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Last year I hosted the Hungarian Christmas Tree at the Gala Opening for Christmas Around the World at Meijer Gardens. At the
time I thought it would be cool if the following year I had a nice Hungarian Shepherds Coat to match the cutwork felt ornaments on the
tree.  I figured that since I had a whole year in which to produce it, the sewing would be a snap.  I ordered the pattern from Folkwear in
the summer and when it came I looked it over and set it aside for later.  Of course, time slipped by and suddenly it was October and
time was quickly running out.  I looked the pattern over again, this time deciding it was too hard, too complicated, and I would not tackle
it.  Then, mid-November when I knew for sure that I would have the Hungarian tree at the Gala again, I changed my mind.  I was going to
give it the old college try.  Of course, now time was running very short and I was under the gun (I always do my best work with my back
to the wall!)    
                       Will I make it in time?  Will I be wearing half a coat?  This is a diary of the effort . . . . . .
DIARY OF A MAD
HUNGARIAN SEAMSTRESS . . . .
OR HOW TO SEW AN AUTHENTIC HUNGARIAN SZUR IN ONE INTENSIVE WEEK,
AND GO SLIGHTLY INSANE AT THE SAME TIME
Summer 2005 - I order the pattern from
Folkwear. It arrives, I look it over - it doesn't
LOOK hard . . . .
(click on the pattern to see someones photo of the  
one made by the owner of Folkwear . . . )
Saturday Nov. 12 - OOoo, BIG SALE at Hancock's.  
I get some nice off-white fleece for the body of
the coat, red felt for the cut-work applique, dark
forest green felt for the edging bands, kelly green
and yellow for the accent banding and green yarn for
the trim.  Some other essentials, an Olfa pinking
blade and wave blade.  Total materials cost $37.00.
The next step in the process proved to be incredibly
frustrating.  The  instructions say simply to "transfer the
applique designs to the felt". I tried a wheel and transfer
paper, a pounce bag and several other methods and
NOTHING WORKED.   I tried copying the designs onto
printer paper and then stitching  through them- that just
caused my sewing machine to clump great wads of thread on
the back of the paper.
Cutting out the pieces
for the body of the
coat was easy and
lulled me into a false
sense of security!
Monday Nov. 21 - MUCH PROGRESS!!!  The tissue paper has allowed me to successfully do the
machine stitching neccessary for the cutwork on the red felt.  Now that I have the first two motifs
stitched I can remove the tissue paper (mostly with tweezers) and start the cutwork.
Tuesday Nov. 22 - ONE DOWN!!!  The cutwork on this
piece (done with a pair of  cuticle scissors) took me 2
1/2 hours at school today (while my student teacher
was handling class!)  I have 5 more of this small size
to do!  Then I start in on the 4 really BIG ONES, the
edging and the trim!  But I am looking forward VERY
MUCH to the next four days of Thanksgiving break - I
have nowhere to go and no company coming until
Sunday, so it is just me, my sewing machine, the cats
and my P.J.s until Saturday night!
Wednesday Nov. 23 -  I
got off to a bad start this
morning -  big scare with
my sewing machine - I
thought it was broken, but
after an emergency trip
through a snowstorm to
the repair shop it turned
out to be just "operator
malfunction".
I finally got going, after losing three hours of work time.  It was okay though, as my
sewing partner was there to "help" me.  His main job is to lay in the middle of the soft
fabric or the crinkly pattern paper.  His other job is to run through my feet when I
am walking down the hall, trying his best to trip and kill me.
Making the scalloped
edging from strips of
felt and a strip of yarn.
New (and VERY valuable!) tools for this job -  Olfa blades that cut a pinked edge and a
scalloped edge.  Also, a pair of qulters gloves (called "Machingers") that have rubbery
fingertips that grip the fabric when you move it through the machine during
embroidery.
This is the sleeve applique..
Three days went by with no success and much wasting of time and materials.  Just as I was about to give up AGAIN on the project,
I found that my machine would sew through felt, fleece and paper if the top pattern layer was tissue.  So I  painstakingly hand
copied each seperate motif from the paper pattern onto sheets of tissue so I could lay each one of them out for the machine
embroidery.  Finally - SUCCESS!
Thursday Nov. 24 -  This is
how I spent my Thanksgiving!  
With a pair of tweezers in one
hand and cuticle scissors in
the other!  Total
accomplishment for the day -
one comppleted side panel and
two completed sleeves!  It
turns out that the hardest,
most time consuming part of
this is picking the little pieces
of tissue paper out of the
seams!  
IT IS NOW VERY APPARENT THAT I WILL NOT MAKE MY SELF-IMPOSED DECEMBER 1 GALA DEADLINE!!
So now it comes down to just how much I can get done and still have a coat to wear!  Probably the lavishly appiqued back collar and
front lapels will be "nude" at the party, or maybe will just be big blocks of red appliqued felt.  At any rate, who will know anyway
except me and YOU!  But you will not say anything . . . . . ..  . .
Friday Nov. 25 -  All of the cutwork is
now done for the motifs on the body of
the coat! I will surely not get cutwork
done on the back of the collar and the
front lapels.  If I am very lucky I will
get the machine embroidery for them
done this weekend so I can take them to
school and beg for help cutting out the
motif shapes, removing the tissue paper
and picking out the bits from Connie,
Kathy and a couple of handy students.  I
am shooting for final assembly on
Wednesday night!
Sunday Nov. 27 - All work has
ground to a halt so that I can
have my Thanksgiving with
Genna, Chad and Gracie Mae.  
The kids came after naptime
and we enjoyed a somewhat
traditional dinner (Genna and I
have come to the conclusion
after all these years that we
really don't care for roast
turkey that much!)
Anyway, we had dinner then
traveled down to the Gardens
for the "Thank You" Open House
thrown for the volunteers who
decorated the trees.  It was a
beautiful way to see them - all
lit up in the darkened halls.  At
8 the kids put Gracie in her
jammies and headed back after
a full, satisfying day.
Wednesday Nov. 30 - After a brief
sidestep to Spectrum Health
Emergency in Grand Rapids on Monday
night/Tuesday AM (heart scare,
probably brought on by the stress of
trying to hit my Dec. 1 deadline!), I get
back to sewing in earnest to see what I
can get finished by the Gala on
Thursday.  I get everything except the
lapels and collar done, but as it turns
out, there will probably be twice as
much work to finish those three pieces
than what went into the whole coat so
far!  Crazy!
THANKSGIVING click here
OPEN HOUSE click here
GALA click here
Thursday Dec.1 - So here I am at "My" tree in Meijer Gardens in my partially completed coat.  I suppose most
people didn't know the difference (until I told them), but I sure was aware that I was wearing 1/2 a coat.  However,
the way it has turned out so far has me very motivated to continue and finish it.  In fact, the collar, lapels, cuticle
scissors and tweezers are going with me to Florida and Seattle over Christmas break! . . . . .
 . .  and I DID take it them all with me to Disneyworld in Florida where I cut and cut (with NEW cuticle
scissors because mine got confiscated at the airport!), and to my folks house in Seattle for Christmas.  
AND  I GOT IT ALL DONE!  I assembled it all when I got home and wore it down to Meijer Gardens
for my photo before they took down "my" Hungarian Christmas tree!  Here are the last photos . . . . .
December 27 - I am back home in Grand Rapids and still have time before I
take off for Lansing and New Year's eve with Gracie (while the kids are out)  I
have finally finished cutting all of the last of the felt, clipping all of the threads
and fixing as many mistakes as I can (I am sure no one but me is going to know
they are there anyway!)  On The first day back from school I take the coat in
for "show and tell" with the secretaries, the sewing and quilting teachers and
the other art teachers.  It is a great success!
JANUARY 3 - With a kindly fellow docent doing the modeling and with 6 days to spare before the trees
come down for the year, my completed Szur makes its debut in front of the Hungarian Christmas tree
at Meijer Gardens.  Now  that I have it all done I am going to pack it up and store it until it is time to
take it ouf for the Gala celebration in 2006.  My friends and family all said that I was crazy to keep
going but I am so glad that I did!  I had great fun and am very, very proud of my accomplishment (even
though my newly acquired skills as a felt snipper have very limited practical applications!)!
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
. . .  and I am very, very done . . .