A Friendly Visit.......

I had the pleasure of meeting with a wonderful woman name Vanessa when she stopped in while visiting Savannah. You can read more about her visit at her blog post here......http://bookitblogit.blogspot.com/2014/06/savannahs-treasured-secret.html
I LOVE having visitors. If you're ever in the neighborhood and want to stop in just let me know. I'd love to see you!!!!  ~Gentleman Jim

Tailored Jacket Workshop Day 3---Pics and Video Testimonials

And now for the final installment of my Tailored Jacket workshop. Day 3, back on June 7th was all about putting the finishing touches on the jacket and learning some new techniques. Sharon also did her muslin fitting. In the end the Ladies ended up with beautiful jackets they could take home with them!

We started the day with a little chit chat. I love to give my students background inforation on how the garment industry works. Here I'm showing them a professional electric fabric cutter I own.

Then we began the day working on the ladies jacket's.

Here's Sharon sewing together her jacket muslin......

....and trying it on. We determined her fit issues, marked the muslin and now she can use this as a reference anytime she needs to make a jacket!

I also taught a good deal of bonus material. I showed the ladies how to make a handmade buttonhole.

Here's Bev going at it by herself......

and here's the finished product! She just has to remove the basting stitch. Looks great!!!! 

And here are the Ladies with their finished jackets. Here's Bev's.....

.....and Sharon's. Victoria will post pictures of her jacket on her own blog!

The insides are FLAWLESS!

I also showed the Ladies how to make the tailored besom pockets aka welt pockets

I have a really quick and easy method that ensures professional results in very little time!

Also, here some testimonials from the students themselves....here's Sharon's take on the workshop.

Bev shares her experiences too!!!

All in all we had a WONDERFUL 3 days!!!! I LOVE working with my students and how much they benefited from my learning my methods, tool and techniques. I'm looking forward to the next Tailored Jacket Workshop which will be held on July 24-26. Registration is OPEN. Please visit this link http://finetailoringbyjim.blogspot.com/2014/04/final-dates-for-summer-sewing-workshops.html for more details!!! Also, this weekend I just completed my Pants Fitting/Construction Workshop and will be pointing the detail this week! Have a wonderful week!

Sincerely,

Gentleman Jim

Tailored Jacket Workshop- Day 2

I'm just picking back up where I left off in my last post. Day 1 of my Tailored Jacket Workshop entailed all of the prep work for the jacket. On day 2 we went full on into construction. With everything prepped and ready to go the construction part went pretty smoothly. I had the students connect the lining to the jacket. The lining and jacket went together perfectly since we created our own pattern. No fiddling with a commercial lining pattern hoping it will work ok. Afterwards they attached their collar. I have several tricks with collars. I taught them how to convert a collar into 2 pieces and create a stand along with a few others. The most interesting things I relayed was how to prevent "roll-out" in the jacket and how to connect the sleeves to the jacket so the sleeves wouldn't shift later. Again I was all too delighted to share my tips with my students. I love to make other's sewing easier! Here are some shots of us in the workroom.....

Sharon and Mr. Jim analyzing her jacket

Sharon showing off the inside's of her jacket after attaching the lining.

Looks so professional!!!

Bev hard at work preparing to attach the sleeves

Next post....day 3, the final workshop day.

Tailored Jacket Workshop Day 1

Please forgive my extended absence! I PROMISE not to be gone away for that long again. I missed you all TOO MUCH!!!  In the midst of my absence from you guys I was planning and hosting my first "Tailored Jacket Sewing Workshop". Can you believe it, June came so fast? Seems like I was just advertising it. The Tailored Jacket workshop was June 5-7. Well let me start off by saying that it was indeed a HIT!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've said it time and time again, I live for my student's "AHA Moments"!!! And trust me there were plenty of them. Each of my students walked away with a clearer and easier understanding of jacket fitting and construction. I tell my students all of the time that most garment construction isn't that difficult. It just depends on the methods you're employing. After 53+ years I just so happen to know garment industry/tailoring methods that are FASTER and yield BETTER THAN GREAT results! We got a great deal done in 3 days. Well I'll spend the next few days giving you the details. I hope you enjoy seeing the pics and reading the commentary. And on day 3 you can hear my students reviews I captured by video. Here are the details.....

The first day of the workshop was on June 5th.  I had a nice intimate group of 3 students that I was able to give extensive one-on-one attention to. They were Sharon, Bev, and Victoria. Sharon lives in Jacksonville and Bev came all the way from Nebraska. Victoria you've seen before. She's one of my local students whose blog is at Ten Thousand Hours of Sewing.

(Here's a picture of all 3 ladies as they were nearing completion of their jackets. From left to right: Victoria, Bev & Sharon)

 The day started with me taking a few moments to get to know the ladies and familiarize them with the area. Then we jumped right to business. The workshop was divided into 2 parts: Jacket construction and Jacket fitting. We tackled the jacket construction portion first. I provided pre-cut jackets and all of the supplies the students needed. For the jacket fitting part I asked the students to bring pre-cut muslins from home so they could sew them together and I could help them work on properly fitting them for their figure. Ok, allow me to get back to the jacket construction part. Day 1 focused on what I like to call "framing" or interfacing the jacket, creating the lining and pre-assembly.

 (Laying out the jacket pieces....... )

 (......and discussing jacket construction)

 (Showing students where and how to apply interfacing. All of which are SO important. Even the brand you use. I gave them all of my little secrets).

 (Moving on from interfacing to cutting out the lining.......)

 (....I have my own tricks with cutting out the lining too!)

(Victoria cutting out the lining in her jacket. I don't think she'll ever use a pattern's lining pattern again. Especially not after figuring out how to make her own!)

The day concluded with the ladies pre-assembly their jackets. I think they were pretty shocked at how fast things go when you do it in stages and don't spend all of your time pressing after every operation. With jacket facings, jacket body, and sleeves assembled we ended for the evening. Next up---Tailored Workshop Day 2...... Also, if you're interested in attending my next Tailored Jacket Workshop in July 24-26. I've opened up re-enrollment for all of my workshops so feel free to email at gentlemanjimmt@gmail.com to get registered!!!