Plaid coats, grey coats, Browncoats...

This is it! Having run out of other things to do, I am finally resolving to get back to sewing THE COAT (dun dun dunn).

What's that, you say? What about that other awesome coat I recently made? And the aforementioned pictures with TV stars?

Well, okay. If you insist. Let's just get this out of the way.

Note the midriff tailoring that fits a lot more closely than it did previously. I'm actually quite proud of that.

The stubble! The hair! The eyes! What a MAN.

Actually these guys were pretty cool too I guess. (I wish I had gotten a chance to interact more with David Hewlett, far left, because he was a seriously awesome guy and very friendly.)

In short, this was possibly the best $100 I have ever extravagantly spent on a costume, because it made me feel like the coolest nerd at the convention. I had several people ask where I bought the coat, and one person even asked if I could make him one! (I declined.) I also won a Stargate mug in the costume contest, so you know, it wasn't a total wash.

Also, I don't know if you've noticed, but I have lost a lot of weight recently. We're talking right around the order of 20 pounds since early December, which is when I started seriously working out. My workout ethic (heh) has waxed and waned periodically since then, but I'm still trying to stick with it as much as possible, with the end goal of getting down to 140 lbs or so.

I have actually dropped two jeans sizes and I'm now at a comfortable 10 (whaaatt?). It's really fantastic to be able to re-access whole portions of my wardrobe again, but there's a cloud to every silver lining. In this case, the cloud is that I cut out and sewed my coat in a size that is now much too large for me.

Fortunately, the hiatus has worked a bit in my favor, because it's not too late to make fitting adjustments!

For my current sewing-TV-show, I've started watching Firefly, a series that I've started multiple times but never gotten around to finishing. Now I have an opportunity to see it to the end. Here's an inspirational quote for today from the pilot episode:

Mal: "Well, you were right about this being a bad idea."
Zoe: "Thanks for sayin', sir."


And back to the fitting!


I started with the lining (which at this point only had one sleeve set in). The easiest way to bring in the ease was to take the seam in an inch on either side seam, and contour the upper center back in about a half inch between the bottom of the yoke and the hips. That made it fit more closely while still allowing plenty of room for ease of movement.


Of course, the lining fitting went more or less without a hitch. The outer shell of the coat was another story.


Remember that time when I attached the belt carriers and mentioned, off-handedly, that I'd probably need to take them back off again for fitting? I should have listened to that little voice of reason. I did have to take them off. I also had to rip out some of the topstitching along the center back seam to take in that half-inch, and the wool fabric has the unfortunate tendency to "ride up" in the seam, so you have to go back again and tear it out (a second time) so you can make it lie flat. At this rate, I'll be surprised if this coat isn't full of holes before I finish it.


Annnnnd that's about all I got this afternoon. Slow going.*sigh*