A Finished Jacket

In 2007, I wove a length of fabric from silk and handspun which ended up as a jacket. I had about 1.5 metres of black silk warp left so I wove it up in baby alpaca and some fancy yarn from Linton Tweeds. It looked rather good - a sort of oatmeal colour and I said that I would, some day, put on another silk warp and weave up enough to make another jacket. I carefully stored the rest of the weft yarn against that day. This spring, I put on such a warp, wove up the rest and, in July, started on the jacket. I have been very busy lately but set myself the deadline of the Guild December meeting for completion. Which I met at the expense of staying up 1230 the night before the meeting.

The photo does not show them but there are hook and eye fasteners down the front. The silk lining was bought in Suzhou and the black and gold trim in Shaghai at the end of the Silk Route trip. So one deadline met.

The rest of the weekend was taken up with parties, the Guild one on Saturday and the local Braid Society on Sunday. I like the Braiding Society meetings as I can sit and gossip and do things. This time I was knitting fishes for the Midlands Textile Forum. All very enjoyable. I came home and started clearly up the studio. I managed that last night as well as starting on transferring the jacket pattern from tissue paper to squared stiff paper. The job is about half done. I am feeling very virtuous.