1940s housecoat, so far

I've done quite a bit of work on this, my one and only housecoat project to date. I feel like there's not much to show for it, but let me explain!

Here's a teaser:

First the preliminaries:
I chose plaid flannel. Warm, all-cotton, and well, not terribly expensive. You may remember the pattern from my last post, no? here's a link: http://thestitchholder.blogspot.com/2014/03/finally-im-back.html

As you can see there are two views for Butterick, neither of which by themselves suited my fancy. So I'm going with something of an A/B combo. As you can see, I'm doing the trim of view A, but I will be going with view B's longer sleeves. Since I'm adding the trim of view A I'm not doing the contrast fabric on the yoke of view B. I couldn't really think of any contrast fabric that goes with flannel.

So after cutting everything out, I had to attach the pre-gathered trim to the yoke. It turned out to be less harder than I thought.

(as you can see, I'm not even trying to match the plaid lines, hey, its a housecoat)

The only tough part was getting the corners to look even and well-rounded. When attaching the bodice front and back to the yoke, you really have to make sure you aren't sewing onto the trim (fyi). 

There's also a bit of gathering on the bodice back, and front, not bad though. 

hey, those lines kinda match!

There is also (not pictured) a facing yoke inside. This makes three layers of fabric on the yoke total, which I like because it gives the yoke a bit of structure without going full-hog and sewing in some interfacing. 

The most onerous part so far is that I have sewed the seam where the yoke and the bodice meets three times to accommodate the layers.

Next up are the sleeves.

Well that's all for today folks!

Finally, I'm back!

Hello all,

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth! We just finished moving out-of-state. We're still unpacking. I have yet to find my sewing machine (although I've managed to track done a lot of my fabric!). Suffice to say I haven't done much sewing. But that isn't to say I've been totally absent from the vintage fashion world!

Before we moved I managed to visit Endless Indulgence,  a retro clothing shop in Utah. The shop is located in old town Ogden. They don't sell actual vintage pieces, but reproduction brands like Bettie Page. Unfortunately I went right before they got their spring line in, so the selection wasn't what I would have wanted. But I still managed to walk away with this beauty from Pinup Couture:

 
(image courtesy of pinupgirlclothing,com)

I'm still waiting for the weather to warm up for I can wear this.

Although I have yet to unpack my sewing machine, I have been thinking about what I'll sew next. Drumroll please...


Butterick 5152

I've been heming and hawing over this one for quite some time. I really wanted to make this one out of velvet, but velvet is kinda spendy, that and this pattern uses almost seven yards! Ouch. So I finally decided to just make it out of a tartan flannel. Glamourous? Not really. But still pretty in a Scottish, Professor McGonagall sort of way. So far I haven't decided between view A or B. View B is tempting, but will it be too hot for the summer?

Well that's all I have for today, maybe I'll track down my sewing machine. Or maybe I'll take a nap!