19th - 25th April

I began this week by completing all the pad stitching that had to be done in the jacket fronts and and the lapels which took a long time with the big lapels that are on this jacket. I had to restart the lapel pad stitching a couple of times but after that I got into it and think I did fairly well at keeping the stitched neat. If I do decide to go into tailoring in the future though, this is one of the main jobs I would have to get used to because it's so long and boring! Especially with lapels as big as these.



On Wednesday, Jennifer and me went to Poole to source fabrics, a shirt for me and waistcoats. I managed to find a shirt, the same as what Jennifer and Lottie have for their performers. Neither of us were able to find a waistcoat so we're going to try looking on the internet as we will need this waistcoat in just over a weeks time for the fitting.
We got 3 samples of fabric that we could possibly use for the lining. After showing these samples to Lottie and Kate, we've decided to go for the cheaper grey/silver polyester that's less shimmery because it looks the most grey, the other two samples were heavier and lighter.

On Thursday, I got the embroidery machine from fashion and spent the whole day trying to figure out how to use it as no one else in the university is trained to use it. It was a very frustrating day and I'd be glad to see the back of the machine, but I pushed forward with it into Friday because I believe it will be a good effect on the Jacket. Luckily on Friday, I had got the hang of what I was doing and managed to star on my first final lapel.
It's a very long-winded process, I'm sitting around waiting for the computer to either take it's time to do one job or just sitting there with my foot on the pedal whilst it sews. I'll start up again on this to finish the lapels on Monday.
These pictures show 1) the writing that the sewing machine does on it's own without being linked up to the laptop. I felt this looked really good... until I moved onto what the laptop can do. 2) Shows a few samples of fonts and sizes that I experimented with before I chose what writing I would use for my final lapels. 3) shows the start of my final lapel. I really liked the font and size when I experiment with it on calico, but when I put it onto the final fabric it started pulling and putting holes into the cloth. So I've bought some stayflex in attempt to strengthen the fabric. The effect still isn't as good as it was on calico but I don't think i'm going to get much better with the final fabric that I've got.



Along side working on the jacket, I've also been trying to get my trousers together which I've managed to do - now I just need to put in a fastening after the 2nd fitting.

I've got a lot to do before the next fitting:

• Get black cotton and back my top fabric onto it.
• Sew Jacket together, piping included.
• Cut skirt and attach to jacket.
• Finish lapels.
• Finish sewing trousers together.