18th Century Bed-Jacket

The Feast of the Hunters' Moon is going to be here soon (Oct. 4th) and I needed a bedjacket as part of my costume.  So, I made one!

The pattern is available for free (here's the link) and is straight forward to follow.  The fabric is handwoven.  It's a bit of yardage that I wove with a network drafting design I made.  The warp is 10/2 cotton and the weft is a dark blue bamboo. I had just enough yardage to make this short bedjacket.  If I had more yardage, I would have extended the length another 4-6 inches.

The arm construction includes gussets.  Look at the mess of threads unravelling on this gusset.  It was awful!

I used one of Daryl Lancaster's finishing techniques from her monograph "Seams and Edge Finishes", and the edges covered in tricot binding not only look better, but feel more sturdy too!

Plant stand, card weaving prep, and progress!

My husband came home the other night and needed a project--something that he could make in one night and complete. I had already drawn up a sketch for my plant grow-light stand, but together we got real numbers, and he went to town! Isn't it great! Eventually I will move it up onto a table on the porch. :)












I've been winding warps. There are 11 card weaving/tablet weaving warps in this shoe box. The girls are church are going to make friendship bracelets.

The warping method I used was one Linda Hendrickson uses--continuous warping. The pack of cards are threaded as one, and single cards are dropped as the warp is wound. Sound confusing? It's not as bad as it sounds. She has a video on youTube to help.









And, last but not least, I am making progress on my grey "dots" warp. Between my sore shoulder and a jammed little finger I am making slow progress...but it's still progress! I'm glad to be able to weave, and I love to pet the finished cloth as it's woven!

Buttoned Vest

My local vacuum supply/sewing store sells buttons, so I stopped in and picked out these hexagonal, decorated buttons with shanks.

I used an old "simflex folding measure" to determine the position of the buttons (it's an expanding positioner...it can evenly space up to 8 buttons).

The buttonhole loops were a bit challenging. I ended up crocheting them out of some 100%wool sock yarn. I'm curious to see how they will last!

--I got to wear my vest all day today. The temperatures got into the mid-40's and the wool/acrylic vest was just the right second layer. :)