Pad Stitching

After completing the pockets and basting them down so they do not move, the next stage is to cut hair canvas, shoulder canvas and breast felt and pad stitch these together before basting them to the fronts of the jacket. The purpose of this is to stiffen the fronts of the jackets, as well as to build up the front shoulder area to compensate for the dip of the shoulder blade. 

I enjoyed doing the pad stitching and found it relatively straight forward, and I think it has turned out fairly neat and even. In order to remember how to do it in the future, I made a short video, almost as a tutorial/instruction guideline as it is a new technique. I thought making a video would be a more interesting and visual way of producing instructions, particularly as I can upload it here onto my blog. I will do paper instructions to go in my workbook as a hard copy, and include diagrams as I'm not sure how clear the video is, particularly with my basic video editing skills! 

Once I had completed the pad stitching, I basted the canvas to the jacket fronts in a similar manner as I had done with my waistcoat with three lines of tacking (one down the centre, one across the shoulder around the armhole, and one down the front) and was surprised how easily I could remember the technique of gently stretching the cloth and doing fairly large stitches (though I did check my waistcoat instructions!).

At this stage, I feel as if my jacket is going well and I am pleased with the standard of my work, even if it is taking longer. I do understand, nevertheless, that I will need to become quicker at the techniques but as I am still learning new techniques I think it is important to do them correctly and then increase my speed through practice.