Why don't I have an ARRRRGH icon?
A while ago, I made myself an underbust corset, embroidered chemise (from a period pattern!), and a Victorian-styled skirt as part of a steampunky outfit. The whole outfit was designed with a bolero-type thing to go on top, but I never quite got around to that. I made a pattern from my most favoritest jacket, and cut out all the pieces (except, puzzlingly, the second part of the sleeve...), but they never got put together. Well, after going through my fabric, I decided that it was ridiculous and I was just going to sew that shit up, no problem.
Well, maybe one problem. Maybe a couple.
The first problem? Despite my massive fabric stash, and despite having made myself a corset, I am really not a seamstress. Or a tailor. Or anything else vaguely professional-sounding when it comes to sewing. I just sort of... make it up as I go along. I know the basics, sort of. But 90% of my sewing projects are fraught with expletives and seams that I have to take out at least once. So I should have known it wasn't going to be easy.
The second problem? I have never made anything remotely like a jacket before. I mean, I suppose a vest is sort of like a jacket, except it doesn't have a collar. Or... you know. Sleeves. A blouse does have both, but the blouse I made had a mandarin collar, and it was made to be buttoned up to the top, unlike a jacket that has lapels designed to be folded outward.
A few months back I did manage to get my hands on a Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Sewing, old-school and awesome edition, and that was a big help for the order in which to put everything together. But I was still using a lot of expletives. And then it came to the part where I attach the collar and lapel facings.
Holy mother of Mithras. What a pain. Since I was working from a pre-existing jacket, and not a real pattern, my pieces were a bit... vague. And vague is not what you want in that situation. There's a whole turn-of-cloth thing going on, and I still am unsure how the facing and the front of the jacket are supposed to match up. They are exactly the same shape on the existing jacket, but when I tried to pin them together... not so much. FABRIC, HOW DOES IT WORK?
It doesn't matter, because it is done now (well, the collar and lapels). Next will be the sleeves, though. *shivers* I... I don't want to think about the sleeves.
And, and, in other news, watching the Person of Interest repeat last night, I saw the MOST ADORABLE CBS promo ever. All in a nice shade of blue, the CBS eye turns into a camera lens, which shows us little adorable silhouettes of Reese and Finch. Finch limps toward the screen, and then we get the camera lens again, and back to the eye. Awwwwwwwww. I may have to pull out the shirt stenciling supplies and make a PoI shirt, because it was just too adorable. Thank you CBS. And props, unknown CBS designer(s). You win an internet. No, here, have three.