Technical Difficulties Plague Ophelia Overalls

Warning: black corduroy overexposed for details.

They are too big. But yes, I can get my arms in there, with room to spare. 

Yes, this is my Ophelia overalls post.

Yes, I have been dragging my feet on it.

Supplies gathered and ready to go.

 I paid retail, baby.  And yes, I started on them February 20th. Yes, today is March 24.

You know, when you're working on something, and it's really fun and you have a plan and it's going great. Really great.
I changed up the side pockets, I added a zip to the bib pocket, I lined the bib and the straps.

Did I mention the straps were lined? I would not want to forget to mention that.

And that topstitching? Ow, I hurt myself, it was sooo good.

Inspiration overalls that no longer fit me. Leaving with Blondini, who is that thin.

And then one damn thing after another happens? 

And It. Just. Grinds. To. A Halt.

overexposed because black corduroy

It's a couple of things. Not the instructions or the style lines. I'm loving those.

It's the buttons and the straps and the overall width.

Yeah, that's what we got here.

There's nothing wrong with the pattern...

I saved up the hardware and top stitching thread in a project bag. These bags have plastic hooks on the top. This has been hanging on the wall in the cave for months and months. 

The problems started with the fasteners.

I was pretty sure I had used these jeans buttons before, without errors.

You're drunk, button. Go home.

And they just kept failing. The shank of the nail would not go into the hole in the button with moderate hammering. The shank would bend and fail first before it would go in - it preferred folding to going into the hole.The next step was wailing on them with a bigger hammer.
That trick never works.

I had to crank on them with a wrench to finally close them.

Which after awhile means I get irritated and sloppy and I don't take as much care to not make marks on the face of the button.

And then they looked wrong, making the strap bend out strangely.

I had lost my wrench with the leather facing on the teeth (prevents tooth marks on metals).

I needed to make another.

I did make another. You glue/sew on leather over the teeth on the faces. This is how long I've been stalling on finishing this post and these overalls.

I made bound buttonholes to fit the jeans buttons.

They are holes with a lot of stuff around them. I can pick them all out, but there's still that hole. A not insignificant hole.

I removed the jean buttons.

They will not go quietly - I have a pair of end cutting pliers

They are just able to cut the nail off , just below the head. There's enough space in there to do it.

And I did. I replaced them with  sew-on shank buttons and redid the buttonholes as per the directions.

The buttons are huge and when I put the overalls on, the buttons feel like they are on the wrong face. And this is following the directions.

Wonky side opening mismatch before it mysteriously resolved itself

I had a question about how the side closures would work for me (as written, they are a set of tabs with a slider buckle joining them), but decided I would just progress with the project and come up with a solution as I worked towards the problem.

I did not come up with that solution.

I like the look of the straps and buckle, but between the button and snaps at the side opening, and that buckle, there's too much stuff going on the sides that I won't be able to manipulate properly. I won't be able to rethread the buckle closed.

I just don't bend that way very well. 

partial tab or full tab? No, this is not up for a vote

I know that I can come up with a solution that will work for me and retain some part of the style element that I like.  The way that gather makes the top of the pocket bend outwards is very attractive to my eye. I changed the side panels and pockets and retained that look. I'm kind of committed to this feature.

Yes, I am round. I do go in at the middle a bit more than you'd think looking at these, but I'm okay with that. And no, I'm not likely to get better photos of me in these. The photographer is on strike.

They are very comfortable, but they are very very big. I cut them in the size per the envelope, and I've got a couple of cats worth of space leftover in there (I'd say I have five more inches of ease that I need, and I like em baggy). And that's with half the side panels gathered and pinned in place. 

I like things baggy but maybe a few inches less baggy? And the photographer is going back on strike. The look on my face is: "Just take the picture. Why are you so close? Can't you back up or something so I can edit this the way I want it?

I trimmed the leg seams in about an inch or so before cutting the pattern. I CARVED down the legs on the inside seam after I tried them on. They are still very baggy, but proportionate to the piece. I am thinking I want to cuff them to make them come in a little more at the ankle.

I changed the pocket significantly.  I will make another pair of these and illustrate what I did. Or just make another post showing that with drawings. But not today.

I am going to take out several inches in the hip by cutting out that side seam. I don't know that I will get that topstitching down the side again. I will probably retain a vestigial amount of side tab.  Just for grins, maybe with a snap. Probably not. 

Meanwhile, I have been wearing them around the house. I have other work to occupy my brain, and doing other things sometimes shakes loose a good solution.

Or a good enough solution. 

Mending Sweaters, Mostly

Winter is sweater mending time.
"Where did you store this? How many holes?"
Not all of the mended are shown in this post

(mostly because most of them were black, and you can't see a damn thing).

Which is good. 
Photos lightened to show embarassing results

The first one is always dodgy. My duplicate stitch is not my strong suit.

 Then I lighten up the task, and it's more fun

There are many wiser folks working this topic.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/sep/22/how-to-mend-moth-holes

Sadly, the iron-on moth patches are in short supply.
I don't have photos of the striped 'black hole' sweater but it looks like.....black holes all over. Not my choice, but I enjoyed the process, and they loved the results.

https://visiblemending.com/
has much mending goodness. And a Russian version of the Speedweve.

There is kind of a cult around the SpeedWeve.

https://tomofholland.com/category/darning/page/1/

https://tomofholland.com/2011/06/23/the-speedweve-lancashires-smallest-loom-directions-for-use/

They are not inexpensive. 

Yoinks.

I almost bought one of these at Value Village, and left it there because I was unclear on what it was. And someone else bought it with screaming glee, I am sure.

That's cool. 

I left a Rocketeer Singer there too.

I cannot own everything.

photo lightened to show actual lace tatting bit sewn onto hole.

The holes are one thing. The snags are another.

I have yet to use the Snag Nab It. It's like a really tiny drill bit that catches the snag so you can pull it through to the wrong side (no hook). 

We're going to use the tiny knit hook tool.

"A Spendid Tool For The True Craftsman"

(spelling error retained) 

I wonder how many things I've bought that hooked me with a similar line.

Snag isolated.

Poke in from wrong side. Grab snag loop.

Pull loop to wrong side. 

I know, you can't really see it. I had a lot of these to fix, so this is a compilation of Snag Greatest Hits In Green.

I've got them in red and brown as well.

Pick up some back of the stitch loops with a sharpish needle that has a largish eye. Whichever one you have, it won't be perfect but it will be good enough.

Pull snag through needle eye with threader.

Work snag into back side of knit stitches with needle

Work it back and forth to make it not stick up.

Resist the urge to cut it. That won't end well.

Repeat on the gazillion other snags on his sweaters.

Last but not least, there's just putting a rivet into a bag to repair a broken strap.

Oh no, make me go into Tandy's and buy stuff!

I figured out that I could buy two sizes of rivets, in two finishes
and one set of rivet caps in a third finish.
Which gives me three options on the finished side.

We swapped the mend for a Tiny Mars in a jar

I am leaving off the unders mending for another post as part of the 

#remakenine2019 both here and on Instagram.

The Green Violet started it! Go check it out!

https://thegreenviolet.com/