Tweaking Trunk Hose
Between our wedding anniversary (observed) and being deathly ill, I've been a little slack in updating. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten to do a whole lot of sewing done either, but enough to tell about. I went back and sloped the bottom edge of the trunk hose lining, going from the bottom corner of the rear center to 8 inches from the bottom of the front. I really need to draw a picture to show how this worked out. Anyway, I put in the darts, leaving the rearmost one undone so I could use it to take up any slack when I attached it to the foundation. So I backstitched the lining and foundation right sides together at the top of the canion then flipped it up, basted down the top edge of the pocket bag, and tacked a few of the cartridge pleats. At some point I tried it on and noticed that the back seemed a little flat, so instead of a dart I just made a pleat for the last one. Even still, the whole thing didn't really make the shape I wanted. I really had wanted to avoid padding these things, but when I stuck a rolled-up towel in the bottom of the lining it looked just right. So I plan to use a sizeable roll of batting just sort of laid in. Hopefully it won't shift around too much. If it does, I can just reach into my pocket and shove it around to where it should be. After the weekend and the worst part of being ill (I hope), I finally got a chance to work on the right side. Knowing what I was going to do made things go much faster, but as it turns out it's easier to do the cartridge pleats first (flattening them back out after the gathering stitch is put in) than it is to try to make them when the bottom's already pleated. Alas. In other news, I tried making a thread-covered button again. This time I used some pearl cotton, which I figured would greatly speed things up over plain sewing thread. In hindsight, this seems obvious. At any rate, the operation went quite well, though I think the strange shape of the plastic pony bead I used made the threads sit funny and increased their tendency to gap. I need to pick up some round wooden beads and try again. Eventually, I'd like to go through and replace each of my current buttons with a proper thread covered one. As promised, a diagram of the trunk hose lining. After drawing it out, it seems clear that the better way to have done it would be to slope the top edge rather than the bottom edge, but at the time I already had the batting in for the cartridge pleats and I wasn't about to take it off. I think it will all work out, though, between the gathers, pleats, and various other deformations.
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