Friday, August 1, 2008

One Minute Past Midnight

And I started my jacket. I've been itching to get at this project ever since the stars aligned and I found the perfect lining fabric in NY for the Chanel boucle I bought in Baltimore. And when I realized that my animal head buttons from Paris would work with those fabrics - well, I've had to sit on my hands not to pick up the scissors before the official start of the contest.

So last night, after watching the end of the Knit Contest on Patternreview to make sure there were no problems, and having taken myself a nap earlier in the evening (I wasn't kidding about that 12:01 start), I laid out my pattern pieces very carefully on the boucle and started cutting. And there was almost enough. Actually, there was enough - the shortage was expected because I had laid out the pattern pieces on the boucle and altered the pattern to suit what fabric I had. The center front piece doubles as the inside facing, and when I came up the tiniest bit short, I decided that I didn't need a full-width facing, I just had to make sure there was enough facing to support the buttons and buttonholes (or covered snaps, I'm still torn at this point).

I'm also limited on silk for the lining - when will I ever learn to buy enough fabric? - but there was enough to compensate for the half-facing I'd cut. I went to my local fabric store last week with a scrap of the silk to try to find fabric for the sleeve linings and came away with an acidic green that matches the yellow-green of the silk almost perfectly. One of my co-workers refers to it as "urine sample green." Isn't that lovely?

The jacket fabric, the cotton batiste underlining and the lining fabrics are all cut out. I also cut interfacing for the collar and the jacket facing. I'm using a lighter weight woven interfacing. I decided to go with a sew-in rather than a fusible because even though the boucle irons beautifully, I don't trust most fusibles to stick properly, or forever. On a project that means this much, I'll suck it up and sew it in by hand.

Since nothing photogenic has happened yet in the workroom, I leave you with a shot of hazy, hot and humid Philadelphia, as seen from my train stop this morning.

1 comment:

Carolyn (Diary of a Sewing Fanatic) said...

Congratulations on getting started! I can read the joy in your post about using these fabrics and making this jacket...remember to enjoy the journey!

Oh and I got the package...thank you sooooooo much!