Good finishing touches take almost as long as making the jacket itself. In fact making this jacket was probably quicker than trying to figure out what it was in the first place or the finishing touches.  Unfortunately the linen-type fabric frays dreadfully and all the pieces had to be overlocked separately before putting them together. All except the bottom hem which was in such a delicate state it had to be handled with care, so I decided to finish everything by hand.

I sewed the grey [art] silk lining pieces together on the machine but put the lining in the jacket by hand. I used pure silk thread, silk pins and a very fine needle so that I didn’t leave any unsightly visible marks on the lining itself.

AND FINISH IT I DID! I put the lining in by hand, sewing the sleeves in separately as one is supposed to and made a bound buttonhole. Sadly, no pictures were taken because for a day or two I tweaked and hung and looked and tweaked some more and something wasn’t quite right. Granted it sat perfectly and fitted perfectly if you just tugged a little here and there after putting it on, but who wants to keep doing that? In the end, out came the lining. Primarily to see what the problem was, and then I realised it was the lining itself, or rather the fact that this wasn’t designed to be a lined jacket and therefore the added lining made it hang slightly differently. That’s my conclusion anyway, probably way off beam, but taking the lining out suddenly made all the difference. I have to say that the lining was cut from the pattern pieces themselves, so were in no real way different from the jacket, but hey ho! I now have an unlined linen-y type jacket to go over Summer skirts and dresses. For something that was meant to  be a toile in the first place I am quite happy. I have plans for a second one, this time with a little more fitting as this one is a little bit on the biggish side.

Meanwhile back to my original plan of the skirt in the same material. That is currently in progress and should be finished and lined in a day or two and then I will take some photos of the complete ‘ensemble’ ~ having said that they weren’t meant to be such and probably won’t be worn together too often.

I also have changes to my sewing table which I need to show, something in my mind for a while at last coming to fruition. I am always looking for ways to organise and keep things under control, sometimes I feel I’m winning other times I know I’m not! Somehow that adds to the appeal for me. Back soon.