A Purple Bella

I finished the shell of the Bella Quilted Coat yesterday:

As soon as the zipper arrives, I’ll be able to insert the lining into the coat and get this sample to the store. This is a size 5, which is in the middle of the range. (Size range goes from 1-10.)

The sleeves have that contrast stripe down the middle, which I think is a nice detail:

When I make my version, I plan to lengthen it (of course).

In the meantime, while I am waiting for the zipper to arrive, I am making a muslin of the Chloe Coat using the 100% polyester corduroy I bought at Hobby Lobby. I know people sneer at big box store fabric—and polyester fabric—but this corduroy is not awful and the price was right for making a muslin. It has a nice hand and drape to it. I am lining it with flannel just because I can. I think it may end up being a nice casual coat.

I got the “cloth” pieces cut yesterday. (That is such a British thing to say and I love it.) I’ll cut the interfacing and lining pieces—probably next week—and begin the assembly.

I’ll be working at the Gift Festival this morning and tomorrow morning and I have Serger Demo Day at the store on Saturday. I wanted a way to give sewists the opportunity to use some of the larger and more expensive serger attachments that they might not want to purchase without trying them out, first. We’ll be using the binder attachment, the belt loop attachment, and the jumbo piping attachment.

At some point soon, I have to sit down with the calendar and decide on classes for next year so we can get them scheduled. I have lots of ideas, as usual.

Last Thursday evening—I don’t think I mentioned this—I did a very abbreviated version of my thread class for the Flathead Quilter’s Guild. I had to condense a three-hour class down to about 45 minutes, but I thought it went well.

In other news, DD#1 and DSIL close on their new house today. The movers bring their furniture tomorrow. We are excited for them! I’ll get to see the new house in a couple of weeks.