The story (& stories) behind the jackets

the PROJECT

These are just my jackets, and I wear them … so this was never actually a ‘project’, just moments of focus and relaxation, and a growing, pleasantly unique wardrobe that is meaningful to me.

All the fabric and tapestries are chosen and brought home by me.

All the jackets are sewn by hand, by me.

I’m just a low-grade home tailor, but I like doing it.

the FABRIC & TAPESTRIES

Provenance is important to me. The fabric or embroidery has to be chosen by me in the place it represents. I have to like it — connect with it. Some have huge stories, others less so. But it is important to me that I buy them myself or are given them in the country or region they represent.

This process of choosing and bringing home is important, as is finding a jacket to suit them.

Although they are all denim, styles and colours vary — and I look for a jacket that not only suits the fabric, but the mood of the place.

I like the sleeveless safari look for Namibia. I like the stand-up collar of the Tom Tailor jacket for Belgium. The Tibet bangdian fabric is sewn onto a Versace jacket (now, there’s a weird contrast). I haggled for the Vietnam jacket in a market in Hanoi. With red and white in the Wales fabric, the jacket had to be green to complete the colours of the Welsh flag.

the SEWING KIT

I use either cotton or tapestry thread, tapestry or sailmakers needles, a cloisonne thimble (the only thimble I’ve ever found that comfortably stays on) and, for thick sections, an ancient sailmaker’s palm. This is thick leather, fits over the thumb and crosses the palm, where there’s a thimble of hard leather, for pushing the big needles through layers of tough fabric. I have a little diamond sharpener in my sewing kit, for keeping needles very sharp.

I treasure my collection of long and very sharp needles, and have a big pair of scissors used only for cutting out. A pair of small U-shaped scissors snip thread.

It all lives in a wooden box, with the collection of buttons that has grown since I was a kid, in its old toffee tin.

the PROCESS

Sometimes the fabric and jacket hang around for ages — simply waiting for the moment that I have the courage to pin them together.

‘The pinning’, as I call it, takes courage and a certain moment. Suddenly I just feel confident about what I’m going to do with the fabric, and plunge into it.

I realise now that I have to be ready to think about the country. To have come to grips with it and be comfortable with it. There are still countries to do, fabric waiting, for Malaysia, for instance, where I watch the status of Sharia law change.

Lots of fabrics seem to fall apart when you cut them, and the edges have to be turned. The obvious spot is the back panel of a denim jacket, but I like to make the fabric fit exactly, and tuck in to the seams. I also like to bring some of the fabric to the front of the jacket; perhaps the collar and cuffs.

It’s important to say that these are my jackets. I wear them. They were never sewn for an exhibition like this. Half a dozen or so get worn and worn and worn — I seem to gravitate towards the jackets of Tibet, Ecuador, Belgium, Germany, Greenland and Ethiopia when I’m just grabbing something to wear.

The only exception is the PNG jacket, which I quickly stitched to be included in this collection, just because I thought it was an unusual thing to see, and an interesting story to hear about. I bought the bag in a small fishing village, way off-grid, where they still perform dances with fire in hats made of leaves.

THE STITCHES

There’s plenty of back stitch, running stitch and blanket stitch — simple stuff.

(I’ll save French knots and lazy daisy for when I have more time.)

The first thing after pinning is to “get the fabric on”, and I must say that, over the years, I’ve pretty much resorted to running back stitch to do this.

On some jackets you will see other small adornments. For example, on the Nepal jacket, I only had the piece of fabric for the back, so introduced red to other parts of the jacket with an added stitch along the seams.