My Labour of Love (and I love it)

Hi,

Sarah here, so, like Suze I have been busy sewing, but not blogging enough about it, is this common?

so, Ta Da!!!! (drum roll and fanfare), I have finished my rather lovely coat and whilst it was a real labour of love, photo’s and comments below, I can honestly say that I loved every minute of it, there are a LOT of photos.

This is the finished item, Mr Sarah isn’t about and this is my “free night” to catch up. The coat fabric is boiled wool, in bottle green, not quite felt, but not standard wool either and rather nice to work with; it gathered well, was easy to work with, no pulling or stretching and  no problem in the sewing machine. The lining is satin and not so lovely to work with as it frays like northing I’ve ever seen, (at 1 point I had to even stop thinking about it in case it made it fray more!).

The top stitching in orange crochet cotton (double thread) was all done by hand, I measured every stitch, 1cm with 1 mm variance (train-spotter voice in play) to keep them even. The buttons were covered by hand, (see earlier post). The cuffs (top photo) were lined and added to the sleeve with my lovely hand covered buttons and when the coat is done up, give the only “flash” of colour and hint to the lining.

There is similar detailing on the back.

The next photo shows the collar which I am really pleased with and shows off the effort I put into finishing this well.

and finally a photo of the inside, I really really love the lining (this is effusive for me), I hand stitched the inside facing to the lining all the way round, which takes me to the maths aspect;

The cost of the fabric and notions for this was ~£57 and it took in total over 30 hours (I lost track a bit and some bits were very speedy (joining main pattern pieces together as I had already made a toile) and others long, (2 hours to cover buttons as I was learning as I went along). But, I am really very pleased with the result and have had very positive comments and trying on from friends. So Hurray!!!!!

When Suze and I were working out the list of what we were going to do, we put 1 jacket or coat on the list and both made a similar face of ” that will have to wait until later on in the year when we are up to it”, oddly enough, we have both made coats / jackets (I am told the velvet jacket is coming along) near the beginning. I like this so much, I may make a heavier coat later in the year too.

Sarah