The Grey Jacket Makes Progress

To tell you the truth, I was having doubts about this jacket.

I’m making a hooded modular jacket as a sew-a-long project for Zero and Zen, a course I’m co-hosting with Kate Ward (we are already underway, but it’s still possible to sign up HERE).

The first post on this jacket is here. The jacket pattern is from A Year of Zero Waste Sewing, and the free hood update can be found here.

The jacket is sewn, with no issues, and I’m working on the sashiko stitching. It’s always hard to tell exactly how it’s going to look, and as I’m stitching a large area it’s a big investment of time before seeing a return. I’m not really a worrier, but thoughts niggled in the back of my mind….was my stitch length too long? Was the junction where the stitches met too big? Would the guide lines rub off before I got to stitch them? Would I like it? Was I too conservative and safe with stitch choice and placement? Will there be enough thread?

Anyway, two nice things have happened: I began stitching the final row and suddenly the pattern popped out and I liked it!

The other was the discovery that once the foundation grid was stitched, it wasn’t necessary to mark the final lines – I could stitch using my calibrated eyes as a guide. This freed things up as I could confidently lie in bed and stitch.

I did a try-on to see how things were tracking. I’m planning to add a diagonal welt pockets where the paper rectangle is. Does the sashiko need another row of pattern? Maybe the pocket just needs to be a bit lower.

The back view – actually I don’t mind it half done. It looks a bit edgier! But I will continue around.

I’ve almost run out of thread and will have to order some more to finish. I started with a new 100m skein but it won’t be enough.

Onwards!