if you don't get the beginning right...

The rest isn't going to magically perfect itself. This past weekend I worked on my new quilted jacket, one of those where you use a sweatshirt as the base and then do the flip/sew technique to cover it with the fabric of your choice.

A couple of life lessons:

It was recommended to start with sweatshirt that's slightly large on your body. 2 good reasons - it will shrink a little with the stitching/quilting; you'll be wearing it over other clothes as a coat, so you'll need room for the other garments. They did NOT say to start with a sweatshirt that was HUGE on your body. It doesn't shrink that much.

Hard to tell on this picture - but there's about 5 to 6 inches from where my armpit actually is to where the armpit of the jacket is. I have room for half a body in there, not just clothes. The same goes for around the jacket. In the picture, I'm wearing it over another large sweatshirt and I can still pull the front and overlap it by 4 to 5 inches. Probably should have tried to adjust all of that when I did the side seams - but I know next to nothing about garment making - could you guess?

Next life lesson: If it sags and bags and you're using it as the baseline for a straight seam...your seam will follow the bags and sags.

Note the intriguing slant to the right side. And the slightly chopped off left side. For some reason in my frantic effort to finish this in a day (which might have been a bit ambitious for a non-garment maker) I thought once I got the binding on - everything would look okay. And believe it not - I did cut 2 inches off the length of the sleeve. Still covers most of my hand...I'm must be a lot shorter in person than I am in my mind.

The back is nice and straight tho. If I just back into rooms and then face the wall I can get away with wearing this. And actually at quilt shows that might work. I could pretend I was talking to a friend in the lobby as I entered the showroom, then immediate turn to face the quilts. As I got through the vendor aisles, I'd just have to keep a totebag full of purchases in front of me. I think I could make that sacrifice for fashion.