Back in November 2000, Threads magazine had this cover showing Nancy Shriber's fabulous silk jacket with hand sashiko stitching. The pattern is Vogue 2232, a now out-of-print Geoffrey Beene design. Both the pattern and Nancy's interpretation of it are intriguing. I've always wanted a jacket out of this pattern. Pam Howard's recent ASG SWAP knits wardrobe contest inspired me to try it out of sweater knit. Hmmm....

The first hint that things were not going according to plan was when I followed Sandra Betzina's advice to wash the yardage in cold water prior to cutting. It took 2 days to dry and ended up felting, just slightly, in the process. Undisturbed by this omen, I moved forward, cutting it out, and now finally putting it together. I like the top-stitching effect using a twin needle. And I like the back. Everything else is suspect, at the moment.

The front is very plain. It has no shoulder seams and wants to slip off. It seems too big. The sleeves are too long (this never happens). Let's see, what else? Oh yeah, it's kind of heavy. But I'm not giving up. I've increased the SA for the sleeve insertion which can be done a small amount without distorting it too badly. Next I plan to remove all that self-binding and maybe replace it with bias silk binding. In the process I can shorten the sleeves.

Never say never...Well, maybe.

The blog spot has gotten weird with pictures. I have to rotate them 90 degrees to the left and then blogger rotates them back where they should be. Gotta check on that. After I get my mojo back.