My dragon-tastic dragon jacket is finally finished!
I'm happy and also a little bit sad, that I'm finally done with it.
Once the pattern was done, it was time to start crocheting. I tried to document every step again this time - you can follow my progress in the slideshow. What I didn't capture were all the fitting sessions we did along the way...
The jacket is pretty much finished now. All that's left is to weave in the ends. Once that's done, I'll share some photos of the finished dragon jacket!
I started with the left front panel.
The reason was quite simple: it has the least amount of pattern.
The idea behind this decision: once it's finished, we can do a "fitting" to make sure the size fits.
If it's not, this would be the part of the jacket that required the least effort to crochet again, making it less "painful" to undo and adjust any part of it.
... the more dragons, the more tangled yarn mess ...
I got a bit creative with organizing all the yarn - and ended up using some old Tupperware containers (Mövenpick had the perfect size), and the smaller amounts of yarn I wrapped around clothespins.
The second front panel is finally finished!
Blocking it bit by bit turned out to be a great idea, especially with the large areas of the wings.
But it's looking pretty good, right?
The front is finally complete!
My "blocking set" is starting to get too small, and I need more than one set of pins now.
For anyone curious: two rows (basically one pattern repeat) tooke me about 1.5 hours to crochet at the longest section. That includes the time I spend placing stitch markers at key points in the pattern ahead of time - so I don't keep losing track of the pattern while crocheting.
Is it time-consuming?
Oh, absolutely!
Is it worth the time?
Without a doubt!
Now my blocking board really is too small. Luckily, I still had some packing material lying around that was just the right size - and thankfully, I can extend my dining table!
One big dragon!
It's finally no longer just individual dragon pieces, but a beautiful, large, fully assembled dragon.
The beautiful dragon is finished!
Blocking it was a bit more complicated this time since the front and back are already connected.
But it worked out in the end, and I'm really proud of my little piece of art.
I crocheted on a cuff and sewed in the zipper.
I've always found sewing in zippers a bit tricky, as you have to be super careful to avoid any "wrinkles".
So, I googled a bit and discovered "Wonder Tape" from Prym. I stuck it on the zipper, pressed the cuff on top, and then just sewed it on. Still a bit of a hassle, but definitely no longer a nightmare!
What's left to do?
Weaving in ends...
It feels like there are 200 ends still to be woven in... And I can only manage about 10 ends per movie...
Hopefully, I'll be done soon - and then I can show you some nice pictures of the finished jacket!
After the planning came the crocheting. It took about three months to complete the dragon jacket.
If you're interested, you can check out my progress in the slideshow.
Instead of just posting the finished crochet project, this time I'm also documented all the steps it takes to design and crochet my own pattern.
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