Men's Suit Post #2: Bogged down in muslin

I've made a little bit of progress in the past week. I bought all of the interfacing and remaining notions I'll need to finish the coat from a local fabric store.

Jon came home from work Monday night with a cold, and he passed out in bed around 7:30. Which means I was able to work undisturbed and unnoticed until about 1 am. In that period of time I used a Burdastyle pattern I had already made for him....

And I cut the pants out of the suit fabric. Over the next few days I started on sewing the pants together. At the moment I'm focusing on the back welt pockets. I'm finding that this fabric is very nice but a little tricky to work with. It's a bit spongier than I'm used to, and it wants to smush around under the presser foot a bit. The good news is it doesn't fray. Like at ALL. I'm glad I'm making the pants first (something I'm familiar with) before starting on the uncharted territory of blazers.

Another thing I did Monday night is make the shoulder pads. I followed this tutorial. I think they turned out really nice. I did not have fusible fleece, so I used a piece of leftover green fleece I had sitting around (from making a Kermit a few years ago) and stuck them together with a spray adhesive. It's kind of fun thinking that there's going to be something bright Kermit green hidden inside the finished product.

Which brings me to the last thing I did Monday night... Assembled the muslin. Which took longer than I thought it would. Which makes me think this whole thing is going to take longer than I think it will.....

Then came the fitting. It was a little bit disastrous. I used the size that I thought would best fit his chest measurement, which it pretty much did. But even that was a little tight. I'm thinking it's because the shoulder pads are too thick, I'll probably end up removing about 3 layers of fleece.

The waist area was way too tight. I suspected it would be a little bit. But it's proving more difficult than I thought to alter it. I tried splitting open the side seams but that messed everything else up. By the time I was done trying to figure it out, it occurred to me that it would be easier to start with an entirely new pattern than try to fix this one. Any change I make has to be transferred to the lining and facing pieces as well. I needed a pattern that was closer to his size to begin with.

Then I remembered Lekala, a site where you enter in your measurements and they generate a custom pattern at a very low cost. I decided to try out this pattern:

For some reason Lekala has three different versions of a 3-button jacket but no 2-button patterns. I'm going to change the roll line and lapel a bit to make it a 2-button. (I'm praying it will work.) I printed and taped the pattern last night, and will get the muslin cranked out soon.

Making muslins is so tedious but the fit is the most important aspect of what I'm trying to do. If it doesn't fit him well, it doesn't matter how perfect my pad stitching is, or how crisply the lapels roll. I will have to take the time and attempt to fit him the best I possibly can. Time to start reviewing all those fitting books I have lying around. Sigh...

I'm trying not to despair. I figure at the very very least I will be able to give him the pants on our anniversary and tell him to expect the second part of the surprise at a later time.

Until next time, happy tailoring!

The Saga of Why I Decided to Make a Suit in Three Weeks

My 4th anniversary is on November 27th. It is currently November 11th. My anniversary is in 16 days. I bought Jon a watch on Etsy, which I'm sure he'll like, but I have bigger plans.

About a year ago, I made this jacket for myself:

 
I am really proud of this jacket, and I highly enjoyed the whole tailoring process. I used a really good book for instructions and barely got to use any of the techniques. I wanted to explore every aspect of the tailoring process! So I decided to make my husband a suit. During a sale at Vogue, I bought this pattern:
 
Alec Baldwin from the early 90's called and he wants his suit back. Am I right? Am I right? But anyone who's tried to find menswear patterns knows that the pickins are slim, to say the least. I kept thinking I could always make the fit slimmer and shorten the hem, and at least it would look better than the picture on the cover.

Time passed, seasons changed, I sewed many more garments for myself. In April I took a trip with my best friend and my mom to NYC, and of course we spent an entire day drooling in the Garment District. While I was there I bought fabric for Jon's suit. He said he wanted either a David Tennant's Doctor shade of blue, or a grayish-dusty shade of tan. I don't know if anyone else has tried to look for an intense shade of navy blue wool suiting that does not look black, but let me tell you, it does not exist. Anywhere. The Doctor has a staff of people dying and stitching him the most deliciously perfectly delectable suits on the planet, and I just don't have those kinds of resources! I'm sorry Jon!

So I had to go for the dusty tan. I picked up this fabric at Mood. It's a flanneled wool with a nice heather-y texture and not too flowy of a drape. I brought it back to Ohio and he liked it.

Very soon after getting home there was another Vogue pattern sale and they came out with this pattern:
 
Muuuuuuuch better. Modern fit, flattering lapels, double vent in the back, check check check.

If you're keeping up with this story, you'll notice that it has now been 7 months since I bought that fabric and pattern. My excuse is that it has been a crap-storm of a year and I had barely any time to sew for anyone, let alone make a tailored suit. And even then I still made two button up shirts for my husband (which you can look at here and here if you're curious.)

But all of these circumstances have converged onto what I think would be the perfect anniversary present. You see, he knows I have everything I need to make him a suit (minus interfacing with I think I'm going to buy today) but it's already been so long that I've been promising him a suit that he probably doesn't believe that I'll ever get it done. Additionally, I have a new job in which I work at home and have 2 hours off in the middle of the day to work secretly and undisturbed on sewing. I'll have to try the muslin for the jacket on him, but after I'm done with fitting, I can throw him off the scent by saying things like, "Ugh it's gonna take so long, I'm too intimidated to get started on the real thing!" Or something like that.

I decided last week this is what I was going to do. I steamed every square inch of my wool, traced the pattern and cut out the muslin, and I already have a pants pattern that I know fits him. 16 days to go and I'm gonna put the pedal to the medal! Also, this has given me an incentive to start blogging, which I always put off doing, before.

So what do you think? Can I do this???