Thursday, August 14, 2008

Finishing Touches

Since I last checked in, I finished bagging the lining and pressed everything. Have I mentioned how much I love pressing this fabric? It presses almost to a knife-edge, which you wouldn't expect from something bulky and fluffy. And yet it retains its bulky fluffiness while somehow looking neat and tailored. I love good fabric.

I pressed and steamed and rolled the collar and it's behaving just the way I want it to.

I've sewn on the pocket buttons. I love that the small buttons are full-size facing animals, while the large buttons are just animal heads.

I've marked where I want the snaps, and I've started to cover them. Once I've finished, I'll sew on the rest of the buttons. There’s a great tutorial on Patternreview for covering snaps - good thing, because my first attempts looked like a kindergarten project. These were a little more difficult anyway, because of the size - the tip of the snap can't just poke through the fabric because it's too big, so I put a tiny drop of fabric glue on the back of the lining fabric, let it dry partway and then cut a small X in the fabric so I could slip it over the snap. The tacky glue just makes it adhere better to the metal so there'll be no fraying.

It seems like I've been working on this forever, but I think that's because I was sewing it in my head for a week solid before I ever took scissors to fabric. Actually the project has gone along pretty smoothly, considering the number of extra steps I've added to a more or less straightforward jacket pattern.


And considering that I've never actually looked at the instructions for the pattern, either. When I laid out all the pieces and started working on the muslin, everything made sense without the instructions, so I decided I would look at them later. Later on nothing ever happened that made me need them, so I'm pretty happy about that. Once I'm done the jacket I'll read through them, if only for the sake of the pattern review. Interesting how sewing lots of BWOF and Patrones has made me less reliant on instructions.

7 comments:

Dawn said...

WOW! Love it!

AmeliaSews said...

Amazing jacket, Karen! What an inspiration!

Meg said...

This is looking so fantastic! I have three wool bouclĂ© projects in the hopper: a coat and two jackets. You make me want to get going on them. Soon…

Kat said...

This will look GORGEOUS on you, Karen! Can we see it on you...please?

Carolyn (Diary of a Sewing Fanatic) said...

It is amazing! I love how all the different pieces have come together to make the harmonious whole! Wow!

Linda L said...

Perfect jacket. I read your review at PR but wanted to comment here as well. I have always loved this jacket pattern but have yet to make it up. Your fabric choice was perfec. Love the way the collar holds its shape. Great job!

Tany said...

Fantastic job! Love the fabric and the lining!