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Let’s make some more progress on this list.

I have a lot to do today in order to finish this project. The goal is to get the uwagi completely finished so I can finish the hat tomorrow morning and take pictures in the afternoon. If things get dicey, I have Sunday as a back up day, but I really would prefer to leave Sunday for a final polish of documentation and making sure everything gets turned in. The deadline is 11:59pm Sunday for all materials to be turned in.

The deadline looms large And imposing, challenging This one to meet it.

Head down and back to work, there Is no time to spare today.

Time to make some tea and get to stitching.

First up, top stitch the entire edge. This took 5 hours.

Next, sleeves. I’m doing this start to finish one sleeve at a time starting with the right sleeve. This is a process. Before starting, I double checked the direction of the brocade and matched the sleeve to the body. Then I moved to the actual attaching steps. First I pressed the back edge of the sleeve, the body side, to it’s final position in topstitching in both the lining and fashion fabric. Sounds like a weird thing to start with, but this is best done before the sleeve is actually attached to the garment. Next I attach the sleeve lining to the body lining and stitch it on. The upper/outer fabric sleeve is then attached to the body. Once it’s all stitched on, I flip the outer over the lining and fuss with everything, lining it all up in prep for the next step. This took 3 hours.

Pinning the right sleeve. This took about an hour and a half.

Top stitch right sleeve. I’ve got another 45 minutes on this and I’ll have a completed sleeve. That means the other sleeve will take about 5 hours, so I guess it’ll be finished tomorrow.

The next step is – Put it together with the lining???

Lost on the next step I see the final version Not the path to it

My kingdom for clarity, I need to read Japanese

I tried translating the page again. It made slightly more sense but not enough to clue me in. I think “discipline” and “baste” may be the same thing? Grr. Not that the distinction really helps. I feel so lost. I’ll try translating it again and hope some kind of inspiration strikes. I need to make significant progress on fitting the two halves together in order to finish the whole thing on time. If I get really stuck, I’ll assemble the hat so I keep moving forward.

I read through the translated instructions a few times and well, I know that I should put the body together first and then attach the sleeves, but I already knew that, so I guess the confirmation is nice? I still have only a glimmer of insight into how to put the two bits together. I guess I’ll just start pinning it all together and see what happens?

I’ve spent hours pinning the uwagi and I have the two pieces, lining and upper or fashion fabric, completely pinned together. Tomorrow I’ll start with stitching that all together then move on to the sleeves.

We left off with pinning the collar on. That took a while to finish.

Stitch collar. Done.

Mark sleeves. Briefly pausing to iron the pieces before marking.

Stitch sleeves. Done.

Now I have to figure out how to put it all together. This is the part of the instructions that I wish I could translate better, because it makes no real sense. I wish I could translate it all better, but here we are.

I hear the Siren – A lilting distraction lures Me from my great task

Inspiration for the next thing competes for attention

I really am getting excited about the next major project. I put it on the back burner for C3 and Crown’s A&S. I’ll be starting that in February. Yay! But back to the current thing…

Pin second okumi. You better believe I added these steps to the list when I decided to pin and then stitch individually. It’s a great way to trick my brain’s reward center because I’ll have another thing that’s “ding!” checked off a list. Plus it made me a little sad that I didn’t break up the other step, lesson learned and behaviour “corrected”. Ha.

Stitch second okumi. Done.

Press all the seams. I think I’m going to put a pin in this and move on to the collar shenanigans first, stopping to press before pinning. So onward to that.

Mark collar. Check.

Cut collar. Done.

Re-edge collar. Complete.

Mark collar. I paused to iron the piece before marking it. I also paused for tea.

The kettle whistles Thick steam billows from it’s spout And pours into cups

Pondering the floating leaves As the liquid grows darker

Iron all the things.

Pin collar. Almost halfway done with this step. Not sure if I’ll stay up to finish it or save it for the morning. Maybe some more tea while I think on that.

Today’s first project task was to finish the side seams. The fabric isn’t incredibly unpleasant to sew. I’ll take that as a small win. Then I began work on the list.

Cut open center front and edge it. I should have made this two things for the satisfaction of completing two things.

Mark okumi. I’d say this took longer than I’d like, but at this point everything takes longer than I’d like. I’m still a little irritated by the minor decrease in precision due to the chalk pencil I’m using. But it is only a minor decrease.

Pin okumi. One side is now pinned on. I’m going to stitch it on, then pin the other side and stitch it.

Stitch okumi. This is my current step for okumi one. I think it’s the left.

Once again I’ve copied and pasted the rest of the tedious list in a draft for tomorrow’s post. It’s working really well to keep me on track.

The smell of woodsmoke Binds merry souls together On cold winter nights

Please keep the hearthfire burning, A candle in the window

I marked the double wide migoro panel with a safety pin at the back hem. I have to carefully put the garment together making sure that all of the panels are running in the right directions. The brocade is directional. One of the okumi panels will be upside down. I think. I didn’t have enough fabric to flip the panel for cutting. It would have taken almost another 2 yards.

Let’s get my “tedious” list made so I can concentrate. Stress has sapped all my bandwidth.

Mark false back seam. Check.

Mark side seams and sleeve attachments. Done

Mark the okumi attachments. Complete.

Fold and pin false back seam. Done.

Stitch false back seam. Also complete.

Unfold and pin side seams. All set.

Stitch side seams. This is my current place, And I doubt I’ll get through both of them tonight, So I’m just going to copy and paste the rest of the list into tomorrow’s post. Easy Peasy. Though, that does not mean I expect to get all 14 things on that list done tomorrow. Oh no. That would be great, but I don’t sew that fast. Plus I still don’t know quite how I’m doing one of the steps…

The smoke drifts upward Gentle tendrils reaching out Embracing fragrance

The tea cup is slowly drained As the ember glows its last 

I finally went to bed last night after finishing the markings for the migoro and okumi (body and overlap).

Today I finished marking the sleeves and collar pieces, cut everything out, and edged all the pieces.

I’m covered in tiny synthetic threads. The way this stuff sheds is unbelievable. I honestly expected the fabric to be so awful I’d have to figure out something else. This just really reinforces to me that I don’t want to make anything from fabric like this ever again. Ick.

And tomorrow I start stitching the upper. I need to make one of those absolutely tedious lists of the steps again to keep myself on track.

The keyboard mocks me I hear laughter In the click Of each backspace press

The cursor calls with each pulse A taunt and promise of more