Making a Sweater Coat Part 12 Sewing Buttons and Loops and the Finished Coat

In writing this, my last entry of 12 about this sweater coat,  I notice that I didn’t start sewing until Part 6.  It confirms my suspicion that there’s a lot more to sewing clothing than threading a needle and taking stitches.  If you’ve made it this far, you probably want to see the coat first and hear about the buttons later.  Alas, with no more pomp or circumstance, here is the finished coat.  Front…

 Lining...

Side…

 Back…

FASTENERS

Fasteners still confuse me.  I often put off thinking about them until the end, and then I get stuck.  This time was no exception.  There are just too many options, and I’m never sure which one is the best.  I’ll limit this to what I might do next time if I have the wherewithal to plan ahead, and what I did.

First, if I overlap the front too much to close the coat, the design won’t be symmetric.  Too bad.  I should have used a vertical band or two down the two front lapels, long vertical stripes.  I had sketched designs with such lapels early, but I rejected them because I knew I couldn’t cut them in a single piece.  I realize now that I should have just pieced them out of a single color.  If I make another sweater coat, I think I will use vertical patching down the center front and move the diamonds out a bit.

I also realize that a zipper closure would be nice.  But I never seem to find nice heavy-duty zippers for sale.  I don’t know as much about zippers as I’d like.  What’s your favorite type of zippor?  Anyways, adding a zipper would require ripping the whole front seams open, and I don’t want to do that.  So, I decide to use buttons with loops.

BUTTONS WITH LOOPS

Making button holes freaks me out.  I have holephobia.  If my sewing machine screws up a button hole, things get ugly.  If that’s not enough, cutting holes in the front of a project that took me weeks to complete is just too much anxiety.  It feels like if I screw up now, I’ve wasted so much time and I won’t be able to fix it.  Instead of button holes, I prefer fabric loops, and I have a few large scraps of fabric left to make a set of matching loops.  So, I pin the front of the coat to mark 4 buttons and loops.

I choose big shiny black buttons from my Grandmom’s button box.  I have three large ones, and a smaller one that I’ll use right at the top.  To make the loops, I start by sewing a strip 1 ¾ inches wide using a 4 thread overlock stitch.  I use thick dark blue fabric because I like the color, and with a little effort, I get the tube to turn.    It’s way too thick for the buttons.  The tube is thicker than the shanks are high.  Fortunately, I have enough of a thinner black fabric so I use that instead.  I sew my tubes from strips 1 5/8 inches wide and 5 inches long.  After turning, I stretch them on my ironing board with two pins on each end, and I press them with tons of steam, more steam than pressing, to get the stretch out. 

Through the hole in the side seam, I pull out the front edge seam between the front and front facing.  I cut open the seams where my 4 pins are, and poke a loop through each hole. Here are two done, two to go.

I flip the coat and pin the loops into position, checking that the loops are the right size for the buttons.  Flip again through the hole in the lining, repin, and sew the loops into place on my regular sewing machine… forwards, backwards, forwards backwards, through the seam allowance.  These puppies aren’t going anywhere.

I attach the buttons with smaller buttons on the inside to distribute the force and prevent the fabric from puckering later.  I use nylon thread and 3 or 4 knots per hole.   I sew up the hole in the lining, and add my tag.  Stop and admire my work. It’s really done!  And it fits like a dream!  Next project?  Definitely something quick and easy, maybe a skirt.  Thanks for playing.

Want it?  This sweater coat is for sale in my Etsy shop.

Making a Sweater Coat Part 11 Sewing Lining and Hem

SEWING THE LINING

The lining sews together easily.  The only hard part is attaching the sleeve lining to the lining armhole.  I do it just like the coat sleeve and it works great. Notice how the lining doesn't meet in the front because that's where the front facing will be.

To sew the lining to the coat, I need a larger horizontal space, and you know what that means… It’s time to mop the kitchen floor again. I lay the coat down on the floor, right side up. 

 I lay the lining over the coat, right side down.  Pin them together around the longest seam in the coat.  

I love this seam.  It’s so satisfying to complete because after it’s sewn, the thing feels like a coat.  Even though it won’t be completely done yet, if there were some sort of natural disaster, and I had to run out of my house wearing nothing but this coat, I’d be covered and warm. Working on this seam plays right into my fantasy of beating the odds of mortal doom through sewing.

SEWING THE HEM

I watched Martha’s Sewing Room today, and there was a guest segment on how to hem a baby dress with a lining.  They showed a trick of sewing the hem right sides together, finishing it through a hole in the side of the lining.  This is the method for me! I like the idea because I can sew the hem on my serger, which makes it strong.  I don’t normally finish my hems this way, but with the sweater fabric, I’m concerned that it might stretch a bit over time, and with this type of hem treatment, the coat will still drape properly.  Other methods for hemming can mess up the drape if the lining is too short for the outside of the coat.  Ask me how I know.

I lay the coat on the floor to determine if the coat hem is the same length as the lining hem.   The lining is a little too long.  You can see the extra fabric on the right side of the photo below.  I cut off the adjacent seam, removing 2 inches of fabric there.  Because I’m going to leave a hole to work through, I finish the edges of the lining on my serger separately.  That way, the hole won’t fray while I work and when I sew it up at the end, the edges are already finished, so I can just use my regular machine and still get a nice, strong finish.   Interestingly, when I sew these edges on my serger, I sew it in one long row of stitches with a u-turn in the middle: up, around and down.  I wasn’t expecting that.  Nifty.  I was too lazy to rethread my machine for this step, and it appears that the chain stitches are less stretchy on one layer than they are on two.  So, I rip out the two threads that make the chain stitches. If you start from the ending end, and unlock the first stitch properly, they pull out easily in one quick zip.  I sew the bottom part of the seam together, leaving about a 7 inch hole. The two pins in the middle of the lining show the top and bottom of the hole placement.

In doing the hem, I decide to error on having the lengths match rather than the patchwork.  The difference is only about a half inch anyway.  I flip the coat and lining inside out.  I pin ¾ of the hem right sides together and sew.   

Flip the coat right sides out.   

Pull the unsewn quarter hem through the hole in the lining.  Pin right sides together and sew.  The front bottom corners are a wee bit too pointy, but they match well enough so I leave them.  When I try on the coat, the lining hem is a bit shorter than the coat hem, just like it’s supposed to be. 

HEMMING SLEEVE

Turn sleeves inside out.  Pin lining to coat under arm pits (the bottom half of the arm hole).

Hand sew the lining to the coat using a back stitch sewn from the lining side.  This tacking will help hold the lining in place without affecting the drape of the coat. 

I put on the coat and see that the sleeves are much too long.  That was my mistake in the pattern, but better too long than too short.   I pin the sleeves in place.  I have 4.5 inches in the sleeve hem.  I reduce it to 2.25 inches and serge the edges with a 4 thread overlock stitch.  Turn the sleeve inside out, and hand stitch the sleeve hem using cross stitch. 

Cut lining to same length as finished sleeve. 

Serge edge of lining.  Hand stitch lining to sleeve hem using itty bitty cross stitches.  Press.  Hang coat on dress form and steam bottom hem. 

Next time, I add fasteners and show the finished coat!

Making a Sweater Coat Part 10 Attaching Hood, Facing and Sleeves

ATTACHING THE HOOD
I sewed the hood to the hood lining around the face earlier.  Now I press it and I baste the bottom edges together on my regular sewing machine.  Think of a hoods as a really long bulging collars.  To attach the hood to the coat, I will have to sew through four layers plus seam allowances, which my serger definitely won’t like, unless I do it right.  My serger has proven to only sew well through two or three layers at a time, so I decide to serge the edges separately.  I serge the edges of (a) the two layers of the hood, (b) the neckline of the coat, and (c) the neckline of the (3 piece) facing.  Then I pin the hood to the coat and baste on my regular machine.   

After laying the coat out on the floor,

I lay the facing on top of it.  Finally, I pin the facing on the neckline and sew all four layers together on my regular sewing machine with a very strong and slightly stretchy stitch.  

In doing so, I busted a needle in three pieces right at the center back seam and had to use needle nosed pliers to get one of the pieces out of the fabric.  The fabric was really thick, and the piece was entirely embedded before I fished it out.  The neckline seam is always a real bitch but this method seemed to work well and I’d definitely do it again.  Yes, it’s a lot of passes, but it’s all done by machine, and the seam is strong, straight, and centered. This seam has to be strong because people lift and handle coats by their hoods.

I press the facing in place with tons of steam.  I let each section cool before shifting the coat.  Next I pinned and sewed the front facings to the front.

Oh, I missed a spot where the hood meets the coat on the front edge. You can see how the right corner is correct, but the left one, you can see the threads poking through the hole.

 When I flip it wrong side out, you can see how the edges shifted right at the end of the seam. 

 So, ya, I need to redo that.  I rip out the stitches for an inch or so and resew it.  

SEWING THE SLEEVES

While pressing the facing, I sew the sleeves and repair the skipped overlock stitches on the sleeves.  With doubled thread, I whipstitch over the seam allowances on two spots on each sleeve.  Interestingly, the chain stitches are all good.

I attach the sleeves to the armholes.  First, I pin and hand baste the two pieces together.  Then, I sew the seam on my serger.  Works great.  Sorry, but I forgot to take photos.  You'll just have to imagine it.

Next time, I sew the lining and the hem.

Making a Sweater Coat Part 9 What I have learned about how to sew lined coats

RECONSIDER LINING AND POCKETS

Now all of my patches are sewn into panels, but before I can assemble the coat, I need to consider the lining and pockets.  I buy deep black 90% cotton 10% spandex knit.  It’s not slippery like I’d like a lining to be, but it’s nice and stretchy, but still natural feeling.  I’ve learned that I prefer mostly natural fibers, but with cotton, in particular, a hint of synthetic fibers help the fabric keep its shape.  Since the sweater fabric is stretchy, I need a stretchy lining to match.  If I had all the money I wanted, I’d use a silk jersey knit for the lining; that would be so luxurious, but an extravagant expense, to be sure.

To pattern the lining, I would normally use my same pattern pieces minus the hem, but I want to try on the coat before I commit to my sleeve hem length.  I check my patchwork against my large pattern pieces, and the patchwork pieces are all about an inch longer than the paper pieces.  Hmm.  I think my fabric stretched?  Or was I systematically off on my piecing?  Considering the error is only in the length, I think the fabric probably stretched.

The lining pieces on a coat are similar to the fashion fabric pieces with a few notable differences. Here are a few things I have learned about lining coats:

1. None of the collar pieces have lining.  In other words, they have fashion fabric (felted sweaters) on both sides.  In the case of the hood, I essentially made a huge, head shaped collar, and like most collars, the top and bottom are made from fashion fabric. 

2.  Linings are cut shorter at the hemline than fashion fabric for the corresponding pattern piece.  This is to create a hem that has the fashion fabric on both sides near the hem.  In my case, the main coat is already an inch longer than my pattern, so, I decide NOT to shorten my pattern before I cut the lining. It’s better to error on too long of a lining than too short of one.

3. front = front facing + front lining – overlapping seam allowances.

In other words, if you sew the front facing to the front lining, you get a piece that’s the same size as the front piece.

Since I ended remaking most of the pattern pieces, I’ll be using those instead of the lining pattern pieces that came with my pattern.  I will however, use the front lining piece from the pattern since I didn’t alter my front piece.

4. back = back neck facing + back lining – overlapping seam allowances.

The only piece I have to alter is the top back piece to allow for the back neck facing.  To do this, I trace the back neck facing at the top of the back piece.  I move the traced line one and a quarter inches up since that’s twice my seam allowance.  Then, I cut slits in the paper and fold it into place.  The lining pattern is ready to go after I add a little tape.

CUT LINING

I need a big horizontal surface to cut my large lining pieces.  It’s better, easier and faster if you cut them all at once.  So I vacuum and mop the kitchen floor.  I lay my fabric out folded in half lengthwise so I can cut my pieces two at a time.  I lay out my pattern pieces on the fabric, and pin them in place.  I cut two of everything, plus an extra 2 pocket pieces, since I need two pieces per pocket.  

The pockets will be stretchy. I can’t decide if that’s a bad idea, but I can’t seem to think of anything intrinsically wrong with it, as long as they’re used mostly for hand cozies and not to transport pounds of cr@p.  I mean, it’s not luggage, it’s a coat.

SEW SIDE SEAMS WITH POCKETS

I sew the shoulder seams of the front and back panels together.  I try it on to decide how high on the side seams I should sew the pockets.  I sew the 4 pocket pieces to the side seams. 

I pin the side seams (including around the pocket),

and I can see that there is no way I can sew that sharp corner under the pockets on my serger.

I sew the side seams as well as I can, smoothing out the offending corners as my serger allows.  Remarkably, the loopers catch the edge of the fabric at that corner nicely.  I resew one of the points on my regular sewing machine, the first time overdoing it.  I can tell because I try on the coat and there’s a nice pucker right where the pocket meets the side seam.  So I rip it out and do it again.  Fixed.  The second one is easy.  See pin head for placement.

The side seams come out alright, but again, there are bulky spots where the loopers didn’t catch threads, and I have to hand whipstitch to fill in the bald spots.  I also broke a needle.

 

At this point, I realize that I should have used one of the thicker, sturdier fabrics on the shoulders.  I chose to use cashmere because it’s soft.  Unfortunately, it’s also much stretchier than the wool felt.  I think the coat might sag a bit in the sleeves because I used cashmere all across the shoulders. I learned that next time I should use the sturdiest (heaviest) fabric across the shoulders rather than using the softest.  I’m a sucker for soft; so I had to try it.

Next time, I sew the hood and sleeves to the coat.

Making a Sweater Coat Part 7

SEWING SLEEVES AND FRONT

I lay out all the sleeve pieces just like before, leaving pieces on one sleeve.   

I sew the other sleeve together, first in strips in strips.  

With all the strips done, I decide how to press seam allowances, trying to get most pointing down, and at the same time trying to avoid really bulky spots.  I press with a medium hot iron and tons of steam.  The wool really responds well to lots of steam as long as you wait for them to cool and dry before moving them.   

I assemble the two front panels just like the sleeves.

This is the pile of colorful scraps of felt cut by the cutter on my machine. It feels like there should be some use for these bits of wool and cashmere.  Anyone?

After I finish each seam on my serger, instead of cutting the thread, I sew two scraps of fabric together and leave it in my machine until I get the next seam pinned and ready to go.  

This way, I don't end up with so many long ends of thread everywhere, plus I get crazy patches of new fabric to make stuff.  I might make a pillow with these.

Don't you want to see Part 8 where I sew together the hood and facing?

Making a Sweater Coat Part 6 Starting to Sew on a Serger

SETTING UP THE SERGER SEWING MACINE

Last summer I got my very first overlock (serger) sewing machine, a Babylock 8-thread, which sews a bazillion different combinations of overlock and cover stitches.  It’s quite a different beast from a regular sewing machine, and I’m still learning how to use it properly.  Fortunately, I have a big box of scraps to practice and experiment.

I’ve learned that the different stitches on a serger essentially give you different ways of finishing a seam or hem of a garment.  On my 8-thread machine, I can pick super wide stitches that are so complicated as to be more decorative than functional.  Alternately, I can pick super skinny rolled hems made with just two threads, which finish the smallest possible edge of a cut piece of fabric.  And of course, there’s several medium choices in between. 

3-THREAD SEAMS

Since I’m thinking of making the seams a design element on the outside of the coat, I start with a 3-thread overlock-narrow hem because I think it should be the strongest of the seams with a very narrow hem.   I run a few samples.  I mess around with the dual feed so the fabric won’t stretch as it passes under the pressure foot.  I click up from Neutral by one click, two clicks, all the way up to 2.0!  The seams are still super stretchy.  Apparently, the dual feed system doesn’t work as well with super thick felted wool sweaters which makes sense if you think about it.  I leave it all the way up and decide not to mess with the dual feed adjustment lever any more. 

My fabrics are super thick, and when they go under the pressure foot, they’re super smashed in there.  With my regular machine, I can adjust the pressure of my presser foot to accommodate thicker fabrics, but not so with an overlock.  An overlock has to smash the fabrics to get them through the cutter.

I make my stitch length super short, just a few clicks above 1.  The close the stitches are, the more the seams want to stretch, and I don’t want rippled seams.  I’m pretty sure the fabrics are too thick for rippled seams to work.

I look at my samples and don’t love the results.  The seams seem spindly, they are not pronounced enough to be a design element.  They also don’t look super sturdy, like I want for a run-around-and-play-in-me coat. See the right side of the photo below.

So I add Metroflock thread into the upper looper to fill in the stitches (left side of photo above).  Metroflock is “fluffy” thread.  It’s the puffy polyfillament thread they use on underwear.  You know, when your underwear starts to fall apart, the thread around the elastic unravels, and it’s that puffy thread. Well puffy thread fills in the space between stitches.  Metroflock is good for making narrow rolled hems look like nice solid lines.  With the Metroflock threaded through one of my loopers, the seam fills in nicely, that is, nicely on one side of the seam.  I need another spool of Metroflock for my other looper if I want both sides to look nice.

I convert my serger to do a 3-thread overlock rolled hem.  The seams are much puffier because the Metroflock is covering more of the seam with the rolled hem than it did with 3-thread overlock-narrow hem. Good to note since these two stitches are almost identical in terms of how the machine is set up, and I don’t have to rethread a single thread or move any needles to move between these two stitches.  With sergers, it’s not usually so easy to switch stitches.

I’m doubting my desire to put the seams on the outside.  On my practice bits, I’m not getting clean consistent results.  See the green and aqua seam on the right above; it’s messy, yet the side without seams looks neat.  I stretched my crazy patch, I pulled really hard on the seams and I poked the corners with my fingernail to see how much the abuse the corners would take.  

I didn’t actually poke a hole, but I gave a corner a good ruffing up, which did manage to permanently ruff up the fabric inside the seam and now it’s wonky.   

Hmm. I don’t want the seams to be the weakest part of this coat.  The fabric is STRONG and I want strong seams.

5-THREAD SEAMS

If I keep the seams on the inside, I can use a wider seam with more threads, which will make the coat more durable.  I’m going to try a wider stitch.  I try the 5-thread safety stitch, which is a combination of a 2-thread chain stitch plus a 3-thread overlock.  It’s the seams that run up most pant legs.  My machine can do this stitch in three widths, the narrowest is 3/8”, and I use that one.   

It’s noticeably much wider than then 3-thread stitches and feels super secure.  Now the seams are bulky, and when I sew over them, I have to push them a bit to get them under the presser foot and through the feed dogs.  I also have to check that the cutting blade catches and cuts when I cross over seams.  If the cutter misses and doesn’t reach up and over the fabric to cut it, and I keep sewing, I will almost certainly jam the machine in a nasty way.  This is very bad:

This is what it looks like after I pulled the fabric back down below the cutter:

I realize that when sewing with thick fabric over seams, I MUST keep my eye on the cutter. Oh, and I still have my dual feed compressing all the way (2.0), and the seams are still plenty stretchy.

I decide to use the wider, secure seams and put them on the inside of the coat.  That means I’ll need a lining.  I figure that I will need at least 2 and 3/8 yards of 60 inch wide fabric for the lining, something stretchy, like cotton lycra knit would be nice.

I don’t have 5 spools of thread that match.  I buy 2 spools of charcoal gray for the chain stitch, and use 3 spools of black for the overlock. With a lining, nobody will see the seams anyways, so it's not that important.

My patches of felt are all cut, and the machine is set up.  I am so close to sewing my real coat patches I can smell it. 

START SEWING PATCHES—FINALLY!

I start with the back panel, arranging all of the pieces on my table into their proper places for one side of the back.

Then I unpair them to make the whole back, but I leave the paper patches there just to keep everything in order.  I try to place everything knit side up (as opposed to purl), but some of the fabrics are so fuzzy and felted I can’t tell the difference.

I sew one side of the back at a time so I don’t accidentally switch pieces.  I pin the patches, right sides together, matching talyor’s tacks and edges.  I sew a patch… ooh, cr@p!  I get a messy seam because I forgot to put down the presser foot.  I have to rip out the messy threads and redo.  I resew the seam correctly and it’s fine.  I pick up and sew one or two seams at a time, leaving my patches of fabric mostly laying flat so I don’t get confused before everything is sew together. 

The skinny lime green patches are tricky and I accidentally catch the seam allowance on one side into the seam on the opposite side (this is easy to do because the patch is skinny.)  So, I cut the stitches and resew to get it right.  Problem solved. I find that turning it upside down, so I could see the problem seam, helped me do it right the second time.  In general, if something doesn’t work well the first time, it’s often useful to flip the work over and try sewing from the other side, which also requires that you start at the other end.  I’m happy I‘m using a wide 5/8” seam allowance because it’s giving me room to fix errors, and I’m making plenty of those.  With such thick fabric, it’s easy for the seam to shift by 1/8” or 1/4” when you use pins. 

I’m figuring some things out about my serger.  (A) If I clip the leading corners to make the leading ends the same shape, it’s easier to feed the fabric into the machine.  Cutting perpendicular to the seam is best, but sometimes I just cut the top edges even, and that works well enough. 

(B) If I pin the top layer a little (1/8” or so) forward of the bottom layer, then this compensates for the shift of the bottom layer moving forward when it gets pulled forward by the feed dogs. (C) I just realized that I should have been pressing my seams as I go.  I have been sewing so much faux fur and other synthetics, I forgot about pressing.  Wool presses wonderfully, so I press the back and vow to press as I go until I finish the coat.

See Part 7 in which I sew together the sleeves and front panels of the coat.

Making a Sweater Coat Part 5 Designing the Hood and Sleeves

THE HOOD AND SLEEVES

I finally finished the whole coat design, using diamond patches on the sleeves and hood. I added more columns of diamonds.

To design the diamonds, added more lines and points of intersection to my sketches, and moved them around this way and that while trying to imagine how it will all look in 3D.   

I removed the center back seam with a row of diamonds.  So the H pieces will only need to be cut once.  All other pieces come in pairs.  I added grain lines that go back from the forehead and down the back of the head. The grain lines show me (a) how to cut the pieces and (b) how to put the pieces back together. 

HOOD DARTS

I use darts in my furry hats, so it makes sense to use them here.  I “break” some of the points into two or more, allowing me to move the corners for individual patches to accommodate the curvature of the head. They are effectively darts spaces around the crown of the head. I'm guessing how big to make them.  I'll tell you later if it was a good guess or not.

POCKETS

I can do side seam pockets or hide them under a pair of diamonds on the coat front (piece C3).  I need at least one pocket.  Side seam pockets are only good if you line the coat, otherwise, they look awkward flopping around on the inside of the coat.  If I save putting together the front pieces until the end, I can put off making decisions about the pocket for now. 

TAYLOR’S TACKS

I sew through the corner points of my fabric with doubled scrap thread in blue.  It has just enough contrast that I’ll be able to see it, but if I can’t get every last bit out, it won’t show too much.  The reason for the tacks is so that I can match corner points when I pin and sew the patches together.

See Part 6 in which I set up my serger sewing machine, trying out various overlock and chain stitches.