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.
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