Saturday, September 26, 2009

To interface or not to interface ...

As mentioned in previous posts, the lovely wool Sharon and I have chosen is a fairly loose weave and lightweight. I imagine it is lighter in weight than the traditional boucles used in a Chanel jacket. I'm tempted to use a light iron-on interfacing (before cutting it out) to add a bit of structure to the jacket and help reduce the fraying. However I also want it to have the soft cardigan quality typical of this type of jacket. I'm just concerned it may be too soft and perhaps floppy in appearance around the neckline. Sigrid also mentioned her fabric was too thin for quilting. I haven't tested mine yet but am hoping I can include the quilting so perhaps the interface would help. I'd love to hear what other people think and to know what those with thin fabrics are doing. Sharon, what are your plans? I'm not sure how far along you are. I hope you don't mind that we have the same fabric - I don't :-)

4 comments:

  1. Sandra I don't mind at all. I'm not that far along at all. I still need to figure out how to do an adjustment for the centre front neck edge which overlaps just a smidge when I do up the hooks and eyes on my previous jacket which I would like to fix for this and other jackets.

    Sue had a loose weave fabric for her previous jacket and she interfaced hers (Sue please chip in here) with a light weight interface she uses, and she quilted it as well. I was thinking of using Sheerweft and intend to do a test soon.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sandra, I used 'pro-sheer elegance' interfacing from Sew-exciting for the whole jacket. A picture is here: http://picasaweb.google.nl/lh/photo/e5p10Nv4gj0Q5HqoqLDnQA?feat=directlink

    Then the seam allowances (trimmed) were catchstitched to the jacket. In the end the center front part could have used extra interfacing at the neckline, it tends to flip over a bit. I will mention all details in a review later this week.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I interfaced my previous jacket - I had to as it was so lightweight and loosely woven. I used a lightweight iron-on interfacing called BVM4 (everywhere including the sleeves. I actually applied the interfacing before cutting the fabric out. If you are interested in trying BVM4 it is available from Felicity at forfrockssake.com.au. I then hand quilted the jacket as machine quilting would have shown on the fashion fabric. The jacket is still soft and cadigan-y. HTH

    ReplyDelete
  4. Many thanks. I'll follow up these suggestions and feel more confident now about adding a lightweight interfacing.

    ReplyDelete