Finrod
The coat is made
from some champagne-gold jaquard I fell in love with at the fabric store.
When I first saw it I didn't know exactly what I wanted it for, but I knew
I wanted it. Its $30/metre price tag sort of guided my decision- a coat with
little cap sleeves takes the least fabric! I ended up needing only 1.3 metres.
I used the basic body block pattern, altering
it to flare out at the sides for a fuller bottom. What you see in the picture
of the front above is about the exact shape of the front pattern piece. The
back is all one piece with a dart on either side at the waist. I put elastic
loop tape into each dart, and laced ribbon through the elastic loops to make
the coat adjustable through the waist. The entire jacket is fully lined with
some rosy-coloured bargain bin satin, including the cap sleeves. The sleeves
are fully attached in the back, but only partially attached in the front
(you can see where they separate from the jacket in the picture). The jacket
buttons up the front with more elastic loop tape and a whole bunch of little
buttons covered in the same silk I used to make the shirt (below). Finally,
I put an inch-wide braid trim all the way around the bottom. The trim was
something I had sitting in my sewing basket for over a year- I picked it
up out of the clearance bin one day just because it looked nice, and it happened
to match the lining satin really well. Also it's a stiff nylon, which acts
as a sort of horsehair braid to give the hem a good shape.
Because I am cheap,
I like to buy fabric as inexpensively as possible. All the fabric for the
shirt came from a buy 1 get 3 free remnant bin. The taffeta came in a 0.7
metre bundle, which was enough for the under sleeves, but the 0.8 metres
of silk wasn't enough to make a full shirt, so I had to cut it a little short
and cover the gap between shirt and pants with a sash (see below).
I am addicted
to beads, so I beaded all the way around the collar and yoke of the shirt,
and around all the sleeve edges. The silk over sleeves are not sewn together
under the arm, so there was lots of edge to bead. I used dark gold and silver
seed beads, gold and bronze small bugle beads, and longer silver bugle beads.
The smaller bugle beads were braided together in strangs to make an easy to
attach trim.
The sash is both
decorative and functional. It actually has an additional piece that goes across
the back under the laces and fastens with snap (not shown) so that no part
of the shirt-to-pants gap peeks through. The braid is hand-stitched
on and then reinforced with the sewing machine. I tried to save time
and use glue instead of hand stitching, but the glue wouldn't stick to the
fabric or the braid. I drew the design on the fabric with a chalk marker
before I started, and had to redraw it about twenty times before I was done.
This method is NOT recommended for people who don't have a lot of patience!
The sash took .6 m of poly-silk blend and about 8 m of braid (for the design,
loops, and lacing).
I don't have a picture of just the gold pants, but they look like regular fitted pants with a waistband and an invisible zipper up the front instead of a fly.
I don't have a picture of just the gold pants, but they look like regular fitted pants with a waistband and an invisible zipper up the front instead of a fly.
And the above
picture is of me being silly in Manchester, wearing Finrod's coat over my
everyday clothes in an ugly hotel room.
The coat is very
versatile and can even be worn during strenuous athletic activities (like
hopper races).