Progress on Matatias’ riding tunic. I finished stitching the lining and fashion fabrics together (I did the gores last because they were the finickiest of the bunch) and then started on the actual construction (well, except for the sleeves and gussets, which I did a while back). I started with the body panels – measured how long I wanted the split to be (and I fear it may be too short, but that will be relatively easy to alter later) and stitched the center front and back seams. I also left slits for what will ultimately be the neckline – it’s going to be diamond in shape, and I haven’t decided yet if I’m just going to flap down the fabric or if I’m going to trim it and apply a facing over the raw edges. Again, this is a decision that I can make later.
The body panels have presented a bit of a challenge, actually. They’re not entirely uniform – and one is substantially smaller than the others. That one is also the least square of the four – I think I’ve managed to arrange it such that the difference in size won’t present me a huge problem, but the consequences may not show up until the garment is on the body.
Progress pictures:
Stitching in the lining… you can just see the previous stitch against the brown fabric between my fingers.
The seaming technique… it’s just a whip-stitch through all four layers of fabric. Each stitch is very small – about three threads from the edge, and four or five threads apart. They have to be this small to keep them from showing through when the garment is right side out.
The join point of the sleeve and the gussett. I had to double-stitch this, because the first time my stitches were too big and all showed through to the right side. That’s why I’m making them so much smaller now.
I’m still not sure how this technique compares time-wise to other flat-lining methods, but I do like it. The actual construction goes fairly quickly, even though I have to be very careful about keeping my stitches small and I can realistically only take one stitch at a time. I never keep track of how long it takes me to do things – and I think I’ve disappointed a lot of people when I’m completely unable to answer the “how long did this take you?” question.
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