Pocket Zippers Need Tabs. They Just Do

 I've done this before, but let's see the new ones I made and didn't use!

This is one of the interior pocket zippers. They're the plastic toothed ones.

Interior pockets need tabs. For grabbing, for not snagging on your sweater, to keep the assembly from disassembling.  I like to put the novelty ribbons to work on this, but this ribbon is getting some use in other parts of the coat so let's use it like a grace note and repeat it just enough.

I do most of this by hand, because zippers are squirrely and like to scramble away from the presser foot.

There was a zipper pull emergency once, and someone had to give up their pull.

I have replacement ones now, I can make a quick one with Sugru (or a two part epoxy, or a big glob of hot glue) wrapped around a paperclip) when I finally use this one.

Gets a little machine sewing. It makes tinier stitches than I can.

Mark it to match the first one for length.

I am pointing to where I did not sew through the teeth. That does not work.

I cut out the teeth and glued the stub

and this shows you how the tape goes past the teeth on the wrapping tape

GLUE

Hello Twins (fraternal not identical)

Hand basting into the pocket opening

Ready for my closeup

Okay, there is puckering (at the top)

All this and - I switched the exterior fabric up and did't use them!

Winter Coat wrap up: Can be seen from space

 Finishing the coat took a long time. I just didn't have any extended period of time to sit with it and get it all done, so sewing in five minute chunks would have to do

the quilting was too big for the exterior, so I trimmed it down

I open up the pins and hang them on the edge. As this went on, I hung them with the heavier bits on the inside of the bowl.

Yes, it's huge, even without hood or cuffs or hem. It's all held together with safety pins

This is the time when the coat is just dragging itself off the table and trying to break free.

I need to set up on the big work table when I do this stuff, and I just.... don't. 

I like the checkered flag tape. 

My zipper is weird: at the bottom, the insert pin is on the right (my left) and the retaining box is on the left (my right). I am used to inserting the pin with my right hand, and this is backwards and I can see a day where I rip this zipper out because of it. My brain is not happy with this.

https://www.ykkfastening.com/products/zipper/s_zipper.html  What a zipper is supposed to be

I made cuffs for the previous version remodel out of socks and it worked really well. I'm only using the part above the heel, folded in on itself, and not using the cuff.

This part, where I sew the sock ribbing to the end of the sleeve, took a ridiculous number of tries to get it right. And I unpicked it all every time I redid it. Picking black thread out of a black sock is really hard on the eyes, but really good for the profanity.

Added the end piece of fabric (also a lot of undoing and redoing)

Flipped up

It's over stretched but it keeps out the wind well enough

It sinks way in there

I had to pull it over a 2 by 6 piece of wood to get the basting properly done

I also had to remove the hood and redo it so that the collar is wider - it's still more snug than I would like, and I need to put something on the inside of the top of the placket to keep it from poking me in the neck.

Oh, you can see me coming alright

Homemade bias trim from rayon lining to cover neck seam

Cuffs need a something: this will wear out the fastest but is easily replaced

It wants to be free; the rest of the coat is crawling away

I wore it out today; the prequilted lining is really stiff and this is noisy and I am mammoth in it. 

The zips in the outside pockets are annoying, so I will unpick the single welt and either add a wider flap or just remove the zippers.

Clearly I am not staying on top of my blogging, but I am going to continue. I do post on instagram when they aren't blocking me from posting (there's a couple other faux Ernie accounts and I could put a stop to it if I paid for my account and got a blue star).

Also, fyi: this coat is not THAT fluorescent in person. I did get some OH MY comments from strangers today, but there are so many construction workers in Seattle I kinda fit in.

I will add a photo of me standing on my front steps (the fluorescent green ones) to complete my  story.

Not enough hours in the day

 I started drafting this on the second week of February.

I started cutting this soft boucle cardigan jacket out the third week of February
It really has been drafted and assembled in ten minute bites. 
There's just not enough time. 

Because I knew I was going  to use this boucle knit for this, and I wanted pockets AND I don't like lumpy seam facings, I decided to put the side seams forward and put the pockets into those seams.

I might be stealing this entire jacket design from a Uniqlo one I got during lockdown, mashed up with a Uniqlo vest I got this year.

I mean, it's my MO, borrowing like a magpie.

Overlapping pieces to get seams to match. And the pocket is much larger than that little shape I drew.

Needed to add sleeve cap height, thus the added piece and the measuring tape.

Hoping I remember to add the seam allowances to these pieces.

Think I did okay. And yes, on some places I added a seam allowance. This did not bite me this time.

(shakes fist at the sky - not today, Satan!)

I'm making a jacket out of a knit, and I shrank about a yard of petersham ribbon to use in seams to keep them stable (the pocket welt, the front opening)

Using petersham ribbon from the stash to reinforce the front edges (like a sweater)

And using the same for the pocket openings

Cut out a shirt (Kaufmann Essex speckled linen) as a break

and it's just hanging out in the sewing room waiting for me to finish it between homework assignments for the last class for the certificate. Is it too warm for this right now?

NO ITS STILL WINTER IN APRIL