Happy Happy Happy

The shell of the coat, save for the collar and hemming, is done.
I interfaced the side yokes (thank you, Kay!), but left the back alone.



The back yoke:


It's interlined with a "tie silk" polyester windblock, and lined with the charmeuse.


I was ***PETRIFIED*** at sewing all the corners - this fabric is THICK. Nerve-wracking, 'twas.

Here's the front sleeve corner; it came out a little mushy. The other side's the same.

But the other four are lovely.

Upper front:

My piece de resistance, the back sleeve corner:
Admirable, eh? The other side is just as perfect. HOW on earth did I ever manage this hat trick????!!!! Hah! I sewed them BY HAND. Highly recommended. The machine would've botched the job.

Tried it on, and the fit's great (quite loose). Now I have to decide if I want to add a windbreak to the inside of the coat, and/or a warm layer under the lining. What say ye?

A happy ending

Aka Death by Binding.

A month ago a Sweet Young Thing (SYT) asked me to make her a "big warm slouchy sweater with a hood, belt, and one huge button". Now, SYT knows I don't knit; although, I've seen some amazing stuff being produced by some extremely talented knitting bloggers, and I might just get tempted - perhaps in the next of my nine lives. As it happened, I was holding the October BWOF in my hand, and when it fell open to this Laid-Back Dress, I knew, after checking the tech drawing, that we had our big slouchy hooded cardigan.

We got 3 yds of a very intense bluish green boucle wool (photo credit Fabric Mart), and wow, does this stuff fray! So, to the fray! Ahem. Serged edges that were going to be in full view while framing SYT's gorgeous little face, was not an option. I never did the seam binding thing before, but I knew it was now or never. Halfway through the project it felt like never was quickly becoming a real option: this, I found myself fuming, is not seam binding but seam boooooring! Fiddly. Deadly. Dull. Unavoidable. Four packets of binding tape later, finished.

Is this the happy ending, you ask? Not a chance! The happy ending is that I knocked out, in no time flat, a (hoodless) sweater tunic-dress for MOI, using the same pattern and the remnant of the 3 yds! Howzzat for a winning hand!

It's night here now, but tomorrow, Scarlett, is another day; I'll get the junior fashion photog to exercise his talents by daylight, and we'll post the pics teh-marra.

Uncharted territory

This is about things we know; things we know we don't know; and things we don't know we don't know.

So, the body pieces are underlined; and the front yokes are interfaced with sew-in hair canvas, as per the photo at right. The canvas is a little smaller than the seam line, and it's zigzagged onto the underlining, and that is just attached around the SA's. So far so good.

We have the front & back technical view of the coat at right. In red I marked my added back yoke, with button, and the raglan sleeve seams I had to build into the back so the yoke can be attached. The uncharted territory here is whether I should also interface with hair canvas the top of the back, and the parts of the sleeves, front and back, to the shoulder line, as marked in blue with cryptic question marks. Well? Feeling a bit out of my depth here.

Also am uncertain whether I should interface (sew in? fusible? none?) the foldover front facings. Yes yes, jacket facings are interfaced, but the GCSA discussion on interfacings seemed to indicate that you only interface fronts to CF in coats. The fronts are already underlined with, and well attached to, a very stable fabric - I'll call that as good as interfaced. The facings however are not. Yet?

The front sleeve corners are nicely reinforced, and, as soon as I finish dithering about the rest of the underlining/interfacing, I'll be ready to put this puppy together.

And, in a final note, I posted my, ahem, success (?) on my first quasi-Chanel. Look at it and - weep? laugh? shake your head and say, cut off those leather buttons and round file the rest? To me, it looks just awful, and every photo I took looked at least as bad as these few. Surprisingly, it WAS very comfortable. Perhaps I should make it a StrictlyForRakingLeaves, wear on October 31st only, gardening garment?

Cut!

So I did. All of it. I had JUST enough for the pattern plus the trenchy yoke and a three-piece hood. I freehanded the yoke, but am going to muslin the hood before making the final cuts, as there's no room, er, fabric, for making mistakes here. Not bad for 2.4 meters, eh? Being vertically challenged has its benefits.

A confession: I didn't muslin it - but it's an unfitted coat, and I did measure bust & hip circumferences pretty carefully first. Size 76/12UK/8US has 45" across the bust and 46" at the hip. More than sufficient, still I cut the SA's a little wider, just in case I'll want more ease over my nethers. I added 8 cm for the hem fold and 6 cm for the sleeve folds. The collar-shawl as drafted is so high I'd need a periscope to get around, so I lowered it by 1" - it now clears my eyeballs. I'm not too crazy about pocket linings playing peekaboo with the public - a little too your slip is showing, ma'am - so I widened the SA's at the pocket openings. Oh yes, and I added a half-raglan seam in the back so I can sew the trenchy-yokey-thingy into it.

That was yesterday. Today I started quilting the underlining to the ff. Cashmere is warm, it's light, it's a pettable delight, and it's delicate - so it needs support.

I found the perfect fabric in my stash - a wool-poly blend, lightweight, very flexible, stable in both directions, adds a little warmth, totally ideal for the job. I knew I'd never use it for anything else because - no offence, underlining! - it's the ugliest shade of dark dingy grey imaginable. Must've been an internet purchase or a freebie, 'cause if I'd ever come nose to nose with it in real life I'd have turned my nose up at it faster than a sneeze. I already tried to fob it off on hubby, offering to make him a pair of garden worthy trousers, and even that didn't sell. But as underlining, this ugly fabric rocks!

Here's the underlining quilted onto the centre front piece. I sneakily put selvedge at the facing fold line to make it do the job of tape. You can see me changing my mind as to the length of the stitches along the edge, and then revising my approach to the quilting. The straight basting with a tiny backstitch every 3 or so forward stitches is much easier to control, and to hide on the front side. All other panels are, or will be, quilted that way. With chalk lines to keep the stitching straight.

Parting shot: my freehanded trenchy-yoke.

Let it snow!

Yea! Snow, snow, snow. First snow of the season here today: just a little mid-day, then these fabulous plate-sized flakes thickly swirling into a veritable blizzard as I wended my way home from the bus stop. Not at all dressed for the weather either, in teeny little high heels that turned my toes to icicles by the time I arrived at my door. Yes, I was totally nonchalant about the forecast this morning. And yes, I love me a good winter. Brilliant blue skies, brilliant sunshine, brilliantly white snow squeaking underfoot. Skiing, ah, skiing. And brilliantly colourful people against all that white shiny brilliance.

Today's few flakes won't stick. Yet, they give me permission to set aside my two Chanels - very temporarily - to get started on my new coat. It'll be this BWOF 115 coat from the Sept. 2009 issue, made up in the fabric & lining at left. Pure cashmere and silk charmeuse, people! I had declared these two fabrics in the Great Coat Sew Along last year, but wasn't convinced by any of the patterns. This time, I am. Check out the technical drawing of that coat! The yoke, the side panels, and, get this, front and back sleeves are on the bias!!! Chic and comfortable, what a winner.

I'll have to see if I have enough fabric, but I'm hoping to add a trench-style back-whatever-it's-called to it. It'll need re-drafting of the back sleeve to a raglan, but that's a cinch. And, if there's still more fabric left, a hood: we really need head & shoulders protection from the nasty westerlies here during the season. The hood might in fact take priority over the trench thingy.

Let it snow, yea!