“Often your most powerful statement is your dignified silence!”
~ Author Unknown~
Good morning loves it’s Monday and I’m back finally ready to share my last winter make this funky rust Velvet suit that I’ve been agonizing over for the past two weeks. Yes loves she is finally done and I have to say as much as I love it I will never and I can confidently say I will never do this suit or any other in Velvet ever ever again! LOL This beauty has been the thorn in my sewing side for approximately one entire week and then add one week waiting for some halfway decent weather to take pictures in. If you’ve been following my Instagram stories then you already know the absolute horror working on this project has been for me. I did everything right yet I still struggled with one key area getting this collar in the jacket properly after several attempts! Now trust me I know how to sew a collar in a jacket and have done it several times before but for some reason this baby just wouldn’t do what it was supposed to.
I ended up attaching the collar three times and taking it out each and every time for one reason or another. Finally I sought help from my favorite teacher Morrison Jackson of the Little Sewing room in San Dimas California. Now usually when I go to see Morrison its regarding pattern drafting or draping so you can imagine her horror when I showed up at her studio with a VELVET sewing issue! LOL Let’s just say I’m not the only one who is less than thrilled to work with this particular fabric. As beautiful as this fabric is and trust me Morrison agreed it is not the easiest to work with and it will definitely work your last nerve if you’re not extremely patient (not one of my strong points LOL). Velvet fibers when placed on top of each other right sides together shift and move in a grinding teeth type of way, making it tricky at best and impossible at worst to work with. The problem with the collar was it continued to shift thus forcing me to repeat the process several times. Oh and before you ask yes I used the walking foot, I hand basted the the pieces together the whole nine and still blahhhhhhh! Then to top it off on the fourth attempt I decided to cut new under/upper collar pieces and I forgot to cut them on the bias, which if you know anything about velvet you know this is a crucial mistake! Chalk that up to me being tired and absolutely over this suit by that time.
Anyhoo I was at my wits end and decided enough is enough I need help at this point because I’m SOOOOO DONE! Thank God for Morrison being there and agreeing to help me get past this one little step especially considering it’s not her fabric of choice either. LOL She pointed out a few things we could do to rectify the situation and jumped right in to help a sew sista out. Morrison got the under collar in using the crunching technique and we used an alternative method for putting in the upper collar that I swear I tried but for some reason it didn’t work when I was in my studio alone. I swear loves I sat right next to her at the machine and I was floored because I tried the very same thing and it decided to work for her! Go Figure! After the collar was in I was home free and I can’t thank Morrison enough for working her mojo magic on this under collar and for reassuring me that what I knew to do was right and I wasn’t crazy. Again I can’t say thank you to Morrison enough without her this project would have gone into the circular waste file (Basura). Well loves that’s it for me today I’m going to go sew something fun this week to help me get over the trauma of this velvet suit.
Hugs Shari
Suit Jacket Pattern Vogue 8887
Pants Pattern created using Burda 6891 vintage patten (altered flare leg to Bell bottoms) using method found on my DIY/Video Page.
Velvet purchased from The Fabric Shop in Diamond Bar California (all sold out) Trust me I saved you some heart ache!