sewing at a snail's pace

So what I said about the Hong Kong finish meaning this jacket would take me three times as long to sew was a bit inaccurate. It's actually turning out to be five times as long, because I have to sew every seam five times! So after working on it for the past week, the current status of my jacket is that I have the front, back, side and shoulder seams done. That's it. :-P Though I am happy with how the finish is turning out. And it turns out that it's a good thing I'm doing a bound seam, because for suedecloth, this fabric frays an awful lot!

See?

The other thing that's taking a good bit of time with this is that I'm actually undoing the textured embroidery on the facings. It's not hard to take that cording off, just a bit time-consuming. But since the nature of this jacket is going to make it be worn more like a shirt, more likely than not, I figured it would be more comfortable against my skin that way. And I still get a bit of the "print" from the lines that stay embedded in the fabric after removing the cording. I kind of like the look of it, actually. Subtle.

Another challenge with this jacket is that for some reason, this fabric does NOT want to press right. I don't know if it's because the Hong Kong finish means I didn't clip a single seam, but they are not lying flat. At all. I even tried turning the heat on the iron up all the way (with a pressing cloth so I didn't melt the fabric), and it's still got a bit of an "I didn't bother to iron this at all" look. That bugs me, but I'm not sure what else to do with it.

I'm hoping I can make some good progress on this tomorrow--things are a bit slow at the garden center in November, and as a result, my hours got cut back even more. So the only day I was scheduled this week was yesterday, and that means I've got some extra time on my hands tomorrow. One thing I have done that's helped is that my sewing machine is currently sitting right next to my computer. So that means I can skim through emails or blog posts while I pin seams, and makes my time somewhat doubly productive. (Or slows both down, but I feel better about doing something else while I'm sitting in front of the computer. Plus then I can just sew for ten minutes here or there where I normally wouldn't.)  I've also decided that my next sewing project is going to be a quick job, to make up for this one!

But I'm hoping it turns out well. It'll ease the pain somewhat of how boring the Burda magazine has gotten. Seriously-- there was nothing in it that I liked this month. Everything was just so shapeless and blah, and I was highly unimpressed. And the one jacket that I sort of liked, it was really nothing that I haven't seen before, and there were no standout details to instantly put it on my must-sew list like the jacket I'm currently making. At least the debate is settled on whether I'm going to renew my subscription once it runs out--not happening. If I like something enough, I'll just buy the individual issues at Barnes & Noble, or download individual patterns from the website.

On a somewhat random note, apparently my last post was my 500th and I missed it. I should probably do something about that. But it's going to have to wait....I just haven't had a chance to think of any cool giveaways or anything yet. And I have to run, because I'm going to a concert tonight and am supposed to leave to meet my bestie...um, now.