Yesterday was a soggy day in London town. Deadlines have passed, I found myself overdue with the blog (sorry), and somehow I knew exactly which colour I’d most like to look at – and which project I’d most like to work on. The past few days have been spent working on the Sunshine coat, and here’s what I have to show for it: a completed right front and an unexpectedly large sleeve!
Well, I say unexpectedly. Although I’d looked at the photos and the diagram of the Holt coat, this was one of those times when the dimensions of something don’t truly hit you until…well, they hit you. And so it was with the sleeve; I even mused “This almost feels as though I’m knitting the back all over again.” I was! The width of the sleeve at underarm was exactly the same as that on the back – 53 stitches to be precise.
Having cast off the sleeve sometime around 11pm last night (once I’d started climbing the mountain, I didn’t want to stop), I thought it best to break things up by working on the collar between sleeves. Relatively at least, the collar is a mere snippet of moss stitch. It will be cast on sometime during the long weekend.
I should now start thinking about the lining. I still need to buy my new sewing machine, but the pattern pieces can still be made. The plan is to draw around the knitted pieces of the coat (after blocking – very important anyway, but especially so for the pattern pieces, they must be accurate), neaten up the lines with a pattern master, add seam allowance, markings and go from there. The main technical task is to add a box pleat to the back lining piece for ease of movement, so I’ll need to decide on the size of the pleat too.
I must confess that the coat lining is amongst a lot of advance prep I’ve done in anticipation of my new sewing machine. To give my fingers and brain a little break from my day job, I had the idea of cutting out and preparing as many dressmaking patterns as possible. That way, when I finally bring the machine home, I can get straight on it. The pattern pieces has been stowed away for the time being, but until my next dressmaking blog, I will say that I’ve cut out three dresses from the selection of patterns below:
There’s definitely a floral theme going on – flowers in a few different guises! Another chance to get away from the cold, wet and grey. I might have to give up the coat, but the cheerful fabric is definitely mine.
