Altering the Miyake 2127 has taken forEVer

 One thing that isn't getting much love right now is an Issey Miyake top (V 2127) that does not fit in it's neck yoke piece. I have done this before, where the seam gets manipulated and the piece stretches out so far and so badly there's no point to continuing. Thus is the case with # number; it's been sitting around waiting for finishing because there no  point in finishing it.

And then I figured let's just take it apart and see. It's not stretched out; thank god I staystitched it before I attached the collar strip. It doesn't fit me that well, that one piece yoke is a mistake I fell for, but it's salvageable. 

It poofs out at the top of the placket and the horizontal pieces don't help. Plus that collar piece. Ew.

I have taken the placket apart at the top, shaved off a sloping 1/4" to nothing at the second snap on each side, will eliminate a little poof. Clipped off the overlap on the underside and am sewing it into the placket. Took off the collar and replacing it with a bias strip collar. It is still not a great thing - the drafting is kind of crummy -  but it's a wearable thing that looks cool enough for people to not point out some very obvious design flaws.

I won't run into you, and you wouldn't say anything. Would you?

Slip Stitch Patch Pockets

         

I have been poking at this post since November 2025; work and life have been in waves of upheaval.

And the illustration disappeared and I had to redo it.

Sandra Betzina is a guiding light in construction techniques, in addition to the other talents she possesses. 

https://youtu.be/Zzu6uW8RkYw?si=zdPuOveVkToSOv0-

The subscription website no longer exists, 

There is a DVD with this technique out there in some library systems, but it is out of print. 

The preview is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-QDfg6J9AU&t=135s

I have watched it, and this tutorial is based on that video. I would link you to the video if I could. I am being a little vague here on purpose.

The key is making a cardboard template. To trace around, to iron the edges over onto. Cardstock, cereal boxes, corrugated is too thick.

Click on this image to make it too damn big and legible.

I cut out my pieces the same size and trimmed and eyeballed them to a pleasing proportion of 'how much fold over of the outside fabric I could spare'. 

I didn't have much to spare. These pockets are a little small for my purposes, but they will hold a cell phone until I am forced into a larger phone.

(pocket sizing is another post for another day)

I  am tracing the sewing lines onto the lining fabric.

I have machine stitched the lining part to the garment and am ironing the seam allowance in to the inside.

Using the cardboard template

I held the slipstitching edge like a sandwich in my left hand and slipstitched with my right.

Yes, there were hand cramps and I took breaks. 

What the stitching looks like on the inside of the garment

What it looks like on the outside. I do not have enough of this fabric to match the print, but you could.

All hail the genius of Sandra Betzina. I claim no invention, I am just executing her well considered instructions.