Skip to main content

Made By A Fabricista: Suited Up

Welcome to my August post, friends!

By now I think you all know I love to give myself a good challenge project – usually one that involves a difficult fabric. Thankfully this month I chose to use an easier to work with fabric to cut myself a break… but I chose a beast of a project. Are you surprised? I’m not! 😊

I have been a little burnt out on sewing projects for myself lately and was having a really hard time coming up with an idea for this post, so I decided to sew for someone else.  


Who would be the recipient of my latest make? My partner. I decided to make a suit, to be specific…yikes!

To start, I picked my outer fabrics from Fabric Mart – a deep navy-blue pinstripe wool blend suiting. I chose this when it was 70% off to get the most bang for my buck. It washed up beautifully and sewed up even better! My partner picked his lining fabric and for a guy who likes black, dark black, darker black and blackest black, I was shocked he picked his fun floral silky print fabric! I used two patterns I had hidden deep in my stash, McCall M7987 and Simplicity S8962.

I love how clean and sharp the edges came out. This is the hem of the sleeve and the vent, doesn’t that floral print look amazing with the navy color? 

The pant pattern had the option of a slim leg or a straight leg and even though I went with the slim leg, I still needed to take the leg in quite a bit to get the fit he likes. 

We also needed to do quite a few adjustments for his broad shoulders and quads as well to get just the right fit. He also didn’t like the patch pockets on the blazer as called for by the pattern, or the patch pockets on the pants as called for – so I hacked in some welt/flap pockets on the blazer and welt pockets on the pants. It took some engineering and finessing, but I got there!  


Have I mentioned I like tough projects lately?

By day, he is a tech consultant so these pieces individually will serve him well on client meetings and while traveling. We also have another wedding this year, and hopefully this makes the cut as his outfit! 


Overall, I love the result of this project and my picky client gave high praise! The fabric pressed beautifully, the inside is a fun pop of print and I gotta say, the model is really selling this make for me!

CHELSEA @thatssewchelsea

Unfortunately Fabric Mart Fabrics sell out quickly!
You can find similar fabrics by shopping the following categories: SUITING.

Comments

  1. This is such a great looking suit. And your model wears it well.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow, Chelsea! Hats off to you. Awesome sewing and tailoring skills. Great fit, very well done!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great looking suit and I love the lining fabric too.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for leaving a comment! All comments are reviewed before posting to help us eliminate spam. Your comment will be posted within 24 hours.

Popular Posts You Might Like

Made By A Fabricista: Liberty Snow Day

Hi everyone! While we’ve been blanketed with snow out here in Southeastern PA, I decided to conquer my fear of button holes and make NewLook pattern N6749. I was able to snag a few yards of the Jess + Jean print Liberty of London Tana Lawn for it. It’s always exciting when Fabric Mart is able to get Liberty fabrics in! I always make sure to grab some.  Cutting into a beautiful piece of tana lawn is scary every time. The fabric is such good quality, I’m afraid to mess it up! I had to be extra careful as this is also the first directional pattern I’ve worked with. But one of my assistants made sure all of my pieces were laid correctly. Something I wanted to try out with this dress was finishing the inside seams using the overlock stitch on my domestic machine. Normally I would french seam, but it was nice to not have to worry about cutting seam allowance in half, sewing, trimming, flipping, and sewing again. Next time I would cut the seam allowance back before overlocking, but I thin...

Made By A Fabricista: Ghostly School Uniform

When Fabric Mart asked me what fabric I wanted for my first project I knew EXACTLY what I wanted to make, Nene Yashiro from Toilet Bound Hanako kun (a weird but cute anime) but as cute as the design was, I knew I'd need to adjust the colors to a slightly warmer tones to better suit my complexion and undertones. For the main dress I was so happy to find an off white cotton/Lycra stretch twill that was opaque enough to not need a lining and stretched enough that I could continue avoiding my nemesis; zippers. I wanted to try out having a seamless center front panel, so I modified one of my existing go-to bodice patterns, and after figuring out what length I wanted for the skirt, was able to have the center front panel incorporated into the center front panel of the skirt. I then had the rest of the bodice as their normal waist length so that I could add an additional panel to the skirt to be able to have enough width to have volume and gather it down evenly around my waist. The hem h...

Made By A Fabricista: Embracing Winter in Wool Boucle

As winter drags on, the cold weather is such a bummer to me and feeling uncomfortable and cold so often is rough. Meanwhile, I listened to a podcast all about how people in very northern countries deal better with the onset of dark, freezing winter with a radically different mindset of embracing the inevitable season by reframing the chill as refreshing and the opportunity to spend most time indoors as cozy. I can do that!  I found a gorgeous, quintessential wool boucle suiting in black and white to make myself a luxurious outer layer while I’m outside attempting to embrace the sting of dry winter air… It’s kind of working. So classic, so chic! Wearing boucle is always an uptown move and I certainly do feel sophisticated in it. This black and white houndstooth combination feels especially Old Hollywood, and what a treat to make something with this!  I sewed the Daphne Jacket from Vivian Shao Chen. There are no closures, and the shape is boxy and very easy to wear over multipl...