Great Works are afoot

Ok, so maybe not Great Works, just some little workings, but still. I cleaned up the sewing room yesterday, most of it at least and I took pictures of the terrible before and the not-so-bad after. I may be able to post them later, but probably not until tomorrow. Who know, maybe there will be actual sewing soon? Here's hoping!

Nomen est omen...

So the last post was in November because I have had "no time to sew". However, I find myself with a sort of day off tomorrow (a swap with a co-worker) and I think I am going to try to schedule an hour or so in the sewing room, even if it's just to clean up.

Back from the land of homework...

I have been absent for far too long, but my last class was an accelerated one (16 weeks worth of class in 8 weeks), so I couldn't even think about the blog, let alone do any sewing.

However, some things got done and since I do not have another class until January, I am hopeful that I will be able to get caught up.

I just wanted to pop in real quick to kick things off again, but I will write more over the course of the week and hopefully add some pictures on Thursday as well.

Small things to will hopefully add up to a done project

Yet another weekend has passed with no blogging and more importantly, no pictures. I am working on it, I am just not working on it very fast.

Last weekend was spent with a visiting friend, so not much sewing went on, but we moved some things around in the sewing room and I have since been able to move some more things into the space that were still in the old room.

This past week, I managed to get to GStreet Fabrics and pick out some buttons for the blue jacket. I had a chance to do a few test runs with the Singer buttonholer I picked up on e-Bay for my old Singer 401. OMG, what a difference. That thing makes fabulous buttonholes and it doesn't even blink at the slightly thicker fabric of the jacket. I still have to play around with it a little more to get it all worked out (the jacket's button holes should be vertical and the basic instructions of the widget are for horizontal buttonholes), but the basics are there.

I assembled and attached the bottom band for the jacket and I am close to being done with the collar. After that it is down to inserting the sleeves and doing button related things. Naturally, schools starts up again today, so my slow progress may get even slower, but I will still try to get in there and do a little bit each week.

Oh, i also finished the last bit of hand sewing on my tunic and already wore it out to dinner. Overall, i am pretty happy with it.

Life is what happens when you make other plans

The other plans, in this case, were to participate in the August WiaW and make 4 garments. Life, however, blessed us with an unexpected visit of a friend. Since our daughter just left for a year in Korea and still had about 4 large boxes worth of things in the guest room that needed to be sent to her (now that we have her address), we had to plan on some excavating of the guestroom, which we did last weekend. "While we were at it" (more delays started with that sentence than any other, lol) it was a perfect opportunity to take an extra chest of drawer out of the sewing room. Naturally, the item didn't just sit there waiting for us to come and pick it up, so things had to be shifted, messes had to be made and ongoing projects had to move over for a while. While I did manage to work on my jacket on Thursday and Friday, the rest of the weekend was filled with other activities.

This week, I worked on the sleeves of the jacket (only have to be inserted at this point) and the collar assembly and I started on the lower band. That was all done on Thursday. Friday and Saturday we had company and spent some lovely time with our friend. While I may not have finished the 4 items in the 2-ish weeks allowed, I did finish 1 item and made huge progress on a second. Unless I get a major brain cramp next week and mess up a bunch of things, I should be able to finish the jacket assembly. The buttonholes may add another week, since I am not sure my modern machine is up to the task, the fabric is quite thick. I will run some tests and decide. I do have the new buttonholer for the Singer 401, so I should be okay, but of course I have not worked with that or any external buttonholer, so it may take a little longer.

No matter, I've completely finished the last handsewing on 2 of the 3 former UFOs I was working on recently, so I am very very happy with the amount of sewing I have been able to get in over the past month or so. I think as I continue to get the space set up for myself and as I continue to spend a little time each week in there, I may get into a bit of a rhythm again. I actually picked up both InStyle and Vogue's fall fashion editions, "just in case" I might be looking for some inspiration.

Now, if I can just get into a more regular blogging habit, possibly one with pictures.....

Of course it's exactly the wrong size...

The Autumn/Winter 09/10 edition of Burda Plus Fashion includes a jacket that I am totally in love with:



Of course it is plus sized and petite, so in order to make this work I may have to unravel a section of the fabric of space and time, or something equally involved. Dang and blast, why can't these things be easy? Of course, if they were easy, I would enjoy them so much less, so I guess I should welcome the challenge, lol. The real question is: do I make it in gray (love me some gray), but I already have a long gray overcoat, or do I make it it in the heavy-ish navy wool I have mentally earmarked for a pea-coat, or do I go different and select a pattern? Choices, we likes them.

Going "Coco"

A few weeks ago, I came across a reference to "Chanel Sew-Along". I followed the links and discovered to my glee that there is going to be an informal sew along of a Chanel jacket (or coat or what not) between 1 September and somewhere towards the second or third week of November. Go here to follow the blog, get more info, or sign up.

Here is what I posted to introduce myself:

My mom sewed a "Chanel" jacket and wrap skirt about 45+ years ago. I'm not sure why she kept it all this time, especially since she didn't like it, but I think she struggled so much with it, she was not about to let it go. Surprisingly, she wanted me to have it, to "do something with", so I am going to attempt to turn both (tiny) pieces into one wearable jacket. As you may be able to see, the trim and lining has already been removed (thankfully it was not quilted down). I am starting over with the lining, of course, but I may reuse the trim.



Makes a nice contrast to the purple walls, lol. I just moved my sewing room into our daughter's old bedroom, therefore purple and green walls (they actually look pretty good). As you can see, there is a size issue to overcome.

Another one from the back



Once I pick both pieces apart, I need to zigzag all the edges and throw everything into a woolwash (by hand, of course) to get decades of dust out. I am "interviewing" several patterns right now and haven't decided yet, but once I narrow it down I will need to make a full muslin and then lay out and piece to that (I think).

Of course, since I started looking at patterns, I also looked at the Fall/Winter Couture Collection and liked it a lot, so now I am starting to eyeball this other fabric I have....oh no!


As to the latter, I just picked up some shoes that would work splendidly with a black and white Chanel-esque fabric I have been eyeballing, so I may be doomed, lol