Funky Leather Coat

So you saw me working on the leather coat ($3.49 from Goodwill). Here are some process shots The EGE took:

Now, the challenge with this coat--and you know it's all about the challenge--was to keep from working tight. My mother was an expert seamstress:  her seams were finished, her hems were invisible, the plaids matched perfectly. While she didn't teach me anything about sewing when I was little, it turns out--as I discovered in adulthood when I started sewing--I picked up a lot of stuff just from sitting on the floor watching her sew and playing with scraps. I can do hems that are undetectable. And she's in my head, with the perfect seams and darts and interfacings. I know how to do this stuff, but I don't enjoy it. I don't like the look of perfectly tailored clothes because that's just not me. What I like is the look of clothes a la Native Funk and Flash. Those are the clothes that speak to me (check out pages 10-11 and 47, for instance). They're not perfect. They're funky and cool, quirky and hand-stitched. That's what I want to do, but there's that perfectionist streak in me. There's the part that sees this coat: 

which I'm pretty sure is the Straight Version of my lumpy brown coat, and thinks I should try to repair the brown one to look like the black one. [It's amazing how similar these are. The black one, on sale at The Cat's Meow, is like butter, soft and silky and perfect in every way. In fact, let's look at them side by side, shall we?]

And then there's the part of me that wants it to look funky and lumpy and groovy. So the repair work took a while as I resisted and procrastinated. I made it funky and cool, but part of me was dragged kicking and screaming through the whole process, crying, "No! Noooooooo! You can't repair lining that way! You have to rip it out--carefully! 'ripping' is just a word we use!--and take it apart and use it to make a pattern and then. . . you do have a T-square, don't you? Omigod, I have to go lie down. Don't touch anything while I'm gone!" 

Like that. I had to put my fingers in my ears (metaphorically speaking, as it's hard to sew with your fingers in your ears. Try it.) and say, loudly, "La-la-la-la-la-la-la!"

Exhausting.

I think I'm finally finished. Meaning:  it's finished for now, and I'm going to wear it for a while. I want to do more stitching on it--around the bottom of the sleeves, for example--but my fingers are tired of sewing through the leather, and I've learned (at least I hope I've learned!) to wear something for a while before spending a hundred gazillion hours embellishing it. Cos it could always turn out that I hate it. So for now, this is it:

 The patches are from a dress that was made out of recycled silk kimonos, supposedly (you know how that goes). I bought 4 of these, and this one was threadbare in places and kept ripping, so finally I quit trying to mend it and just use it for fabric. There were places in the lining of this coat that had holes that weren't serious but, if not protected, could get worse. I deliberately resisted trying to match the thread to the silk, always a big challenge for me~~

 There were some little holes in the leather. The one on the left was patched with a piece of leather from something--a bag? scraps? I don't know--I buy leather things for cheap all the time and dismantle them and lay the scraps flat in a bin and save them. The two holes on the right were patched with wool felt--I buy it from joggles.com and then full it in the washing machine to get it tight so I can use it on garments that will be washed. I also get it from wool clothes from Goodwill when I find ones in good colors. Usually they're either brown or black, alas.

 The bottom edge had been ripped off the center portion, so I replaced it.

 The pockets are very cool but had some Lying Flat issues that the stitching solved. Remember:  I washed and dried this baby as soon as I brought it home, which didn't help in the non-lumpy/lying flat area.

 The EGE took these photos this morning while I was here at The Voodoo Cafe, so we don't yet have one of me wearing the coat. Soon, I hope.