Felt jacket

[MTRuth]

Very nice texture - it will be interesting to see if it will hold it's shape.

[Shepherdess]

Felted in to ridges like that can hold but you need to make sure it's felted into that shape and not just dried in that shape. Obviously not felted hard in to that shape but some felting to hold it's shape

[Pandagirl]

In either method Teri, if the garmet is worn a lot, you may find a little stretch area in the elbows, but I would imagine after washing it would return to its original shape. Just a guess. I like your accordion idea. It looks neat.

[Frances]

When I was learning to sew my college instructor said that wool should always be lined to keep it from getting what we called in a skirt "butt stretch". When one sits down in a dress/skirt/pants the hips,thighs flatten and become larger than when standing putting pressure on the wool. When I think about it any wool garment, pants, skirt, jacket has always been lined usually with a taffeta type fabric which keeps the wool from clinging to the body. So I think any wool garment that is fitted at pressure points elbows, knees, butt should probably be lined so it will hold its shape. We hand wash and then "block" our wool sweaters to bring them back to shape as they stretch after a few wearings.

Zed please ask your Dad if wool garments were always lined?

I purchased a jacket a couple of weeks ago and the sleeve construction is interesting in it - the sleeve was constructed out of two pieces of fabric - the piece that connects at the shoulder is wider than the piece that connects to the under arm hole. This makes sense because there is more fabric across the sleeve at the shoulder which provides more give when the arms are moved forward and keeps from having extra fabric bunch under the arm.

www.craftsy.com/blog/2014/05/sewing-sleeves-in-jackets/

[luvswool and dyestuff]

This discussion has been interesting for me to follow, as I used to sew my own clothes as a young woman. I followed and used the Vogue line of patterns and fashions and was very particular about my fabrics and designs.

I do remember making wool suits and dresses, and they were always lined, as Frances suggests. ALWAYS! And for all of her above-mentioned reasons. There was always extra fabric at the shoulder part of the sleeve, which was “eased-in.” Easy to say, but not always easy to do, it required much patience on the part of the seamstress.

I have never made a felt garment with sleeves, although I did manage to make a sleeveless tunic in Fiona Duthie’s tunic class. But I would think the above suggestions would apply to fashioning a felt garment, and I would want it to be lined.

[Shepherdess]

I notice the iron in the instructions. ironing is such a big part of god sewing. A friend that has made a living doing costume sewing said she took a course in just ironing.

[koffipot]

My jacket was nuno felted onto silk voile wnd I've also used cotton scrim for some garments. I always line my garment which does help to keep things in shape. Another reason is that I dislike wearing wool on wool as it "sticks" and causes bobbling on any knitted garment worn underneath.

Zed. Your dad is right, elbow room is needed and can be achieved by either a small dart in the sleeve seam or by allowing 'ease' in the seam. The two piece sleeves Frances mentioned are ideal for coats and give more ease.

Ann. Pressing and sewing go together like ham and eggs. Speaking of ham, I made a tailor's 'ham' and seam roll to help in pressing curved seams.

[zed]

Teri, that concertina is what I meant when talking about darts and gathers, though I meant on a small scale. Using thread to gather and then finish felting/fulling keeps the shape.

My dad did talk about lining a lot when he was talking about wool.

He came around again the other day and was talking about it again, he said raglan sleeves were a good way of keeping shape, getting movement. He still finds the concept of felting on a resist/in one piece hard to grasp, but maybe someone who knows sewing or knitting and felting could work that out.

[angela]

Have a look at images for Japanese Noragi Work Jacket on google. These are not fitted, but can be wet felted with a resist. They led themselves very well to nuno felting and look great with a west twist of big big wooden buttons.