The Big j.c. Saga

Arggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Damn.... are you getting the drift on whether I finished or not???!!! Yup... my friend who commissioned the big j.c. is winging her way to South Africa less one jacket. I can't think of it without feeling like a total failure. I worked so hard and about 8 p.m. last night everything was coming together nicely and then I went to full the sleeves. I had already fulled the fabric for the rest of the jacket and it had turned out really well. Now I'll be honest... I have not got a lot of experience with weaving.... I keep saying that I am not a weaver and that I have tons to learn about weaving so with that in mind I hope you will read my tale of woe with an open mind, and not judge me harshly.

Yesterday afternoon I started cutting the fabric I had spun and woven for this great project..... I stared sewing and it was looking great. I had been weaving the last little bit of fabric all morning.... but I felt I needed to full the woven fabric first.... I mean lets face it all the great weavers say it is not fabric until it is fulled.... Fulling is a process of washing the fabric so that the individual warp and weft threads will bite together and actually cling so that the fabric has more of a face, with that in mind I called my friend in FSJ who has way more experience than I do.... and she said..... (this is important)..... "when you full you have to stand by the washer and check it carefully and often because in a matter of a few seconds it can go from being fulled to a felted mess in no time, make sure you watch it really carefully!".... are you getting the idea yet..... no...... well let me enlighten you...

So I am almost finished putting the jacket together last night and all I needed to do was full the fabric for the sleeves.... the sleeves, that was it.... I checked it after four minutes and it was looking good but not quite as nice as the body of the jacket, which had been fulled earlier in the day. It needed a little more fulling. I popped it into the washer and went to pee...... just pee (which I was really needing to do).... that's all.... I came back and checked to see the progress and just like that .... felt! I now had no sleeves and no more fabric to finish them.... yup..... pee ruined my jacket. Just like that I was out of the running to meet my deadline. I wanted to jump off the nearest cliff. Six weeks for a vest and a lump of felt, instead of a beautiful jacket. I called my friend to tell her the bad news. She was so gracious about it and I even woke her up.... double whammy. As a result I have one month to finish the sleeves so that when she gets back from South Africa she can send her Mom a jacket with sleeves for the South African winter, instead of taking it with her...... And I have to wash more fleece, card more fleece, spin more fleece into yarn.... and then weave sleeves for the said jacket....

I have loads of pictures to show but I just don't have the heart today to post them..... I'm just going to post one.... and that's the one of my sleeveless jacket so that she can show her Mom what she will be getting some time in April... here it is.... I think I'll go cry some more, while you have a look.....