Once my Vogue 7133 jacket was lined and had bias strips attached at the hems, and the hemming was complete, I thought about topstitching.
It’s been fairly long project and there is a sense of “oh no, another stage to complete”. Karen tells me she loves topstitching, and Mary Funt has given me some good advice (take off the pockets and put them the other way up), but I still approached this stage with trepidation. I have top stitched a few tailored garments and I have quite a nice technique, but it has the potential to lift or ruin a garment.
A dressmaking tutor I had years ago who had worked in the 1960s as a designer in RTW, told me that although she frequently designed with top stitching (her own day-to-day suits invariably featured it) it was always lost during the production process. Mainly because as essentially a hand-sew technique it was too expensive and time-consuming to include. There are, now, of course, machines which give a reasonable impression of being hand stitched, but the best men’s suits and coats are those that are tailored to include this “exclusive” feature.
So perhaps nothing says “couture” or hand finished as much as topstitching.
However, if your stitching is uneven, too tight or too loose, the garment can look terribly home-made.
Here is my jacket before I started doing the top stitching.The bulky (but beautifully light) wool is calling out for a little definition, so even if the pattern didn’t demand it I would say this was a good candidate for a bit of the old topstitching. The point of it, practically, is not just decorative. It keeps all the edges of your jacket or coat from turning out, and by doing the sewing by hand, you gently manipulate and mould every edge to lie exactly as you want it. And the actual jacket edge looks defined and a bit like piping.
The weather is lovely in London this week, so I wore my jacket out even though it is not finished. A (male) work colleague and a blog reader (Patricia Brown) both complimented me on it. I think it is a great colour for me and it makes me feel really happy.
Here are the instructions. I had a long car journey this weekend, going to see my Mother in Lancashire, so apart from replacing the pockets I did the top stitching in the car.
Once I arrived in Lancashire my Mum (with whom we celebrated her 87th birthday) asked to try it on.
You will see having let my Mum try it on I had a hard time getting it back.
And here it is on me. I love it. Warm, light, a great colour and just the thing I needed to add to my wardrobe. I wore it again yesterday with a pink skirt and shell top.