Making a Handwoven Garment

In my last blog post I talked about the yardage I wove, but I didn’t tell you what it is going to be . . . a capelette!  The pattern is really pretty and looks fairly straightforward.  The pattern is New Look number 6007.

Cutting out the pattern pieces was a little tricky because the yardage was really quite thick.  So where I could, I cut out a single piece at a time, much easier on the hands.

I wussed out about sewing it (and using Mom's new machine), so Mom is doing the sewing.  Here is the back of the capelette and you can see the circular form of the garment beginning to develop. 

For the interfacing we went with a light pink 100% cotton; it was both cheaper and higher quality than the interfacing that we can get at our local store.  But the pink fabric is so tightly woven that it was seriously hard to push the pins in.  So using a trick that I picked up on The Great British Sewing Bee (did you know that a new season has just started after a four year hiatus?)  I used flat river stones to weight down the pattern pieces; it worked surprisingly well.

I am doing all of the ironing, so I get to iron the seams open flat and also use the new wooden point presser which is great for ironing into corners.  Mom picked up the point presser at the Guild Silent auction in December and it is a godsend on the collar.

The Judy is trying the capelette on at the end of the day.  We still have to add the interfacing pieces and collar, but it is starting to look like the photo on the pattern!

The capelette is a little shorter than expected, but exactly the length on the pattern. So instead of hemming the bottom of the capelette we decided to add satin tape to finish the edge and keep all the length.  It really adds a lot of interest, it is also a labour of love as Mom used the sewing machine to attach the right side but the inside side needs to be hand sewn so that there is no stitching to mar the satin ribbon.

I was surprised about how much of a mess the wool yardage made while sewing.  I had to vacuum every day to keep a handle on the bits of fluff.  The hardwood floors run the entire house so the little bits would end up in every darn room!

Finally finished, well mostly!  It is absolutely lovely and just what I was hoping for!  The belt isn’t quite done yet because it is going to be made from the same fabric as the capelette with the satin ribbon as an accent.  But, of course I ran out of ribbon and today is Family Day in BC so the fabric store is closed.  So just imagine it with a wider belt with a ribbon accent all around the edges.


Final Garden Photo is a lovely shot of the picture perfect snowflakes that we had last week.  These snowflakes came down while it was sunny and in large fluffy clumps that looked just like the fake snow in the movies.