Hello there.
With a big family wedding coming up, I need to get my skates on and make an outfit suitable for the Uncle of the Groom (that’s me!)
Bring in Burda 6871 that I got from my ‘simplicity pattern haul‘. It’s a three piece suit with two jacket options. If I’ve got time I’ve decided to make both jackets, using the longer one as a topcoat, perhaps with a warmer lining. So I guess I’ll have a four piece suit… five if there’s enough left for a hat…
At the moment of writing this I have exactly 5 weeks. That sounds like a long time, however it is not 5 weeks of solid sewing time. I figure it’s going to take a lot of effort to get this right (… first time…?!) so it’ll take a few blog posts (I’ll be pleased if I get to wear trousers and a waistcoat by the time of the wedding) but here goes with Suitable Intentions…!
As I haven’t been in a clothing shop for three years I thought I’d better do some research on men’s styles for spring summer 2018. A quick google around the top fashion houses proved my previous cynicisms mostly right, that if you’re tall and handsome enough they’ll dress you in practically anything. I wasn’t there when they were handing that out – so I picked out the trends that I liked the best. (Much like reading the horoscopes; believe the bits that sound good, ignore the rest…)
S/S ’18 Menswear Trends (heavily condensed)
- Stripes
- Two chest pockets
- Waist ties/ belts
Not an exhaustive list, but helpful enough for me to go ahead and make what I like while pretending to follow fashion trends (I’m not having a waist tie though, and I might switch the 2nd chest pocket for a ticket pocket… but I’m definitely having stripes!)
The main trend I’m seeing ‘on the street’ is the continuation of the hipster look which seems to be morphing towards a Peaky Blinders theme.
(images from google)
Previous style inspiration has ranged from tap dancing sailors to triplet ducks, so hopefully I’m heading in a more mature direction.
(Images: Disney & Wiki)
Please don’t mis-interpret any of this, I’m not about to stop continuing to make endless hangers of black and grey everyday clothing as and when I want/ need it. I just thought I should at least try to pay attention to fashion…
So I bought some grey pinstripe suiting.
Fabric & Haberdashery.
I shopped around a bit and unless I was going to spend hundreds of pounds (which I would have loved to have done) I was going to end up with a wool blend. As it was, I ended up going the complete opposite end of the scale and got a cotton viscose blend from Dave’s the Draper on Shepherds Bush Market for just £3.95 pm. At that price I didn’t blink at buying eight metres of it. Maybe I’ll regret going cheap in the long run, but it feels really soft and a good weight. I’m looking forward to wearing it.
Over Christmas, I was lucky enough to win a £50 voucher to spend at Abakhan Fabrics from an Instagram competition run by @WhatCorrineDidNext (Yay! Thanks Corrine & Abakhan!) so I used it to buy my 5m of interfacing and 6m of lining (satin backed dupion in a silver/ grey).
I had the zip in my stash as well as the waistcoat buckle.
The buttons (6 large and 17 small) I’ll find later.
I’m planning on making the shoulder pads… but more on that later.
So all in all it’s coming in on a pretty small budget.
Waistcoat.
On the Burda size chart I’m closest to a 38 but after checking the finished measurements on the pattern piece and measuring the length, I decided to cut a size 36 and lengthen it by 2cm. I did this as I traced it, by tracing the bottom section upto the lengthen line, measuring up 2cm then lining that up with the same line and carrying on to trace the top portion of the pattern piece. This saved a lot of cutting and sticking.
As an ‘advanced’ pattern it’s no wonder there are a lot of pieces to trace, twelve. And the pieces for each pattern are spread all over the four large tissue pieces. This was a bit of a headache and I resorted to ticking the pieces off as I traced them. I guess I should have traced everything at once, each sheet at a time, but I just couldn’t face that all in one go.
Cutting out took a while; Because of the stripes I cut the fronts separately – I lined a stripe up with the button line (& the grain line, of course) then flipped the piece over to get a mirror image. It looks like the (1cm) dart has ended up perfectly positioned over the (1 cm) stripe (would you believe it…?) so I’m feeling brave about matching the stripes through the welts.
Attempting to match the welts:
I laid the front pieces face up and marked all four pockets and the dart.
Fold the welt as it will look on the front and line up the seam line.
Draw the fabric stripes onto the pattern piece.
Keeping an eye on the orientation, line up your pencil markings with a new piece of fabric and cut out your welts.
Keep them safe by folding and pinning to the the fronts until it’s time to sew them.
The rest of the cutting out was plain sailing. So long as you remember to cut out four back (lining) pieces. The back tabs seem really short, I couldn’t be bothered to get the tissue back out to check if I’d traced them correctly so I just cut them longer than the pattern piece.
Time is of the essence and all this took me longer than I thought. Those jackets seem a long way off… at a bare minimum I can get away with a waistcoat and trousers – but only if the weather warms up!
Notes to self:
- Don’t forget a shirt.
Great stripe matching! I think this will be nailed no problem. You can do this!
Very difficult project(s). Bespoke tailoring of menswear is difficult. Jamie Kemp in the UK ( maledevonsewing.co.uk) does wonderful jackets/tailoring. He has many pad stitching examples on his site and Instagram. Not sure if I would even have the patience to do this kind of tailoring, i’m more of a fusible kind of guy and if i can get away with making a jacket/suit the way they do in a garment factory, i’m pleased with that. For all this work, I think you should have gone with the best fabric/lining material that you can buy. It is so much work and to use cheaper fabric may produce a garment that you might wear once or twice. Fabric choices make or break garment sewing projects, but I think you know that already. Good luck with all this work and looking forward to seeing your progress and results .. all the best – Corey
Thank you for your concerns, but don’t worry, I’m not hand tailoring this 😅 that’s not to say that I’m not intending to put as much of my best (machine) sewing as I can into this project 👍🙏
When it comes to hand tailoring and expensive wool, I don’t know which is harder for me to find; the time or the money 😅😂
I’ve got a reliable iron on interfacing that I’m putting my faith in… but I may pad stitch the lapels…
👍🙏🤞
Mmm, ragamuffin/Victorian-revival have been done to death over the years.
Here’s a coulpe of examples from the 1970s music scene:
* Ronnie Lane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpSlT2BVvGc
* Dexie’s Midnight Runners: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mxOMPuxWkc
This hipster thing seems to be the latest incarnation, though the beards remind me more of this guy …
Haha, indeed! But I don’t make the rules… or really heed them either!
… I think the hat will make or break it, ‘look’ wise… but I’m hoping to blend in! 😅🤞🙏
I love grey pinstripes! I think the most time consuming thing is all the cutting out especially with stripe matching. You look like you’ve got it all in hand and I’m sure you’ll make your deadline and it’ll be fabulous! 👍🏻😀
Thank you. Yes, cutting out took longer than I’d anticipated, but, much like everything- I guess it’s all in the prep! 🤞
Thanks for the vote of confidence 👍🤞🙏😊
I have every faith in you ‘SuperSewerBuster’ he he he …. and if you get stuck I’ll happily make you a shirt of you choice …. I’m hankering to see a finished 3 piecer at least! 😀
Lainey x
ps. and Pad stitching on the collars!!
Haha, I might have to take you up on that offer!
Yes, pad stitching… I need to check out a few more tutorials! 🤞👍🙏
I have complete faith in the dart-stripe match — you frequently doubt your skill, which started innate and has grown by leaps and bounds.
Thank you for your faith! Sometimes (most of the time!) I still feel like a complete beginner! I’m feeling hopeful about these stripes though! 👍😄
A very ambitious undertaking, but we readers will get lots of good reading from all the blog posts you will be making.
Just a note: the two button stance on the Burda jacket seems a bit high for the current trend. Are you planning to lower the button placement as well a lowering the break line?
Thank you, yes, hopefully ‘good reading’ and not too much ‘panic raving’!!
Thanks for the heads-up on the jacket… I hadn’t really looked too closely yet… I’ll check the pattern measurements when I get to it and take it from there. It’s the back vent that I’m not looking forward to… I must get over that fear!! 😅😬👍🙏
I’ve always wanted to make my 0H a suit (or at least a shirt and trousers – already made a waistcoat and I’m making five simple ones for our wedding in June) so I’ll be following your posts very closely for advice and inspiration. I hope you get on well. And yes, don’t forget the shirt, it would be pretty chilly with just the waistcoat and trousers – ha ha!
Wow, sounds like you’ve got a pile of sewing to get through too! That’s so cool that you’re sewing for your wedding, good luck with it 👍🙏👏 I hadn’t been sewing long when I got married, but I got to cut up Hermes scarves for waistcoats, which was great fun! Have you thought about a ‘wedding quilt’? – get all your guests to bring a square of fabric…? I wasn’t sure, but totally love ours, and loved making it 👍😊🙏👏
What an undertaking ! Good luck with it all and I look forward to seen no your progress. I love the idea of drawing the fabric stripes onto the pattern piece for pattern matching and will pinch that if you don’t mind…
Thank you. Yes, I could really do with planning ahead better, the weddings been booked for ages!
If you use a heat-erasable pen too you can iron away the marks once you’ve finished 👍🙏
Incorporating the lengthening in the tracing step! What a great tip. It is simple, elegant, and never, ever have I heard it before. Thank you.
Wow, thank you. It seemed like a good time saver… we’ll see if it pays off! 😅👍🤞🙏
Looks like hard work but it’s at least coming along. I hope you get enough done to cover yourself properly for the big day–!
Haha, thank you, as do we all! 🤣😂
Awesome plans! And yes, don’t forget the shirt 🙂 I know you have many handmade ones though! You’re planning on MAKING shoulder pads?! :O kudos on that welt stripe matching 👏🏻👏🏻 Under £4 a metre is an absolute steal, I love a good fabric bargain! Will be awaiting the finished results, five weeks isn’t long at all but I often find that a looming deadline is enough to get my arse in gear and get moving! ✂️
Yes, I’m all for a deadline, wish I had a week off work though!
I think I need a plain shirt with this, and can you believe I don’t have one?! 🤣
Fingers crossed the stripes work over the darts, it looks like they *might* 🤞🤞🤞😊