Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Odds and Ends

The jacket is moving along. Not as quickly as I would like, but whatever. Sometimes you need to take your time.

And sometimes you need to remind yourself of that.

I'll try to remember as I get impatient with it.

I'm trying to get all the fiddly bits done first. All four pockets are now cut, interfaced, folded, pinned, pressed, and lined. And then pinned to the thread tracings on the jacket front, tried on Mario, pinned again, and then sewn.

BWOF's instructions actually said to pin the pockets and securely hand sew them. I don't get it. The August issue actually had an elastic-waist skirt in it for the new sewist (like they either know about BWOF or would pay $15 for an issue) and then they turn around and specify hand-sewn pocket application. Which I certainly can do, but decided not to. Someone is like a little kid in the amount of rubble he crams into his pockets, and I thought that machine-sewing would be more secure in the long run.

I also made the collar and attached the collar bands. This leather is a little thicker than I'm used to sewing, and I couldn't get the collar points as sharp as I wanted, so instead I rounded them slightly and I'll curve the pocket flaps (which are also leather) to match. I'm just a little worried at this point about getting buttonholes on those pocket flaps. It may not happen.

I sewed the facings together, added my label before sewing the facing to the jacket - so much easier - and added a hanging loop just because.

BTW, do you like mother's little helper there with the collar? That's Lily, who thinks she should be allowed to live in the workroom, and who has convinced me, after her expensive surgery earlier this year, that she needs to eat well and often, and who has a food container of her very own next to the sewing machine. She's not spoiled, is she?

I leave you with What Came Out of the Garden This Evening. And tonight was light. Yikes. If I don't post again soon, I may be buried in tomatoes.

6 comments:

Sherril said...

It's a rule in my house that everyone has to eat at least one tomato a day, plus I have to cook with them. I made salsa yesterday and I'm giving it away to anyone who will eat it, including myself. Yum! Jacket looks like it's coming along nicely. You want to take your time and get everything right, so don't worry if it takes you awhile.

Little Hunting Creek said...

Do you roast tomatoes? I did last summer and now I do it all the time. Plus roasted tomato soup is super delicious. I need a helper like Lily. These dogs are no help at all. They are not interested in sewing

McVal said...

One of my other bloggy buddies gave a recipe on tomato pie that looked awesome!
http://bunchabenhams.blogspot.com/2009/08/tomato-takeover-part-2-tomato-pie.html

You'll have to check it out! I plan to as soon as I can mooch some tomatoes off a neighbor... We didn't plant a garden this year.

Anonymous said...

It's coming along! You've done a lot already. I'm very impressed.

Meg said...

Oh, Lily makes me miss having a cat around to help with sewing. My dog will occasionally sit on my foot pedal, but he doesn't know how to lounge on top of pattern pieces and swat spools of thread around.

Cisa said...

The way I see it, where would we be without our little helpers? Surely I could never get any work done if I didn't get all that training in picking up spools and pattern pieces. Westport ensures quality garments through his MANY inspections. They must pass the nap test before being sent to their new homes.