Garden late April

Spring has come early this year. Everything seems ahead by 2 to 3 weeks, the maples are leafing out, the daffodils are blooming and the tulips will be out in a week or two as well. Last year, it was June before the full display of tulips were out. Snow melted very early and we got a week or two of warm weather, then it plunged back down to near freezing; we are about normal now with daytime highs of around 13 to 15 degrees Celsius; nights can still dip near the freezing mark.

Winter sowing, hmm, the jury is out on that. About half of my bottles have germinated, but not in abundance. There are a couple like baby's breath and sweet william and shasta daisies that have germinated well, but the rest have one, two or three tiny plants braving the conditions to sprout forth. These will remain in the bottles for at least another three weeks before they can be planted out. Our last frost is late May here, so nothing can go into the ground until May 31 or even early June.

Bachelor's buttons

Nigella

Lavatera

Sweet William I planted a couple of bottles with tomato seeds a few weeks ago, one tomato sprouted and promptly died. Good thing I have some seedlings indoors.

Because of Covid, our local Home Hardware store is closed except for pickup. The garden centre is open though and ValuMart also has some plants for sale now. I picked up some creeping phlox at the grocery store and some violas as well. And then I spied a crab apple at Home Hardware that flushes out deep pink flowers. Royal Splendor is the name and I planted it in the very centre of the back yard the other day. It has deep burgundy leaves and will grow 5 metres by 5 metres, perfect for that spot.

The first mail order of plants arrived yesterday, so today I have some planting to do. It's a good day for that, overcast and slightly warm. Time to get to it.

Pad Stitching on lapels

Finished the pad stitching on the jacket lapels. And taped all the edges. Had to improvise as I only had 1" wide tape, and I cut it in half so it had to be catch-stitched closely to control the ravelling. But it should work. Next up is the bound buttonhole. I have opted to make bound rather than hand-worked because I have never successfully made a nice hand-worked buttonhole and one book said that your buttonhole should be good once you have made a hundred of them!

Interfacing progress on Jasika Blazer

I have basted the hair canvas to the fronts of the jacket. And also cut a chest shield to double up the interfacing in the upper shoulder area, this often collapses in a tailored jacket unless you have big pectoral muscles. Since I had already basted the hair canvas to the fronts, I had to baste the extra shield piece carefully by hand to the interfacing only, taking care not to stitch through to the jacket fabric. This could have been machine stitched if I had thought about it beforehand. I have also catch stitched the hair canvas to the shoulder seam. Now I am ready for the pad stitching which should take a bit of time.

Jasika Blazer progress

Getting ready for the big step of pad-stitching. I sewed up the darts in the front and sewed the front jacket pieces to the side panels. I want the hair canvas to be one piece, extending under the arm. Now I am ready to baste the hair canvas to the fabric so that it won't shift during the pad-stitching. And I have to mark the roll line for the lapel. I am also going to sew an extra piece of interfacing at the shoulder to prevent the "caving in" that often happens with jackets in that area. I have also fused a square of interfacing over the area for the welt pockets. This linen is ravelly and I can't see making welt pockets without some fusible there to hold everything together. When in doubt, interface!

The Jasika Blazer

My daughter Rebecca took up sewing in earnest about 2 years ago. I had tried to interest her when she was a young girl of 12, but it didn't take. However she has always loved clothes and fashion, and now being a stay-at-home mom who home-schools her three children, she needed something to challenge her mind and give her something creative to do in her spare time. I suggested she try sewing again. Well, she took off like a shot and made a Vogue blouse as her first project. It wasn't long before she made herself bras as she said store-bought ones are never comfortable. Since then, she has made at least 20 dresses, and about 6 pairs of jeans for herself. This year, she made her husband jeans as well, and then dress pants.

She has also taken up knitting which she loves. Being a mathematician, I think all that counting appeals to her right (left?) side of the brain. I can't count how many sweaters she has made in the past 2 years.

Well recently she said she wanted something challenging and I suggested we sew the same pattern together and encourage one another in the process. We were trying to decide between a tailored jacket and a casual anorak jacket, and the tailored one won out. Rebecca has been readin the blog of Julia Bobbin with avid interest and Julia has discovered traditional tailoring with hair canvas, pad stitching, welt pockets, handmade buttonholes. Her work is incredibly beautiful.

Julia Bobbin

Both of us are impressed with the patterns of Heather Lou of Closet Core Patterns, so Rebecca picked out the Jasika Blazer as our together-project.

Jasika Blazer

So, first off, the muslin. I have some fitting issues, not too many, but some that need to be tackled. So a muslin is always a good idea when making something that requires such an investment of time. I made alterations to the pattern. Shortening all the body pieces by 2 inches as I am only 5'1" tall. And shortened the sleeves 2" as well. The rest can be altered at the hem if needed. I cut size 16 at the shoulders and neckline, and graded out to size 18 for the bust, waist, and hips. I cut size 16 for the sleeves, as my arms are not a fitting problem and the size 18 would be too roomy for me.

I knew that I would need more ease over the tummy area. And I found the greatest alteration on another sewer's blog, she had also made this pattern and found the alteration she needed in a site that deals with alterations for men. Her alteration consisted of slicing up through the pattern from hem to bust, then cutting on the side, and spreading the pattern to give another inch or so across the middle. The cut on the side will allow you to overlap the pattern as you spread it and then you add back any needed length at the bottom of the side seam. This is the same alteration that you make for a fuller bust, only you are doing it at the middle of the pattern instead of at the bust line. It's "bloody brilliant", as the Brits would say.

Unlikely Nest

So I have sewn the front, side and back together. I will add the collar and sleeves later today, but I can see that this is a good muslin already. The only change I have to make is to move my shoulder seam back at the neck. This is something I always need to do, it is the reverse of a forward shoulder seam alteration. I seem to need less length on the back neckline than the pattern gives.

Looking forward to the next step in this journey, cutting out the good fabric and then we are on to the interfacing: hair canvas to be hand catch-stitched at all seams and then pad-stitched to create the lovely roll line of a tailored jacket's lapel. There is something incredibly satisfying about doing something like this, involving slow sewing and taking lots of time to get things right.