if you think i am crazy i am pretty sure the cat would agree with you.

photo taken right before he knocked the scissors onto the floor.

this was his response to my morning effort two months ago to cut YET ANOTHER butterick 5952.

but the results, i think, speak for themselves.  honestly, i am not sure if it’s that in jacket #5 i am finally getting into the rhythm of the techniques, or the fact that i altered my techniques using a so-called “shortcut method” billed by threads magazine, but this might be one of my best-constructed pieces to date.

i didn’t completely go for the shortcuts.  for example, i thread-traced my pattern pieces so that i could ensure accurate stripe placement.  i did a lot more fell-stitching than suggested.

my main change was that i assembled the jacket (except for the shoulders) and the lining (ditto), sewed them at the hem and the CF seams WST, and then bagged it out.  i hand-understitched the lining, pressed the hell out of it, and then did my quilting.

the result was the neatest quilting i have accomplished yet as well as a neater hem and CF seam.  also, great psychological boost when, after quilting, having the jacket be 3/4 done instead of facing the wooly mammoth.  the “wooly mammoth” is susan’s term for when the jacket is quilted and the side seams sewn, but the lining seams haven’t been fell stitched closed yet.

i assembled the sleeves the same way, after checking with a muslin for stripe placement, and again got possibly the best chanel-style sleeves i have yet managed.  having the smaller seam allowances actually helped a lot here, as did the fact that i had traced my sleeves using a tracing wheel and wax paper and had a guide on the wrong side of the lining.  (my printed lining was heavy enough that the markings did not show through).  i still haven’t mastered the sleeve insertion, but i did a pretty ok job here and am very pleased with them.  here again i deviated from the shortcut method – inserting my sleeves by hand and finishing the lining by hand.  at this point, i just feel that it gives me the most control over the process, even if my results are still a work in progress.

after that, i just finished up the shoulders and shoulder linings by hand, fell-stitched the neckline closed, and spent the typical 5 hours of hand-sewing to finish up the trim.  this jacket still needs a hem chain, which i have not yet attached, but other than that i’m calling it a winner.

as you may recall i started another jacket using this method and it, too, is near completion.  stay tuned.  and stay warm!  here in the northeastern US, it is hovering around five degrees fahrenheit today, and the heat in my office is broken.

i just noticed that i don’t have a lining photo here.  i will take care of that for all y’all, i promise.