By Popular Demand Jacket Sew Along: Week One

Carole

I selected my fabric for this project - Green Apple Linen. I brought it home last night and by tonight I had run it through the washer and dryer four times.

I have been a little linen phobic to date. I've admired it from a distance and listened to others at SB talk about how much they have loved garments they have made in the past from linen. We have such lovely linen in stock that it seemed a natural for my project. I like almost any color of green, so I measured off two and a half yards of the Apple Green Linen before I left on Tuesday. I think the pattern only called for two yards of sixty inch wide fabric for my medium size, but I got half a yard extra because I intended to pre-wash and dry it at least four times.

The fabric softened up considerably through the process. What was really amazing to me was the amount of lint I cleaned off the dryer filter before each drying cycle. It seemed like I peeled off whole sheets of lint!

After the fourth wash/dry cycle, I measured the linen to see how much I lost to shrinkage. I now have about two and a third yards - so I lost about six inches. I guess that figures out to about four inches per yard. Keep in mind I used a normal wash cycle with warm water and a normal dry cycle.

Maybe tomorrow I'll get to the cutting out. I have to iron the linen first and that looks like a bit of work in itself. It does look nice, though, all softened up from the washer and dryer.

Carole · Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2007 6:54 pm Post subject:

This afternoon I spent some time ironing the linen. It was a hot job to do on a hot day! I misted the fabric pretty well before I steamed it, but it can absorb huge amounts of water. I briefly laid out the pattern pieces on the fabric on my cutting table, but that's it. I haven't yet carefully placed them or pinned them in place. It looks like a lot of pieces! I'm also not sure about how the collar is cut out and constructed. I sat in on one of Ms. Cuttings' classes where she talked about her redesign of the standard collar. It sounds like it is cut so that the folds are actually on the part closest to your face, with a seam at the center back. When she explained it in class, it made a lot of sense with diagrams on a white board. As I look at it on my cutting table, I think I'll have to sort it out a bit by looking at the cutting diagram and the directions. I have to say, I do like the linen more than I thought I would!