Got the ribbon on!

Six hours of hard work yesterday got the ribbon on, with the characters perfectly matched as they run down the front of the coat:

Note the effortless way in which the characters “just happen” to match as they run down the length of the coat, and how (of course!) the ribbon is a single uniform width with the characters centered in the middle.  That took six hours to set up! with lots of pinning, re-pinning, basting, re-basting, stitching, pressing, etc.

I have not yet decided what to do about the trim.  In the photo, it’s only on one side of the ribbon, and I rather like the way it emphasizes the matched characters and looks like a single ribbon going down the front.  On the other hand, it might look odd if the coat is open.  I think I’ll try it both ways (basted in place), take a couple of photos, and see what I like best.

Meanwhile, I wanted to share the Magic of Wool: here is the ribbon before shaping, curved around the collar:

And here is the same piece after shaping with plenty of steam:

Look Ma, no ruffles!

Truly, wool is amazing stuff.  🙂 I should work with it more often!