Waistcoat 2

Then I had 5 days to make another waistcoat to wear to a wedding. But this time I had to use my own measurements and make my own pattern.

You take some of these measurements:

And use these instructions:

Put it all together and it should fit like a glove.

I bought some fabric from Hardwick Textiles at Upton Park station. Pretty cheap and no bartering so less chance of getting massively ripped off.

Only problem was I was completely drained from the last couple of weeks of college and Brian was over for a couple of days so I had to go out Friday night and Saturday day. So then I had 3 and a half days to make something that took me 5 weeks the last time. I literally raced through it. Anytime I cut something I wasnt supposed to cut or stitched something badly or the sewing machine was too tight I just had to move on and forget about it.

Definitely had no time for buttonholes on this one but it turned out I wouldn't need any because the waistcoat turned out a little bit on the small side. I think this is the first time anything has ever been too small for me so I kind of felt like Aladdin or even Pinocchio when I first tried it on. But I don't know, when I put on my slacks and a crisp new shirt and I was out in the Portuguese sun it did look kind of cool. I prefer to think I pulled off the (slightly creased) Han Solo look quite well.

Hackney mermaid fabrics

Went to pick up some fabric for my new waistcoat today in Hackney. You might not even notice they have suiting materials cause its downstairs and the lights were off but the guy brings you down and there’s tons of stuff down there. I know I’m getting ripped off but still not sure how badly. I did bargain with him but later thought I got a shit enough deal. I don’t know, its too soon to tell

One gimp please

Today we started on the button hole. For the first couple of weeks I kept saying to myself "when am I going to get good?" cause things were just going really slow and my stitching wasn’t the best. But the button holes just clicked with me, I’m a natural. To continue practicing at home I was going to need some gimp.

To sew a buttonhole first you punch a circular hole in your layers of fabric and from here cut a straight line the length of the button hole. Then you sew around the raw edges with any old thread and finally sew over this with a thicker thread called gimp. We were told you could buy this in a shop called William Gee in Dalston. The shop is dark and grimy and has bars on the window. I’m not sure how I feel about going into a place called Gee that resembles a dungeon and asking for a gimp. "Bring out the gimp!"

We also worked on felling some lining. I like felling, it’s an easy stitch and lining is nice to work with. I had to leave college early to get to work though. I told them at the interview that I would be busy til 1 on Wednesday and 5 on Thursday and Friday and they were kind enough to not put me down until half 5 Friday. At the end of the evening they brought down a load of cans of fosters and had a little meeting to tell us that the main man wants to cut down a lot on our hours so I’ll probably be needing another job soon. 3 days in and my half-hearted dream of becoming a proper bar man is already in doubt.

a big feckin massive art shop

Just off Brick Lane is a feckin massive art shop called Atlantis. It has to be the biggest in Europe or the world or something and is definitely worth a visit if you need anything art related. I had a few silly papier mache ideas I wanted to get started on so bought some PVA glue and art pads and paint and random shit like that.

I made myself a coin holder. I’ve always wanted a cool coin holder since seeing the drivers on Dublin bus years ago with their shiny coin dispensers. Mine isn’t so cool and it falls over if you over-fill it.

I also made a little pen holder. It falls over a lot if you put too much stuff in the side compartment.

Then I made this trendy chalk pastel holder

Looks a big dodge but its savage

 They have paintbrushes

And colours

And pastels

And wood

Pencils

Card

Metal

Pads



Shadwell and Brick Lane fabric shops

There’s a mini chain of fabric shops with one in Walthamstow and one in Shadwell and a few others somewhere. I’ve gotten over the shock of £1 a metre fabric so it wasn’t a surprise that Shadwell had more of the same. I still don’t know the difference between one type of cloth and the other and what is good and what’s cheap so I’m holding off buying too much for the minute. Brick Lane also has a few shops with the same story. Some of them weren't open on Sunday when I went around to take pics

Some news of a Friday

Got a mail saying I was getting moved to group 2. No reason. Feck it anyway, there was a pretty sound group of people in group 1. One of the best reasons for going back to college was hopefully to get in a good group of mates. Plus with all their arty backgrounds I could probably learn a thing or two from them. And sure I was the first one to sign up while they were all at the open day speech, what a load of old shite.

Walthamstow Market

I headed out to Walthamstow market to have a look around. This was my first time there in the day time. The first time I was here was just after I arrived in London. It was around 4.30am. Give me a few drinks and put me on something that moves and I fall right asleep. This time I woke up in Walthamstow central and didn’t have a clue where I was. I’d been texting just as I was nodding off and someone yoinked my phone right out of my hand. I obviously didn’t understand the bus system too well cause I thought the next bus I got on would bring me home but the driver let me off at a different stop and told me the get another bus. I did this 3 more times and finally got to bed for 8.30am.

It’s a different place in the day time. Theres a tube station, which I didn’t notice the last time, and the market is fairly lively. Even though I can barely do a couple of basic hand stitches this market is just so cheap that I had to buy enough material to make myself a Mr Bean style coat someday. You need 2 and a half meters to make a coat so I got 3 to allow for mistakes, all for the not to be sniffed at price of £9 Pics of Walthamstow. There is plenty of cloth for £1 a metre though.  

Paper Chase

Afterwards I headed into Paper Chase in town. We were told on Tuesday that we would need to make two swatch books at the end of our first 6 week term: one with 20 fashion swatches and one with 20 tailoring swatches. I already had the genius idea to make my own Japanese style book to put the swatches in and was going to get some card and paper for it in Paper Chase. There were just too many types of paper though. I must have been in there for two hours trying to decide which ones to get. By the time I went up to pay my eyes were doing that thing where they go blurry and make me see things differently.

The guy was scanning my items and he scanned my card first. Card was easy, no decisions to be made there. Then he scanned two A3 pieces of dark blue paper. But I’d only wanted one; I must have picked up two by mistake. Then he scanned my A1 sheets of watercolour paper. There were 6 of them altogether. 6! I’d only wanted 2, how the craic did I pick up 6? They’re hardly small. He’d have to put them back too. Then he scanned my £10.25 paintbrush, shit I thought it said £1.25, there’s no way I’m spending a tenner on a paintbrush. He was just about ready to end me and Darren was falling asleep on the couch waiting for me so I made my exit.