Gary is self taught and uses the garments in his wardrobe to learn from along with a wealth of old sheets and charity shop discards to practice on. This wool tweed jacket was made for his daughter and Gary needs to be congratulated on a fantastic job. Lined in paisley jacket and coat lining. Will you just look at those beautiful welted pockets?!
Maria made this fabulous classic navy blue duffle coat to fit her tall frame using coating weight wool tweed and it is perfect for the chilly Scottish weather, love the comment about it reaching her hands – I’ve been making clothes so long I’d forgotten that’s a thing. How do tall people ever put up with ready to wear clothes? Much better idea to make it. 👍
She posted on instagram:
Finally itâs finished!! And just in time for the snow ❄️
I got the fabric for this coat as a Christmas present almost 2 years ago and progress has been sloooow. Lots of new techniques, first time sewing with wool, first time bagging out a lining and I wanted to really take time and get it as good as I could. Itâs not perfect but I just love wearing this coat! Iâve wanted a good duffle coat for ages but I struggle with finding one to fit with my height- itâs so nice to have sleeves that actually reach my hands finally! The coat pattern is the #cascadedufflecoat from @grainlinestudio
Pure wool British made tweed is an absolute joy to work with but nevertheless the skills involved to create this fabulous man’s jacket and waistcoat is exemplary, Gary launched into this project with no training nor teacher (other than his ‘Sewing for Men’ Simplicity how-to book from the 70’s – gifted from a neighbour (it cost 40p!)) and my oh my he did a good job. The pattern is self drafted / robbed from existing/ cobbled together as all great sewists can do. The jacket and waistcoat are both lined in a lovely deep burgundy satin lining. It’s all just soooo good.
And he made a baker boy hat too!
Valerie made this stunning Coco jacket using Vogue 7975 pattern with some navy cardigan jacket tweed and finished off beautifully with ivory pearl tweed trim.
Jayne self drafted this Coco She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named pattern to make up in a Linton Tweed. Due to the unstable nature of the tweed it is mounted onto a black brushed cotton and then lined as normal. There is a separating zipper running down the front and two matching short zips on the sleeves.
Mounting a fabric sounds difficult but it is more time consuming rather than difficult- and less time consuming than trying to fix errors from an unstable fabric moving! You can mount onto all kinds of fabrics depending what weight and drape you need. Because this jacket needs a bit of structure a brushed cotton works well, you would normally use cotton domette but because the colour shows through Jayne went with the brushed cotton. If you just want to stabilise without adding any weight we recommend you use silk organza.
Lynn here with her lovely chartreuse green Shetland style tweed skirt made up using Simplicity 1560 and lined in Venezia lining
Sarah out on the river with her amazing technicolour stripe tweed coat. Belted, and lined in vivid turquoise lining (you will just have to take our word for it there). 😍
Emma from Sweden is wearing her classic wool tweed 1970’s ulster made from the wonderful navy wool tweed she bought in the Autumn. She also made her dog a matching coat! đ She loves the fabric!
The pattern is Very Easy Vogue 8699 from the 1970’s, (see picture). She made the coat a bit longer and wider than the pattern instructed. It’s a simple and straight-forward construction, but a bit unusual as no interfacing at all is used. The most special feature, in our opinion, is the contrast lining that shows on lapels, pockets, belt and sleeve bands. She used a light-weight worsted wool fabric for the lining. There is topstitching around the front and along the raglan sleeve seams.
Bess on top of the South Devon Cliffs wearing her fabulous pink tweed jacket that was made by Jane a couple of Birthday’s ago and still going strong.
The lining is chartreuse satin lining on the sleeves and multicolour chevron printed cotton (quilting weight) for the body. The collar and facings are red jumbo corduroy because Bess didn’t want the tweed against her skin.
The design is an old burda fur jacket pattern -somewhat altered! Fur coat patterns are dead easy because they tend to have very boxy simple cuts.
This is basically a remake of a pink denim jacket Bess made earlier – but suitable for the winter. Even the buttons are the same.
Jane made this “Channel” inspired dress using a LG tufted bouclĂŠ mixed fibre tweed for her daughter Lulu. The pattern is a discontinued Mizrahi vogue pattern that has been altered by adding a sleeve.
The whole dress was quilted to purple silk habotai lining – Jane cut all the pieces bigger and recut after the quilting was done (because the quilting tends to draw the pieces smaller), then a few more lines of quilting were added near the seams once it was sewn. Jane trimmed the neckline and pockets with velvet gimp braid.
Jacoba matching her kitchen fabulously in her red silk tweed skirt that was interlined to save getting a ‘bum’, and lined. Fabric stashed from years ago which just goes to reiterate our mantra -buy fabric when you see it – it won’t go off in the cupboard đ
Red Blue and White check Linton Tweed made up in Burda 7041 (sadly discontinued but there are similar). It is quilted in 2″ lines to silk organza for stability and then lined in spotty silk satin. There is black satin piping round the collar and down the front and a heavy chain fixed to the inside hem to help the coat drape (it is particularly heavy so creates a real swing). It fastens edge to edge with a rouleau loops and metal half round buttons.
Bess finished making this coat nearly a year from starting due to some ‘issues’ so it’s a miracle it was ever finished as Bess does not do ‘issues’. Bess makes coats in a day, maybe over 3 days if there are complicated bits to do and she has other things going on. The problem with UFOs (unfinished objects) is once it goes in the pile it rarely escapes. To rectify this Bess hung it on the door and was not allowed to remove it – even though this meant the door couldn’t be closed. The problem that caused such a delay is No1. she used a cheaper silk organza that was heavier than normal which made it substantially heavier than she intended (unfixable). The 2nd thing was she cut the lining too short at the centre back (rectified by piecing in a bit of braid so it didn’t pull up the coat). 3rd, and rather majorly despite her checks matching perfectly at every seam when she tried to hem it it was going up in a spiral and being one check off at the front (rectified by hemming it straight and never looking at the hem thereafter).
Mrs Stutt at the shop showing off her superb designer textured wool jacket made up in a simple boxy cardigan jacket style. Lined in Venezia and trimmed with leather binding.
Amanda made this fabulous cape using British cardigan jacket type tweed. You can find Amanda on Facebook as Fascin8 Millinery and on Instagram as Amanda587.
Amanda made this fabulous cape using British Shetland style Tweed. You can find Amanda on Facebook as Fascin8 Millinery and on Instagram as Amanda587.
Anastasia modelling her fabulous fitted jacket made using Burdastyle magazine pattern 112b (from 3/2015). This fabric is jacket weight wool mix with cashmere soft tweed that looks super in such a well fitting little jacket.
Lined in printed polyester satin :
This jacket was made last May and Anastasia has worn it a LOT through Scotland’s not-so hot summer!
Nicola wearing her fabulously fitted pink cardigan jacket type tweed dress. It is interlined in silk organza and lined in Venezia lining so is lovely to wear, and despite being sleeveless is lovely and warm.
Bess used her 5 and 8 year old niece’s fabulous drawings as inspiration for the embellishment on this wool tweed A-Line skirt. First she used white fabric paint and then embroidered using a heavy thread and added beads and sequins. It was all done by hand as the tweed is quite a loose weave and she was concerned machine embroidery would make it too stiff (certainly the kind of embroidery Bess has the patience for!).
It is lined in Venezia lining – turned on the lining with no waistband and bound with an ottoman (heavy) bias binding. Strips of Iron on interfacing tape were used to reinforce the back of the areas where the belt loops go. The concealed zip was moved from the back seam to the side so the back could be cut on the fold also. You rarely get any shaping on the back seam so if you have enough fabric to do this (it invariably takes extra on an a-line skirt) you can without brainache.
Bess is very fickle but this is her absolute favourite skirt at the moment.
Lennie from our Cloth Club made this beautiful cardigan jacket using Linton Tweed and trimming with organza that she ruffled herself. The Vogue Pattern used (V8804) details how to do the traditional quilting that helps to stabilise this very loose weave fabric, there is additional advice in the Claire Shaeffer’s couture sewing techniques book, and we have a leaflet we can send you with tips. It is important to choose a lightweight lining (such as silk crepe de chine) as more stable linings (whilst easier to work with) can stiffen the jacket up too much once quilted; the jacket should remain soft, more like a cardigan).
Fabrics and Notions:
Cardigan jacket type tweed
Ivory Silk Organza (for interlining and trimming)
Silk Crepe de Chine (lining)
Buttons
Pattern: Vogue 8804
Elaine wearing her chartreuse green tweed cardigan jacket
Fabrics and Notions:
Cardigan Jacket type tweedÂ
Venezia lining
Buttons
Medium knitted interlining
Pattern: Vogue 7975
A rare photo of Jane taken in London wearing her mixed fibre tweed jacket quilted in the traditional cardigan jacket manner with added chain weight and fringe trimmings. Turquoise and chartreuse wool tweed skirt with kick pleat and pink lining (made by Bess).
Fabrics and Notions:
Jacket:
Mixed fibre cardigan jacket type tweed
Printed silk satin lining
Silk organza (just the selvedge, used for staying the edges and hem)
Acrylic fringe trim
Chain
Double cover buttons
Skirt:
Turquoise and chartreuse big check wool tweed
Pink Venezia lining
Pink velvet piping
Invisible zip
Jessie wearing her red viscose and elastane polka dot t-shirt made by Bess, and Bess wearing her wool and silk tweed pinafore dress with Birdy pockets and circle jersey inserts.
(They were trying to move faster than the camera flash- clearly not fast enough)
Fabrics and Notions:
Jessie wears:
Red polka dot printed viscose elastane jersey
Lightweight knitted iron-on interfacing
Stay tape
Reinforced iron-on stay tape
Bess wears:
Wool and silk tweed pinafore dress
Red polka dot viscose and elastane jersey (pockets and inserts)
Medium weight knitted iron-on interfacing
That T-shirt again, in slight slower motion:
Dress made for Bess’s graduation made out of charcoal silk and wool lightweight English tweed with charcoal jersey back and red spotty jersey circle inserts and pockets.
Kyra modelling the wool tweed zippy dress remake designed by Bess
Fabrics and Notions:
Laurent Garigue double sided wool tweed in charcoal and ivory
Big spot poly satin
Red continuous zipping with extra pullers
Black fold-over grosgrain binding
Self made wide bias binding
Iron-on reinforced stay tape
Iron-on stay tape
Pattern: Bessâs own
Jacoba in her mixed fibre tweed skirt and mohair and wool coat.
Fabrics and Notions:
Suit: Mixed fibres tweed
Venezia lining
Invisible zip
Pattern: Butterick 4461
Coat: Wool mohair coating
Viscose satin lining
buttons
Viscose iron-on interfacing
Bess in her prototype tweed dress she made for her final collection with six zips opening up the panels (the zips have extra pullers so can be undone in a multitude of ways for different silhouettes).
Fabrics and Notions:
Laurent Garigue double sided wool tweed in charcoal and ivory
Big spot poly satin
Black continuous zipping with extra pullers
Red grosgrain ribbon
Black fold-over grosgrain binding
Self made wide bias binding
Iron-on reinforced stay tape
Iron-on stay tape
Pattern: Bess’s own (but is a pretty basic panelled shift)
Clair wears black and white traditionally made cardigan jacket with matching straight skirt
Fabrics and Notions:
Mahlia black and white mixed fibres tweed
Purple silk habotai lining
Silk thread (for quilting)
Beaded fur trim
Decorative chain (for hem)
Silk organza (stabilising)
Salvaged Chanel ribbon
The trick to making a cardigan jacket look authentic (amongst other tricks) is to cut the sleeves skinny, and tight, up into the arm hole. It may feel like you are going to restrict movement doing this, but in fact the opposite is true. Try it, you will be pleasantly surprised.
