Dearest Monday Needleworkers!
Well, I’ve done barely one stitch this week, but I do have a back-log of finished garments from previous weeks to share with you... The brilliant and much-more-gorgeous-in-real-life @vincentnijman is here, and we have mostly been having a lot of fun since we met for the very first time in Napoli on Wednesday... On Saturday we visited my favourite 50c stall, and I gathered another pile of fabulous items to add to my stock... And I have at least one completed coat and three dresses which I haven’t shared here yet...
So here is the reconstructed denim coat: I’ve added a lot of details to it, as it was being finished, although it still requires some kind of tweaking at the back of it...
Aspects that I most love about this coat:
the gold details, made from reversed denim (it’s deep dark blue on the front side)
the perfectly-aligned zip (hand-sewn – usually I do them on the machine, but that seems to always make them a tad skew-wiff)
the puffy sleeves and neat cuffs; really proud of getting at least the lower part of the sleeves right! Where they meet the shoulder may still require a bit of nuance.
the almost-right overall shape of it; it is a flattering shape, even if it could’ve been better formatted.
the wee silver clips that I found on a frumpy pink-red linen dress on the 1 Euro stall – that fit nicely to pull in the waist… I was going to make a belt for it, and it can still have a belt, but the clips did a nicer job
I think that I could have made a better skirt on the lower half of this coat. I really like the idea of it swinging a little, and flaring out even when it is sitting still... next time...
Either way, thank you to Vincent for his help with taking photos of it, as we went to my neighbours’ terrazzo for an aperitivo(s) on Sunday night, and took some snaps with it on – even with the epic heat factor.
(South Italy has been struggling to cool down at the end of the summer) It is really nice to have someone taking photos so I can concentrate better on showing off the garment. 😊
Looking forward to denim coat number three, and beyond! Though I'm super critical of how every coat turns out, I can see solutions and improvements to all the clunky aspects that have made it imperfect. And I am liking the development of a more organic sewing style: it is what it is, and cannot be contrived into something else!
The hottest months this year have been busy but also very distracting: it has been hard to think/ organise/ stay focussed on one thing, and I look forward too to the cooler weeks ahead – when I’ll be able to get more consistent again.
Thank you again dear @vincentnijman for taking the good photos, and for being a most attractive guest,
LovE!
www.claregaiasophia.com
