A Challenge

I have had, for some years now, a piece of cream cotton velvet and a matching lining. I cannot honestly remember why I bought it, but the fact that it was there, in my fabric box, with its lining, indicated that I must have bought it for something.

Last night I finally gave up trying to work out what it was for in the first place, and cut a fairly casual morning coat from it. After two and a half hours work (and about half an hour on the pattern) I have made the body. I am seeing just how quickly I can make something without sacrificing quality. Hopefully it will be done by Wednesday, and by then I will have a working camera. It has something* of 1870 Paris about it - rolled collar, pale, not quite meeting at the front - and a great deal of modern too, as it will have a rather elegant copper buckle instead of a button.

Compared to my previous body coat** projects, it is going rather fast, in part due to the lack of structure, in part due to the simple rolled collar it will have and in part due to the whole back, but mainly, I think, because I'm getting better at this lark.


*Not, if I am honest, a great deal.

**A body coat is a type of coat with a waist seam and side-bodies to give it extra shape - Frock Coats and Tailcoats are both body coats, and a morning coat is a type of tailcoat.