The coat-cape continues...

I really wasn't sure for a while there if I was going to continue down the road to completion with my cape-coat-cape. Those interfaced sleeves are just really bugging me and sadly I do not have more fabric to do them over again.

So I let it sit for a few weeks. My dressform, Lydia, wore it silently and I looked at it every time I walked by her. Which was a lot, considering I have yet to move Lydia from my dining room to the basement sweatshop.

I started a minimum of four more projects in the meantime. OneTwo, total wadders. One, a prototype of something super exciting I hope to share the pattern for this spring (free, of course). And one a vintage knit top waiting to be hemmed.

And still, I just couldn't find the energy to tackle Sherlock again.

Until today! Voila, out of the blue, I just wanted to work on it. I need to start trusting my instincts now and again. Today's progress was at least forward moving. I got the pockets installed and the princess seams tweaked. I put together the collar and attached it. And then...then I had the moment that I dread in every project. That moment when I put my hands to my cheeks and say "oh chit."

In a moment of inspired lunacy during cutting out the coat-cape, I put off cutting out the center back facing. I had added width to the pattern pieces and since that piece is a curved piece, I decided I would wait to cut it out until I had the body put together and knew the exact measurements.

And then I threw away my scrap fabric.

Yep, you got that right. I threw away the fabric before the project is even close to being done. I don't remember doing it, but I'm sure my thought process went something like "Oh, I don't have enough to save for anything big like another front section, and I'm pretty sure it fits ok, and I'm not even sure I'm going to finish it, and I took a pledge to keep my sewing area clear this year...." and so on. Scratch that part where I trust my instincts. Clearly, they can't be trusted.

So now I must wait until tomorrow when I will be scouring the local fabric shops for 1/4 of a yard of black melton wool to match my 20 year old fabric. The odds are less than excellent.

However! This post is not entirely a downer. I did manage to snap some photos of something that might help someone.

You remember how I made bound buttonholes? Well, this coat's front is self-faced, and for the longest time I could not find a tutorial on bound buttonholes that actually explains what to do on the underside. I finally did run across a paragraph (no pictures) in an ancient Singer book that tells you to "make buttonholes" on the facing side and stitch in the ditch to attach the pieces before moving on.

So I did that. I made three buttonholes that match perfectly to the bound fronts, and as soon as I sit back down at the machine I will be stitching in the ditch to attach them. And praying I interpreted that right?


That's it for me. I hope to be able to share pics soon of the three (yes, THREE) dresses I made in the last few weeks that I can't wear. Maybe someone out there can help me....