Many Feet of Braid!

I underestimated how long it would take to make the braided lengths to go around the edge of the coat! There's two and they're about 5 feet long apiece, which took a few hours to do in a five strand braid.
Before I can add that, however, there were some small worn patches (maybe moth holes?) across the back and shoulders that I had to patch. I think they'll be less conspicuous when the leather braid designs are on top of them, but I don't particularly mind them being visible. The clothing isn't supposed to be particularly pristine.
Nothing fancy, just extra fabric turned in and applied over. You can see one more little worn spot up on the right. I probably should have darned this but I've never been good at doing that inconspicuously.
I cut up black triangles for my t-shirt quilt's next border. I haven't forgotten about it, I just honestly need to be more sewing thread, I'm very low, and there isn't a store close by that sells it.
I also finished a few more Dear Jane blocks, here's A-7 and A-8, nice easy ones.
And A-10, which was really difficult and fiddly. I think I did fine until the outer borders, now I realize I should have put them together in a different order. Oh well, it's just a little lopsided.

From the Cuff Up

Folks, it's just not my year, I'm now sick with the flu. Really just hitting all the popular illnesses one after the other. However, I did get some things done before I got sick, and now that my fever's down below 100 degrees, I feel up to looking at a computer screen long enough to post them.
The coat itself has been cut into shape--it's a cut-away shape similar to the other coat. It's a shape I like and something sort of consistent throughout the garments. The sleeves are slit, so they can hang, and I've already cut the cuffs off, the sleeves will be gathered into them.
Something like the bottom left illustration, but with a tight cuff, and the rest of the sleeve gathered into it. I swore I had seen something like that in a historical piece, but since I can't find an example, I might be making things up. Which is fine, I'm not in the historical reconstruction business.
I decided to start the braid application on the cuffs--they're small and fairly manageable. There's a combination of 5-strand and 3 strand braid and a twisted strand of leather (for the spirals) The nice thing about using leather is that I get the smooth leather side and the suede side to work with.
The twist is a little difficult to work with (I have to sort of twist and hold it, then couch it down as I go) so my spirals are a little lopsided, but I think it's getting easier. I'm not looking forward to making the long braids to go around the edge, it all gets very tangled.

In slightly less important news, I just got these great new shoes (made in Pennslyvania!) but they have a true leather bottom, and I will both slip and fall and wear them out really quickly.
So I cemented on a layer of tough suede to the front, which will hopefully add grip and help protect the sole a little bit (I always wear out the front of my soles faster than anything else)

Leatha Strips, Leatha Braid

I ended up working a little overtime this week, so I did not get as far into my new jacket project as I wanted. But I have gotten the ball rolling at least!
Starting with turning some chunks of soft leather from a very ugly leather jacket into thin (1/8") strips. I cut them on the fold, and didn't cut all the way through, then sort of pulled and snipped the fold so I could get longer strips out of the small pieces. (if you've ever done rag rug braiding, it's the same sort of technique, I'm not explaining it very well I'm afraid.)
Bundle of strips being produced, and test out the braiding. You can sort of see the "corners" on the strips in the bunches.
And application and construction is just beginning on the actual coat, starting with the button loops on the sleeve cuff. I'll be sure to take some more all over pictures of the jacket's alterations for the next post.
And on the nights I got home too late to want to drag all that out, I did finish three more Dear Jane blocks, A-3 through A-6. They're just so quick and addictive. Here's all six done so far.

Growth Rings

The t-shirt quilt is growing, around and around. I did pick up more shirts on Monday, both black and gray, and I decided to split the remaining triangles into light and dark to do two sawtooth borders.
All the lighter triangles got sewn to the gray shirt fabric and made into many little squares. They finish at a little under 1" and I think I made about 250 of them.
So since last time, I added a 1.5" gray border, the sawtooth border, a 1.5" black border, a 2.5" gray border, and another 1.5" black border. Next is the black and dark colored sawtooth, then maybe just solid black around the outside. I still need about 8-9" around each edge to make it big enough to cover one of my comforters.
And I also finished my third Dear Jane block, here's A-3. A little wobbly, I did it in pieces rather than applique, because that's what it looks like in the picture.