Back to Backing

July 26, 2024

In an early post, I discussed backing a jacket, and several of you wrote wondering what that is.    Briefly it is a fabric applied to the fashion fabric that offers stability and body to a fabric that otherwise wouldn't have any.  

Of course you have to be careful, and in my example today, I just about went past the bounds of stretch percentage to make this work.  This fabric almost stretches to activewear stretch.  Activewear is really too far to try and make something stable out of a knit fabric.  The activewear will be droopy and look sloppy in a backed fabric to make it more stable.  EVEN if you use a bondable Armo Weft or something like that.  

The front is already remarkable without the collar.  There is shape and form, and it's the shape and form I want not what the fabric or my body decides.  This is part of the real joy and remarkability of ponte.  You can literally shape it to do what you want.  Whereas a lose, almost activewear stretch fabric has a tendency to hang to the body.  

The back has the same thing - instead of TMI on the left, the right side is shaped the way I want.  

This jacket is really a fun jacket, but without the collar and sleeves, there's not much to it.  I originally picked this jacket for the collar - it can lay up or down and look fabulous.  The other is that I can also shape the body to do what I want - in a ponte - which I will be using next time.  

It's not that I don't like backing and there are certain things that pop and do marvelously when backed.  This project was on the outer bounds of possibility and I've had to do some techniques here that I wouldn't normally simply because the knit is so limp.  

There are other things that come to mind when I'm doing backing that I don't normally think of.  

Some Extra Notes

So while sewing this up, I'm reminded of a few more techniques that I hadn't mentioned before.  This is like riding a bike, you never forget, and riding it reminds you of the things you forget, until you're riding a bike again.  

• Use a straight stitch.  A stretch stitch is much harder to take out, but also requires more punctures in the fabric and a knit multi-punctured like that will break and run
• And multi-puncturing it even in a straight stitch, needs a ball-point needle.  A sharp needle will cause the fabric to break and run, and this is a knit - a double knit, but nevertheless a knit and your hard work deserves to look professional without a run in the fabric.
• There will be some easing - so that means two things:  1.) be sure and sew on the backing side, so that the knit/stretchy side will ease in on the bottom, and 2.) easing can't be done fast - well, it can but it will be all puckered up.
• Basting - there's a lot of basting in this process.  I baste in the middle of darts and on the foldover of the front lapel.  This helps keep the backing all the way into these folds and looking sharp and gives stability everywhere in the fabric.

This is organdy on ponte (a stretchy ponte, but still a ponte), and ponte scoots around - a lot - so there is a delicacy here that I probably wouldn't have had with Armo Weft, and I think if I were to do this again, I would use some heavy-weight Armo Weft on this, but what I have now is so far and above anything I was going to get without any backing, that I'm pleased. 

Now for the really topper of all.  This always happened to me when I was mentoring and learning under my teacher.  I would see a fashion or style, loved it and would think that Vogue Patterns would never do that style or that look.  I would go through all the trouble of drafting from scratch the look from a photo or a sketch.  

It's was marvelous practice and it was extremely empowering.  I could make anything I could see and think of in my head.  The idea of that was far and beyond anything I had every hoped to learn in sewing.  It's like a football player playing a perfect game, throwing the ball, catching it at the same time, scoring every time he had his hands on the ball, and walking into the End Zone because he was so fast no one could catch him.  That's the same feeling I had when I drafted these designs.  And it gave me and my mentor extra one-on-one time together where she would critique me and admonish me for the wrong technique here or another technique there.  I think she knew I was going to be doing this for a living, and she was trying to train me to be very judicial with my time.  

But after all that, dang it if Vogue wouldn't come out the very next month with the pattern drafted from the design of the designer.  This happened countless times, that we would joke that if I'm drafting it, just wait a month and Vogue will have it out!  

Well, the same thing - maybe a little different - happened here.  After working with the fabric and getting it to be really just exactly the right stability and body, guess what - Vogue Fabric Store in Chicago, came out with their new "Late Summer" fabric samples and with a very close color, in their famous ponte knit, which I have used countless times.

On the left is what I'm using today.  In the middle is the more stable ponte sample from Vogue Fabrics, and on the right is the step up ponte that I had in my stash that was really too bright.  I wanted something more pastel, and the one from Vogue Fabrics is just a tiny bit deeper, but much more pastel than my stash fabric.  

So yes, I ordered it and when I finish this jacket again, I'll post that up here.  I have three sets of pants that will go with this jacket and in the middle of summer a pastel jacket inside the air-conditioned restaurant or grocery store, is the perfect thing to wear.  

Don't let the extra steps in backing put you off backing a garment.  There are times when you will find just the right shade of color, or the perfect print or complementary texture, color or stability but it's a knit to put on a woven, or it's got too much stretch, or it would look better and hold a design and cut of the pattern better if backed.  

I feel the same way about pad-stitching.  It's not just for tailored bespoke wool jackets.  Once you get the hang of what it can do, a whole new world of shaping and forming your garment opens up that will blow your mind.  

This is this wonderful coat I made with some totally yummy wool from Scotland - it's my Outlander coat, but I needed fur cuffs and collar and knew the exact collar I wanted.  This coat is still one of my favorites today, but that fur is a knit.  A knit trim on a gorgeous Scottish wool is not even close to being right.  So I backed it in horsehair canvas, and then I pad stitched the collar to make it fold exactly where I want.  That collar still has the same shape even though I'm not the best about hanging this up right in the closet over the summer.  IOW, it's squeezed into the closet wrong, but when I put it on, the collar folds exactly where I want, it has the stability I want and the whole thing is exactly the look I want because I backed it and made that flimsy ugly knit into a gorgeous fur-looking trim!  

And face it, here in the Southern Plains I really don't need a big furry collar - just the show of one is enough.

The SewingArtistry Resource Library is designed to contain information to not only make your sewing better, but to aid in you fitting and flattering your shape, size and style.  Check it out. 

Look for future classes coming in 2024
The Core Pattern Shirt, (one of my favorites for woven core pattern that you can make into a myriad of different garments), 
Basic Knit Top (core pattern class for knit basic tops, shells, tees, dresses, and tunics)
 

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