The Purple Coat

February 20, 2024

The owner of the #polychromaticwardrobe has an impressive fabric stash. I always love seeing the projects she has in mind but the real fun comes when she pulls out the fabric she wants to use. The outer layer of this coat is a beautiful purple wool double gauze. The drape is so soft and fluid but the structure underneath is keeping everything in place. The lining is a Liberty of London silk crepe de chine in a beautiful blue floral. Those blooms would put a smile on anyone’s face in the dead of winter.

This coat was adapted from an earlier version we made that had a different style collar, set in sleeves and a single button. This coat has raglan sleeves, two back darts, three buttons and an inset panel on the side to allow for a little flare. The front seam of that panel was also the perfect position for an inseam pocket.

You can see how much work goes into providing a stable structure when you see the inside of the coat. Before finishing the coat there are a lot of basting stitches holding evething in place while I work. You can see that in the photo on the right.

The buttons are bound buttonholes which are always a classy addition on a wool coat.

Figuring out how to make the little movie took some doing. It’s the same whenever you try something new. The kinks need to be worked out. One thing that kept happening was that I kept tripping on one of the outstretched legs of the tripod. When shooting a stop motion film, that kind of mistake scraps all of the photos that came before it and you have to start over. Luckily I only had nine frames. The stakes were pretty low. It’s still aggravating to have to shoot the same first six or eight images several times. Then I remembered that I could hook my camera up to my phone and operate the shutter remotely. It was so much faster... and no more tripping. The movie was a lot of fun to make and now I see more movies in my future.

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