The Jason Epilogue

Meet Jean-Louis. 

Jean-Louis is a austringer (meaning he hunts with eagles). He is holding a year old Blue Chilean Eagle and modeling his brand new Jason - John G Hardy tweed vest. He is an amazing guy, the kind of person who changes your life when you meet them and Mr C wanted to thank him so I made him a vest.

Pretty good considering I fitted him through Skype. 

If you are a follower of this blog, you know I have been agonizing over the buttonholes, and I am sad to report that I choked. I didn't trust myself to make 7 perfect identical buttonholes.

Jean-Louis has special ordered some pretty hunt buttons for his French Austringer Club and that made me very very nervous, so I corded the buttonholes instead. Cording you say? 

If you've been wondering what's the little thingy in the back and the grooves in the front on your buttonhole foot are for, this is it. It's a cool sewing machine trick which gives some depth and texture to your buttonhole and makes it more durable as well. There is an excellent tutorial here and a PDF there. 

I'll be using this trick again for sure, the result is really neat.

Le Gilet Jason l'Epilogue

Je vous présente Jean-Louis.
Jean-Louis est aiglier (il chasse avec des aigles). Il porte un jeune aigle bleu du Chili et son tout nouveau gilet Jason en tweed John G Hardy. C'est un homme extraordinaire du genre qui peut changer votre vie et Mr C voulait le remercier alors je lui ai fait un gilet.

Ça lui va pas mal, si on considère que j'ai ajusté le gilet par Skype.
Maintenant, si vous suivez ce blog, vous savez que j'ai agonisé sur les boutonnières mais, la triste vérité, c'est que j'ai choqué (pour utiliser un terme marin). Je n'avais aucune confiance en mes capacités de faire 7 boutonnières identiques et parfaites.

Jean-Louis avait commandé des bouton de venerie spécialement pour son gilet et pour les Aigliers de France et ça m'a rendue nerveuse alors j'ai cordé les boutonnières à la machine. Corder?

Si vous vous êtes toujours demandé c'est pourquoi les petits bitonniots derrière et devant votre pied  boutonnière et ben ça sert à ça. C'est un truc génial pour faire de jolies boutonnières durables avec du relief. J'ai trouvé des tutoriels en anglais ici et un pdf ici.
Le résultat est superbe, je vais certainement en faire d'autres.

Désolée! / Sorry!

Désolée, je ne peux pas coudre, toutes mes machines sont occupées! 

Sorry, I can't sew all of my machines are busy!

Margiela Inspired

Trust me, I can make a simple project complicated.

Above is a Maison Martin Margiela handbag called the candy wrapper. When I saw it, I had a sudden urge to make one. I took everything from my stash so no driving around to find the right materials was needed which got bonus will-make-now points on Friday afternoon. 

I was even going to write a tutorial about it, but then, I ran into some troubles which turned a quick crafting project into a major headache caused amongst other things by : the nature of materials on hand, the leather from last year's Jill Sander must make bag which stretched under my industrial machine presser foot, a said sewing machine operator malfunction causing some thread breakage and unsightly leather seam ripping holes, both of which made me loose the will to document the making of the said bag. 

Basically, it's a lapped zipper inserted in a tube sealed on the side by 2 seams and some fabric glue strips. To facilitate the zipper insertion, I recommend using the separating kind. If you are using very thick material for a shell, I recommend paying attention to turn of cloth for the lining which is sewed in the side seams and trimmed. If you are using manmade plastic-like material, use another sort of glue because you will melt your project. And yes! these are my old pinking shears, not the new ones!
I will answer all of your questions in the comments if you want. 

The end result, after a good hour of stretching the leather on a table corner to straighten it is ok. I know I am reeling now because I just finished it and all I can see is the mistakes, but really, give me a couple of days of oversized metallic clutch carrying practice and I'll have forgotten all about the headache.