Sew What? - Albion Chieftain

Did some woodwork. I'm not very good at woodwork. Used some stuff we found in the loft to make some 70s office furniture type stuff.

"sewing machines seem to have a rudimentary level of intelligence, rather like a cat, and will do their best to go wrong when you have a deadline looming only to be perfectly fine when you don't"

Gold!

I have a lovely pfaff machine my mum gave me. I used to use it as a lad to make little bags for my mtbs (before bike packing became a thing....) and it gets used every so often for fixing clothes /making curtins. I'll get a pic of it. Its just old enough to be made in 'west germany'

Tomorrow's video is going to be all about copying. I'm taking a much loved waistcoat that needs repair and using it to make a pattern and a whole new waistcoat without dismantling the original. Hopefully it'll be handy for anyone reading that wants to know the basics of backwards engineering clothing, especially if there's something you've got that you like and can't get a replacement for.

I'll also be working with velvet which I don't recommend if you're new to sewing. Lovely fabric to wear, terrible to work with.

Time for something completely different. A nice easy project this one.



I've also been working on a rescue project. I got hold of a very badly moth damaged tweed jacket and have been repurposing that into a waistcoat. Mock-up done today and it looks like it's going to work nicely. Was also nice to use up some fabric that's been in the stash for a while waiting for a purpose.

Bought myself a Marks and Spencer's tweed jacket in a charity shop. Up until now I've always been able to trust the size on the label is the size it is, so I didn't bother to try it on. I was also in a rush so I didn't spot the moth damage until I got home either. Oh well, can't exactly return it and it wasn't exactly expensive, so let's make something out of it.

Tailoring basics - I considered taking the jacket in to fit me, so I go over some of that and how you alter a garment to fit better.

Pattern Drafting - After figuring out what I wanted to make, I then had to make the pattern fit the fabric I actually had in the garment. This can be something of a challenge.

Waste Not Want Not - I used up whatever I had in stock where possible on this one both to keep costs down and to get some storage space for new projects.

All in all, the waistcoat ended up costing less than a tenner, and I've still got a useful amount of tweed left over for future projects.

The response to the last video was better than I expected so I did another better one which is coming out next week. We'll be going back to 1989 and doing something very heavy from start to finish. Should hit a few nostalgia buttons for anyone into D&D.

For the sewing side of things, my work room has just been jam packed with other work responsibilities so I haven't had the space to focus on that. Furniture projects have been hampered by the weather so had stalled, but now the warmer drier days are here I should be able to make better progress there.

I did take a little break recently and I'm glad folks stuck with the channel in the meantime. Back to the usual schedule now at least and I'm always picking up new projects to tinker with. Some are just easier to turn into videos than others, and some I just want to enjoy as a project rather than having to go to the effort and extra time of recording it.

Here's how you paint a dragon.

Restoration of a 1964 Lincoln Continental this time.

I know, I'm off track from the sewing and woodwork stuff. Honestly, it's about getting something out there every week at the moment and the sewing and woodwork need a greater investment of funds and time than I currently have so I'm just having a go with whatever smaller projects I have lying about until something sticks.

Ever wanted to know how to paint bronze? Here's one way.



He's a big lad this Kragnos fellah. Shown here with a can of pop for scale.



There's a lot of work on this one, he's a big lad.