Sewing with hindsight fully on

I get the urge every now and then to challenge myself and make something I needs in a very short space of time. Usually for larp but also for random other occasions. Often this will, due to time constraints and my ability to find a pattern I like, involve me taking apart something that I've worn out and like in order to replicate said piece of clothing.

This time I really decided to push the boat out and took apart a suit jacket. Things to note as taking it apart was that the sleeves were a stranger configuration than I thought and the pieces were oddly shaped, the lining was actually attached in several parts by small strips to avoid sliding and the pockets were too complicated for me to really care about.

So far I've had to take apart and reser about 6 seams as I put things back together wrong. I've had to make an adjustment to one piece of lining because I didn't realise the two back pieces weren't the same and I've sacrificed several pins and one needles to the gods of sewing.

I'm now almost at the finishline but will no doubt have to finish up tomorrow and I think I have taken away a few lessons that will come in handy next time I decide to do something this daft.

1. Making notes of which piece attached which way round would have been a good idea and saved me about 45 mins.
2. Marking which seam had to be done first would have saved me resewing the sleeves quite so much.
3. Not loosing some of my more useful colours of threads would have made my mistakes a bit more forgiving.
4. Kneeling for this long makes my legs cramp at work...