Big Sleeves - Vogue 1704

I've mentioned before my love for Vogue's Rachel Comey patterns and I bought Vogue 1704 at the same time as Vogue 1707. I was pretty fed up with sewing my navy suit by the end so I wanted to just crack straight on with this. I didn't pre-wash my fabric or do any pattern alterations.  Will I regret this? I'll have to wait and see...

Based on the finished garment measurements I decided a size 10 should be fine, I did flare out slightly more below the waist just in case (I'm not counting this as an alteration).  The sleeve pattern pieces looked interesting and huge!

The pattern calls for all the seams to be bound but a) good quality bias tape is hard to come by round here and b) my normal seam finish is to fold each raw edge under and stitch so I ignored that apart from finishing the zip.  I had some black satin 'bias' binding which isn't very bias so wasn't used for its original purpose but as the side seams are virtually straight it worked fine.  I love how it's come out, I'll definitely use this method of finishing a zip again and I think I would do it a little better next time. I should have folded this zipper tape at right angles and not trimmed the bias tape as soon as I cut it a little short.

I wasn't convinced about the overcast edge finish and contemplated adding a seam allowance to these edges - this would be pretty simple to do - but I thought it would be nice to try something different (and I couldn't be bothered making any alterations).

 

In true Vogue pattern style no indication of stitch length is given so I experimented on some scrap fabric.  I have a Janome machine and ended up using the overedge stitch (and matching foot) with width 5.0 and length 1.0. I added a strip of lightweight interfacing to the edges, in addition to interfacing the facings as directed, and I think this really helped to get a good even stitch and to stop the fabric fraying too much. This stitching used nearly a whole bobbin of thread, I'm glad I filled one up before I started this bit.

I've also, after over 20 years of sewing, just bought a tailor's ham and sleeve roll with left over birthday vouchers.  Why has no one told me just how amazing these are? If you don't own them buy them immediately! Below is a very excited, and so slightly blurred, photo of a dart pressed on an ironing board and one on the tailor's ham.

I've never worn sleeves this big so they might take a little getting used to but they collapse down nicely.

Taking the finished photos I realised that my next project really needs to be black trousers, these ones (from Marks and Spencer's) don't look bad but they are too tight across bum and too loose around the waist and a little shorter than I'd like...