Break time
Sep. 9th, 2007 03:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stitchwhichIt's hard to make myself stop stitching when I'm on a roll but I've forced myself to walk away from the kitchen table where my project is sitting. Tendinitis of the sewing hand dictates my regime.
There's a hard deadline of October 21st - I've got to have it done by then. It's my new "Viking era coat" to take the place of the one I gave to a freezing couple at MTA last March. They hadn't finished their garb and were sitting outside, in the snowfall(!) with nothing on but their 'undies' while they stitched their outer wear. Their group leader had left them hanging in the breeze. Probably as a lesson - they'd had a year to prepare - but still...
Anyway. I'm sewing. A nice thick wool coat of 1/3 goathair. It's a loose weave, though, and boy am I paying for it. This is how it goes:
1 - Sew the seam using three running stitches followed by a backstitch (the number of running stitches is determined by the length of the needle and the thickness of the cloth).
2 - Open the seam and stitch each raw edge down each side. You have now sewed the same seam three times.
3 - Flop it over to the outside and using wool thread, stitch a close series of cross-stitches down the seam, making sure that you have covered the seam completely. This will allow the wool thread to felt to the ground cloth and keep the seam from coming undone years from now.
4 - turn it over again. Stitch the lining in with a close whipstitch.
Now repeat for each seam. For the whole coat. Don't forget to run a series of stitches down the lining on the inside edges of each opening so the wool will lay flat on the edges. Oh, and for good measure, since it is so thick and the linen is so much thinner in comparison, quilt a few lines down the middle of each pattern piece to keep them aligned.
Someday, maybe I'll have a coat. Assuming my wrists hold out. And don't even think about asking me if I'm going to embellish this sucker!
There's a hard deadline of October 21st - I've got to have it done by then. It's my new "Viking era coat" to take the place of the one I gave to a freezing couple at MTA last March. They hadn't finished their garb and were sitting outside, in the snowfall(!) with nothing on but their 'undies' while they stitched their outer wear. Their group leader had left them hanging in the breeze. Probably as a lesson - they'd had a year to prepare - but still...
Anyway. I'm sewing. A nice thick wool coat of 1/3 goathair. It's a loose weave, though, and boy am I paying for it. This is how it goes:
1 - Sew the seam using three running stitches followed by a backstitch (the number of running stitches is determined by the length of the needle and the thickness of the cloth).
2 - Open the seam and stitch each raw edge down each side. You have now sewed the same seam three times.
3 - Flop it over to the outside and using wool thread, stitch a close series of cross-stitches down the seam, making sure that you have covered the seam completely. This will allow the wool thread to felt to the ground cloth and keep the seam from coming undone years from now.
4 - turn it over again. Stitch the lining in with a close whipstitch.
Now repeat for each seam. For the whole coat. Don't forget to run a series of stitches down the lining on the inside edges of each opening so the wool will lay flat on the edges. Oh, and for good measure, since it is so thick and the linen is so much thinner in comparison, quilt a few lines down the middle of each pattern piece to keep them aligned.
Someday, maybe I'll have a coat. Assuming my wrists hold out. And don't even think about asking me if I'm going to embellish this sucker!
