Winter Wraps for Tea

There is a High Tea at the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee, WI.  It so happens that the one on Sunday March 19th will descended upon by 20 of us fabulous crazy people dressed in Victorian finery.  We'll certainly make a splash!

Of course it is still winter at the point in the North, and no matter how many layers we stack under our dresses, it can still be cold.  I decided to make a couple of wraps for Denise and I.  She knew about hers (we only talked about making it in 2008), but until now, I don't think she knew she was getting it for this trip.  Mine I made over my birthday weekend.  I want a new dress, too, but we'll reserve opinion about that until I see if I can get it done!

First, Denise's Talma.  It is from the Truly Victorian pattern.  Of course, as per usual, I can't do anything the exact way I am told, so I spent several hours hand sewing trim to this beast so I could bag line it instead of bias edging.  It worked after some serious wrangling, and some swearing. :-)

SO lets see it!

It is made from a lovely cotton velvet that is the perfect brownish burgundy to match the stripe.  The flash makes it sheen red.  The stripe is the same upholstery-weight silk taffeta that Denise has an ensemble in.  It is cross-woven vermilion and apple green.  I lined it in a poly taffeta that is burgundy and has some floral embroidery on it.  Inside this beast is cotton batting, to make it semi-warm.  It is split in the back to go over the bustle, but it is nice and close in the front.

Cutting the taffeta on the bias sure looks cool, but it made everything take forever.  Not that sewing trim on velvet doesn't already take forever, but I kept wanting to miter the corners.  This is REAL easy when the angles are 90°.  These weren't, none of them!   Arrrgh!

I finally just had to give up and live by the "moving racehorse principal". 

After all the work putting down the bias edge by hand, it did make the rest of the assembly a breeze.  Now turning right side out...not so easy breezy.  There are several tabs, and the entire body that had to come through my one little opening.  It was much like child birth.

Finally, I made a decorative "button" that will cover the hook and eye to close it.  I have no idea where they will need to go so that will happen in WI when we get there on that Friday.  If you're not doing something last minute, you can't call yourself a Costumer!  -grin-

Here is a couple more pics of it near finished.  The rest of them and some Arty-farty ones are here on Flickr.

Now on to my Birthday present for myself!  I decided to make a coat for this event, and have been desperately wanting to make the new Bustle coat pattern from TV.  So I did, again, I had to do it my way which meant more tedious, heavy, and difficult than the original intention, but hey, you've probably met me. :-)

Okay, so!  The fabric is cotton velvet(I know, big surprise!) in an amazing shade of charcoal.  I have two pieces of this, and this turned in to this coat.  The other will eventually be a frock coat for Shannon Morgan with a scarlet waistcoat.  Sexy!

Anyway,  I really wanted this to be warm, so I flatlined the velvet with more cotton batting, then I added a lining of quited cotton. BECAUSE I AM A MASOCHIST!  What a pain!  Maybe if I had a nice big sewing table with my machine nestled in and something this huge and heavy was well supported, oh! and maybe if I had an industrial machine (preferably a walking foot) This would have been easier, but Noooooo!  I won, though!  I am using shell buttons, and the fur was a vintage stole.  it is buff mink, and I LOVE it!  I still need to finish hemming it and actually sew on the buttons, it is all pinned right now, so I could take pictures.  I am pretty sure I will have to do the buttonholes by hand, although I have a fur coat that that has large elastic loops.  I might do that if I can find some round elastic cord that is 1/4". 

I will have to weigh this thing and see how heavy it actually is, but it sure is warm.  and super CUTE.  I like it with my other costumes as well, so it may just do duty as the Victorian coat!

As always there are more flickr pictures, and they are here.

Thanks for coming along!

~Cheers