A Month of Coats

November is going to be the month of coats, I think. I stopped by the store yesterday and picked up fabrics for a shop sample of the Bella Quilt Coat. I’d like to make one according to the pattern before I make mine with alterations.

The floral is Anna Maria from her Good Gracious line. That will be the body of the coat. The deep purple is Andover by Libs Elliott for Andover Fabrics and will be the yoke and sleeve accent. The grid is Tula Pink’s True Colors and will be the lining.

I’m using a silk batt for the batting. I used that on the Bernina University jacket and liked it very much. The quilting will be done with Wonderfil’s Fabulux in a silver and purple variegated. I also used Fabulux on my BU jacket.

It feels good to have a plan. Sometimes I get stuck on the organizational piece of sewing—that analysis paralysis problem—and just need to choose the fabric.

The Chloe Coat is still on the list, but I don’t want to cut into my good fabric for it without making a muslin. This is when I miss Joann Fabrics the most. I almost always could find something suitable there on clearance. Finding a fabric to use as a muslin for a coat is tricky. I checked Hobby Lobby yesterday. They had a few home dec fabrics on clearance but also had their (polyester) corduroy for 30% off, which made it something like $6 a yard. I need four yards of a 55" wide fabric. I’m leaning toward the corduroy because it could end up being a wearable muslin. I’ve also got a few pieces of fabric in my stash than can be sacrificed for special projects, but I’ll only use them if I absolutely must.

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I caught up on my podcast listening while I was on the road. On the way back from Seattle, I listened to this Craft Industry Alliance podcast interview with Abbie Small, who is now running Simplicity.com. She worked there for 30 years and came out of retirement after recognizing that the entire pattern company was in danger of being liquidated when Design Group International sold off Design Group Americas earlier this year. (I think I have the details correct.) She was able to get backing from Rubelmann Capital to acquire the assets. The Simplicity.com website has been down for a few days but is back up and looks great.

[Truly, though, I need to stop looking at patterns.]

I posted my 100th podcast episode on Tuesday—a listener question episode. 🎉

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We got a couple of inches of wet, slushy snow yesterday. The forecast had called for rain, but the temperatures dipped enough for snow. Thankfully, I did not see anyone driving stupidly. A branch must have taken out a power line because we lost power for about 30 minutes yesterday afternoon.