I have Christmas gifts piled up on my embroidery machine table. Some are wrapped, some are in boxes to be sent off and some are waiting to be brought out to Idaho for Christmas.
Our little family is waiting until after Christmas to celebrate and open our gifts to each other. We are traveling out to Idaho to see my husbands family. They have not yet met the baby!
I also have various garments in stages of construction!
1- pants muslin cut out and waiting to be basted to test for fit.
1- jacket which has just been waiting for a large snap to be sewn on! This has been lingering for weeks!!!
1- knit cowl top that goes under the jacket that is just waiting for hems to be done!
2- skirts are cut out and waiting to be constructed!
4- infinity scarfs are cutout and waiting to be zipped up.
The good thing is I completed all the handmade gifts that were on my list!! YAY :)
YIKES!!!!!!
And on top of that all I am in the middle of making a new coat!
You may wonder why oh why would you start a new coat in the middle of all of THAT?!?!?
Well, I have a really good reason. When we go out to Idaho we at having family photos done. The color theme is yellow, grey and blue. So all 16 of us need to be wearing yellows, greys and blues AND the photos are going to be done outside! So...... To my sewing room I went!
The pattern Simplicity 0571 has been in my stash for a couple years. The cotton Flannel for the interlining was in my stash. The yellow and grey checked wool was a remnant end of the line cut from Fabricmart. The fabric is a little light for a coat, more of a jacket/skirt weight. But the contents were labeled 'wool'. So, I threw the entire length in the washer on hot with high agitation and the dryer 3 times hoping that it would felt up a bit. Well.... The fabric became so soft and lovely and only felted a very minimal amount. Hmmmm.... Puzzling. I cut off a bit and did a burn test. Not 100% wool! I should know better to do the burn test first!!
Not to be deterred, I pulled out my stash of cotton flannel and underlined the entire coat. This gave it a nicer weight and added warmth. I also used the flannel to sew together as a muslin. I only had to make some slight changes. I made most of my. Changes on the flat pattern before I even cut out the flannel.
As I was contemplating what to use for the lining, searching through my fabric stash, and possibly thinking I would have to make a trip to JoAnn's (boo) the doorbell rang and YAY!!! The postman arrived with my latest box from Fabricmart full of my Black Friday deals :) Low and behold there was a perfect lining fabric within. One that makes me smile and happy!
This is one giant project! I spent 2 hours last Thursday evening cutting out the GAZZILION pieces. Each main piece had to be cut out 3 times! Fashion fabric, flannel interlining and lining and some pieces even had a fusible interfacing as well! Another hour to sew up the muslin to double check fit. Only hadd to adjust seam allowance in a couple of spots. :) then carefully unsew the muslin and press it flat.
I then spent another 2 1/2 hours hand basting all the flannel to the fashion fabric. Included both 2 piece sleeves, the back, side backs, side fronts, fronts and collar. That's a lot of hand basting! Thank goodness for NETFLIX!
Then this past Sunday I spent 8 or 9 hours constructing! This included catch stitching the seam allowances of every vertical seam to the flannel. Time consuming but very worth it!
Monday morning I wake up early and spent another 2 hours constructing the lining (actually most of the lining.... Still need to t in the sleeves) for the seam allowances on the lining I first pressed flat as sewn, pinked the seams, and then pressed open. The fabric is a poly- Charmeuse and the edges just like to fray like crazy. Which drives me nuts! Pinking is nice quick way to clean up those seam allowances and they won't be seen anyway.
What's next??? I need to stop at Joann's to get a 1/2 inch raglan shoulder pad and 12 buttons. I scoured my vintage button collection and just could not come up with 12 buttons in a good color to match. So, hopefully on my way home from the airport tonight I can stop at the store to pick up shoulder pads and buttons.
I MUST get this coat done no later than tomorrow night! I have a day trip to Philiadelphia on Thursday and we leave for Christmas vacation on Friday!! Talk about cutting it close! Although if worst comes to worst I can slip stich the lining in while in Idaho :)
Now what to do about that list up above???
I have an ambitious plan to get a couple of those things done before the end of the year. At least the hems on the top and snap on the jacket :)
The rest will have to wait for 2015!
Our Christmas tree is up and beautiful! and Princess Victoria is starting to get on the move! So darn cute :)
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