Thursday, August 15, 2013

Safety Vest Orange

You smart cookies guessed right. It WAS a Lady Grey. 
Now give yourselves a pat on the back.


I made my first version of this wonderful coat a couple of years ago and it gets SO much wear. I wanted to make an updated version in a heavier fabric for the cold winter we have had this year so I was on the lookout for some pretty coating fabric.


I planned a drive in to the city on my day off and luckily my lovely man was all freed up too. He suggested that he chauffeur me around to the fabric hotspots and pop a lunch in there somewhere too. 
Umm. Yes please. Your buying...

On the list of visits were Rathdowne Fabrics, The Fabric Store and Tessuti.  


I couldn't find anything in a coat weight at Rathdown but still managed to spend $100. Quite easily.... Silk for the coat lining, jacquard & chambray... oh my!
At The Fabric Store there were many beautiful coatings to choose from. After testing my husbands patience with "What about this one" a thousand times, I settled on this crazy orangey red coloured wool. It is so bright! stings the eyeballs...

I like to think of it as a safety vest orange. Maybe I should be holding a stop sign in these pictures.

bound buttonhole, chubby hand.
 For some reason I only purchased 2.5 metres of this stuff even though the pattern calls for 4.. umm what... 
I managed to squeeze all the pieces out except for the belt. After much hair pulling it was down to the wire. I had to slim down the belt and cut 4 pieces instead of 2 so there is a seam at the middle back. No biggie. 


Construction was fine. This wool sewed like butter and everything matched up perfectly. Thank you Sarai! Bound buttonhole went fine and dandy. And the button? well last year I found a local cafe that has a little sewing store attached that sells vintage fabric, trims etc. I found a whole box of these buttons and have used them on pretty much every single coat I have ever made. I still have about a billion left so its safe to say that I won't be needing to buy coat buttons any time soon. 

The box says vegetable ivory... does anybody have any idea what that is???


So things were going pretty darn smoothly. That is until we got to the lining...
I purchased the lovely silk crepe de chine at Rathdowne Fabrics after falling deeply in love with the bird/tree print. This love blinded me to the fact that is was going to be so painfully slippery and flimsy to work with. When cutting the lining, I couldn't so much as breathe near it without it flying around everywhere. 
So. bloody. Annoying.



Anyway. After a bunch of swear words (this seems to be a common thing in the sewing room here) the lining was sewn up and attached to the coat. A few more minor touches and she was cooked.
I am in love with this pattern. flattering and fun. Hands up who loves Colette patterns?

The deets:
Fabric: 100% wool coating, 100% silk lining (I hate you)
Notions: Button from the bottomless pit
Time: About 3 Sunday afternoons


And look at how this colour clashes with my fake red hair. Wonderous...

Cheerio!
xx


Sidenote: I wrote this post at approx. 5:50am. Apologies for any spelling errors or other discrepancies. Sorry not sorry.

17 comments:

  1. LOVE it! I would call it Hi-Vis. I have a blood red Lisa Ho wool waiting patiently for this pattern...

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  2. Fab-u-lous! Honestly, what a fantastic coat. Love the main colour and love the lining fabric (definately worth the perserverance!). I think I need to add this pattern to my que. Oh and I love your skirt too!

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  3. Awesome! I've had a lady grey cut out forever and you've made two! Love that fabric and it looks fabulous on you! xx

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  4. Oooooooh, this looks FABULOUS! I love the color, but then again, I'm a sucker for the bright and terrifying! I think it's seriously delicious!

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  5. From the excellent Buttonmania: "Vegetable Ivory is a type of button material that is from the seed of the South American palm (Corozo nut). The nut is dried, sliced and shaped to the desired shape then turned into a button by applying a shank or button holes. Vegetable Ivory is recognisable by its graining, and was widely used and available up until the end of the First World War."

    Smashing coat!

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    1. Isn't that amazing! Thanks for sharing :-) just went and looked at their page and saw that they can dye them too... Hello new obsession!

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  6. This coat is FABULOUS!!! Off to buy me a copy of that pattern....

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  7. Awwww love the one-two-punch RED!!! Lady Grey was the first coat I ever made (in electric blue wool - it's awesome) and I adore it. It cuts such a fabulous figure, doesn't it? Your version is absolutely stunning :)

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  8. Beautiful! I hated sewing with lining fabrics for ages, but spray starch really helps. I've only used it with rayon lining, but it should work with silk, too.

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  9. Gorgeous! I avoid sewing with silk at all costs but that print would be very hard to resist. You have done an amazing job as always.

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  10. Oh my, it's gorgeous! The colour suits you so well and looks fab with your Charlotte skirt.

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  11. It's absolutely gorgeous, I love it! The shape and the color suit you really well.

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  12. Speechless!!! https://www.facebook.com/SassySewingBees

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  13. Argh hate auto correct ignore 8th Feb. Posted today.

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