DPW Waistcoat

This is the campsis flowering well. They take a long time to flower properly but this plant has made it. It must be at least 8 years old and has never done this before. The odd flower cluster, maybe, two but that's all. It does have a prime southfacing position. It is a favorite climber in the south of France. To me, it is a memory of hot French holidays.

I started on the waistcoat on Tuesday and found the feather print cotton. I made up the lining first to remind myself of how to sew!  It really does have a pale lavender background. The feathers were stencilled  in blue-grey and a few feathers are red.

And this is the completed waistcoat. It looks better on me than flat like this. You can see where I have used a piece of the feather-printed lining under the arms. The Diversified Plain Weave is a bit loosely woven and so I applied a fusible interlining to both pieces of fabric before starting on the cutting out. This has the advantage that I can get it all squared up at that stage. I also applied the same lining to the pieces of feather-printed cotton on the front to bring up the weight a bit. Note the Chinese style fastenings. I got these in a back street in Kuala Lumpur. I was not at all keen on making buttonholes in this fabric and these fastening are less obtrusive than buttons would have been.

And this is the back which has a different design of feathers. The neck at the back has two small darts in it to fit my shape but it looks bad when photographed flat like this.

It is far from perfectly made but I put that down to not having made any clothes for at least 2 years, maybe more. I got the fusible lining and the grain right and the front is okay. The thing that is wrong is the symmetry of the back. I wonder if I just didn't cut it out correctly. I was so careful to align the front pieces too!

I will have to make a jacket or something when I get back from the States.

I have just about got everything ready for attending Complex Weavers in Washington DC next week. There has been much correspondence about our class with Bonnie Inouye after CW (our = Cally Booker + me) and with Sandra Rude about one of her pictures I have arranged to buy.

I seem to be organising a lot of last minute jobs. The builder came yesterday and dealt with the front doorbell. The carpet layers come today to finish off the studio. All it will need then are the curtains! I have the fabric. I do not have the rufflette tape or the lining and I might get that today when I fetch the US dollars. Tomorrow I am driving to Ruth's. On Saturday I am taking up the last of the musical instruments for sale and then going on for lunch to La Porte des Indes which is a fantastic Indian restaurant. The entire family will be there as it is my birthday and this is my birthday present!! There is a slight disagreement over what to do after lunch. Various parties have suggested Regent Park Zoo, the Photographic Museum, and Kew. Everyone is rubbishing all suggestions but their own. I suspect I would like a doze!!

Michael's wines are up for sale at Christies today.