and is stitched down. My thoughts are to self line the jacket and then the facing could be used as a contrast and sewn on the right side instead of the wrong side. But you never know. While the muslin is not very exciting, it does have that “blank canvas” quality about it and only 3 pieces.

   

Once again, I used gingham for the sleeve and drew possible slashing lines across the back yoke area and front bust and tummy region. The sleeves can be full length or 3/4 where the lines are drawn. I also changed the center back fold to a real seam for adjusting for a curved back or sway back adjustment.

Another pattern is CNT Start after Breakfast

What I like is the center back pleat and the choice to cut the fabric crossgrain, the dolman sleeves and it can be reversible.

Next will be Butterick 5423

Who doesn’t like pockets and those cool lapels and an asymmetrical closing? The choice to use two different fabrics is also a plus!

What about this final choice…Butterick 5617

It has great pocket details and chance to use big buttons and maybe even contrasting front bands with a madarin collar. With real bust darts, this boxy jacket could have a good shape and flatter. Many sleeve variations are a bonus for sure!

The garden continues to produce so much goodness for us!

The purple sweet potatoes are continuing to spread and this photo taken in August shows just the first vines to completly cover the planting bed. Soon they will be excavated with the hope of finding many many tubers!!!

The view from my sewing room:

Thankfully our daytime temps have come down from the high 90’s and the nighttime temps have been in the high 50’s so lots of nice cool sleeping with the windows open!

Wishing all of you much success with your projects! Thanks for dropping by!!!!

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Struggling at 102 Degrees

Posted on August 24, 2025 by mrsmole

These past few weeks have challenged both plants and people.

The purple sweet potato slips have been growing wildly in the ground and in the grow bags. So far I have given 5-6 slips each to about 10 people who were willing to carry on the experiment.

Our new blackberry bushes are coming along…lots of leaves but only two berries.

The blueberry bushes are still producing along with the ever-bearing strawberries.

Our old Asian Pear tree is dropping fruit before the birds get to eating them.

Sitting in the shaded patio, you get a view of the fountain and all the other plants under the sun awning.

But what about the new jacket for Nancy?

Well, the muslin has been basted together and I decided to use gingham for the sleeves to find drag lines to correct.

Here it is ready for try-on when Nancy returns from Portland. There is a facing that gets attached to this and also hidden pockets within darts but for now it just hangs there looking a little sad and lifeless…ha ha.

The back view:

In the kitchen, things have been busy with the sourdough baking. Instead of making all the loaves in a round shape in the Dutch Oven pan, I used regular loaf pans to see what a normal shaped loaf would taste and look like. One pan is used at a cover before being removed for extra browning.      

The finished product when sliced fits perfectly in the toaster!!!

As we have another week or hot weather coming, I think staying indoors and working on projects sounds like a good idea!

Stay cool and keep up the fluids…until next time, happy sewing and baking!

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Summer Veggies and Things

Posted on August 7, 2025 by mrsmole

OMG is it August already?

Let’s start with a quick walk around the back garden to grab some things for dinner:

Found this monster lurking under a big leaf!

The berries are still producing!

My neighbor’s peach tree overflow:

My neighbor’s plum tree:

Mr Mole trimmed the sunflowers and brought these in for me.

Our yellow plums have been turned into a cobbler by Mr. Mole and it was delicious!!!!

For those who have never seen the inside of Nancy’s pants with the center front invisible zipper and lining and French tack that holds the top inside snap.

The lining is hand stitched to the serged edge of the zipper so everything is very smooth inside. Since last week’s blog, I let out her right side seam and added to the waistband to drop the whole right side down after seeing the drag lines from her larger right hip. Sorry no photos of the finished project.

What’s next for Nancy when she returns in Sept? Well, I will be making a muslin for her with this pattern from 2011 we have had for a while.

Check out: Vogue 1263 review by The Sewing Lady Alison Wheeler

She has a three part tutorial on her blog.

I have had two wools that will be made into this once I get the right color blocking with the light and dark burgundy fabrics. Not sure about a lining as it does not line the entire jacket, probably just the under collar once I get it all layed out on the cutting table. We may not use the darts on the back hem as they would certainly cause the back hem to “cup” under her bottom and who needs that???

The wool on the left measures 3 yards and the darker wool on the right measures 1 yard so I should have enough….fingers crossed!

Stay cool everyone and stay hydrated on these hot days!!!

 

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Lost Three Weeks

Posted on July 30, 2025 by mrsmole

For the last three weeks we have been battling some mean germs:

Having avoided Covid back in 2019 with all my brides, unfortunately, it has found us. Talk about losing your mojo or sewjo…there were days when just getting up out of bed was a huge challenge along with constant coughing, nose blowing and fever and headaches. My doctor prescribed Paxlovid to help. Some of my family members have used these pills back during the epidemic so I thought it was a good idea. Until, that is, we were told the price for a 5 day dose…$1500 without insurance. Thankfully, our insurance covered half of the cost so we paid $700.

But sewing projects don’t just sit around and wait so I have been working on two pair of wool lined pants for Nancy. From the front you can see a slight bulge on her right hip while the left side remains nice and flat. The Italian wool is very sturdy like a man’s suit fabric.

The back view shows the same wider hip and a wrinkle with the way she is standing. The elastic waistband has some ease in it for sitting down in restaurants and driving.

The second pair of softer wool is also lined with ambiance rayon lining and this wool being softer shows off the right hip even more. Everything on these pants is just basted by hand so the stitches will be removed and sewn properly with the machine and the top of the zipper edges will be even (fingers crossed!) You can see her left side hangs nice and flat but the right side will have to be let out.

This back view shows a nicer waistband with less ease and that same wrinkle that will be fixed. The paper pattern I used for the first pair was reduced by 5/8 inch down both side seams to hug her body better. This will be used for all future pants projects.

You can see how one must be able to “read” the fabric and the possible drape for you or your client. Checking the hems, you can see that the right side needs 1/2 inch longer fabric to match the left side to cover her sandal heel. Would we be satisfied with this fit off the rack? Probably but why not make it as perfect as possible if we can take a little more time and open up seams to make it right.

In the future I have been consulting with WordPress to find out how to sell things on my blog. They have been so helpful and made suggestions how to make pages with descriptions of the items. So what am I going to show and sell???

When I lived in the UK, I was contacted by a private collector in Australia with pre WWII Japanese Kimonos and Haori jackets and Obi belts. They are all dry cleaned and mostly silks worn by average folks so they are not ceremonial elaborate ones with huge dragon designs and birds so they are affordable and casual. The kimonos were sold to other seamstresses in the UK but I brought back some to the US after 8 years there and for now I don’t plan to cut them up to make wearable art or fancy purses etc.

I will have a special page to display them with measurements and close up photos if anyone is interested to purchase any.

Meanwhile, every day is in the 90’s and veggies and trees have been doing so well. Here are two crepe myrtle trees in my front yard:

We love butternut squash for the taste and variety:

First planting of the sweet potato “slips”:

Happy slips in grow bags that are doing even better than the ones in the ground:

So for now I will close and get busy on altering pants and wish you all a great rest of the week of sewing or planting or just relaxing.

 

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Wicked and Wool

Posted on July 3, 2025 by mrsmole

The ComicCon event is over and we have photos to share. You can get a real idea of how much fun this event must have been!

My client fully dressed with make-up ready for the event:

 

Other participants in costume:

Recognize the different characters?

The “flying monkeys” dress:

Yellow Brick Road skirt:

The final “Emerald City” dinner:

 

Getting back to reality, I have Nancy who has been back to try on her wool pants and since she has lost some weight, I had to pin out the extra fabric down the side seams. I thread basted the new stitching line and the hem. One and half inches will be removed from both side seams. I did check the inseam for extra fabric but it hung quite well so only the side seams needed tweaking.

The center back seam needed a sort of “dart” to reduce bulk as well.

Here is the line of hand basting (on the wrong side) that I will follow and serge off the extra.

The lining will also be taken in the same amount and the extra will be trimmed with the Pinking shears.

Flipping the pants to the right side, you can see the hand basting in place.

Lining is attached by hand at the top of the pants and then the elastic is sewn.

Center front edges are sewn folded back on themselves. The invisble zipper teeth are inside of the fold but will pop out when opened up.

Invisible zipper is sewn to inside.

Both edges are ready to be hand tacked to the elastic.

Final row of stitching to secure the edge of the zipper tape:

Wandering around the backyard with lots of great growing!

Sunflowers reaching for the sky!

Squash and watermelon climbing, sweet potato in the grow bag.

One blueberry bush:

Califlower and mulberry fruit:

Be sure to wear gloves when picking mulberries!

The magnolia tree keeps producing flowers! See the Fly Bag on the right? This is our second bag filled with 40,000 flies and a third and fourth bag will be hung up during the rest of the summer keeping flies off the patio and us!

Hoping all your sewing projects are successful…thanks for dropping by!

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Pants and Plants

Posted on June 14, 2025 by mrsmole

Maybe like me, you have been collecting patterns since the 80’s. Maybe like me you have patterns from the 60’s when fitting was a breeze. So when I went through my boxes of paper patterns from the 1960’s to the 2020’s…I found a pant pattern that would work well for my client Nancy.

Great Fit patterns can still be found online from Etsy and Ebay:

Their patterns were cut from sturdy thick paper and had to be joined together if they were long pieces as these pants. The pants did not come with darts front or back, so I penciled in some and they will be sewn as curved darts to accomdate a tummy and hips.

The pants back with darts as well:

Once I have the wool cut out, I place it over the lining and cut the exact pieces. Then on the wrong side, I chalk the legs of the darts and ending point.

The lining is the same:

The 11 inch zipper will be used as the pull tab is a good match for the grey brown fabric. Each side will be stabilized with fusible tricot interfacing.

Before attaching with a steam iron, I spray water on the strip and use a press cloth.

Each front is now ready for the darts to be sewn and the edges to be serged.

Once the Ambiance lining has the darts as well and side seams, it is attached at the top of the waist by hand. The lining is also basted to the zipper tape.

 

Not all pant need a 7 or 9 in zipper…what you have to determine is the difference between the actual waist measurement and the hip. If the waist is 40 and the hips are 60, you add the length of the zipper (11 inches) times 2 (22 inches) to the waist (40) to make the opening easy enough to slide on up over the hips for a total with ease of 62 inches.

All of the seams have to pressed open.

Once pressed and steamed:

Do you use a clapper to flatten seams? The hardwood keeps the steam in the seam for a perfect result.

But if you are like me and have Raynaud’s condition, you can use your hands as a clapper as your fingers will welcome the heat…ha ha

Pressing the lining side seams and inside leg seams:

As the lining seams are all pressed flat, they can be trimmed with my pinking sheers later. Now all I need is a body and some 1 inch elastic to finish the top edge and hem the legs.

Taking a break from the sewing room to work in the garden:

Experimenting with Eustoma seeds

You can see that having a cover on one collection brings the seedlings on the right up much quicker.

Every year the birds graciously drop seeds of sunflowers which can grow very tall!

This is for the butterflies:

The cherry tree is on the left and pear tree on the right.

Happy squash plants are ready to climb up the wires.

All the annuals are doing well in their elevated planter.

Soon I shall have photos from the Comic con gathering with my last client and her half and half costume from my last blog post. More photos as the pants take shape as well will be coming.

Thank you for following along! Today June 14 so much is happening around our nation with over 2000 protest marches and Father’s Day celebrations, vintage car rallies and Pope Leo’s mass celebrated in Chicago so stay cool, stay hydrated and upbeat!

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