Gotta get my coat done!

Last week I went to Mary Joe's Cloth shop in Gastonia NC with 3 friends.  It took about 4 hours to get there, but we had such a good time together it didn't seem like it was that long.  I bought a couple of fabrics for a coat I'm working on.  Then we went to the thread shop and of course bought a few threads I just had to have!

The coat I'm working on will be my winter coat, as I've been wearing a "ski" type jacket for the past oh hmmm maybe 15 years!!!  How can it be that long?  Well I think it is.  I guess I deserve a new coat.  This coat is an artsy kind of coat.

This shows that I cut out little pieces from my fabrics to see if I liked the placement of them.



Since the patterns NEVER fit me there is a fair amount of revising the pattern so that it will come close to fitting me.  I first fit the "lining" as it was one piece in the back and one piece for each front.   then I needed to find all the corresponding pieces of the outside and make the changes to them.  This became a LONG process.  It took me two days just to get the pattern pieces the right size and so they would fit together.   Previously I had pulled out a number of fabric from my stash that went together.  However I was missing a couple and those are the ones I bought at Mary Joe's.   OK so now it is time to cut out the fabric.  I laid all the  pattern pieces for the back on the floor, and laid all the fabric out on the floor.  One by one I picked up the pattern piece and laid it on the correct fabric.  I did the same for each of the fronts.  Then took each fabric and cut it out.  I had to decide how I wanted my stripes to go as well as the nap on the corduroy.  So I didn't always follow the grain line on the pattern.  All this took me a couple of days as well.

cut fabric laid out, didn't like this

This is sewn with newly cut fabric pieces

this is the front, trying out the bias fabric

I didn't like the fabric placement of all of the back pieces, so had to re cut some of the pieces.  Then I found one piece wasn't long enough so had to re cut that one as well.  The back is together, each front piece is together.  I tried out different bias binding on the various appliques and have settled on the same fabric as the applique.  That's where it sits now.  The jacket is supposed to be reversible, but I'm just putting in a lining.  I need to cut and sew that after putting on the bias strips and the sleeves.  I'm hoping I will continue to like it after putting this much time into it.

Round Robin Quilt:
I have two sides of the borders quilted.  I'm getting close to the finish line!

Sew that's it for now!  Bette