Tailoring: The Spring Suit

So, my friends, the time has come, once again, when I will undertake a tailoring project aka the only thing I'll likely sew for a couple of months and which will probably test my resolve in numerous, skill-building and life-improving ways.

Lucky y'all.

I've been thinking about how to chronicle this journey, one which will be more exciting because S, my fitting friend, will make the same jacket at the same time - in something like 18 sizes smaller than me?!? - and then I'll be her fitting friend. Now S is a private person, unlike (ahem) some other people we know, so it's likely any specifics will centre on me. Happily, that works with my solopsism.

Because I did with the last suit, I don't want to drag you through the metaphoric mud. How much appetite, really, do you have to hear about a muslin, much less 3 (or 7)? And yet, as you may know, when one embarks on a tailoring activity, it is a) intense b) labour-rich c) frequently repetitive and d) requiring feedback, love, support, commiseration.

First question of the day: Do you prefer the blow-by-blow or the high points? Note to reader: I may be incapable of doing anything other than what appeals to me in the moment. I'm kind of known for that. But I would like to start this off with your perspective.

Let's get the high-level details out of the way:

The Pattern: Vogue 8333

The Claire Shaeffer Custom Couture Collection Single-Breasted Jacket

As luck would have it, my link feature is once again fucking up (why does this happen on occasion, I wonder??) so you'll have to navigate free-form, sorry.

This weekend, S and I are finally going (this has been planned for months but we have been derailed) to get all of our supplies. Do you know how long it takes simply to figure out what you need to buy??

Having done this before, I will now remind myself of the following important considerations:

• I've done this before, and I'm doing it again, so it's probably not as bad as I'm going to think it is in a month.

• I have a very short memory for project-pain.

• Beginning a large-scale project - of any description - is daunting. Trust me (she says to herself), I've planned many a complicated project in my career, in my life and when crafting and the first moment is scary. It's the point at which everything is everywhere. But my job now is to herd the sheep.

• What the fuck does that mean? It's my fancy way of describing that I need to corral my mental processes to gain my clearest awareness of all of the elements. That's how I can a) demystify them (to make me calmer) and b) work methodically to address them.

• You can't know all of the elements. Just most of them. The others you can fear quietly or wait for with the hostess spirit.

• Tailoring is alchemy and starting with a bunch of bits which turn into a finished jacket is a fine magic.

• I'm on a trajectory of skill-improvement.

Keep in mind, if you want to exercise fiscal restraint, then complicated projects are the way to go. For starters, they take a long time, so your output goes a long way. But they also tend to produce garments that would be expensive, were you to buy them, due to the workmanship that goes into creating them.

My fingering weight cashmere sweater? Still in process! A tailored suit? Merely cutting out the pattern pieces takes a week :-) I choose to view this as an example of the financial prudence I'm, no doubt, known for in these parts. :-)