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!!!