Saturday, April 13, 2013

Minimalist coat

I really did not mean to go off the radar for quite so long.  "Stuff" got in the way of normal blogging interaction, and the longer I stayed away, the more difficult it seemed to get back to "normal" - whatever that is.  Once again, I'm terribly embarrassed, because I did not reply in a timely fashion to the Cennetta's nomination for a blog award.  Thank-you so very much for the honour.  Now it's far too late to continue that thread and I apologize for being such a dud.
I must have the blogging mentality now well ingrained, because despite the lack of posts, I did photograph almost all that I sewed during my absence from here.  Shall I start at the latest ?  (Well, the last that was actually photographed.)

My UFO coat from last winter.  I desperately wanted to make a double-cloth wool coat when I used to do alterations years ago, because altering the seams done in this style is absolutely NO FUN, and I wanted to see what it would be like to put something like this together from scratch.  Somewhere down the line I did acquire a remnant.  It sat around for a while (like a few years), and last year I finally started on it - rather late in the season.  The weather warmed up and I abandoned the project, thinking that I'd be much more "moved" to work on it in cold weather.  One thing and another, and this poor coat was not getting the attention it needed.  Besides, it's not really a "dead of winter" kind of coat - more of a "it's really cold, but not quite cold enough for snow" kind of coat.  By the end of February I decided that it was "do or die", and if I didn't get a move on it, this coat would once again get packed away for the summer, and I was really determined not to pack up any winter UFO's this year.  So, despite lack of enthusiasm - because any project that drags on far too long just isn't all that interesting anymore - I did finish!
Ah - pattern used - um - some combination of these two  - extended to full length.  I only had a remnant, and I was determined to get a full - length coat out of it.  Talk about zero-waste cutting!  This is all one layer -- no lining -- no facings.  And to make up for the lack of collar - I "just happened to have" a suitable piece of challis for a scarf.
So - a few more pictures...
no scarf view
back view
I was not going to mess with buttonholes or any other closures that could potentially mess up this coat!  Snaps were the order of the day - sewn very carefully through only one layer so's not to show on the outside.
Only downfall of this coat - no pockets!!!  Oh well, life just can't be perfect, now can it?
What took so long?  ... construction details to follow in the next post (yes, I took pictures!)  This post is long enough for my first post in over 3 months!!!
Oops!  Almost forgot - I do have a picture of "coat in action".
Trying to teach Mum to take the pictures - this one's not too bad, she only cut off my head