Hello all and I hope you have had a wonderful Christmas!  Just letting you know that the tutorial for the blazers will be held on January 5, 2013 from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm.  I have already finished my blazer unfortunately the pictures I took did not come out clear enough to post and would be no help to anyone.  Just in case the weather takes a turn for the worse there will be a snow date of Monday January 7, 2013 same time slot. 

Hard to believe the time went by so quickly!  I am so incredibly proud of the students' progress over the course of this past year.  Their skills have grown exponentially to the point that the blazers have a professional finish that any seasoned tailor would be proud, the fit is impeccable on all of them. 
To avoid any undue stress over the Holidays, the final exam is due on January 10, 2013.  There will be no extensions after that date, if the exam is not graded by then it will receive a  mark of 0 resulting in a failure of the final module.  
To finish the blazer it was shown in class how to finish the hemline and sleeves with the lining.  I will have some pictures up of the procedure after Christmas.  Some students were interested in a tutorial early in the new year I would be happy to accommodate so please email me if you would like to be included in the class. 
Thank you for allowing me the privilege of teaching you I cherish the experience!  Thank you for the colourful commentaries during the course of the program, always made the classes interesting for everyone!  
Have a safe and happy Holiday season
Chee 

Hello all and can I say how proud I am of your progress?!  Everyone is doing a FANTASTIC job. 

For this week please get all the lining pieces sewn together sleeves included, add the sleeves to the jacket as explained in class.  I also gave hand outs with pictures of the steps.  They are as follows to make life much easier for you if you didn't get them done in class follow this procedure:

1. pin sleeve to jacket
2. hand baste the sleeve starting from the top (point C) and work your way down matching points A and B
3. try on the jacket
4. Once satisfied with the sleeve hang machine stitch in place starting from the bottom (point D) and work your way around.  DO NOT STITCH OVER THE FRONT STAY.  DO stitch over the back stay if you have one. 
5. Add the re-enforcement to the sleeve cap as shown in class
6. Press/steam on a sleeve board to give its' shape
7. Add twill tape around the armhole DO NOT PULL THE TWILL TAPE just let it go naturally under the machine
8. Baste shoulder pad in place

Things to remember; press the shoulder seams open prior to adding sleeves from both the inside and the outside of the seam.  It will have a slighty forward curving line because of the shaping we have done with the twill tape, this is the way its' supposed to look.  It will give more room at the back for more comfort. 

Next week is the final week and we will be adding the lining to the jacket in a specific manner so it is imparative to have all the components ready to go on Monday otherwise you will not understand it even if I try to explain it, this is something that must be seen and tried to grasp it.  Please bring in some safety pins for next week.  If you have your buttons we can aim to have the buttonholes done as well. 

Have a great week.

Hello all and let me say "Job well done!".  So far you have proven very capable tailors congrats!

For this week your homework is to sew together the lining pieces including the shoulder incline, sides and back as explained in class with a centre back pleat, unless asked to do otherwise.  Sew together the jacket pieces except for shoulder incline, it will be covered in class next week as it needs to be eased into place and have twill tape added in a specific manner.  Here is the power point  so you can have a general idea of how it will work.  The collar will be sewn in class. 

Next week is the sleeves, please have them ready to go by sewing them together and pressing the seams.  Please bring already cut the sleeve stay the same shape as the sleeve cap from point A to point B, same seam allowance as the actual sleeve and make it 2 cm wide into the sleeve, again here are the pictures, click here,  if you can't open them please contact me and I will send them to you.   You will also need twill tape to go around the armhole and the shoulder pads.  If you are able please set-in the lining sleeves at home, if not come in early and do it in class prior to starting, this will keep us on track to finish the blazer on time.  Once the sleeves are in all that remains to be done is attach the lining to the jacket and I will show you a neat trick that speeds up the process ten fold!