However you celebrate this, or even if you don't, I wish a great day for you today.
For me this is the first one in 31 years that I am not doing an Easter dinner for family, and another one that puts me one more away from those late nights of hiding eggs in clever and original ways for three kids who were disgusted if they were easy to find.
I will be talking to them all today and later my partner in golf and life and I will be eating out on a restaurant I have scoped out that is on stilts over a swamp.
I am also going to finish up that damned jacket.
I desperately need to do some fun sewing and have a new Stylearc shirt to try.
The hand stitching is taking forever. You know those analogies that say if you put all the whatever, plastic water bottles or something end to end, they would go around the earth 10 times? Well there are enough hand stitches in this thing to go Nova Scotia and back to St. Augustine at least twice.
Not the best use of my quality time I have decided.
Listen.
This thing has taken me about 2,000 X the time I would have put into anything and I can tell you it is not 2,000 times nicer. In fact I have just scraped together a sort of save on this one and it will never be A Favourite. In fact I will probably wear it just long enough to sooth my need for some kind of return on this investment.
I have some Linton tweed at home and will be trying out the Stylearc jacket on it. Maybe, after I recover.
In the meantime I am refilling fussy jackets under "Things I really don't need to be sewing for myself."
I have a couple of things on that list right now, only a few, like jeans, which I can buy. To my mind what you occasionally buy need to be viewed as things I am doing to free up more sewing time.
I am about to close the Cool Clothes list tomorrow, but in the meantime what is on your own personal list of things you buy rather than make?
I am listening while I hand stitch this thing into submission.
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About me
- Barbara
- I am a mother, a grandmother, and a teacher. But whatever happens in my life, I keep sewing. I have worked as a political communicator and now as a teacher in my formal life. I have also written extensively on sewing. I have been a frequent contributor and contributing editor of Threads magazine and the Australian magazine Dressmaking with Stitches. My book Sew.. the garment-making book of knowledge was published in May 2018 and is available for pre-order from Amazon
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7 comments:
I buy all my underwear. I'm a dressmaker, not a tailor. I buy horse rugs, but I'm happy to make dog coats.
So, you are not working on the StyleArc Coco jacket right now, are you? That is yet to come? I agree with you on the fancy couture jackets. Personally I just want to sew it up and wear it, although I'd wear a hand-quilted jacket if someone else did all the work.
Happy Easter from one old lady to another.
Happy Easter to you! Your blogs about your jacket sent me to Karen Karbo's The Gospel according to Coco Chanel. Google allowed me to read a huge chunk of it. It's fun to read and said Chanel was short and slender and designed her collections with her own body in mind. Maybe not the best fit model for most of us.
I have enjoyed sewing dresses, blouses, skirts and slacks and even tailoring with wool. I am drawing the line at bras. Expensive though the nice ones may be in my size, they are worth every penny for allowing me to avoid fitting headaches. Nordstrom will send me a bunch of them and allows free shipping on returns. Similarly, I am not going to sew any socks or pantyhose.
I love your honesty and disclosure that the jacket will not be 2000 x nicer. I applaud your efforts, and know you'll end up with a quality garment. But, I would never undertake that type of project. I might (and do) add in some nice handsewing, and some details on the interior just for me.
You've got to command this jacket to be what you want it to be. Making it Coco style is a commitment of time and energy all of which can easily be sapped at any given moment. If you don't want to do Coco style, that's fine. I think you will still have a nice fitting black jacket that may not be that lively as far as design and color but will be a basic you can throw on and gets years of use from. In the end, I know it will be well made, no matter the techniques you choose.
Close that I buy and not make? Jeans for one. I have aged in to finally fitting myself into a pair of jeans. Seems my mature body is easier to fit than my young body so I am letting others make my jeans. Pretty much anything else I am game for, even "Coco" jackets!
Clothes, not close. I know............
I do not make underpants. I DO make bras, to get a proper fit, but also so that I can have woven cotton ones for the summertime. I do not make shoes. I buy a woolen coat once every decade or so, as it is cheaper on sale than I can buy materials to make. (I now live in a climate in which it is rarely cold enough to need a heavy coat.
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