28/04/21
Unexpectedly, on Sunday, during an unseasonable heatwave, against all odds , I tidied the workbench where I do my sewing, for the first time in probably a year. It’s been piled high with stuff that I had been using to make brooches, scarves and bunting and dangling decorations. Rather than tidy up between jobs I shoved the craftermath further back on the table, creating just enough room to work on my next project. Definitely not enough room to work on a jacket. Which was fine, because I’d lost my jacket mojo anyway. Whether the state of my workbench contributed to that loss, or was a symptom of it, I don’t know.
Anyroada, it’s now clear enough to hoover the carpet it’s covered in, if I was so inclined.
First off I repaired the sleeves on a jacket that I’ve been wearing around the house all winter, and getting annoyed at each time the fabric on the cuffs caught on the zip. Took me 15 minutes. Well, 4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days, and 15 minutes. But it’s done. Phew.
What next? One of the few jackets I did work on during the past year was this one…
..and it’s been hanging in my workshop looking forlornly unfinished ever since.
I thought I’d try out some variations of buttons and braid on it…
But in the end I did something else.
I made a new pocket out of a shrunken woollen jumper, added some more of the braid and did some handstitching…
I’m now auditioning buttons to use as decoration the pocket, think I’ll go with the red striped one because it matches the red stitching.
I might add a 2nd one to the other pocket with a bit more stitching and then it’s done and hopefully it will stop staring at me and making me feel guilty every time I go into my workshop.
And it’s done 🙂
Another abandoned project was draped over a coathanger giving me the evil eye. I had planned to use it for my 100 Day Project 2021. My idea was to make some patchwork silk scarves and spend my evenings handstitching them with lovely silk threads. I had a trial run with some silk charity shop silk scarves, but I chose badly because bits of it were too scratchy to be a scarf.
It would work on a jacket , however. It had a worn, unfinished slightly gnarly look to it which I liked, so I looked for a jacket that had a similarly lived in look to it.
I stitched a section of it to the back of the jacket, including the offending scratchy bits.
I then added a few bits including some scraps of my favourite Kaffe Fassett Collective fabric, I never throw any of it away.
Now for the front : this jacket had the most annoying buttons, almost impossible to fasten or unfasten without the help of a Ladies Maid wielding a button hook.
So I cut off all of the buttons , but left the original hoops .
I then added some hoops of my own, large enough to accomodate my handmade buttons.
I forgot to machine stitch the ends of the loops into a pointy shape, but I thought I could do it with some hand stitching at the same time as I sewed on the buttons. That’s a nice evening job which I can do whilst listening to a podcast. A simple triangle of stitches will suffice. Things took an unanticipated turn though, because I was enjoying doing the stitching and I got carried away and ended up with this..
Which admittedly does look nice with the buttons…
…but , it took me 2 hours to do, and there’s 3 more !
2/5/21
So after a rock n roll weekend of stitching I have completed the other 3, here are all of them.
I might add a bit of decoration to the pocket flaps and then call it done .
6/5/21
Started work on another jacket, this one is made from sweatshirt fabric, nice assymetric design.
I’ve done one of these before…
Scouting round my fabric stash I found a bright green charity shop cushion cover with a large flower on it which I cut out. Sorry, didn’t take a photo before I cut out the flower. I cut a hole in the middle and filled it with some Kaffe Fassett fabric….
I stitched it to the jacket with some of the petals overhanging the hem.
I decorated the collar…..
Here it is so far, think I’ll add a pocket.
I found a bit of lighter colourd Kaffe Fassett fabric that might have been better, let’s have a look…
Which would you go for, light or dark?
I added a bit of decoration on the pocket, now I think it needs something running along the length of the zip, and it’ll be done. Unless, that is, I decide to go with the light instead of the dark 🙂
This blogpost started with an unseasonal heatwave, and it’s ending with an unseasonal snowfall, this was my house this morning !
7/5/21
EDITED TO ADD : I opted for the dark centre, here’s the finished article…
The darker colourful inset of the green jacket is the best! Love it.
Thanks Judith, I think I agree 🙂
Yes the possibility to have umpteen seasons in one day is always such a joy isnt it lol Much prefer the darker circle myself. Did you make the green jacket yourself then? Love that green …
Thanks Lyn, I bought the green jacket in a charity shop. We say in Scotland, if you don’t like the weather, wait half an hour and something else will com along :-0
I too prefer the darker colour – as it gives the jacket far more character
Love how you’ve altered everything, much inspiration
And as for unseasonal weather, I love seeing places covered in snow as I live in part of my country, NZ which doesn’t ever do snow!
Thank you Catherine, we had 6 weeks of snow from Christmas Eve onwards, which is not unusual, but that much snow this late in the year is unusual, and a surprise!
A big wow to the transformation of all the jackets. I thought I liked the beige one best but when the green one appeared I changed my mind. I like the darker version.
Here in Lancashire we’ve had every kind of weather ourselves with hurricane winds that wrecked the garden. Fingers crossed summers on is way
Thank you Lynn, a hurricane is one thing we haven’t had, but it’s early days yet!
Glad you’ve got your jacket mojo back. Must be something in the air, ‘cos I’ve started making freeform motifs for my freeform waistcoat which has been lying neglected for a few – well – years! And made a mini freeform wall hanging for a friend. Maybe it’s because I can’t sit at the spinning wheel for too long at the moment as I’m recovering from having broken my hip and had it replaced!.
Love the jackets as usual. Each one, like the yarn freeform is a journey full of unexpected surprises.
Ouch, bad news about the broken hip, good news about the replacement! Freeform crochet is a wonderful thing, eh!
Gggrrreeeeaaattt blog!
I love the cookery section.
I never knew you have a hoover.x
I did have a hoover, but I got rid of it, it was just sat there, collecting dust.
I like the dark flower centre best 😊. Beautiful jackets as always x
Just as well, that’s what I’ve gone with 🙂
Greetings from Australia. I have just got out from 4 weeks in hospital. They thought it was a stroke but it wasn’t but it affected my left side. My left arm is working again but my leg still needs work but I am home and what do I see on my IPad, your article. I can’t use the sewing machine, but your jumper can be done by hand. In North Queensland we really don’t have a winter so a jumper will have to be light, but I need something to keep me activated. I just love what you have done.
Thank you Olive, best of luck with your recovery, handstitching can be theraputic, I believe!