I REALLY dug in on Peggy this weekend. Chase was gone Friday-Saturday evening, so I attacked it with everything I had. Worked until about 1AM Friday night/Sat morning, got up, had breakfast, ran to the store, and then back at it until Chase got home around 5.
I was kinda in a rush because I REALLY wanted to take it and show it to my grandfather yesterday on Father’s Day. As I mentioned before my main inspiration for the costume was HIS wwII jacket, so I really wanted to show him (and my grandmother) the finished piece.
So… Friday night, I cut a new collar. My first one was just too long, and was causing the lower lapels to droop. I didn’t want to put darts in it, so I just made a new, shorter one. I had a LOT of trouble getting it back on cleanly, so it’s a tiny bit rough in a few places, but it’s in.
My SSR pins and wig came on Friday. Super happy with the pins but my freaking expensive lace-front wig was way too dark. Sad! I don’t know what I’m going to do – I can’t afford a second one. If I can maybe sell this one for, like half of what I paid, and then use that towards a 2nd one, that would be ok – if not, I’m sticking with it. It’s a really pretty wig, it just photographs almost BLACK.
ANYWAY – I also made my sleeves Friday night.
I opted to make the buttons/cuffs fake – I mean, I made the cuff openings, but I sewed them down permanently with the buttons instead of making button holes. I had five of the smaller vintage buttons – put 3 on one side, and 2 on the other. I found a similar size/design at Hancocks the next day and put that in the middle of the other side where I only had two. I’ll have to age it a bit so it matches.
Saturday was putting the sleeves in, and then attacking the button-holes.
I’ve never done button-holes. My machine claims to do them, but everytime I’ve tried it just eats the fabric (and I honestly don’t think it’s user-error in this case – I mean, she’s not a high-end machine). But, since my aunt’s Babylock is living at the house, I tried one last year on some scrap and it was beautiful. I took my old collar I’d taken off the night before and tested it on that, so it was the same layered fabric as the front of the jacket – 2 layers of the wool, 1 layer of interfacing, and a top-stitched edge. Worked beautiful on the collar, except it lost the thread out of the needle once or twice. I practiced 4-5 times before deciding it was time to jump onto the jacket.
Aaand it messed up. Wouldn’t advance and just made a giant ball of thread on the underside. I read up in the manual, adjusted the presser foot pressure, tried again – same result. I ended up with 3 f-ed up button holes on the front of my pretty jacket. I was MAD. My New Year’s resolution to stop cussing at the sewing machine was not just broken, but smashed.
So I went and sat in the living room, picked what I could of the thread balls out, and after a little snack, went and tried again. I realized that the jacket fabric was just TOO thick, even though the collar was the same amount of fabric… but the machine just couldn’t advance it. So I went slower, and helped the machine move the fabric through as it went. I THINK that that my pulling and pushing stretched the fabric out a bit because the button-holes ended up being a little “droopy” – that’s all I can figure why they’d be that way, though they were interfaced, so I dunno. I went back over them again on my regular machine, and fray checked the insides trying to help their appearance – but they are functional, at least.
Then that night, I made my belt, as far as I could.
I’ve got to get my buckle in, and then put the eyelets for the buckle in. Once that’s done I’ll add the thin belt loops on the sides (i’m just going to use embroidery floss). I still need to give it another good pressing/steaming, but it’s done. Last night I started adding the kick pleat to my skirt, but I really didn’t like how it was looking, so I stopped. I may leave it off.
I’ve still got to find a shirt and tie, but I put it all on yesterday as a test run. (Used my Romana shirt and a black tie I had for now – and the belt is just pinned on).
See what I mean about the wig being too dark? That’s a flash photo and it’s still a very dark brown. OTHER than the wig issues, I’m very happy with it. Also, my grandfather liked it very much as well š