The cashmere coat it is!

A weaving publication has expressed interest in the cashmere coat, and it’s got a tight deadline: the photo shoot is just two months away!  For a couture coat, with an as-yet-unfitted sewing pattern, that’s practically nothing.  In fact I’m not sure why I agreed to it, but I did – perhaps because I was thinking of doing it anyway, and I love the suspense of a tight deadline.  And there’s nothing wrong with being published, of course!

Here is the pattern I am planning for the coat, Vogue 8674:

This is basically a vest combined with a cape.  The vest front will be black suede, with red-and-black buttons.  The cape will be the Celtic braid fabric, with the stripes running down the front, lined with black silk charmeuse.  I haven’t yet figured out what fabric for the back of the vest will be – possibly the same silk charmeuse, possibly a wool suiting.  (I don’t have enough suede to do the back.)  The collar will be a contrasting fabric – perhaps the black silk charmeuse or the Celtic braid fabric with the stripes running lengthwise.  A trip to Britex Fabrics may be in order!

(If you don’t remember what the Celtic Braid fabric looks like, here it is:

I really love the fabric and am pleased to find a use for it!)

So, today I am working up my first muslin for the Celtic Braid Coat.  (I’m renaming it from “the cashmere coat” because I think it’s more descriptive.)  If I have time, I’ll do the first round of alterations before Sharon comes by on Sunday to help me with a second fitting.  Usually it takes three or four rounds to get things perfect, so there’s no time to lose!

Meanwhile, we have harvested our first cucumber and a handful of beans from the garden.  The butternut squash is really cranking out babies (unlike the zucchini which is taking a more leisurely pace) – I’ve counted seven or eight so far, with more yet to come.  I’d take Julia’s suggestion (from a previous post) and eat some of them young, like zucchini, except that mature butternut squash is my favorite vegetable and I can’t bring myself to sacrifice delicious butternut squashes for the sake of a better-tasting zucchini.  Perhaps next year I’ll plant two butternut squash, one to produce mature fruit and one for eating young.  There is plenty of space in the backyard, after all!  We are “farming” only about 1/3 of it so far – next year we’ll likely do more, and prepare the beds better.  I love gardening, especially since we finally have enough land to do it.  I remember fondly the days when I had an 1800 square foot garden, and grew 83 tomato varieties (and a dizzying array of other vegetables!).

Off to the farmer’s market!  When I get back, I’m going straight to work on that muslin.