The women in my mother’s family have a rule: don’t attempt to sew anything unless you’re possessed by The Spirit That Moves. Making clothes, furnishings, toys etc without that burning urge to creativity will only end in tears, no matter how careful you are.
After a long absence, the Spirit returned to my house this week. Lounge-room furniture has now been rearranged, thoroughly disconcerting the cats, and I started putting together a 1950s-style swing jacket (Simplicity pattern 4047) that’s been sitting in pieces on the dining table for several months.
The fabric is a dark grey/black Prince of Wales (or Glenurquhart) check with a fine pink overcheck. That makes it a one-way pattern.
To complicate matters, the fabric has embroidered bunches of flowers and vines, scattered here and there, in black, grey and a tiny bit of bronze/gold. A one-way pattern with attitude!
Laying out a jacket that has four backs and four fronts, with the lower sections cut on the bias, and trying to match both the plaid and the embroidery turned out to be quite tricky. Even after several hours of puzzling, I still managed to get one piece backwards. Fortunately the right side and wrong side are very similar, so only a gimlet eye will be able to detect the inside-out section in the finished jacket.
With the restrictions of the one-way check and the one-way floral design, I didn’t quite have enough fabric for the front/collar facings. Couldn’t make the facings out of the pink satin lining, either, because that would look silly: interfacing and lining-silk are not a happy combination.
Again, fortune smiled — I’d picked up a scant 1m remnant of 150cm pink microfibre suiting, intending to make a singlet top to wear under this jacket. Voila, 1m x 150cm was enough for the jacket facings, both fronts and sleeves (yes, it has separate sleeve facings as well as the silk lining). There’s even a bit left over to make a couple of future skirt or trouser pockets.
Those hours of angst with the laying out and cutting were enough to quash the Spirit for several months.
Happily, it’s now back. I started sewing last night, and in just a couple of hours had constructed the complete outer shell of the jacket. It was surprisingly easy — but I could so easily have flubbished it without the Spirit around. Especially as the cats were both keen to help.
The jacket looks pretty good, so far.
Facings and lining tonight. The front/collar facings look fiendishly tricky. Assuming all goes well, there’ll be hand-finishing on Wednesday night and homages to my mother, great-aunt and assorted other rellos after that.
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