Making French jackets in triplicate is a slow process!

However they are at that stage where I feel like the worst is over.....i'm down to sleeves, lining finishes, trim and chain.

and they do look vaguely recognizable now...

Those bloody hands are cracking me up!! and the sizing of those photos is driving me mad..sorry.

Of the two, the black wool has been much easier to work with and I was able to get four bound buttonholes into 2922 without much hassle. 9821 will just have the regular hidden hooks behind the trim.

The black and white glitter boucle has taken some taming, there are huge chunky wool details throughout and a couple of times while I was quilting it jammed so badly the whole machine jumped...and I nearly fell off my chair in fright.

However its one beautiful piece of fabric and I think its going to be amazing once its done.

I decided to put just two bound button holes into this jacket so that I could do it up but not make them a feature, I've left them very loosely closed so that the wool does not get stressed with a button going in and out. It should slip through without much forcing I hope. Of course they are not really the done thing in these kind of fabrics but I hate being told I can't! once the facing is on, the open hole will all but disappear and the hair canvas behind will support it perfectly.

So altogether this week, there was a lot of test quilting and then miles of the real thing...

lots and lots of tying off knots.. pulling the ends from the thread and bobbin into the middle of the jacket and double knotting.

and a chunk of time spent in folding back the linings so the seams were exposed and then pinning and joining of each jacket...

and a days worth of grading and fell stitching, which definitely improves with practice! I remember making my first jacket in Baltimore and coming home and ripping out all my handstitching, I hated it so much. I redid it three times before I would wear that coat!

That was worth the price of admission alone!

Overall, I am pretty far along, but it does make for a boring blog post...apologizes all around :0 and I have a feeling next weeks could be worse. Sleeves are by far the longest process of the whole jacket in my experience.

They have to be pinned from the outside, sewn from the outside across the shoulder and closed from the inside under the arm. You have to line them up, control the seams, include them as sleeve heads...and make sure no lining gets caught up in the process. Then the lining gets graded and folded and more fell stitches are used to close it up....Its not a stress free time... there may be wine involved in this stage!!

I'm going to aim to at least have one finished if possible next week, I need something to keep me moving forward....although the kids only have three days of school this week and the whole weekend is booked solid...

Does anyone else follow Chanel on youtube...they download some remarkable videos, this one had me mesmerized today. Makes me want to run away to Paris and beg for a job... Enjoy!

Audible this week: The cuckoo's calling.

Still reading Kate Mosse all the handsewing in the evenings has taken away valuable reading time...

and can I recommend, and I mean highly highly recommend this:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/tv-season/broadchurch-season-1/id674190653

Hope everyone in the US had a great labor day!

Wishing you all a great week.

Leisa