Minoru progress report #2

I haven’t got on quite as well as I had hoped with my jacket – it is only as far as it is because I have imposed a deadline! Working on it over the weekend was a good idea as I have had no time to work on it through the week. Unfortunately I got distracted on Saturday by Bewdleys Wassail. Yes, I thought that too.

Dancers in Jubilee Gardens

Dancing despite flood threat

Bewdley was full (or so it seemed) of dancers in remarkable costumes giving their all before the Wassail ceremony on Saturday afternoon to bring luck and a good harvest to the fruit trees in the community orchard inn Jubilee Garden. All great fun and terribly pagan. Mr Styles, who sells my favourite apple juice  was there so I stocked up on my favourite Bramley and Cox juice. Someone else was selling fabulous sausage rolls so I added them to my home made Celery soup and lunch was sorted.

I really fell in love with the willow chicken that Bewdley Willow had brought along as part of their display – if anyone sees The Management suggest one for my birthday!Isn’t it fabulous. They had photographs of some of their other work which was wonderful. Anyway, you can see how anyone would have been distracted. And also what a bizarre town I live in!

Bewdley Willow statues – I love that chicken!

Looking good so far -the back view.

Raglan seams sealed

Back to the jacket. I sewed the body together and sealed the raglan seams with some waterproof tape from Pennine Outdoor to try and make it a little more rain resistant. The tape was fairly easy to use – simply iron into place and leave to allow the glue to set again. I hope it will help, but as it is something I haven’t used before I will have to report back after wearing. I also used the tape on the seam in the hood. It seemed like a no brainer to have it at the very top of the garment that would be hit be rain first. Lets hope it works!

I made the welt pockets in the front pieces before I stitched the body together. Nothing really to report on the basic welt pocket – however the actual flaps/welts are a little different. I used a method I first saw in Threads magazine many years ago from an article called ‘No-bulk Envelope Welts’ (pause whilst everyone charges off to check their magazine stash – you have to go to February/March 1998 ladies!) . This looks complicated but isn’t, and whilst it wasn’t essential in this fabric you can imagine the difference it makes to a thick wool pocket.

Pocket support

Bulk Free welt flap patterns and samples.

If you click on the pattern/sample picture you can enlarge it to see the principal involved. By making the seam at the end of the flap (which would normally end up four layers of fabric deep when turned) into a mitered corner in moves the bulk from the seam away from the very end. This makes the pocket much neater, and also easier to sew in place as you aren’t quite so likely to be falling off the end.

Inside the pocket I attached a strip of scrap to the top of the pocket bag and attached it to the front of the jacket so that the pocket will be supported by the seam when it is all finished.

I’m pretty pleased with the jacket so far, it is fitting pretty well although the sleeves are too long at present. Once I have the zip sewn in I will start on the lining/Thinsulate interlining. I think that should take less time than the main body as there are less details to be sewn so I really want to finish it next week.

All I have to do is keep up with customer deadlines. So far so good, but more are ringing now. Aaargh.