Phew! All done!

Oh, fabulous! I love the coat, the lining is such a delightful surprise. I like that the woven vest pattern is subtle and yet still very interesting.

Well done, Kate!

Thank you. That embroidered silk taffeta COULD have been a pig to sew, but turned out to be lovely. We could only fit five buttons on it because of the way the embroidery worked: on a plain one in this style, especially for a smaller gent, we'd have put seven.

I wish I had pix of the trousers. They were a work of art! Hand applied braid down the seams, and pockets that are hidden, like the RAF uniform trousers. And for discretion, Su finished the fly by hand, like Dad's uniform.

I think the most pernickerty thing, after we solved a slight problem of the sleeves being a bit too big, was getting that piping round the lining even! I took one side out three times before admitting defeat and hand basting it!

It is all beautiful! Barbara in rainy SC

Thank you. We did have fun making it!

Oh very, very nice!!!!! You and Su do such great work. I can't decide what's the best part.....that you, Su and your client are all pleased with it; or that you two are having so much fun on all these projects. It's a very close call.

What's next? ;)

Sharon

A late Victorian wedding gown, another historic costume, and a pile of LARP stuff!

"Kate XXXXXX" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news:_bKdnf snipped-for-privacy@brightview.co.uk...

Oh, that one is really pretty! But since I have been busy lately, too, I didn't get round to replying to your interesting report on the LARP weekend. Sorry for that ( I did read it, though!). Anyway, I love that particular colour combination in the coat, plum with two greens. And the waistcoat fabric is just lovely; I bet it cost an arm and a leg, not like the mock poly... (told that one in sewing class recently; hard to translate, though, so they didn't laugh about it quite as much as we here all did).

As for the hand basted seam - I know what you mean. I have been busy with that two-fabric dress: denim for the top and chiffon for the skirt. I had to make an underskirt from jersey lining, and then I had to gather the chiffon into pleats. I think I did that about three times, with the pleats not coming out evenly. Then I attached the bottom to the top with one seam and pinned the seam allowance upwards to fix it with a double row of top stitching.

Well, given that I didn't use a twin needle, the distance between the two rows came out very evenly. Unfortunately, I didn't notice that the lining got caught in some places in that seam. So I had to unpick those two rows of black thread in dark blue denim - you know what fun that can be. After that, I took the time and basted the stuff down, and took extra care when sewing it.

Now the only thing that mars the beauty of the dress is that the side seams of the skirt which I did with a serger are not nice - I didn't bother to control and adjust the tension of the threads before sewing. I'll unpick them, too, and redo them as soon as I'm back in class. The hem of the skirt I did on my own serger, though, with three needles, as a rolled hem and it came out, thanks to Monika and the Kayla-Kennington tutorial links Kay Lancaster posted, very nice. After all, although the dress itself is not the greatest thing since sliced bread, it has been a good exercise for the 'wedding dress'. I'll post pics of the dress as soon as it's finished and the weather here is more like wearing sleeveless chiffon dresses again. ;-)

So, what will you make for yourself next? Or will it be all for others and money? Anyway, keep up the good work. And, BTW, isn't it a pity that one hasn't got time enough to sew all the clothes that pop up in ones mind?

U.

I still get a giggle outof that. :D

The coat is motr blue than plum: a cross between navy and royal. And the piping is green (turquoise shot with emerald) with the other silk in the turquoise.

You must show us pics of the dress. It sounds lovely.

I think the next things for me will be the outfits for King's Musketeers. That'll be for February. We already have a commission for that game, too. And another wedding, plus a pile of stuff for the new Empire game.