Happy Memorial day! After a week of rain and nasty temps, the sun came out this morning and we hit 70 degrees, just in time for the town parade....such a nice way to start the day, watching my youngest marching in the school band!

I had a whole lot of nothing but prep work going on this week , of course eventually it will be fabulous?! but as of now ...ehh....we are also heading into week three without a kitchen, which is always fun with kids, cats and dogs and thats been slowing me down.

The upside to buying a very old barn are the established flower beds and trees....these peonies are the size of two cupped palms, right outside my sewing room window

and the downside has been all the upgrades needed inside. (although to be fair we choose the house because thats what we wanted to do) ....I put the kitchen off forever but it still had not sunk in that the carpenters and painters would come, seal of the kitchen entrance with plastic and then start work...no fridge, no pantry....but they worked yesterday and are here today, so impressed!

but onto the important stuff!

Marfy 3201 has won my heart, its a gorgeous pattern, very detailed, just meant for tailoring. Roll lines, seperate collar, under collar and stands, all individually cut and then sewn per preference..I have cut the upper collar and lower on the bias and the stand on the grain. I'll post pictures next week of all the stages...I have to finish the pad stitching today.

I know there are always questions about why these kind of designer fabrics cost so much, but just look at what it consists of....yards and yards of these strands.Its kind of mind blowing! The three different sizes are woven into the black thread which is on the straight grain. The smaller is black and has flecks of white embedded into it randomly, the other two are similar to each other but different sizes.

This coat took a full six yards of fabric with just fistfuls left but it was a very narrow 46" wide. This is the entire pattern laid out end to end... I have held onto all the selvedges in case there is a way of "Chaneling" it up when I finish!

All cut and thread stitched...it a deep pile!

The quilting took some time to figure out, normally a walking foot is a absolute must but the ice wool was causing havoc, being sandwiched between the two and so I went back to the regular foot and used a 4.8 stitch which although is much bigger than I have used before allowed the fabric to lay flat and not resemble a puffa jacket!

The lining design is making the quilt stitches look distorted but I promise they are even :-)

The upper image is just after quilting and the lower is after a pressing, amazing difference....there were a lot of panels to do, I am so glad I choose to do this here, it took a while.

and even longer to tie off every single row of quilt stitching top and bottom on the inside of the layers.

Then it was onto the front panels, these do come with facing panels, so in theory the fronts are tailored and then they join the quilted front sides with the facings hiding it all seamlessly.

This was a little tricky as I wanted to go to Camp Couture this time to learn how to do the "finishings", professional bound buttons, the most beautiful pockets flaps, exquisite top stitching! so I thought it would be better to tailor as I normally would and remove what I need to when I get there. I don't know quite how to add the bound buttons holes to the jacket now its at this point but its always quicker to take something off or cut a chunky square out, then it is to add it!

The roll lines have been taped and catch stitched, I have left big areas free for the bound button holes and rather than taking the hair canvas into the front side pieces as normal, I have reduced them to within the sewing lines along with the twill tape so that they can be a little more flexible like the remainder of the coat, .....or thats what I hope anyway.

Although the basting is quite tight around the upper body I kept it loose and flexible towards the bottom so that it will be less rigid like the rest of the coat.

and they are now chilling out after a good steaming so they remember how to roll correctly when the time comes!

I also decided to stay true to the original pattern, and insert the cape permanantly while lining it with the patterned silk so it matches the coat....Marfy knows better than me, I can change things up with the second version once I know what I am doing!

I have a list of things to get done before next Sunday when I leave which include the collar, ice wool quilting of the front facing and joining the coat for a first fitting.

Also need to cut and quilt the sleeves for both the small red and blue jackets, insert the main trim in the red and close it all off....

Thank you, thank you Dan Brown for Inferno. I have listened to it all week and its taken my mind off the hours and hours of knot tying! I was rolling my eyes at one point but it took a great twist which showed me! Love the history he includes.

Off to pad stitch for a while before we fire up the grill and open the beer!

Have a great week, back Monday!

Leisa