Commencing the coat

I keep getting distracted but I’ve finally started a huuuuge project, McCalls M6800, which is a princess seam, flared coat with about a million pieces.

I purchased duck egg blue coating from The Fabric Shop in Christchurch last year which took up most of my luggage and left a hole in my budget but fabric doesn’t count as *shopping*, right? So I have to make something worthy out of it and wear it once every three years when the weather in Perth is chilly enough to warrant wool. And I’d be loathe to travel with it as it will be bulky. What was I thinking? I was thinking that I wanted to make a coat, that’s what I was thinking!

Commencing with a toile in black broadcloth with a golden bemsilk lining, which I probably will be able to wear a lot more than the wool version, yesterday I cut out the main fabric, labeled the bits and hung them over the balustrade to keep them in order as there so many of them. I am replacing the collar with a shawl style, which I’m hoping will be good for standing up or rolling down, and think that will look nice with frog closures rather than buttons on the wool version, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

I commenced sewing together the first panels (1 and 3) and the old stretch and clip was required to make the front (1) attach to the front side (3) nicely. I basted, pressed like crazy, then sewed the final seam I think doing the flared princess seams with the wool will be a bit easier as it will have a little more stretch than the broadcloth.