Moving on…

First, a huge thank you to all of you who ordered packages of scraps.  They mostly went out Saturday morning, so you should be getting them shortly, and I hope you enjoy the scraps and do fun things with them.  Send pictures.  All of the Color and Dark packages sold quickly.  Oddly enough, the Mid-value, of which I only have four packages and which are my favorites, didn’t sell at all.  And there are still about 8 packages of the lights, which are also really pretty.  So I moved through about 20 pounds, and it was a good exercise in recycling.  I still have an attic full of the mohairs, but those are for another day.

Meanwhile, I fringed all the lengths I pulled out that were suitable for scarves.

I fused a backing onto scraps and glued them to the fronts and backs of the United Airline Business First Toiletry bags, (I think I have fourteen).  They will all go to my guild sale.

And this morning, I was determined to spend the day doing something a bit more creative, and something that involved my sewing machine but not zigzagging endlessly around the perimeter of old fabrics.

I have been mulling over coat patterns.  And I pulled a few and mulled some more.  The fabric, seen below, is from the 2010 Albuquerque Convergence Yardage Exhibit, it is a large piece of fabric, and it is all hand dyed.  It is all cellulose fibers, assorted rayons and cottons.  There are parts of this yardage I absolutely adore and there are parts I don’t like at all.  That’s why I’ve probably sat on it for so long.  I looked at a lot of coat patterns that had multiple pieces.  This fabric is so busy that breaking it up I thought would only make it busier.  So simple shape, big pieces were what it was telling me it wanted to be.  I think I have the length in the color repeats to do a mid thigh coat, and I found five great buttons.

The only thing I haven’t settled on is which side of the fabric to use.  There clearly is a right and wrong side, but the colors are a little more subtle on the wrong side, and the cotton bouclé is less obvious in the lengthwise stripe on the wrong side.  Which makes me happier.

I kept coming back to this pattern from the archives, Vogue 2472, except it is from the era when all patterns were “Very Loose Fitting” which meant they had more than 10″ of ease across the bust.  This one has 12 1/2″.  And it called for big raglan pads.

No.

So I carefully redrafted the pattern, keeping the size 12 up in the shoulder and neck, and reducing the body to a size 8, which I did using the existing grading schematic, since the pattern I had purchased many moons ago only went down to a 12.

I pinned the pattern together, tweaked it a bit more, and then did a muslin.  I’m happy.  There is detail, like welt pockets, and I’ll add bound buttonholes and piping, and put a wicked lining inside, but the shapes are simple and I think this will be fun to sew up and add a little color to the dying days of autumn.

Stay tuned…