Zoom! Another One Zips By.

Well, birthday 2013 is in the books, and just like sequester, it was unstoppable. Of course, it was much more fun!

 Lots of salutations from friends near and far, wonderful gifts and a dinner out.  The kitchen sink was miraculously cleaned of it's contents and the horses and donkeys fed without me so much as lifting a strand of hay. I could get use to this! I'll share the b-day goodies in the next post or two.

Today's post is all about coat progress. The lining was completed last week so there was nothing stopping me from getting started on the coat proper. This is a long out of print pattern and I'll say, the directions are much better than most new ones being printed. So away we went. The first order of business was attaching the yokes front and back.




 I had decided to use baste in interlining/underlining for this project and went for a stiffer horsehair option. If you have knitted or spun cashmere, you know it's very soft, has good drape but can be limp to work with, having no body, crispness or spring like wool does. So too this fabric is quite heavy but with no real body of it's own. It needs good underpinnings to hold its shape. And the closures also for this coat will need that extra support.



It was pretty straightforward to attach the shoulders and then onto the sleeves.



 I decided I wanted another detail on them so added a decorative panel that runs the top of the sleeve to elbow joint.



Also beefed up is the decorative cuff tab. I liked the relief the cream plaid provided but it was too wimpy looking for this wide sleeve, so I added another layer using the same cashmere fabric. At this point my sewing machine is going through about 10 layers of fabric if you count the bits where seams are made and the sleeve seam itself. That size 16 needle certainly did it's job and did it well.



Then it was time to set in the sleeves. They were very nicely drafted and done flat, which was a godsend with the additional thickness over the top cap area. Add 45 minutes of top stitching time and it was onto seaming up the sides and finding out if the thing really fit or not! It does, like a glove.




 

 I'm thrilled. It's also upped the anty to do a first rate job on getting the collar in. I stopped yesterday after finally figuring out what it was they wanted me to do with the under collar.



 It took me about 15 minutes of reading and looking at the pieces and pictures before the light dawned in my now 55 year old brain.





I did the step and decided that collar wrestling is best done when one is fresh and eager. The sewing closet was picked up, the coat draped over Rhonda for safe keeping, the Pfaff 1171 got a pet and a mini clean out for doing such a nice job on those extremely thick layered areas. I then cracked my Kindle and spent the early afternoon reading between the comfy chair and the bench in sun outside. Mother Nature offered up her gift of a bright sunny 60 degree plus day and I certainly wasn't going to squander that!

Parting shot: Will you be my friend too?