What I did with my melted collar

Whew!  I got a little over my head the past few days what with my birthday and preparing to host like 30 people for a Seder dinner tomorrow.  My brain’s been stuck in flashback mode from my former catering planning days–very fun, but also all consuming.  So while I’ve had the jacket finished for about 2 weeks, I haven’t gotten around to writing about it properly until now (which is funny because it was something like 86 today!).

Thank you all who contributed to helping me decided about my melted collar.  As I let the jacket hang for a couple of days in the sewing closet, I came to agree with all of you–the pieced collar didn’t look all that weird.  So I sewed it on in and finished off the jacket.  And now I can present you the final jacket!

Burdastyle 12-2009-111

I made this up in a really pretty cotton twill from Denver Fabrics.  I was going to use wool for this jacket, but the realization that Spring was going to come quick and fast here dawned on me, so I went for the cooler cotton (that it was $5/yd vs. the $18/yd that the mint green wool I was eyeing probably pushed me over the edge).  It has a soft, brushed surface and a pretty drape.

I scored bigtime with the lining.  I’m always looking for prints to put in for lining.  I feel like if you’re bothering to sew a jacket, you might as well make it interesting.  After scouring the silks, the flat folds of polys (I did find a nice abstract floral that also would have worked), I found this print buried in the general flat folds that they have at DF.  It feels and sews very much like rayon Bemberg, but I haven’t done a burn test to confirm this.  But the print kills me–such lovely floaty feathers.  I love birds, and I’m so so happy that feather and bird prints are in right now.  The salmon and vermillion really go well with the blue–even if I’m the only one who notices or knows that it’s there.

I decided not to topstitch the collar as the faux leather proved difficult to work with in my machine.  Even with my nonslip feet, there was enough drag on the leather to make some dragging stress marks.  I also couldn’t take advantage of my friend Linda’s genius idea to piece the collar with a zipper in the seam because the “leather” tears apart when you try to pick out stitches.  I think I have a lot to learn in the way of spotting quality faux leathers vs. cheap ones.

It’s probably good that I put in the zippered welts before the collar incident because I don’t know that I would have had the heart to try after it.  The pattern just has you make a narrow little window around the zipper typical of most zippered welts and then topstitch around it in a big window.  Instead, I followed the advice of Ron Collins on the little extra DVD in Sandra Betzina’s Power Sewing Toolbox v. 2 and made it into a wide double welt with a zipper centered between the faux leather welts.  I’ve never had a welt pocket that I was really proud of, but these suckers turned out great.  Ron Collins is a great teacher, and it was entirely unstressful and simple (even with heavy brass zippers) to do this pocket with his instructions.

This was the first separating zipper I’ve put in.  I can’t believe how easy it was.  You sew one side to CF, and the other face down along the raw edge which will get flipped over as it’s sandwiched between the facing.  It was not a problem that my zipper was too long either because the tops of the zippers were covered on the left by the shoulder yoke and on the right by the top of the facing.  I still made a thread stop at the top of both sides, but really I didn’t need to.

I unfortunately cut the belt a little too narrow for my buckle, so I folded it to the right width and covered over where my raw edges couldn’t meet with bias tape which sadly shredded after I added the eyelets.  Can I rant a little about Dritz eyelets?  They only have one part, so after you smash them, they will not cover whatever hole you made to make room for them (presumably even if you didn’t have to cover over your mistake with bias tape).  Gross.  The belt looks fine from the right side, but I imagine I’ll have to remake it at some point.

The rivets are leftover from my jeans, that I bought from Cawaiiland.  They have lots of super fun accessories for really reasonable prices.

I made shoulder pads out of fusible fleece via this tutorial.  I did it without the toxic-o-rama spray glue and instead tacked down the layers with some quick basting stitches on my machine.  I will do this again as it makes for a pad with minimal height but good shaping–my preference indeed.

If you add the sleeve facing and the shoulder yokes per the pattern, it’s a little tricky lining up the topstitching lines.  You are forced to do this in the round, which super stinks.  To get the lines to line up, you end up with a hair too much ease in the sleeve cap.  I ended up with one teeny tiny pleat on the back of the sleeve cap just past the top of the sleeve.  Miraculously, I ended up with the same pleat in the other sleeve, so I left itbsx.  If you make this, either leave out the sleeve facing or I’d suggest adding 5/8″ SA on the bottom of the shoulder yokes and facing, and only fold back 1/4″ on the shoulder yokes before you topstitch.  This will place the topstitching lines a little further down the armscye on either side, so you’ll have more room around the sleeve to distribute the extra fullness smoothly.

I will save my “winter fox” faux fur that I was going to use for an extra detachable collar for when it’s not 86 degrees outside.  I was hoping to finish this jacket so I could get some use out of such a collar, but it’s not going to happen this season.  Expect this jacket to resurface with a collar out of this at some point though.  Even without the fur, I still think that the jacket is in the spirit of the Wardrobe Basics Sew Along.

There’s a funny little bit in the magazine about the jacket (you German speakers, it’s always my question–is this text as funny in the German version, or is it just bad translation on the part of Burda?):  “I can go anywhere in my biker jacket!  It’s perfect for walks in the woods or jaunts through the asphalt jungle.”  I couldn’t agree more.

My full review is here.

The T-shirt Project: #1 The Cabi Gather Tee knockoff

Dust off your sergers, ladies!!  The T-shirt Project is officially underway.

Lori of Girls in the Garden and the Sew Forth Now podcast turned me onto Cabi.  They have some great designs in such bright happy colors.  Browsing their site, I was drawn to this tee (despite perhaps it just being plain old white and not the aforementioned bright happy colors).

It’s more or less a v-neck with a center panel and gathers right in the bust area along the panel.  It looked simple enough in form, so I thought it would be a good first project for The T-Shirt Project as well as a chance to try out some simple drafting.  Here’s my version:

To make your own, you will be dividing the front of your t-shirt into 2 sections.  Here’s the process:

1. I traced a front from my TNT t-shirt (Jalie 2921–scarf collar top).  Knowing that that pattern is low without the scarf collar, I raised CF by 1/2″.
2. Measure between your bust at your full bust line.  Divide this measurement by 2.  For me, that works out to 3/4″ or 1 1/2″ total between the girls.  Make a mark on your pattern at this point.
3. Make another mark 1/2″ from CF at the top of the neckline.  Connect the two points extending through to the hem.  The curve of the neckline is part of the center panel, so don’t do anything to change that.  You will end up with a wedge shaped piece.
4. Cut apart your pattern along this line and add seam allowance on either side of the line (I used 1/4″ which is my preference for knits since I serge all of my knits).
5. Having the benefit of a TNT, I tried one of my previous versions and marked the top of my bust and the bottom of my bust with pins at CF.
6. On my pattern because of my cheaty FBA that I do of bumping out to a larger size just at my full bust and coming back under it, I know where my full bust level is–I made a mark perpendicular to the grainline at CF along this line.  I transferred the marks from step 4 to the pattern.  These are the points at which you’ll add the fluff to gather in the next step.
7. From each of the three points you’ve marked (top of the bust, full bust, bottom of bust), draw a line perpendicular to the grainline.  Slash the pattern along these lines, stopping before you get to the side seam seam line.
8. Spread these lines open vertically as much as you want.  I spread open the top bust line 5/8″, the full bust line 3/4″ and the bottom bust line by 3/8″.  I could have made all of these wider to get more dense gathers, but for this version, I tried this.
9. Fill in the empty space with tissue and tape away.
10. True up the line that will attach to the CF panel.
11. That’s it!  Use your back and sleeve from your TNT pattern* and you’re set.

To construct:

1. Cut out your pieces as normal, transferring the top, full, and bottom bust points to the CF side of your side fronts.
2. Run a gathering stitch at 3/8″, 1/2″, and 5/8″.  Pull up the stitches to gather, centering the most gathers around the full bust marking.
3. Gently lay each side front section against the CF panel and adjust the gathers to fit, but don’t sew yet.
4. Gently lay some clear elastic in the seam allowance of the gathered area and baste it into place.  Take out the other gathering stitches.  The elastic will hold the gathers in place and it will be easy to take out the gathering stitches, and plus, they won’t get caught up or shift when you’re sewing the side fronts to the center panel in the next step.
5. Sew or serge the center panels to the side fronts with the gathered side down.  I highly recommend flatlocking this seam–flatlocking is part of the original Cabi shirt, and the flatlocked seam will lay flat wheras a serged seam will be a little more bulky.  To flatlock, you can look over my notes here.  Regardless of how you serge the panel, press towards the side fronts.
6. Sew the rest of your shirt as usual.  I added a binding.  If you’ve never done that, this is an awesome tutorial.  Sarah Veblen Threads Knit Binding Tutorial (the only optional step in binding is basting it into place.  It seems fiddly to do so, but I’ve found that I get a smoother binding since I’m not trying to stretch it while I’m serging it, and if you baste it first, you can adjust it if it’s too long or short).
7. If you’d like to add ruching to the sleeves on the inside of the wrists like the original tee, you can do this easily with some clear elastic.  To do this, I drew a line perpendicular to the hem 4″ long on the inside of each wrist on the right side of the fabric.  From the wrong side of the sleeve, I stretched a piece of clear elastic (from Pam Erny–don’t try to use clear elastic from JoAnn, you’ll cry) behind this line and stitched it into place with a 3-step zigzag while stretching it a lot.

*I’m planning a post about finding and getting a TNT for a t-shirt if you haven’t found one to work for you or have no idea what I’m talking about.

I also have a pattern review of this shirt here.

That’s my #1 for The T-shirt Project.  I get extra bonus points too because this white shirt fits into the Wardrobe Basics Sew Along too.  What about you all?  Have a t you’re working on?  Post it to this Flickr group I put together for everyone.

Also, Denver Fabrics has rayon knits on sale this week.  They have lots of good basic solids and the quality is good.  There’s also some fun prints including this one which I almost ordered a couple of weeks ago in another [better] colorway, but it sold out while I was making my order people.  Sad.

The T-shirt project–make it work for you

So an update before we get going with The T-shirt Project on Wednesday.

First off, the badge is linking properly now, so feel free to grab it and add it onto your blog.

The guidelines that I set up in the original post are for me.  I would call myself an intermediate sewist looking for a challenge.  I’m ready to look at the larger design world and incorporate details I see because I know how they’re put together now.  Drafting also seems less daunting because I know what I’m looking at when I see pattern pieces.

If you’re not there, or you’re beyond it, all the better.  We all learn differently and approach the same problem from a different perspective.  My hope for this project is to collect a group of people to encourage each other to work with knits and to realize some possibilities in doing so.  If you want to make 12 t-shirts that are identical in form but different in color and maybe texture, go for it.

If you want to make a Grecian draped wedding dress in bamboo jersey, that’s awesome too.

We all have something to bring to the party.  Speaking of which, I fixed the badge for the sew along so that it links properly.

On the table is a hack of this Cabi t-shirt.

I’m doing the final fitting right now and I’ll get us started on Wednesday with the details of it.

The t-shirt project

Pinterest has an odd way of helping you bring your thoughts together.  Physical inspiration walls do the same, but because it’s more of a time investment, it’s harder to see the obvious connections of how things that you are drawn to are related.  As I’ve seen my own boards fill up, a big light bulb went off for me, and I want to share it with you here.

I love knits.  I think once you start sewing with them, it’s hard not to.  They’re forgiving, they’re easy to sew, and they feel good to wear.  To boot, they sew up so quickly.  From cutting to wearing, it’s rare that a t-shirt, even a complicated one takes longer than 90 minutes for me to make.  After a long multi day project, nothing feels more mentally refreshing than sewing up a t-shirt.  And I never seem to have enough of those t-shirts made out of my beloved knits.

You can wear a t-shirt over, under or on top of nearly any other garment.  They can be as basic or as wildly complicated as you can dream.  Do you want to match a t-shirt to a skirt or a jacket?–you can do that with more ease and far less out of pocket than your shoes.

RTW t-shirts are often cheap and plentiful, so why make them?  Well, I find RTW colors insipid and the fit *terrible*.  It’s one of the things that drove me to sew in the first place.  And while more expensive RTW does give you some more style options, I certainly am not going to spend $60 on one t-shirt, especially when I know that it takes about a yard of fabric.  You can buy swanky (like Missoni) swanky fabric for less than that.

My idea?  I want to write about t-shirts.  I’d like to write about categories of t-shirts (the henley, the boatneck, the v-neck etc.), look at patterns and RTW inspirations within those categories and figure out how to make them all come together.  And I straight up want to knock off designer t-shirts, not because I want to have that look so much as I’m looking for a challenge.  I have a TNT pattern, so why not manipulate it to its utmost?

So maybe you would like a challenge too.  Will you join me in The T-shirt Project.  Here’s the guidelines:

• Once a month:  I’m going to take a t-shirt a month for the next year and see how that all goes.  I might make more, but I do doubt that I will make less.  I’ll probably post more often than that.
• Unique:  I’m aiming for 12 unique, different t-shirts.  I’m not one to have the same garment in a rainbow of colors for the same reason that my pantry is filled with such disparate ingredients as nuoc mam and reserva Sherry vinegar…I like variety.
• Inspired:  It’s too easy to get into the rhythm of picking up a new pattern and sewing in a bubble.  But if creativity is one reason we sew, let’s start with it.  Follow my t-shirt variant board on Pinterest and let’s bounce ideas off each other.  Let’s look at RTW sources and see what we can add or how we can make them better.

So what say you?  Are you in?  I’ve never organized any kind of sew along before, but this, I’m passionate about.  So passionate that I even made a badge:

We can start officially next Wednesday.

10 minute full slip tutorial

Lining a dress is a good thing.  It cuts down on wrinkling, gives the dress the right amount of body, and makes the dress more opaque.  Besides the added expense of lining a dress, there are times when it is not convenient or complicated to line a dress.  In those cases, slips are a good alternative.

My St. Patrick’s Day dress for instance is a good candidate for a slip.  With the multiple panels on the front, and the added gathering in those panels, making a lining as is from the pattern pieces would increase the bulk considerably.  I could draft a stand-alone front lining, but that would require more work than it’s probably worth.

But there are few knit slips that aren’t some sort of girdle (you can euphemize them by calling them Spanx, but girdles they be).  Since I wear enough crossover bodice dresses that require a little bit more front coverage, I’ve been wanting a camisole/slip combo.  Then I could wear as a slip or could peek out under the dress without looking too underwear-like.  It occurred to me that I could just sew on a skirt to an existing camisole, which is just what I did.

10 minute full slip

You will need:

• An existing well-fitting camisole (I’ve had this one for more years than is probably kosher from Forever 21)
• Knit dress pattern with a straight skirt (Burdastyle 6-2010-109, BWOF 2-2007-123 maybe) or a-line if you wear more of those types of dresses
• additional knit fabric (I used some great 4 way stretch nylon tricot which I love for lining because it’s comfortable and hangs very well
• tracing wheel
• 2 pins
• marking pen (optional)

How to put it together

• Put on your camisole under whatever dress you are looking to use the slip with.
• With 2 pins, mark where the bottom of the camisole hits on each side seam of your dress.
• Take off the dress and transfer those marks to the skirt portion of your pattern.
• Draw a line connecting the two points on the front and back of the skirt.
• Using the tracing wheel, trace that line onto your lining fabric for the front and back pieces as well as the hemline.
• Use a marking pen to darken the tracing wheel marks if it’s difficult to see them.
• Add a seam allowance to the top of the skirt portions, and subtract about 2″ from the hemline (I have a rotary cutting guide that allows me to do this in one step, but you can easily mark with a ruler).
• Cut out your front and back pieces.
• Sew the side seams.
• Sew the skirt to the camisole (you could unpick the hem for a smoother look or not if you’re short on time).
• Finish the bottom of the skirt–I used a rolled hem on my serger for a fast, unbulky finish.

I can say that this is the most comfortable slip I’ve ever owned and a good way to repurpose camis that have outlived their first purpose.

St. Patrick’s Day dress

While thinking about the Wardrobe Basics Sew Along, I was at first sad to see an LBD on the list, but felt much better when the video segment included a print dress.  Print knit dresses are basics for me–I love that you can toss one on plus a great necklace and you’re done.  I feel like black dresses do nothing to express the aqua I feel in my soul, plus black is a really severe color against my skin and hair.

This particular dress is Burdastyle 6-2010-109.  It sewed up really easily (minus a little wonkiness in CF) and it fits fine (the neckline for being a Burda v-neck is not revealing at all) , there’s just one issue.  Um, the dress’ “parts” are not where mine are.  It’s not like I wasn’t warned.  But still, I decided to give this dress a shot because it took very little fabric and only has 4 pattern pieces.  I’m glad that this print is really busy because it hides a lot of the saggy weirdness below my waist, and I really like the color.  I sewed in some ties made from scraps into the side seams to cover the sags, but it’s really difficult to see it because of the print.

I’ve been making a lot of things with belts lately, but still this was a good and easy fix even if I’m the only one who knows the problem with this dress.

It also occurred to me that I didn’t need to bother with making another jacket (to replace the puffy vest which is a rather unappealing style to me) because this jacket that I made in the fall

works really well.  I wore it today to a dear friend’s baby shower with the dress.

My full review is here.  Have a good St. Patrick’s Day.  Wear something happy and green!

My iron is evil: a reader’s poll

At some point it will happen to you.  You end up melting a piece of fabric when you don’t have enough extra to replace it and you’re about 70% through your garment.  Today it happened to me:

That would be the faux leather on the collar of my mostly finished motorcycle jacket.  I had my press cloth over the interior of the collar as I was getting ready to press it and the iron grabbed the unprotected outside.  Forget that it happened, the question now is what to do about it.  I didn’t have enough faux leather left over after my welt pockets to cut another collar, so my options are thus:

1.  Sew the collar in the jacket body fabric.  Not to sway any opinions, but it’s a motorcycle jacket, right?  There’s brass zippers and faux leather welt pockets–it kind of needs the leather on the collar to keep that edge going.

2.  Piece the collar:

This is a fast and easy solution for sure, but be honest, how bad does it look?  I kind of think it’s okay, but that could be the desperate part of me that just wants to finish this jacket, and we all know how clear our thinking is in those moments.

3. Get replacement fabric:  This will involve packing up the kids and trekking to Denver Fabrics or giving up weekend time with my family to go down there just with Sam.  They probably still have this, and if not, I’m sure they have something that will coordinate with it.

4.  Put in the faux fur collar:  This is not so much of an option for me.  The plan for this jacket was to make it with the faux leather collar and make a faux fur detachable collar with this pretty winter fox I have in keeping with the Wardrobe Sew Along.  It’s 70 degrees right now though, so if I put in a fur collar, I probably will only get to wear this jacket once or twice before fall.  Keeping the collar detachable gives me some options on the remaining cold days left this winter.

One thing I know for sure is that I am not touching this jacket with a ten foot pole today.  I’m going to trace off this dress (Burdastyle 6-2010-109)and be thankful that knit dresses don’t cause you so much grief.

So what option would you choose in my shoes, dear reader:

ETA: As neat and statistical polls are, I’d really like to hear people’s opinions on the collar too.  Have you had your own fabric meltdowns at inopportune moments?

Dutch baby with Jane Grigson’s buttered apples

Both the kids and my husband have had some icky cough this past week.  Sam’s been teething on top of it all, poor guy.  After a couple nights of soup, I get tired of eating sick feeling sorts of foods.  Sam so much as full on refused to eat (he never refuses to eat!) the plain buttered rice that I made him yesterday for lunch (I should know better to feed plain rice to my anchovy-loving baby), so I decided to make something that was easy on everyone’s bad feeling throats but enough to be interesting for me, who has thus far avoided this round of sick.

I love Dutch babies–they’re always dramatic and couldn’t be easier to make.  Noah cracked the eggs and we popped it in the oven while the apples were cooking.  My recipe is from Rick and Lanie’s Excellent Kitchen Adventures (Noah knows where to flip in the book and it’s one of his favorite cooking jobs looking for it), but it’s the same as this one except it uses 2 more tablespoons of butter and omits the salt and vanilla (not bad ideas, but I kind of like the plainness of Rick’s).

The apples are from Jane Grigson’s Fruit Book which is a comprehensive, fascinating vintage book. Jane Grigson is a treasure though as a food writer.  If you don’t believe me, make these apples.  The recipe in the book is a little non-exact, but cooking with apples is just kind of that way.  I’ll try to fill in some of the holes dear Jane left.  You could complicate these with cinnamon, but you should trust Jane’s wisdom in letting the apples speak for their beautiful selves.

Jane Grigson’s Buttered Apples

Peel, core, and quarter some apples (1/person or more if you like).  Cut the quarters into thirds or fourths depending on the size of your apples.  Toss them in bowl with the juice of 1/2 of a lemon and  coat them with the juice.

Melt 2 T of butter in a large skillet (this is for the 4 apples I used) over medium low heat.  Add the apples and cook in one layer until the bottoms start to turn “autumn brown.”  Turn them over and sprinkle them with sugar to taste.  Continue to saute them until they start to be tender-ish and start to caramelize.

At this point, deglaze your pan with some kind of delicious booze.  I used whiskey because I like it with apples. Rum, hard cider, or the best of all, Calvados all would also be good.  Let the tasty booze reduce down a bit, then add enough heavy cream to cover the bottom of your pan (I would guess this was about 1/3 of a cup, but I eyeballed it).

Turn down the heat and simmer the apples in the sauce for maybe 5 minutes until they are tender.  Off heat, add 1 more tablespoon of butter and swirl it into the sauce.  Pour them over your yummy Dutch baby.

I am not a robot

Dear Blogger,**

While I appreciate that you’re trying to protect bloggers from unnecessary spam comments (and believe me, I appreciate that–those things are vile–and thank you WordPress for just chucking those automatically out of sight), this 2 word verification is really really annoying.  Last week I was locked out of commenting on Mikhaela’s insightful post about cheap fabric no less than 10 times.  I do not have time to do this.  I have 2 kids.  I’d much rather be playing with said kids, cooking, sewing, or reading about both.  I assure you I’m not some robot that you’re convinced I am.  Your blurry “words” are just impossible to read and waste everyone’s time.

Disgruntled,

~E

**I kid you not, WordPress thinks I’m a robot too because it’s auto-saved this post 15 times in my post archive.

Julie apparently understands that I am not made of tin, because tin people can’t be versatile bloggers can they?

My rather fleshly self graciously accepts this award (thank you Julie!), and I’ll list 7 random things quite humanoid per the conditions of this award and pass on the bloggy love.

1. Joanne Weir is my cooking hero.  Love her.
2. A day without a proper pot of tea is sad indeed.
3. Ruth Reichl‘s prose is like a warm blanket.  I want to eat at her house.
4. If left to my own devices, I would probably have a completely aqua house.
5. I make my own birthday cake every year because it’s fun.
6. I’m a 5th generation strudel maker in this country and there were others before that.  I’m plum proud of my apple strudel (apple proud?).  Why have pie when you can have strudel?
7. Saturday is pancake day in our house.  My husband’s family makes waffles on Saturdays.  My Mom bought me a waffle iron when we got married, but it died, and teflon creeps me out.  Read Pancakes for Breakfast.  It’s funny and makes the pancakes taste better.

- Add the award to your blog.

- Thank the blogger who gave it to you.

-  Mention 7 random things about yourself.

-  List the rules.

-  Give the award to 15 bloggers.

-  Inform each of those bloggers by leaving a comment on their blog.

Perseverance and avoiding jacket making brain scramble

Making a jacket is an undertaking.  While it’s true that the sewing is only moderately more complicated than a blouse, there are a lot more pieces in play.  Unfortunately, the number of added pieces and the amount of extra time that they will require are not always in a 1:1 ratio.

The jacket I’m working on now has a lot of extra pieces, and I’ve been frustrated with the snail’s pace that I’ve been going at.  My frustration has, of course led to more mistakes which has taken more time and taxed my already fried brain.  As a way of a break, and to help others avoid this brain scramble, here are some ways to give yourself a mental break in the midst of jacket making (or any other large project for that matter).

1. Make a task list:  It’s a good idea to break down all of the steps in a jacket into reasonable pieces.     Pattern guide sheets can help you with this–simply draw a line at a stopping point on your guide sheet wherever you think a good stopping point is.  If you’re like me and you do things out of order, make up your own list–it’ll only take about 5 minutes, and it will save you time in the end because you won’t be scrambling to try and push yourself further than you can handle (more mistakes).
2. Enjoy the process:  It’s pretty amazing watching all of these bizarre shapes strewn across your workspace transform themselves into a jacket.  Step back and admire that welt pocket that you did executed so well, or that sleeve cap that is so beautifully round.  Rushing this will cut down the fun.
3. Do something different:  I’m not saying you shouldn’t try to bust out a jacket in a weekend like this awesome book by Cecilia Podolak says you can, but I would say that sometimes that big pile of pieces staring at you can be overwhelming and feel very unfinished object like.  Set aside your jacket after you’ve finished your daily tasks (see #1) and pick up a knit top pattern or something else that you can do almost on auto-pilot.  You’ll still get to see a finished product quickly (it just won’t be your jacket), and you’ll have something to wear under it as soon as you’ve finished your jacket.  Or do something completely different–make something delicious or let your child pose with the Lego car he so proudly designed himself (okay, so Daddy took this picture, but kid photo ops are a good mental break).
   
4. Tea therapy and the kindness of a friend:  You will make mistakes.  On this jacket, I’ve already sewn the princess seams askew multiple times on the lining, put topstitching on the fronts on the wrong side of the seam, and sewn the top of my separating zipper to the wrong side of its seam no less than 5 times.  When this happens, roll with it.  Put stuff down, make a cup of tea, put on some good music or watch something inspirational and sit down with your seam ripper.  I’ve written before about your seam ripper being the best kind of friend–one who is there not to pass judgment on your failures but just to help.  You and your seam ripper are in it together, and with that, unsewing can become part of your sewing process.

As for this jacket which is nowhere near complete, here are some sneak peeks: