Bluebird of Happiness - Coat - Part XXIV

The Moment of Truth - Phase 9, Part 1

This is it! This big moment where the borders are finally assembled with the coat! Before that actually happens, there is a lot of prep work that must be done. You see, I am planning to attach these borders to the coat with beads only, sort of like what is known as a strap or slot seam.

This means that both the edges of the border and coat must be finished before joining the two. The edges of the border are already done, which leaves the coat edges. The lining and the coat body have been constructed and now they need to be joined at the front and hem edges. As a side note here, the coat has raglan sleeves and is shaped at the neck with darts. Because of the thickness of the quilted outer fabric and the muslin underlined silk lining, I've slashed the darts and pressed them open. This distributes the bulk a little better than pressing the darts to one side.

If you've noticed, the edges of the border are curved, which means that the coat edges must match if they are to be joined. To make sure both pieces will match perfectly, the border is laid face down on the wrong side of the quilted coat body - here's the nervous moment - and hopefully, it will fit and the side seams will match.

Yes! It fit. The border side seams and fronts all matched the body of the coat. When modifying patterns like this there is always that moment of doubt when you wonder whether you left enough of a seam allowance, if there's enough fabric, if the border is too big or too small, and then what you're going to do about any or all of these problems.

In the photo above, you can see that I have the ruler and measuring tape out to make sure that the side seams are the exact same length and that everything else is the same distance from the neck edge.

The border edge is pinned and traced onto the wrong side of the coat body - this becomes the stitching line. The coat and lining are then carefully lined up and pinned together. This process takes a while because the lining and coat must match perfectly. The lining can not bag or sag at the hemline as it will spoil the entire effect. Once I thought I had it pinned, I would pick it up and let it hang from the neckline to see if the lining or coat bagged or sagged in any way. After adjusting and doing this a few times, I was pretty sure it was right.

The two pieces were stitched together, trimmed, clipped and pressed. The armhole and neck edges are not joined at this point. The respective sleeves will be attached to either the coat or lining once the border is on. After that, the collar and closure need to be done and lastly, some interior work on the lining (which will come much later!).

Whew. This really was the nerve wrecking and hard part.

Before Christmas, I promise a photo of the coat, not quite finished, but close enough so that you can get an idea of how it will look.

Parting Shot: Even in the Snow. Yes, the trash must go out. Today we got about four inches of snow, and with two more storms coming before Christmas, it looks like we will have a white Christmas.