YES! The coat pattern is ready for prime time! Except for a small issue with the left sleeve (probably me rotating it incorrectly as I sewed it), and the lack of shoulder pads, it fits perfectly. If I had the fabric woven, we could start it tomorrow. 🙂
The dress, on the other hand, needs additional work. Sharon and I made a few changes to the back of the dress, and then tinkered much more extensively with the front of the dress. Sharon finally decided that she would have to redo the muslin for the front. So she took a bunch of notes, scribbled on the muslin in a few places, and will alter the pattern and do the sewing herself. Since I will be out of town visiting family Dec 24- Jan 2, we won’t meet up again until January 3rd. At that point, we’ll do a (hopefully!) final fitting on the dress muslin.
We’re going to start constructing the internal structure of the garment before that, though. We already have the pattern for the mini-corset with the boning, so Sharon’s going to sew that up as well. Then (after the dress muslin is finalized) we’re going to try a “mockup” of the dress, in a fabric more similar in drape and behavior to the handwoven fabric, to check out the look before we go to the handwoven fabric. And we may lay out the lace on the mockup as well.
Meanwhile, I have not been idle. I’ve woven up a bit over a yard and a half of the remaining warp, bringing my total up to about 4 yards so far. That’s a noticeable dent, even in a 27.5-yard warp. It’s going slower than the first two yards did because I’m breaking more threads (not sure why), but still a lot faster than the dress fabric. (Not too surprising since the weft is twice as thick and I’m not having to double-beat every shed.) I expect to finish it by the end of January.
Tomorrow morning I’m going to work on sewing two silk purses for Christmas gifts. I can’t seem to find any sow’s ears, so I’m digging into my stash. It’s handy to be able to use those neutral colors that were far too subtle for the AIDS Ride! I’m doing one with an olive/brown two-tone silk duppioni as a flap, and a golden brown rucked silk for the body of the purse. The other is going to be a champagne matelasse body with a white and gold flap. Hopefully they should be quick to sew!
