All Quiet on the Jacket Front

Readers, the cranberry corduroy suit saga continues.  Slowly.  And look, I'm tailoring -- by hand!  Do you believe it?

This is painstaking work, punctuated by frequent intrusive thoughts along the lines of, "I'm hand basting hair cloth to a cotton corduroy jacket?"  It was a tough call.  I want the jacket to have body but I didn't want to fuse interfacing to my corduroy -- although there apparently are some modern fusibles you can use with corduroy.  I decided to do it the old fashioned way.

I'm almost done with my right front side; still have to pad stitch the lapel, among other things.  Even with all the tailoring books I have (and I have too many) I've found Gertie's tailoring videos tremendously helpful and encouraging.  She has such a sweet presence and I love those tender little moments when Jeff enters the room off camera or the cat jumps up on the table. I find myself watching them again and again and again, don't you?

On Monday I bought matching cranberry silk Gutermann thread, and have been using some of the tailoring supplies I bought to make Michael's today a dream, tomorrow still a dream suit.  I even started by waxing my thread strands and then ironing them between pieces of fabric to remove the excess wax.   Then I tried the silk thread without the wax and it worked just as well.

I mean, come on!



I've mainly been following Simplicity's Sewing For Men and Boys, but have also been consulting Kenneth King's Cool Couture, Cabrera's Classic Tailoring Techniques (for menswear), and Tailoring: The Classic Guild to Sewing the Perfect Jacket.  As you might guess, they all do things a little differently so I'm just trying to pick out the techniques that seem best suited (ha ha) to this project.

From the front, the eensy-weensy handstitches are nearly invisible.  That's about as good as it's going to get, I'm afraid.  This is not wool tweed.



So that's how my week is developing and I hope yours is proving a little less tedious.  I can't do more than a few hours of hand stitching per day or my eyes start to cross and my fingers go numb.  But that's me.

In other news, I found a fantastic, working, Luceplan Berenice task lamp in the trash while walking the dogs this morning.  People are strange.



We've been feeding the dogs free-range raw chicken parts and they're loving them.  Eww, right?







And my vintage Gillette 1961 Super-Speed razor -- a recent eBay purchase -- has arrived, so I can now begin my new double-edge razor morning shaving ritual.  Cross your fingers there's not too much blood.  Wouldn't you like to read more about vintage-style men's grooming?  Of course you would!



Friends, we've come to the end of our show.  I hope you'll tune in tomorrow for Pad Stitching On Parade and maybe a few rousing show tunes.  I hope your day is full of great garbage finds and lots of sewing -- by hand or that other way.

Happy Wednesday everybody!

P.S.  Before I forget, if you'd like to see how I store my sewing patterns and maintain poor home hygiene, pop on over to The Blue Gardenia.   I don't know why I agreed to expose the chaos that is my sewing space to the public at large but let's face it: I am loathe to turn down free publicity.