BWOF 1/08 #127 Jacket - Finished!

It's done! I just finished pressing and doing a happy dance around the workroom.

Here's the full patternreview, which has a few more details and mentions (again) the blood shed to bring this project to competion. Totally worth it.

Yesterday I spent a good while in the workroom, communing with the cats and the space heater. Having mentioned my big old drafty barn of a house before, have I mentioned that unless it's snowing, the heat doesn't come on until Thanksgiving? The gas bill in a bad month is nearly the size of the mortgage, and I really don't want to be reduced to eating the cats.

Once I got everything put together, and got the facing and lining sewn in, my main concern was how to deal with the underside of the bound buttonholes.

I looked through all my reference books, and while I understood their directions, none of them really applied to leather. So, now having a vague idea at what I was doing, I winged it. I marked the buttonhole on the wrong side by sticking pins along the opening (thereby leaving pinholes in the leather facing). After that, I cut very, very carefully along the pinhole line using my sharpest scissors.

This gave me a slit the length of the buttonhole, which I then carefully widened to the width of the buttonhole (once again cutting a rectangular hole into otherwise perfect fabric). It lined up, and from there I spread leather glue in between the facing and jacket, on the seam allowances of the buttonhole welts. I put 5 lb hand weights on them for a few hours until dry, and it worked.

After that was dealt with, I finished off the lining, attaching it at the sleeve hems and then finally at the jacket hem. I started to bag the lining at the hem as I would normally, but the red lining fabric I was using (some kind of poly satin from Joann's) started to shred really badly, so I changed course and sewed a strip of black rayon seam binding to the entire lining hem, and then hand-stitched the lining to the hem of the jacket. I don't mind the line of black at the bottom, especially not when the alternative might have been a frayed lining within a few wearings.

I also used fusible hair canvas along the hem line of the jacket, to give more body and sharpness to the edge.

I've got to say, this is one project I'm really glad to be finished with. Not because it was hard, or a lot of work, or even because of the pain and bandaids involved in the proces.

No, I'm glad it's done so I can look at it and see what I did, and be proud that I finally got over my mental block (refusal) to attempt welt pockets or bound buttonholes. This jacket may not be perfect, but it's way better than I would have expected for my first attempt, and I can finally, finally stop putting "attempt welt pockets" on my yearly list of sewing resolutions. It's been #1 now for the past 4 years, at least. It's time to find another goal.

There will definitely be photos of me wearing this, as it's already matched up with the rest of what it's being worn with to work tomorrow. This baby's not going to hang out in the closet waiting to be worn, she's getting her test drive first thing tomorrow morning.

Now back to my regularly scheduled craft show sewing, which I will do now with a much better attitude. Funny how accomplishing something will really improve your attitude.