The last painful stitches.

There's this fencing jacket I've been working on for almost 2 years now. Yup, 2 years. I rarely take this long to work on one project like this, and the time span has just killed me. I want nothing more than to finish this thing, and I'm on the last bits of hand finishing to get the layers to sit properly.

Why 2 years? Because it is a fencing jacket. In their infinite wisdom, the SCA's standards for fencing jackets are more stringent than for heavy fighting, IMHO. Getting 3-4 layers of heavy fabric to line up and stay neat is a royal pain in the ass! And I always felt like I was in a snowsuit when wearing one of those things until I made my suede fencing jacket. A leather jacket is by far the way to go unless you're worried about bruising. Much lighter, and not as much bunching around the armpit, where they've required an additional 7 million layers as if your arteries are on the outside of your skin...

Yes, I'm being sarcastic. In my 6-7 years of fencing heavily, I had multiple blades broken on me. Not once did I get more than a scratch. Luck? Not entirely. Most folks had enough self control to break off the pressure once they realized what happened. What is it - something like 9 lbs of pressure just to break the skin? While that's easier to do the smaller the point involved, I never had it happen, despite doing many stuuupid things. So fencers basically suit up in our fantastic weather and trundle around in snowsuits to fence. I was tempted to put in an air conditioner. She probably would thank me for it!

And the jacket has some lovely couched thread work and cool trim and such. So while it's a lovely jacket, I'm rather happy to see it off my project list. So a few more stitches, and voila! It's, please God let it fit properly, done!