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

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.