Duck Cloth Vest v.3

Third iteration of the duck cloth vest; trying out some different shapes.  The color is off on these first two images.

Indigo linen chambray vest, v.2 (early 20th C. style)

Version two for "the big project".  All single needle tailored with hand-felled seams.  Things are really starting to come together for the upcoming collaboration that I've been working on.  Still crazy busy though...

Sorry for the blurry pics, more detail pics later, or later. 

Work shirt, tab collar, black chambray

 Still workin' like crazy to get things together for the special project.  Did take Sunday off though; went to a waterfall up in the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Katie nearly put her hand on a copperhead climbing over some rocks, but it was nice to get away from the heat.

Looks pretty good, but a little too tight across upper chest - still so much to learn about patternmaking... 

And industrial sewing machine repair...

More work from the special project

New Work pt.1 - selvedge denim, duck cloth, indigo linen

Been working 12-14 hour days trying to get things together for a special project.  If I can pull it off I'll write more about it soon.

Shirty Machines

I drafted a new work shirt pattern the other day, my first in about 8 months.  The pattern came out pretty well, but I had numerous machine problems.  It took far, far too long to construct this one shirt.  And in the end it didn't even  come together well enough to wear.  Feeling very much "not ready for prime time" this week. 

You can see some of the buttonhole machine problems in the images below.  The machine snapped its belt while I was using it too - kind of alarming when it happened.

After fixing the belt I discovered that the machine is missing a few parts.  Don't know if those missing pieces are why it's not functioning properly though.

Tack Buttons and Hand-Press

My hand-press arrived a few days ago.  Having done a few test buttons I see now why a foot powered press is preferable - you've really got to give it some force to set the steel tacks.