pieceing

A whole day sewing and I am all but finished Amy's winter coat.

The pattern is from Ottobre 5/2006, in size 104cm, but with much longer sleeves (15cm?) and slightly longer hem (5cm?). It comes down to her knees and is generously sized - enough to cope with a jumper underneath and at least another year of wear, maybe 2 if I'm lucky.

The blue wool is exquisite and was a 70cm remnant from Tessuti ($18), everything else was from the stash. I was astonished to discover the piece of perfectly matching blue silk from the Thailand stash and thrilled to be able to use it to great effect in the collar. Both the solid and perforated charcoal wools were from darn cheap a few years ago and planned as a jacket for me that just never eventuated - there's still enough should I ever get back to that project!

I have to say, it is a beautiful coat - I would be happy to wear it if it were in my size - and it took as good as a full day to make. It is in every way as complicated as the adult sized garment, and in some ways harder at a smaller scale. I found setting in the sleeves (never my favourite part of a tailored garment and the area I am most likely to stuff up and compromise on doing over and over to perfection) particularly fiddly and was exceptionally proud to have achieved a very good result.

All I need to do is the hand hemming and the buttons and button holes and it's done. Oh and give it a darn good press - there is an iron here but no ironing board, which has made a good finish particularly challenging.

Tomorrow - the world!