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.