Hymo and haircloth

Received an envelope from Germany with a small length of hymo (too little for a jacket) and a Hänsel Orange haircloth.

The Hänsel is stiff and prickly -- definitely need a cotton flannel domette with this -- but the hymo is soft, flowly and supple. Too bad there is so little of it.

Thimble

There was a lot of moping about on the Cutter and Tailor's forum about not finding good thimbles. I managed to buy on ebay what I consider to be a magnificent thimble. It's very old, and is steel on the outside and silver on the inside with deep small pocks. It doesn't feel like a rolled sheet metal piece. It feels like a goldsmith sculptured it. It is very heavy for the size. The silver lining is not plated on -- it's a lot of silver rolled on the steel sheath.

Dissecting Taguchi

I went out and bought two Japanese fully canvassed coats for the purpose of dissecting them. The first is a Taguchi, from Osaka apparently.

Of the two, this is the most mechanized in construction.

I had the revelation of my life when I saw the chestpiece. So this is how you canvass for a corpulent figure!!!

Notice how low the haircloth goes to, all the way to the bottom of the lapel. Essentially, instead of ending at the chest, the haircloth goes all the way to the belly, in order to prop up the jacket and prevent collapse at the stomach area.

The bridle is a woven fusible

And instead of an edge tape at the edges of the lapels it uses a narrow strip of grey fusible

Losing count

Another trial garment in the making...

Supplies

In the process of ordering these. Quantities are in yards where cut lengths are concerned and in pieces if discrete.

1 Light Weight Hymo 68"
1 White Heavy Weight Collar Interfacing - Non Fusible
1 French Collar Canvas
1 Hair Cloth
2 Silesia Cotton Pocketing 45" - Gray
1 Undercollar Felt - Wool/Rayon - 38" - Gray
1 Chest Felt Non-Woven 45" - Black
1 Chest Felt Non-Woven 45" - White
1 Tailor's Ham
1 Moleskin Hand Press Pad
1 Tailor's Edge Tape - Black, Width - 3/8"
5 Ban-Roll (White), By the Yard - 1.25"
4 pairs Tailor's Covered w/Muslin & Pellon - 1"
1 Covered Wood Ironing Board, Length - 30"
1 Seam Roll
1 Gutermann A302 #100 - Black
1 Gutermann A302 #100 - White

Oaktag Pattern #3 (back panel)

I was supposed to take it easy today. Pamper myself. Watch a movie, drink excellent coffee, look at nice clothes, etc.

But the rice farmer work ethic took hold of me and I hammered out the back panel of Oaktag Pattern #3. The problem was that I applied Müller & Sohn's (Rundschau) pattern alteration for the over-erect figure and I just wasn't happy with the way the pattern came out distorted. The method is OK for 1/2" corrections, but in my case it was 4.5cm less back balance. Too much to be handled by the old pattern. The was very significant neckpoint migration, shoulder slope change, and armhole shortening.

It took me a long time to figure out how to compress the top of the back panel. Turns out that you don't. In the 50's Müller & Sohn system there is the part where they say "normale Einstellung 4 cm" between G-G1. To shorten the back balance you reduce the distance between G and G1. I settled on 0.5 cm.

Ah, the stress

I used to be fresh as a cucumber on Mondays when I go to work. I would pamper myself on weekends; sleep till late, have a very nice breakfast at a good cafe, a good dinner, go shopping... basically avoiding any kind of stress and not producing anything.

But ever since I started spending my weekends cutting and sewing, I find myself unable to regenerate in time for the work week. It culminated in yesterday and today: I felt very bad yesterday and had to take a day off today to recuperate.

I have a rather high-performance day job and I think I am not the sort of prolific character who can deliver on all fronts.