Starting the lining...

The collar is slowly getting there. Each time I look on another sewing bloggers website, they astound me with how quick they can dash out another outfit. I do hope that you aren't finding my progress too slow in comparison. On the upside, at least you get to see a lot of steps in the progress!

You can see in the photo above that there is only a tiny bit not sewn. Hand sewing definitely takes a long time. I think it's less stressful in the end, because you only do it the once. Obviously if you are a bit more patient with the sewing machine you might only have to do that once, but well, that just isn't how I work. Perhaps I do would do better, if I ever took the trouble to use pins. I don't even know where my pin box is anymore. I guess that's an achievement of sorts. Everything you've seen so far has been constructed without pins. I don't even use them to cut out!!!  as

I thought the elves deserved a change from that fiddley collar so I let them have a go at the lining. 

I'm glad that I used the fabrics this way around, as I think from this distant, the lining looks very busy and would have been overpowering as a outer fabric. I think the next step should be to add the sleeves. Unfortunately I had yet another mistake whilst cutting out. (No doubt some of you are thinking ... should have used pins! but that wasn't the problem.) With the wadding making the material thick I decided to cut the pieces out one layer at a time, and subsequently managed to cut out two left sleeves! Argh! I now need to get those elves to quilt a bit more material as I've run out....

These are the buns I used to tempt the elves last night. They are raisin and cinnamon with a heavy dusting of caster sugar. My husband, Ellie and I ate them fresh from the oven and they were lovely and hot.

I thought you guys might be interested in sewing who the end product is going to. This is Ellie. She is two, and alternates between being a little devil, and well, I won't say angel, but fairly close to it.

I've also been thinking about my next project, did I mention before about how long I spend daydreaming about making things.... This one needs to be for Nancy just in case she thinks she's been missed out. I'm not going to make a coat, as knowing my luck, she'll have grown out of it before I even finish it! I'm thinking about dungarees and a little blouse. The last set of dungarees I made, I didn't bother with bottom fastening for an easy change. Having wiggled her in and out of them for the last three months though I'm beginning to think that might have been a design fault. I don't want to use those horrible hammer on poppers (has anyone ever got those things to stay on!) , and I've never had any luck with the sew on strip poppers, so I'm going to need to think of a more enterprising way of allowing bum access. (Sounds terrible...)

The tailors thimble.

I'm afraid I left out a rather meagre offering last night. Admittedly it was my last chocolate truffle, but still it didn't really require a whole lot of effort on my behalf other than to not eat it.

As a result, the coat isn't looking a whole lot different. The other side of the collar is done now, but the back is still a collection of fraying edges and wisps of escaping wadding. I do think though that redoing the quilting on the upperside of the collar was a good idea. It definitely looks neater for the smaller stitch. 

The elves have started on edgestitching the lapels but haven't really gotten very far. They have lightly sitched about 6mm away from the edge. (You should trim the sea allowances to a little less than this, or at least grade them back as otherwise it is difficult to sew through.) You don't need to worry about being able to see the stitches themselves; after all it's a decorative finish that also serves a purpose. It gives the edge strength. It stops it waffing about, rolling which ever way it feels like. You can force the facing to stay where its suppose to be. You are in control!

Here is a picture of my tailor's thimble. When people think of thimbles, generally they are the closed end kinds. You pop them over your index finger, and it saves the needle from stabbing in your finger, or even more excrutiating, from sliding up your nail.
The tailors thimble is different. You wear it on your middle finger. The hole at the end means that you are easily feel the fabric. Obviously you can't use it like a close thimble as it would kind of defeat the purpose. Instead you bend your finger so it is parallel to the direction of the needle, and the needle end catches in the top surface.

If you ever spend time doing hand sewing on clothes, I full heartily recommend purchasing one. I never set a stitch without one.

Just in case you thougth I'd been lazy in the kitchen, here is a photo of the flatbread that occupied our pasta last night for tea. I say 'flatbread' but actually when I went to the cupboard I found that my bread flour tub was empty so this is actually a kind of cheese scone made with herbs and garlic; even my two year old woffled it down. I'm afraid that I ran out of puff after doing this though, so we just had stewed fruit for pudding...

By the way do you like my new background? I thought rather than using the blogger backgrounds I'd take a snapshot of my airing cupboard which is mainly stuffed with material and wool! Where does everyone else store their stash?

Attaching the collar

I was expecting great things when I laid out one of these cookies last night. These are chocolate cookies with big chewy chunks of fudge. The biscuits are slightly soft, and melt in the mouth. Mmmmm...

And it seems that I wasn't to be disappointed.

 Here is the coat with the undercollar stitched in place and the facing added. It's definitely starting to look very 'coaty'.

This closeup shows the intersection of the undercollar (on the left) and the front and facing. The facing is sew up to the point where the rever and collar meet, and then snipped back.

Unfortunately while busy admiring their handiwork, I noticed a small cut in the fabric on the underside of the collar. I think it must have happened while the elves were clipping and grading the seams. I can't see any way of mending it, and for the effort I putting into the coat (or at least the elves are), I don't want it praying on my mind. Otherwise everytime I look it, I'll wish I'd redone it. And I am absolutely positive that the first time Ellie wears it to see her grandmother, my mother-in-law will unerringly home on it. Isn't that always the way?

So bravely, I have taken off the collar, and seperated the undercollar from the collar. I have enough material left to cut another one, so I'm going to do that today. The elves are going to have their work cut out for them as the coat has already been cut back, so the seam allowances are going to be very small now. It might not be a bad thing though as I think the neckline was a little bit tight when I tried it on Ellie. I might take the opportunity to redo the upper collar as well, and make it a bit wider. After all, I don't want to choke her when I do the buttons up.

Buttons. That's something to cheer me up. I think a coat like this deserves pretty amazing buttons. It's a 2cm buttonstand, so I think a 2cm button will look pretty grand. I was thinking of a bold colour, but what about having each button a different colour. What do you think?

The view from the other side....

This is one of the boring bits. Doing exactly the same thing but on the other side.  I'd say that the elves have done a pretty good job though, and they even look pretty similar. (Another downfall of a symmetrical garment is trying to tell if it really is symmetrical!)

Here is Ellie trying it on, as it now has two armholes so constitutes a waistcoat.She seems pretty pleased with it, especially the pockets!

 Below is a picture of my latest baking efforts. This is a picture of one that I was eating rather than the one left out for the elves (they don't appreciate left overs!) I've included this one so that you can see the cake is green! It was meant to be blue, but I think you must have to be braver with the food colouring.

I did one for each of us along with one for the elves, and a spare one using up some 'z's. They are mint choc chip (mint icing), and have chocolate chips inside, and covered chocolate beams (like smarties) on the top, as well as chocolate letters! Gosh, I think I went a bit overboard! Ellie was a fan, and actually ate some of the cake as well. Obviously not all; some was smooshed underfoot as always...

Here is the collar all quilted. (The elves had a busy night! It must have been all the chocolate!)

 

I figure this should be pretty soft around Ellie's neck. Here you can see the detailed quilting. I asked the elves to do the same as on the main body of the quilt, but I'm not sure looking at it now that I should have specified a smaller quilt stitch.  What do you think

I'm glad that I have my little elves to help me. I was thinking recently about what sewing used to be like before I had responsibility for two beautiful but demanding little girls. And I came up with the conclusion it was stressful. I had too much time on my hands. Sure, I didn't need the help of elves, but equally if I didn't get whatever task I'd set myself done that day, then I felt that I'd failed. I'd stay up late finishing it off, and rush through the complicated bits, pushing myself to just get it done.

But no longer.

Now it all happens gradually. I try and make an outfit each month, or at least I buy material with something in mind each month. I enjoy planning what I'm going to do, creating the outfit in my mind. As I usually have a bit of a backlog, there can be months between me starting to think of a project and actually sitting down and cutting fabric. It gives the design time to take shape, to develop. Each morning (assuming I've let out a tempting treat) I'm excited to see how the design is progressing. If there's a mistake, it doesn't matter. I noticed this morning that the belt for the back must have got kicked under the sofa and the elves hadn't spotted it. It means that some of the back seams need to be undone. So what?

These little elves haven't just enabled me to keep at going at sewing, they've transformed sewing back into the hobby I used to enjoy. So if you aren't fortunate enough to have a pair of little helpers, considering slowing things down, and taking time to enjoy the process. It makes all the difference.