Jacket's done and some other stuff

First of all, let me say thank you for your kind comments. And all of them positive, as I had asked for! That whole energy thing is a force to be reckoned with.

Now, back to the jacket. This is the cuff. I have sewed it to the wrong side of the sleeve, sewed the ends together and turned them and now I have pinned the folded and trimmed edge to the outside. If you make the photo large and look closely, you can see the line of stitching that attaches the cuff. The folded edge will just cover that line and the cuff itself will be sewed to the sleeve with topstitching.

Here I am, sewing the cuff to the sleeve with a line of topstitching.

Once I had finished ALL the topstitching (each line has a duplicate, parallel line so there are two rows everywhere), it was time to attach the snaps. I just use the kit snaps and they come with two tools. You cut a tiny hole in the fabric with this one tool, by hammering it through the fabric and then you put the snap pieces in place and hammer them together using the other tool to crimp the pieces of metal together.

It works pretty well until the hammer slips off the tiny tool and smashes you in the thumb. Not a crisis (although it does really hurt) but when you have chemo, the chemicals break down your blood cells too and you can bleed pretty badly, so I iced this as soon as I had smashed it.

Once I got back upstairs, I realized I could hold the tiny tool with a pair of pliers and couldn't believe I had not thought of it before. It was a slap myself in the head, duh kind of moment.

And here it is! I am all decked out with Christmas colour accessories because Christmas is tomorrow. I bought some large scarves for my now bald head but I find I am most comfortable in this little knit cap I got from the MEC for bike camping, or all the old scarves I bought for my beloved dog when she was alive. Wearing her scarves is a sort of homage to her too.

And then I had some time to make a couple of gift bags that can also be used as shoe bags. When you live in snow country, you wear boots everywhere but bring your shoes when you visit peoples' homes and shoe bags are always welcome.

I had two pieces of some upholstery fabric that were just big enough for women's shoe bags. The only thing I miscalculated was the size of the pocket for the draw string. If in doubt, leave more room.

I was using this fairly fine, nylon cord I had so I thought I didn't need much room. And it does move through the sleeve well enough.

But the fabric is so thick that it doesn't bunch up much and it would have been better to have a slightly larger casing. However, I am not willing to re-do it now. Anyway, if it's just for shoes, it doesn't need to be tight at the top.

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas for tomorrow.

Why everything is taking so long

Okay, it's time for an explanation why my blog entries are taking forever. I have a really good excuse - it's a humdinger, in fact. In August, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. In September I had surgery which got it all, and it had not spread to the nodes - great news. But it was a really aggressive tumour so they recommended chemotherapy first and then radiation as preventive, adjuvant measures and I have just had my second round of six chemo sessions and it is tiring me out. I am thinking radiation in the Spring will be a walk in the park compared to chemo.

I decided to go ahead and teach this past semester, as I had already committed to it, but I am not going to be teaching in January. I am thinking I want all my energy to get well - not from the cancer which is gone but from the chemo - that is some toxic stuff. So I have planned some creative projects for myself that I can work on when I feel well, which really, is most of the time.

Before people respond with sympathetic comments, let me tell you what I have learned about energy. I have learned that there really IS negative and positive energy and people can project it like quills on a porcupine. I have discovered that, however well-meant, expressions of sympathy are negative energy. Negative energy requires effort to resist and I am not willing to expend that valuable part of my own energy resisting it. I intend to be relentlessly cheerful and positive about this entire experience and I have been therefore avoiding anybody who can bring me down, even if they really do mean well.

I have been writing about the experience from the get-go and that has been tremendously therapeutic. I am now trying to come up with suggestions for how people can respond when they hear about something major like this. Don't say "I'm sorry". I know that's almost always the first reaction but don't say it. I have been thinking people could say something like "Wow, how are you coping with that?" I had one person respond with "God love ya!" which I felt was not negative. So my challenge to you, my dear readers, is to come up with other initial expressions of caring that are not negative. I'm currently stumped.

In the meantime, I am carrying on with the corduroy jacket.

Here are my nice flat felled seams, from the inside and the outside.

Here's the back yoke from the inside, pinned and ready to be sewn down. I actually turn it over and sew it from the outside to make sure the topstitching goes in the right place. I sew very slowly because the pins are underneath then and I can't take them out as I go.

This is the shoulder seam, after it has been sewn and then one side of the seam allowance has been trimmed. I trim off the seam allowance belonging to the body of the jacket because there is only one seam in the sleeve part that will need to be folded over to make the flat fell.

Here I am pressing the outside of the shoulder seam over the ham. Because of how awkward it is, I don't press the flat fell over on the inside around the shoulder seam. I just fold it over once the outside is pressed flat and then pin it and sew, also very slowly.

And here is the jacket, taking shape. I have sewed on the bottom band to the inside of the body. After I sew up the ends, I will sew the folded edge of the band on the outside of the jacket with topstitching.

Green jean jacket continued

It wasn't until I had the fronts all assembled that I realized I had not made allowances for the fasteners! I had not decided before this, whether I wanted to go with buttons or snaps. I like buttons but they can be awkward on thicker material like corduroy and the buttonholes can be a pain. However, now that the pocket flaps are sewed in place, I am never going to get buttonholes made on those things and it has been decided for me that I am going to go with nice black snaps.

As for putting on the facing, at least I thought that one out in advance. Part of the finishing is to understitch the facing to the neck seam allowances. But if you sew the facing to the fronts of the jacket before you do the understitching, it makes it awkward to get to the ends of the collar. So I did the understitching before I sewed down the fronts.
I also realize that I should probably never wear this jacket on television, as it would make viewers eyes go all buggy. Good thing I'm not ever on television.

Green jean jacket continued

Steaming ahead (literally)! There's a powerful lot of ironing in this jacket -- all those flat felled seams and pockets and things.

I always haul a previously made jacket out of the closet so I can look at it, more than the instructions even. This is one I get a lot of wear out of, made of a pale lilac pinwale cord.

Here are all the pieces ready to be assembled, after I have ironed on the interfacing. I decided to go with the black interfacing, to be one less colour in the palette. The interfacing occasionally shows, like when the front facings flip out in a wind or something.

Here are the pieces as I've started to assemble them. I've made this jacket so many times that I can assemble it out of order (and practically from memory) so that I can make it fairly quickly, sewing a pile of pieces and then ironing them all at once.

These are the two seams on one half of the front and I'm ironing them over after I've clipped one of the seam allowances, so I can make the flat fell. Onwards!

Another Jean Jacket

I do apologize for not blogging in so long. I have a lot going on in my other life right now.

After I finished my last project - which I have worn quite a few times now! - I decided I would make up this fine wale corduroy I had in the stash.

I got it with another jean jacket in mind (and because it was on the sale table of course). It is a print and the contrast between the black and green makes it look intense. Because it is SO green, I thought it would be cute for wearing at Christmas with something red. Or black.

Since it is a print, I have had to cut out each piece of the pattern (my old tried and true Vogue 7610) in one layer only, so I can make sure the lines of houndstooth print are all straight. I am just glad they are tiny enough that I don't have to think about trying to match them vertically or horizontally. It was fairly tedious and made my back ache, bending over the table like that for hours. Or what seemed like hours. Anyway, it is all cut out now except for the interfacing and now I can finally assemble it.

Working on this jacket has got me to thinking yet again about this jacket I cannot find but want to make. I have it in my head that I saw a photo of such a jacket in a Laura Ashley catalogue back in the 80s. My sister used to work there - they had a store right here in Ottawa with the most beautiful home dec fabrics and the clothing too. I even sewed for patrons of the store who wanted stuff that I called "soft furnishings for the home" made but couldn't do it themselves. Anyway, I only remember this jacket from this one catalogue. They had such beautiful stuff back then, when it was still family owned. Something has happened to them in the last 10 or 15 years and they aren't the same at all.

This imaginary jacket was a dark green wool, hip length jacket that might possibly be called Edwardian. Except when I look up Edwardian jackets, they don't look at all like what I have in my head. So I have decided that after I finish this jean jacket, I am going to design my imaginary jacket. It will be a first - I have always used patterns. And I will use pieces from my existing patterns to help me. But I am quite excited about this! I will make a muslin too - another first for me. And when I am ready, I plan to go see what Darrell can find me in the way of a beautiful fine dark wool tweed. Mmm, I can taste it already.

Boiled wool jacket, finished!

I'm done!

And just in time too, what with the snow we had last night. Yikes. Those are baby pumpkins under the snow on the lower right. It was really windy too and the snow stuck to the door. This shot was taken just as I was leaving for work at about 7:45 am.

To go back to where I left off, here is how I sewed the buttons to the sleeve tab detail. I sewed them to the tab and the sleeve, through all layers, before I sewed the lining hem up on the sleeve. That way, I could push the needle in straight through all the layers of thick wool fabric and not catch the lining, nor worry about trying to angle the needle in vain.

Here are the sleeves, from different perspectives, all finished.

The pattern instructions called for a maximum of three buttons down on the short sleeved jackets (and only 2 down on the long sleeved version). They also called for a button to be sewed on the inside with a corresponding buttonhole on the inside of the flap. I decided to make four buttons down (making 8 to sew on for the double breasted effect) and not do the inside buttonhole. If it turns out that I need it, I will sew a large snap on the inside part of the flap.

I decided to make the four buttonholes (it is only a faux double breasted) the old fashioned way, which is to say I knew where they were going and put pins in but I free-handed the zigzag stitching to make the buttonhole. The stitching was therefore a tad wobbly (this is actually the best of a bad bunch) but now that I have worn it, you really don't notice at all.

Here I am modelling it the night before, as the snow has started to fly.

Here you can see a hint of the dotted lining - so cute!

It was a pleasure to wear and really warm too! I am so pleased that I am going to get a lot of wear out of this jacket. It turns out I can fit a shirt and suit jacket under it but not the five layers for when it is 20 below. But when it is that cold, I will want something that covers my bum anyway. What next?

Boiled wool jacket, almost done

Almost done! I got some buttons on Thursday:

I looked at all kinds of red buttons, plain, patterned, matte, glossy. I looked at black buttons too and even metal ones but I liked these red buttons the best. They are not very contrasty and yet they stand out a little bit. I think I am going to have to do the buttonholes the old way, because the fabric is so thick my automatic buttonholer won't work on it.

I've sewed the inside and outside together and pressed all around the edges. I have sewed up the jacket hem but not the lining - that is the lining hanging down below the hem there which of course, it won't do after I've sewed it up.

I haven't hemmed the sleeves yet either. I think I'll wait to the end for that, as I want to make sure they are fairly long, to cover the cuffs of whatever I will wear underneath the jacket. It is heavy too! For such a short garment, it weighs a lot. That is partly the kind of fabric and partly the volume of the jacket with the pleats at the back. Next, more hemming, topstitching all around and buttonholes.

Red, boiled wool jacket

It's funny how, even after 30 years of sewing and many of those years realizing that sleeves aren't so hard, I still put off making sleeves because they used to be difficult.

With a fully lined jacket, there are FOUR sleeves! And these are slightly different, in that they have a pleat at the top and a clip on the sides. Halfway between the top of the shoulder and the notch, there is a spot where you sew a retaining line of stitching and then you clip in almost 5/8 of an inch to the small dot. When you split the fabric at the clip, it makes for a square spot on the outside on the finished sleeve.

I haven't pressed this sleeve, nor have I unpicked the basting for the pleat, but you can see where the seam goes square on the front there.

Here's what the back looks like, before the sleeves were put on. So cute with the pleats! And you can see I have marked with white thread, the small dots on the sleeve seam allowance, where they will be clipped for that square spot.

I decided to use the wool yoke in the back for warmth but I also put the lining fabric over it, for a uniform inside, non-stick finish, as well as additional warmth.

Here's the lining all put together. There is no extra band on the inside, like there is on the finished back outside. Now I "just" have to put the outside and the lining together!

Red, boiled wool jacket

Everything is cut out, the interfacing applied and I have started to assemble the jacket.

Here's the lining. It's polyester (most lining is that or acetate) and substantial so I think it will serve as a bit of a wind break. You won't see it unless I flash the inside of the coat but it's fun to know it's there.

The jacket will be fully lined - sleeves, body, pockets.

I am trying to decide how to make the back yoke. The pattern instructions call for the inner layer of the yoke to be the same fabric as the coat, so I have cut out two wool yokes. I also cut out one lining yoke on speculation. I think it will act as a wind break, sandwiched between the two wool yokes (which are more porous than the polyester lining). My conundrum is whether to put the lining on the inside layer instead, so the entire inside of the jacket is lining. Will the wool yoke drag on a sweater worn beneath the jacket? Why would the pattern makers call for the yoke to be made of wool on the inside, except for warmth? Will I screw up if I put the lining on the inside?
If no one has ever done this and I don't get any answers to my conundrum, if in doubt, I will do it the way the pattern says.

Here is my assembly line for some of the small pieces. I have made the "welt" pocket flaps and they are ready to be topstitched. The things on the machine are the sleeve tabs which then need to be turned right-side-out. I parked the red thread there because I have fifteen shades of red and I am using up some brighter stuff first, before I start the shade I bought for this fabric. And that's a good reproduction of the way this red looks - nice and red, tomato red. Not the pink-red you see in some pix.

Here's the welt for the pocket sewn on and there are two pieces of pocket lining that I have sewn on and tucked behind it. The slash pocket is right in the front dart - interesting.

Here are all the layers for the back at the yoke. There is the back, its deep pleat, the band (folded in two) and the yoke. Six layers in two places.

Here's the back from the outside, before it is pressed. Too pink by half. Onward!

Red wool coat

How did it get to be the last day of September?

One thing I don't often mention is the prep work for starting a project. I have never used this pattern before so I like to read the instructions first. Then I have to cut apart all the pattern pieces and see which ones I need to use. I double-check them with the list shown above.

The only garment in this pattern is the coat (some have all sorts of things like pants and skirts and things) but there are some variations. I'll be using all the big pattern pieces but maybe not all of the small ones. Once I have the pieces separated, I iron them flat.

I am going to make the long sleeves with 6 buttons on the front (view C) but I want to make the slash/welt pockets (views A and B), not the patch pockets. I also like the detail of the band around the sleeve but it is only on the short sleeve and the 3/4 sleeve.

When you look at the instructions for the sleeve band, you see it is only decorative and not functional. Interestingly, it is made from three pieces of fabric so that the seaming becomes part of the decorative design. I have been debating with myself if I want to use the print lining I got for the backing of the sleeve bands and I haven't finished that debate yet. I lean toward NOT doing it, just because I am not familiar with this pattern and there may be a good reason not to use lining fabric to back the band.

I have got enough fabric that I could make them both ways and see which looked better. You can see that the band gets sewn to the sleeve and the button is just for show. But I like the way it looks on the photo and in the drawings so I think I will make bands and then decide as I go along, whether I will attach them to the sleeve. They get sewn into a seam but I could still pick them out later if I don't like them.

Here I have laid out all the pieces and pinned them, except for the bands. I am going to use Mum's old electric scissors to cut this coat out. I keep forgetting I have electric scissors and while I may not use them for delicate stuff, they should be perfect for this sort of wool.