Getting Down to Crunch Time - R

Lisa helped me get started on the Frock Coat. Because I didn't understand all the directions, I was afraid to cut anything out.  Her style is to charge ahead and deal with the consequences later. Her approach actually worked this time, although I have run into a few tricky spots that the instructions just didn't deal with adequately.

I used my own method of collar attachments.  The Laughing Moon pattern had you hand sewing the upper collar on to tailor's felt. I just faced the upper

collar with silk and sewed it on as a piece in a method I learned from a ladies' jacket I'd made some time ago.  Here's a close up of the collar.  It came out great. The jacket doesn't fit, though. I need to take in about 1 inch on each shoulder, otherwise it looks as if he is swimming in a giant bathrobe. Strange, because the muslin fit just fine. These are the things I don't understand, how you can make a muslin that fits but the jacket looks too big in the fashion fabrics. Ah, Life's Mysteries!

Crunch time meant it was time to stop fiddling with the flowers and actually sew them on to the bonnet.  Here's what I came up with.  In the spirit of the True Victorian, when I thought "OK, that's enough", I then added a few more flowers!

Voila, the finished bonnet.  It looks cute over the wig. Yes, friends, I bought a wig.  You'll see it in the final picture.  It is from Vogue Wigs online and is the "Scarlett" model from Lacey in Auburn. It is quite comfortable.















I now have two more days to finish the Frock Coat, with lots of hand sewing left to do.  Hopefully, my Beau will not travel to the Dickens Faire with pins still in his outfit!

We had tons of fun trying everything on for friends and family for Thanksgiving.  We took tons of pictures and will post them soon.  OK, some are already on Facebook.  Mysteriously, my Polonaise managed to grow and now needs to be taking in down the center front.  This will allow me to fix the mistake I made when I didn't follow instructions.  It will also need to be done all by hand.  My alternative is to undo a whole lotta facing.  Like the frock coat, this is truly a mystery.  No other item of clothing I own is looser.

Dickens Faire on Sunday!  Two days to fix and finish everything!