A Fresh Dress for the Holidays

~ photography by geof kern ~

So nice that you can dress it up or down for whatever the occasion.

In other news, it's been gently snowing since last night and looks so picturesque. 

~ out my window ~

~ only 2 inches expected ~

And I'm back at it with THE coat...

~ this time whistling while I work ~

I have one more of these big panels (bigger than my table top) and then I'm off to hand-sewing another set of layers.  An ever smaller lot of them.  woo-hoo.

~ with intermittent breaks to watch the snow fall ~

Ho, ho, ho to each and everyone!

xoxo, pao 

Sewing In, Sewing Out

~ and a rough day at the sewing cave ~

But it's not always like that.

Some times it's just like this.

~ le sigh ~

Then there's the fun and games...

~ like hiding behind sheer silver-gray organza ~

I hear that's good for disguising wrinkles.

~ but first you must iron it! ~

hehe

~ another trick is to keep moving ~

 That way you are a blur, which keeps any old, aging parts at bay.

~  double points if you keep on moving and have your back to the camera ~

But what I was really going to post about was the trials and tribulations of the new coat I'm making:  Pamela Roland's Vogue 1332.  

~ this one ~

Has anyone done this one before?  oh my.  

That's my coat fabric on the right and my lining on the left (hand quilted, by the way).  It has so many layers of fabric!  Plus batting, the organza as interlining and sew-in interfacing.  And each layer is hand-basted around the perimeter of each pattern piece.  All the pattern markings and stitching construction  are marked with tailor tacks (thread) on each layer or each piece.  Something like that.  

It is taking me forevah!  I guess that's okay.  I only hope it fits/looks good after all.

p.s.  I'm wearing my workout clothes in the pix.  yeah.  oh, the top is a translation of Tina Givens Juliana top pattern and the pants are from her Phoebe pattern.