Yates Sew-Along: Cutting and Fusing
The thought of cutting a coat can seem overwhelming, but taken one step at a time and done in an orderly fashion, you'll breeze through this step. Since there are so many pieces involved, I've laid out a few diagrams below to aid you in making sure you've cut everything you need in one go. Nothing is worse than getting halfway through a project and realizing you need to dig out your pattern pieces and interfacing again to cut something you missed!
To begin make a pile of pattern pieces for each fabric you need to cut. You’ll have a self pile, a lining pile, and an interfacing pile. Keep in mind that some of the pieces you cut from self will also need to be cut from interfacing. If you’re working with tissue and you haven’t already done so, iron your pieces flat before you attempt to cut, your life will be so much easier and I find the teflon plate on my iron adds a nice amount of static electricity to the tissue that’s helpful during the layout.
Cut your self pieces from your main coating fabric marking all notches and match points. After cutting I like to remove the tissue and neatly fold it up for future use. I usually don’t mark my snap placement at this point, rather I like to re-align the pattern piece later on once the coat is done. This one is totally up to you, but if you do mark them now, I recommend marking them with a tailor’s tack so that they don’t come out while you’re working with the fabric. Don’t forget that the facings will need to be cut from interfacing as well, I transfer those to the interfacing tissue pile immediately once freed from the fabric.
Next I like to cut the lining. The image above shows everything you’ll need to cut from the lining. Again remember to mark your notches.
The final cutting step is the fusible interfacing, and it’s my least favorite by far! You can pin and cut using scissors or if you have a large rotary mat, lay out the interfacing on top of it and use your rotary cutter. Keep in mind during this step that your interfacing does have a grain line so don’t just cut willy-nilly. That will affect the final structure of your coat in a potentially negative way. Double check you’ve got everything cut and then you can pack up your cutting supplies!
As with most coats the Yates utilizes a fair amount of interfacing to achieve both structure and wear resistance. I like to fuse all my pieces at once, that way I don’t have to stop during construction to do so. You’ll want to make sure that you fuse according to the instructions that came with your fusible interfacing. Most interfacing I’ve purchased is pre-shrunk so I don’t typically worry about that. To attach my interfacing I use a hot, dry iron and hold it firmly on the fabric (with a press cloth of course!) for about 10-15 seconds. I’ve found that steam will negatively affect the glue hold but this will depend on the type of fusible you’ve purchased so always refer to the directions. Follow the map above to make sure all of your interfacing is properly placed.
There is also a small error on the Interfacing map in the booklet. Pieces 21 & 22 are mistakenly labeled 22 & 23 but the shapes of the pieces correspond so it shouldn’t cause too much confusion. We have updated our errata page with this info here.
You’ll notice throughout the sew-along that I’ve serged around the edges of my lining pieces. I’m using Kasha for my coat and if you’ve ever worked with it you know that it can tend to fray quite a bit. I’m typically anti-serging around all the edges of your garment before you sew because it adds unneeded bulk, but in this situation I want to prevent the lining from fraying inside of my coat as that can cause the lining to tear prematurely along the seam lines. I never serge any part of my lining when working with Bemberg and I have coats I’ve worn for years on a regular basis that have yet to tear. Just a heads up!
You’ve got the weekend to prep all of this and Monday we’ll start sewing. See you then!!
