stitch-stitch-stitch!

One of my hand-sewing inspirations for Seppa's garments comes from this image of using coloured threads in a running stitch from vertical and horizontal travel. It's organic and rustic, but functional. I also drew inspiration from Japanese boro with its distressed fabric scraps layered and stitched; though boro is generally tidier than my meagre efforts, I'm enjoying it for its mindfulness.

When I'm cutting fabric for making clothes, I save my scraps to test the sewing or serger's tension for the fabric, before I begin sewing on the garment itself. This means I often have more scraps than I needed for the test sewing, so having another outlet for use of the scraps is helpful.

The striped browns fabric has a small amount of synthetic, but appears to be mostly cotton. I picked up eleven yards of this stuff because it was either 50p/m or £1/m and I liked the woven stripes in it.

Backstory

I have a favourite hoody, it's a thick cotton (either 100% or 95%) that has acted as a windbreaker on many occasions and I wear it nearly every day since 2013. Because of this, there's wear at certain locations, one of them is the underarm-to-wrist sleeve seam, especially at the wrist. I'm using it to inform where I add patches of fabric to the linen-cotton hooded coat.

Deciding on threads and placement of the patch.

I went with top-stitching thread, because it's thick and visible, though it unravels with vexing frequency, so knotting at the end becomes a trial if I tried to use up as much of the thread on the needle as I can manage. The top-stitching thread also has a slight sheen on it that's a bit more than regular or extra strong thread.

In progress...

In the above picture, I've placed the patch over the sleeve hem where it joins the underarm seam. When I've worn the coat, that part of the sleeve, on both arms, likes to catch on things; this informed me of where to site the patch, as it would have worn or torn in that location.

The inside view that wouldn't normally be on display.

One never knows when someone else might glance at one and see the inside of garments, and so I've made some of those potential places visible with my work.

The two thread colours that I used.

When I ran out of what I had on the needle, I took the other thread colour and carried on. So the stitches are two very slightly different colours. I need to do that more often, pick two or three thread colours and not load on too much thread, and swap them to make the rustic, organic look into something authentic.

"Oh, I ran out of that thread, what else do I have to finish this particular patch?"

Some of my later patches forgot this idea. I need to return to it, so that rustic authenticity remains present.

Use those scraps!

The egg-blue stripe cotton scrap is from my tunic. I didn't bother with the crossings with it at this time, but I might at some later moment, because 'kit upgrades'.

This is how this section ended.

One thing that I forgot to do before the patches is that on the other sleeve, like the hood, I have some simple running stitches along those edges to stabilise the lining edges from rolling or moving too much and showing.

I now call the left arm sleeve "eye-sleeve".

I rectified my forgetfulness of the running stitch along the left sleeve hem by adding the running stitch and then burying the ends inside the patch.

Also, one might notice that the premade shisha ring dye-bled on the surrounding threads and fabrics. I came away from visiting a smoker; their secondhand smoke made my coat reek, and I didn't want my costume to continue to make me ill, so I had to wash the machine wash coat. Yes, I know, what a chance to take, machine washing a glass mirror. I put the coat in a sweater-washing bag to shield the mirror. I will have to find another way to neutralise any further tobacco odours.

I think on Friday, when I had the day 'to kill' at my host's home, I added another patch, because what better way to make use of downtime with limited resources? I did have the foresight to bring my sewing kit and a big bag of scraps with me to draw from so I knew that I could do something productive.

Some of my tools. Yes, milliners' needles.

Outside of the right sleeve.

Like much of the rest of my costuming, I had scraps of the IKEA cotton calico that I had dyed "coffee brown" and used for the linen hooded coat's lining. I snipped, then tore the rectangle of fabric, though one edge is still tidy because it was a cut edge. I did use different coloured threads this time.

The view from the inside of the sleeve.

This was the end result:

It worked for me.

Yesterday evening, I came across two very old (nearly twenty years old?) and worn John Lewis pillowcases that I'd set aside in the scraps bag, instead of putting it into the textile recycling. They're the right colour for Skywise, so I easily tore a piece from one of them and applied it over a side seam towards the bottom, but not at the bottom. I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to hem that bottom edge of my coat.

Big patch

I listened to the TV whilst doing this, it took me three or four tries to get it situated where I wanted it. I was thinking about what I was going to do, and didn't grab some safety pins or pins to keep this in place before I started the running stitches.

Finished.

I think this particular patch took me about two hours to apply. Admittedly, I suffer from SQUIRREL! So that might partly explain why it took the time that it did.

The pillowcases will make a good addition to the fabric-scraps-for-patches, for that authentic, rustic, random effect.

I didn't use top-stitching thread for this one, I used the extra strong thread. I also didn't change colours, so another patch with two or three different threads might appear layered over this one.

Future patches:

I want to make a small painted Skywise wing patch, about 10cm tall, to apply to my coat's sleeve. I also want to carve some stamps and use paint to make some painted patches of the Virtuous animals, so that I can add them to the sleeves too; and a horse.

Hint of a near-future sewing and Seppa project...

Something that I've wanted to make for the past twenty, maybe closer to thirty years...

A Tibetan Panel Coat.

My desire is to start tracing or cutting the panel coat next Monday.