When we last left our ate-up heroine, she was steadily plodding along with the underlining of her vintage Patou jacket project. Sadly, that jacket has been moved to the side due to some misgivings I have about the general fit. Not to worry! I picked up a new vintage project last week and that's what I'll be making for the Great Vintage Sew-Along.
I like to call it the Sherlock Holmes-meets-Batman coatcape. It's a coat with cape sleeves, and I'm making it out of black melton wool my mom gave me that had been in my grandma's stash for a while. We're 99% positive it's Pendleton, as all of her woolens were Pendleton.
On a whim, I decided to forego the muslin this time and just give it a go. Muslins haven't served me particularly well, considering I made two for the Patou jacket and it still doesn't look like I got the fit right? This may turn out to be my Waterloo because I had to resize this pattern from 32 bust to 36. Who am I kidding, I'm probably more like a 38.
I started off by interfacing the entire body with Palmer Pletsch Pro-tailor interfacing, recommended by quite a few better sew-ists than me who recently completed the Winter Wear contest on Pattern Review. It was on sale over the New Year so I splurged.
After spending all that time cutting and interfacing, I was so excited to get started on the project! Note to self in choosing sewing projects - cutting fabric, lining, underlining and interfacing and then ironing on all said interfacing takes SO STINKING LONG. Reconsider coat projects in the future. I digress.
I finally got to start sewing!
First step? Make three bound buttonholes. Something I've never done before. But I've made plenty of welt pockets so I followed this tutorial and carefully measured, marked and stitched and I am really happy with how they've turned out.
As you can see, my first buttonhole was off by exactly one stitch. Easy fix, thank goodness, since they have to line up exactly the same.
The second step is assembling the cape sleeves. I'm underlining the coat with houndstooth flannel, hence the crazy print on the inside. The seams and hemline are also interfaced with more Tailor-pro.
That's as far as I've gotten. I hope to get the sleeves lined and attached tonight, and then hopefully start in on the body work maybe tomorrow night? I have a three and four-year-old underfoot so my sewing is usually done in very short spurts! Here's hoping for another long stretch.
You amaze me, dude. Also? "sew-ists" is going to make me smile for a week.
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