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The smoking jacket: Part 1

12/8/2013

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I have been so busy the last two months with commissioned projects that I haven’t had much I can share with you.  It is hard to keep them a secret for so long, but I promise they are worth the wait!  I’m rounding third base with my final project, and soon I can breathe again and knit at a (somewhat) more leisurely pace. 

I have been itching to sew something for a long time.  In fact, I have so many summer projects that I never got to, plus projects from last winter that have languished in my fabric bin.  But, there is nothing like the motivation of gift giving to get you started!  I hadn’t planned on making any Christmas gifts this year, but it seems that I have one to work on.  My dear husband has now asked me three times to make him a smoking jacket.  Yes, an old-fashioned martini-with-a-cigar kind of smoking jacket.  Sometimes I don’t take his requests seriously (like the time he wanted an R2D2 hat, come on!) but since he has brought it up three times, I think he means business.  So, last night while he was busy tending the fireplace, I snuck into my room and looked for a sewing pattern.  It is really just a fancy, short bathrobe, right?

I found Butterick B5830, a quilted bathrobe with a shawl collar.  I figured I could just shorten it and leave off the quilting.  Perhaps I’ll add a band of contrast to the pocket to make it fancy.  This morning I headed off to the fabric store.  I wasn’t sure what kind of fabric I would be looking for.  A quick Google search told me that the old smoking jackets were made out of velvet and satin.  I did want it to be nice, but should it be that fancy?  My husband isn’t really a fancy kind of guy.  I recall my grandma telling me that back in the ‘50s she made my grandpa a smoking jacket out of brown corduroy.  I don’t think my husband is a corduroy kind of guy either.  But, as usual, I just wandered around the fabric aisles until something struck me.  And, boy, did something strike me!  First I saw velour.  Usually I don’t like velour because it makes me think of those obnoxious Juicy Couture sweatsuits that women wear far too often.  But as long as I didn’t scrawl JUICY across the lower half, perhaps velour would be good.  Definitely more washable than velvet.  But what kind of contrast to go with it?  I was thinking a jewel tone dull satin, but then I came across this lovely brocade.  Having made myself a formal gown out of brocade last year, I already knew it wasn’t too difficult to work with; definitely easier than a slippery satin.  But is the pattern too much?  This is for a man who wears camouflage and boots every working day.  I hemmed and hawed and looked at every other fabric in the store.  I still loved it the most.  Tough, he will just have to like it! 

I looked over the pattern and it seems pretty easy.  As soon as I finish up my knitting I can begin!!

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    Cassie loves to knit, read and cook.  She sometimes does all three at the same time.

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