My dear if you could give me a cup of tea to clear my muddle of a head I should better understand your affairs *

Recently I’ve I felt like my sewing was in a bit of a muddle. I love working on several projects at once but every now and again I need to clear my head (and my sewing table) and start fresh. So lately I’ve been working hard to finish off any languishing projects so I can start the cycle again 😉

Lady Grey is one of them. Cut out two winters ago I picked it back up for the Indie pattern challenge in June but was distracted by secret sewing instead.

Well, she’s finally finished and I really like her 🙂

I bought the wool while in Melbourne for work, from The Fabric Store. I was living in Perth at the time so I made a little map of all the fabric places I wanted to visit in my down time. Fitzroy didn’t seem all that so I walked all the way from our hotel on Flinders street.

It ended up being a little further than I anticipated but it was worth it when I spotted the SALE signs!

I bought this slub weave wool coating, some NZ merino and a few other goodies. I thought about catching a tram back but I just wasn’t sure how you were supposed to pay so I hefted my bags of fabric (4 meters of wool takes up a lot of space!) and power walked back to the city.

I was just outside our hotel when my cell phone rang. It was my work colleague who’d gone off to do her own thing calling to tell me she’d just walked past a fabric store around the corner from our hotel, apparently they also had a big SALE sign in the window!

I’ll be honest, I was tired, like SUPER tired, my feet hurt, my arms hurt, and I was hungry…but I just can’t say no to a fabric sale so I dropped my bags with the concierge and crawled around the corner to discover Cleggs. That’s where I got the amazing rose printed linen for my Rooibos…so all my Colette makes so far have been made out of fabric from my Melbourne Trip!

The lining is a cotton sateen from Spotlight – I love a bright happy pop of lining!

I’ve always found Colette a bit over-generous with their fabric allowances. I laid my pattern pieces out more efficiently and was left with just over one meter spare. I remember having quite a bit left over from my Rooibos too.

Harriet is not complaining however:

Harri loves this fabric so much, whenever I put the coat down…

…she would find it and settle down for a nap.

She even tried to sleep on it while I was trying to sew it!

I gave her the remnant – and now it might be hers FOREVER…

It now lives permanently at one end of my cutting table, it’s her favourite spot for a nap in the sun or to just sit and watch me. If I ever get it back from her (unlikely) I could make a skirt from it.

I did intend to have a go at some fancy pants bound button holes but then I realised you never see them under the tie belt. This wool also has strange distortion properties so I decided against machine button holes as well and in the end I found some great big snaps and used them instead.

The construction was super easy, the only difficulty I had happened while attaching the lining to the hem and sleeves – I’m not convinced the construction order is quite right. I had to unpick all my hand-stitching (and that’s a long hem thank you very much!) because my first attempt left the lining pulling the hem up and making big puckers. 

Don’t cry for me too much, the hand stitching was actually pretty easy since the chunky wool weave hides all hand stitching sins.

The other problem I had was all my own doing…or I could blame my Elna who occasionally comes over all evil like and runs out of bobbin without warning.

The belt is so looooong that I sort of fell asleep while sewing it, lulled by the relaxing hum of my machine (hah!) meanwhile my bobbin was empty and it took me a wee while to notice! Haha, ahh well 😉

So that’s it, the longest Lady Grey make ever and now summer is just around the corner!

I think it’s time for a cup of tea…

THE DEETS:

Pattern – Colette 1010 Lady Grey, size 10

Fabric – 

• Shell: Slub weave wool coating – The Fabric Store, Melbourne (bought August 2010, $17.50/m)
• Lining: Cotton Sateen – Spotlight, Kaiwharawhara, Wellington

Other notions – 2 x 25mm pair of black snaps

*Charles Dickens, Mrs. Lirriper’s Legacy