Part 3: First Blood AKA Sewing the Pieces Together

Speedy Stitcher and binder clips

I have sewn garments since I was so young I don't remember learning. I know my mother taught me to make clothes for my Barbies--though I lacked the patience back then to do more than whack fabric into some rude pieces and sloppily stitch them together. I also remember writing somewhere some years ago about finding a quilt project that I had started with my grandmother when I was about ten. It was the Sun Bonnet Sue quilt, and I still have all the pieces we cut out and the few that we (probably Gramma) hemmed. By hand. Patience, again, not my strong suit. But someday I will finish that quilt--and the one I am making for Patrick McGarry out of his Crown Royal bags--though that last project is going to require an actual sewing room with multiple machines set up to complete it. Dave's coat is a project for a simpler, less technical time as I am hand sewing the whole thing. You read that right. Me, the anti-queen of patience, I am sewing every seam of a full-length coat by hand. In fact, I have already begun to sew--hence the initial part of the title of this post. It's hard to type with a deeply stabbed middle finger. 'S' is an irritatingly frequent letter. But I'm getting ahead of the story.

First blood on the top edge

I am hand sewing the coat for a couple of reasons, the main one being that I do not have an industrial machine that will sew leather or fur. I know! A tool I do not have that I did not buy just for this project!! The second reason is that doing it by hand that I have more control over the outcome. And I did get to buy a special tool for it: A Speedy Stitcher sewing awl.  It's basically a wooden-handled awl with a sharp needle on the end and a hole running up through the handle to carry the thread. The thread is a heavy waxed linen, and instead of pinning the pieces together together to sew them, I'm using binder clips. The Speedy Stitcher is used to sew heavy materials like leather, vinyl, canvas, and upholstery fabric. It has two distinct advantages over a regular needle and thread: 1) The way you use it creates a locking stitch just like a sewing machine does, and 2) the awl handle makes it possible to push the needle through the heavy material without having to use pliers.

The sewing itself is not too difficult unless I hit a tough piece of the hide. When that happens I need to have a thimble (though a block of cork would probably be better) on the back side so I don't jam the needle into my hand. Luckily I've only stabbed myself twice, and I have already sewn the front pieces to the back at the shoulders, the under collar to the coat, the under collar to the upper collar, and half of the front facing to the front. Tomorrow I am taking a day off from sewing to go to Missoula with Dave for shopping, dinner, and a movie--and to give my wrist a chance to rest as I feel a repetitive stress injury coming on.