Good-bye, Summer! Hello, Fall!

Progress on the Chanel jacket is very, very slow with school starting this week. I had meetings all day both Wednesday and Thursday, and had to hit Costco yesterday to stock up on juice boxes and lunch box stuff! Tuesday morning will come too soon (sob, sob)! We had the most wonderful summer, and I really hate seeing it come to an end. Little Man gave up the paci and diapers, and Little Miss Princess learned how to swim (underwater, too) and ride without training wheels. Our family had a blast camping, DH passed his Paramedic test, and I finally had my dream trip to NYC. Tuesday will find me greeting many juniors and seniors during 3 hours of Trig and 2 hours of AP Statistics, as Little Miss Princess boards the bus 1st grade... Oh, and I almost forgot to update you: I've qualified for the fashion show at the American Sewing Expo in September, and will model my dress in Saturday's fashion show! There are 30 finalists (50 entries), and we're competing for the grand prize of a $1000 gift certificate to fabric.com! If that's not the icing on the cake of an amazing summer, I don't know what is!

So, back to sewing! All pieces are finally quilted, and today I was able to assemble the body of the jacket. Here you can see that the boucle is stitched together, but the lining is not. The seam allowances are trimmed to about 3/4", pressed open, but not stitched down.

Below you can the lining on the left side is pinned down over the open seam allowance of the boucle. Then the right side is smoothed down over it, folded under, and will be fell stitched closed.

Ick. Gack. Ugh. Barf. I hate handstitching. There must've been a shortage on "patience" when they were handing out the goods when I was born, but I will suck it up, grab the wonderful hand-sewing needles I got from Susan, and turn on a good movie. Once all the seam allowances in the bodice are cleaned and closed, then I will attach the sleeves and close up the linings there, too. The fit had to be checked one last time (and can be adjusted if necessary) before attaching the sleeves.

Between my video of Susan explaining everything in NY and Threads issue #121, I really feel like I have a good understanding of the remaining steps. If you are doing the Chanel Jacket Sew Along, or have interest in ever making a Chanel jacket, I highly recommend calling Threads and ordering issue #121 (January 2006), it's exactly how Susan instructed me during my class in NY. Call me crazy, but I'm actually going to do this all over again, and make another jacket (down the road). I think I just have to prove to myself that I can (all by myself)!

Hope you all have a wonderful week. I have the stinking suspicion that mine will be exhausting...