further on down the road

Well, the lining is in now. And all the panels thereof are the same length!! lol Whew! I left it to hang on the dummy last night. Later today, I will sneak in there and do the hem. ;) The pattern said to do the neck, front openings, and 90% of the hem all in one pass. I was afraid that was fraught with danger. I was terribly afraid it wouldn't hang right and would tick me all the way off. lol So I did the neck. Then I did each front opening separately. I left the hem entirely open. I will hem it like a lined jacket. That made a lot more sense to me, and will be more sturdy I think. This way too, I can reach up in there and put a few French tacks at the seams so everything stays nice forever. :)

I did take a bunch of pictures as I went along last night on that opening. In the same album as before

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In my practice pieces with both fabrics, I discovered that even light weight interfacing (fuseable or sew in) made the patch piece too heavy. When I got to the finish press, I wasn't able to get something that laid down the way I wanted. So I needed to find a good way to make these and still get a good clean, crisp edge. With the wool, I was able to do that using my hem pressing tool.
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With the rayon crepe lining, that didn't work. It's heavy stuff, but soft enough that it's difficult to get a crisp press. So, there were some words, then I remembered I had a new big roll of Wash Away Wonder Tape!!!
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Now, I have to say, this stuff is one of my most favorite notions ever. My favorite application of it is on zippers. But I will use it any time I think it might help. LOL

I start out just like any bound buttonhole. I mark the wrong side with chalk and mark the guidelines. Then baste the guidelines. Then pin on the patch piece. Stitch, cut, press, stuff through to the wrong side. Now, here's the sneaky bit. I cut a small piece of WT for each short end, and put that over the top of the SA. Then when I want to lay down the short end of the patch piece where it tucks through to the wrong side, I have the tape there to hold it in place. Nice clean press.

On the long side, I wanted the fold of the patch, to form the lip of the opening, as close to the middle of the opening as possible. Easiest way to do that is to press the SA towards the opening and then fold the lip over the SA right? Was this crepe going to behave and lay there for that? Nope. So I folded the SA away from the opening, and put a strip of WT on the SA. Then when I fingerpressed the SA back towards the opening, over the WS of the patch, it stayed there. Another strip of WT over the SA and the ends of the patch. Then when I folded the cut edge of the patch back, I could stick it down with the WT. That gave me a just about perfect fold over the SA, with the folded edge smack in the middle of the opening. :) Repeat for the other side. Then I baste the opening closed so it behaves for topstitching and viola!

The pictures are pretty good of what I did. But it's red on red. When I get a minute, if anyone is interested, I will do a sample in all different colors and post the pics. That way you can see a little better what I did. It's so dead simple, I can't believe I didn't think of it on the FIRST one. LOL

Sharon

Reply to
mamahays
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Sharon, Betterer and betterer all the time. And how do we live without wonder tape. I'm so glad to see that your cat had a hand in making the cape. Makes it more personal. Juno

Reply to
Juno B

Thanks!!! WT really is great stuff!!!

She had more than a hand in on it. LOL She spent a lot of time behind the machine, watching me across the machine bed. She also decided that I needed "help" with the frogs. She came out and batted at the tubing while I was wiggling it around into shape like a kitten. It's so nice to see her feeling frisky (Tickles turned 17 in August and is pretty frail) that I don't have the heart to scold. So long as she keeps her claws put away (normally she does) it's all good. ;)

Sharon

Reply to
mamahays

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Anna is going to LOVE that cloak. I can just imagine her strutting around campus, flipping the edges so the red lining shows. Nice work, Sharon!

Reply to
BEI Design

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Thank you so much. I hope you are correct. ;) I asked DARLING son for an opinion yesterday....and the rotten child said, "Hmm.... Well it's not complete yet. Get back to me when it is." I saw his life flash before my eyes. LOL But I am getting very excited about it. It's really wonderful when a project comes out 90% or better of what I saw in my head. :)

I did make a minor decision last night. I have blindstitched (on the machine) the cloak and the lining. I plan on stitching the lining hem down to the cloak hem, like a lined jacket. But I won't do that before I give it to her. That was my decision du jour. That way if I need to adjust the hem, it will be SO much easier to do. I think I will put a French tack at each seam and slip stitch at the front openings. But that's all. That's super easy to take out, the whole hem stitched down....... Well, Juno would have to come help me cuss if that happened. ;)

Sharon

Reply to
mamahays

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The cloak looks really good.

I have one to do soon: my black velvet Domino for the 18th C project!

Reply to
Kate XXXXXX

Just send the word and I'll send the words. And me a nice little old gramma who would never ever use those kinds of words. HA HA HA HA HA. My daddy knew them all and a few in Gaelic that he would never teach me. Juno

Reply to
Juno B

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