I took a little clothing project rest after Investiture but events conspired against me. My child continues to insist on growing and so did not have a coat for upcoming outdoor events. They decided they wanted a coat from Alcega’s pattern book and I decided it had to be fast as I had two days.
First note, bara measurements on the tween body are interesting as the bara are all pretty close in length but not the same. I found myself double checking which tape I had a lot. My cat also took an unnatural interest in this set so there was no small amount of chasing him or looking in other rooms for bara during this project.
In any event, I had a lovely grey wool, quickly decided I would have to machine sew this garment (not my favorite) and we were off.
Wool is interesting in that it can really change character when it is washed. I did not know anything about the processes this particular wool was put through save that it is worsted and has a good hand. I also understood how I would clean it, which is likely to be brushing, spot treatments as necessary, airing, and steaming. I decided to prep by hot temperature ironing with steam. The concept is pretty simple, I ran my gravity feed iron with steam over the fabric twice letting it cool in-between. This allowed me to encourage the fabric to do any contracting or stretching before I cut.
Then, I went a little insane.
I decided to mark the pattern directly onto the fabric with chalk and cut. No mockup, no safety net — just draw and go.
I then used the cut pieces to render the sleeve curves and cut out straight sleeves. These coats often had fancier curved sleeves or even round sleeves but the kid didn’t like either of those so we went with simple.
A very quick machine sewing session later (I understand now why people use them) and tada, one coat. I will come back and make some buttons and line this later but for the moment — Coat achieved. And, it is a perfect fit.
For this one moment in my sewing life, I feel like a badass.
GuardarobaFiore 