These days I’m working on a big project, converting a men’s suit factory from an entirely fused construction to a half-canvas construction. In fact, to be more technically correct, it should really be called a 2/3 canvas since the coat front we will be using is pretty much identical to a full canvas front but the lower 1/3 of the canvas is omitted. To do this conversion, and generally to bring the factory up toRead More
Category: pad stitching
Continuing the look at these two dinner jackets, we start to look at the guts of the coats, the interior workings, starting with the hem felling. The hem has been blind stitched by hand (top left) using a very fine thread- thick wools are easy to do but a fine, tight silk is quite a challenge so I am impressed wit he skill of their hands. In a previous post we saw there was someRead More
I went to visit a friend of mine today. She started in the business as a machine operator (seamstress) at Samuelsohn; today she owns the company which makes their, and the majority of North American manufacturers’, canvas fronts. She has special double-needle jumpstitch machines with custom-built forms. This machine doesn’t sew like most, whose presser foot and feed dogs feed the fabric- the operator feeds it through at their own pace. They can control howRead More
So here is some of the progress so far. As promised, I pulled the pad stitching from half the collar and redid that half by hand; the stand is pretty heavily padded, the fall is more lightly padded and the ends were curled under as I worked to keep the corners tight to the chest. After breaking the collar, there is no noticeable difference in shaping or shape retention, though that may change, particularly afterRead More
We hear the terms `pad stitching` and `padded lapels` frequently but not everybody understands the significance. One of the important principles of tailoring, and which distinguishes tailoring from ordinary `flat`sewing, has to do with the fact that concentric arcs or circles become longer as they radiate from the centre. In easier terms, picture the starting line of a circular race track- the starting point of each lane is in a different spot because the outerRead More