Last week I said every Thursday 8PM. I honestly thought it would take a while longer to break that deadline. Cut me a little slack; it’s been a busy week. As a result, do I have the story for you? Sit back, relax, and enjoy a cup of espresso because this is going to be fun.
Yesterday I went to a concert for a certain popular singer, who just so happens to be my all-time favorite artist. Naturally I’ve been looking forward to this day for months. I had plans drafted of my many outfit ideas, the staple piece a leather jacket modeled after one this artist wore at a major music festival this past year. When I got that idea I got super excited for it, because how cool would it be to make that jacket? To actually own it? Thus, I slowly gathered all the supplies through a combination of thrift trips and Amazon, drew up plans for how I wanted the final product to look, and got so caught up with life and responsibilities that were wasting all my time, I had to put this project to the side for a couple months.
I’ll tell you, that worked really well, because come this week, the week of the concert, I had deadlines Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday because college yields nothing if an insane amount of work. Maybe it was a bad time. What could I do but fall so deeply into it? Finally making the jacket that is; my responsibilities, those came second. Tuesday morning, there I was with 48 hours to complete this, all the supplies in front of me, and no clue where to start.
Leather, in case you’re unaware, is an incredibly hard fabric to work with. I didn’t even know why, until I realized that it’s so high-maintenance needing to be hand-stitched. Hand-stitching is something I used to do for small projects when I was 15 and didn’t have a sewing machine. It was definitely not something I was looking to get back into, but I guess that I did it on purpose. Then came the videos on how to saddle-stitch leather. And I’ll say this now, this post is not going to have any exterior links at the end, because I had no idea what I was doing and I went through way too many sources figuring it out.
Pattern drafting. I’ve been there, done that once or twice. Not my favorite thing to do, but not as bad as hand-stitching, which if you can’t tell I severely dislike. So what did I do? I took a jacket pattern from Mood Sewciety and modified it slightly for the look I was going for. Then I began cutting fabric. Saying I was getting ahead of myself’s an understatement, but that wouldn’t be known for at least until all the pieces were sewn together.
Now I had my pieces cut. In came the real challenge of sewing them together to resemble a jacket. Time to practice this saddle-stitch and boy, it’s not that complicated, but it does involve the use of two needles and simultaneously stitching forward and backward. As that’s the thing to do I started with it. I threaded my needles, pinned the pieces together, and began. Midway through those first two pieces, I realized this was not going to be sustainable if I was to finish this by Thursday; I almost found myself in the middle of starting over. I could push all the limits of my stitching prowess, but I was already seeing nights of no sleep coming up so that was just not happening. Ill-advised, I switched to machine stitching.
These were fast times and fast nights. I stayed up late working my sewing machine to its limit. I should also mention I probably wasn’t using the correct needle or feet for the materials I was putting through it. It wasn’t the sharpest tool but it did the trick. I got all my pieces sewn together. I also had to cave and hand-stitch the cuffs and collar since those parts were tricky to get through the machine. So let me give you some advice, after going through all this, give yourself time when you attempt to use a material you haven’t before.
And that was that, I did it. Darling, I’m a mess, but I also finished all my homework in the midst of this nonsense. I might’ve been stupid for doing it, but I’m clever with my time. Sometimes. Looking at it now, this is probably the best thing that I’ve got that I’ve made. Sue me, but I think I have good taste. I think I’ve been pretty seamless about it, so have you guessed the artist yet? If you have your eyes wide open it should become pretty clear. No words here are simply coincidence. We could give it a minute. This post is far from already over, but how many things could I possibly say to make it clearer? I don’t want to sound dumb and poetic, but please, please, please tell ‘em you’ve got it? Sorry, I just can’t stop me. Well even if not hopefully you do know the difference between there, their, and they are. Till next time!