Hello all,
I have been steadily working away on the hand sewing portion of my Vogue 7975. This part of the construction process has well and truly surprised me. I thought that I would hate all the hand sewing as it has never been my strength. But I must tell you, I have come out the other side with a new respect for the process. The quiet, slow, methodical practise of trimming, folding pressing and sewing each seam by hand was something I thoroughly enjoyed and am rather sad that this piece is done.
Arrows pointing out a couple of the hand sewn seams
Now, I will also freely admit that when it came to the sleeve and shoulders, I wasn’t quite as patient and as a result, it is not as neat as I would like. A few “aha” and lightbulb moments have the second sleeve looking decidedly better than the first. No matter. I have learned new things and that is the key takeaway here.
I was fortunate that my local Fabricland had spools of garment chain. That, in and of itself was a bonus as I was thinking I would have to order some online. But even more fortunate, was that I found a spool of it in the clearance section for $3.98/metre. Score!
Note, I did not sew every single link. I sewed the chain links in blocks of about 6-7 links and then allowed the next few to be loose, then sewed another block, and so on. It is quite secure, but there is some ease.
With that all done, I am moving on to the final part of the jacket – the trim. I have decided that I will trim around the neck and down the front and around the cuffs.
I have been surfing and shopping for the last few days with this task in mind. Do I make trim? Do I buy trim? The possibilities, as they say, are endless.
I do have enough yardage left to make either a pencil skirt, or to cut into bias strips for making fringe. I have seen several tutorials online and also in a wonderful book that I have called, Creating Couture Embellishment by Ellen W. Miller.
Keen to retain the yardage for a future skirt, I decided to use the “ready made” fringe from the selvedge and pair it with some store bought passementerie trim.
I have trimmed the selvedge from the length of fabric and have sewn the trim to it. Here it is, pinned to the jacket.
I haven’t decided just yet if I am going to place pockets on the jacket. I’ll trim the front edges and cuffs and then make that determination. I should be able to get this done tonight.
But right now, I need to trudge out to my yard and lay down some fresh mulch. The lovely neighbours behind us have a sweet new puppy, and my two goofball dogs have since created a muddy track along the back fence in their excitement.
It never ends (thankfully)
Bye for now,
Andrea
