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.