This is the way we make a jacket at The Elvish Tailor

At the moment the elf is doing lots of tailoring in the traditional manner by hand, This is how we put together a Victorian frock coat..

First we cut the pattern and lay it out on the fabric, marking it with tailor's chalk.

The pieces are then cut and cut again in a stiff cotton which forms the interlining, this gives body to the jacket.

The lining is then cut from silk, black dupion for the body and ivory paj for the sleeves.

The canvas for the interior is then cut without seam allowances.
The outer pieces are then pressed over the interlining and tacked along the seam allowance line, 1.5 cm from the edge in silk thread, this doesn't leave a mark on the fabric when it is pressed.

The breast pocket is then put in on the left side .

This is then pressed.
The undercollar is hand stitched to the collar canvas and steamed into shape.

Shoulder pads are then cut from cotton wadding and stitched together.

The body of the jacket is then tacked and stitched together.
Then the canvas interlining is put together and tacked to the outer.

Shoulder pads are then put on and the armhole tightened.

Sleeves are put together and the buttonholes hand stitched on the cuff.

Sleeves are then tacked in and the skirt tacked on before fitting, at this stage any alterations are done to the fit.
The lining is then put together .

Sleeves and the skirt are attatched  and buttonholes hand stitched . The lining is put in.

It is then refitted and pressed then finally buttons and labels are done.
Beautiful handmade frock coat.

The Elvish Atelier

As the Elvish Tailor goes from strength to strength something had to be done before tailors dummies and patterns tumbled out of the loft, machines exploded out from behind chairs and rivers of fabric overwhelmed us.
My friend Pauline at 'The Sewing sessions' converted her summer house for teaching and its fantastic. Our summer house was used as a dumping ground for rubbish; plant pots, compost, empty bottles and the detritus of life that just needs a temporary home till it gets sorted. It wasn't always like that , at one time when we erected it we used to sit in there in the summer and read or chat with friends, but you know how it is. So it looked like this:

It was a perfect place though for the Elf to have a work room and so the clearing began.
First we had to build a mini lean- to shed for the garden tools , this was erected on Sunday morning after moving our Buddha garden. Not a problem at all I LOVE flat packs and this was a bigger version, complete fun. Sad I know!
Then the tools had to be moved, and some binned including a fork with a bent time and two pairs of broken shears; why did we keep them? Was it in the hope that St. Jude would come and fix them in the night?  It didn't work, so into the pile for the recycling centre along with four bin bags of used plant pots and broken buckets, two bags of used paint, various bits of metal and a lot of paper. It filled the car but was gone in a moment.
I then had to hoover the place out, you could have made a frock from the cobwebs we swept away!
Some lovely friends of ours offered me some pre-loved oak flooring which was perfect for our needs, I drove out to the country to get it at 10am and the floor was laid by 2pm, we love it.

 

I wasn't going to paint the inside but it really did need it so to add brightness and because we had a spare pot (reasons not necessarily in that order) it was done in a fetching shade of yellow.

By 4pm work tables and shelves were up and ready to go.

We spent the next hour moving half the Elvish stuff from round the house but by then were exhausted so time for dinner, wine and a hot bath. There is still a little bit of work to do but this is what it looks like so far.

Actually the whole thing was a bit like this

So far we love it and start work in there tomorrow!

 

 

 

 May the Goddess bless her and all who work in her!

 

 

 

 

Welcome to Elvish Towers and the blog of the Elvish Tailor.  I am hugely busy here at the moment  and stitching away like mad . At the moment I am wading through the 1950's in an elvish sort of way so taking a bit from here and a bit from there to come out with something even more fabulous. One of the most exciting projects is working on is a copy of the 1947 Dior Bar outfit .

Its for a client who is going to a big wedding it the US so I changed the jacket colour to a soft dusky pink as it is apparently a big no no for anyone but the bride to wear white in the US. The jacket is in taffeta and the dress underneath is in black Duchesse satin; the original skirt was in pleated wool and was incredibly heavy so I felt the satin would be a better choice. It is interlined in silk organza to hold its body and a new hat is underway too in black straw.

Next is a purple satin evening dress , the shape of which is based in a Balenciaga dress but with a pleated bodice.

The underskirt is in black, its nearly finished and ready for final fitting.

The final outfit is for a client whose son is getting married at the Bodlean in Oxford the whole outfit is a surprise so all I can tell you is that it is in shades of topaz and jade with a huge hat. Its all so exciting!

There is so much work that the elf needs somewhere new to work  and the summerhouse in the garden seems like the best place. At the moment it is used as a dumping ground for gardening tools, recycling, plant pots, and other detritus including about 200 empty wine bottles which we had collected to use as edging around the garden. Yesterday we decided this was hugely impractical as they all needed to be filled with sand which took forever and have the labels removed which would take even longer. After a rethink of about 30 seconds we decided a trip to the bottle bank was in order.
Anyway the studio might take some time to get ready as this is how it looks at the moment!

Wish me luck