Friday 16 May 2014

Burda Military Jacket - getting close to finished....

In my mind I have finished my Military Jacket, when in fact it is not finished. I just want to move on to making some spring and summer clothes with all the wonderful colours and prints. I keep getting distracted looking at everyone else's blogs and all the great projects they are making. I feel like Dug the talking dog from the movie UP. The Squirrl scene:

That's one of my excuses, the other one is procrastination. I'm sure every seamstress is familiar with it. I'm procrastinating not because it's not working out or there are fit issues, the truth is, it couldn't be better. I was so worried about working with the pleather but it worked just fine. I sweated bullets over setting in the sleeves and they went in like butter! Now the lining- I machine basted the the shell in this morning and OMG, it fit! I thought I would have to fiddle and hand stitch, or do 'couture' work as I like to call it. But no, all is well. I'm doing it the old fashion way. I've looked up so many tutorials on bagging a lining and ya... I just don't get it, it looks so confusing to me. Here's a peek at the basted lining.

The top stitching has given me the most grief so far. I started out using a single thread and then using a double stitch that was okay for the pockets and flaps. However it's not so nice on the back side and there is a tab on the collar that flips over and is buttoned, so I had to get creative and sew portions from the back side- and I did it wrong twice so there was some swearing and unsewing going on. I switched to two threads in the top for most, with a single stitch .Then I had to put it aside for my sanity for a few days or there may have been a homoside! What I have learned for next time - use proper topstitching thread in top and bottom!

I had not planned on making the belt or belt loops but when pillaging through my many BUCKETS of buttons I came across a bag of brass Miliary buttons and hardwear that my mom must have given me at some point in time. Oh man what a treasure to find!

These were all from my very own Dads army uniforms. My Dad passed away over 30 years ago, so these are really special and I think he would get a kick out of me using them. Especially when he single handedley invented recycling- just a slight stretch..... Included is a brass buckle and a ribbon and some hat pins and other assorted pieces. After finding these I had to recearch what he did in the Army, he was in the Engineers- I had no idea! They are the guys that fix the equipment and vehicles, this was a great distraction! So now I have to make a belt. I have been looking for some brass grommets - no luck. So I'm going to try my hand at making some eyelettes for the belt. My machine is pretty fancy so I think it can be done. I just discovered it makes really amazing keyhole button holes too.

There we go. I'm all set, that took about 2 minutes. Some Frey Check, black thread and a black Sharpie marker and I'm good to go. Oh Man, now I gotta go to work- and I was just getting my Mojo back!

 

1 comment:

Kaleb Stone said...

Awesome blog you have heere