SCENE: Last Sunday night on the boat…
James: So for Simon’s stag night on Saturday we’re going to dress him up like Dick Whittington. I thought he could wear my pirate coat and we’ll get him a tricorn hat and he can carry Bagpuss as his cat…
Me: If anything happens to that coat, I will murder you. I would sooner make a whole new coat than see anything happen to it after I slaved for two years making it.
James: Oh really? You’d make another coat? Would you?
And so begins the tale of how I made a pirate coat in less than a week. Luckily I still had all the pattern pieces traced out from when I made Simplicity 4923 before so I rummaged through my sewing room and unearthed those to reuse, saving myself a substantial amount of time. Monday morning I quickly went online and ordered 7 metres of black cotton drill from Chawla’s, who were absolutely brilliant and delivered said cotton drill the very next day at no extra charge. They really, really came through for me here!
So I spent Tuesday evening cutting everything out and sewing everything up to the godets in the construction steps, and then Wednesday evening and Thursday morning sewing up everything until the sleeve insertion. And then in a marathon session I finished the sleeves and the enormous hem on Thursday night, just in time to tag-team the embellishments with James on Friday night.
There were definitely shortcuts taken here in the interest of time – nothing was interfaced or understitched, the fabric wasn’t prewashed, and the buttons and braid were all (whisper it!) glued on. But seeing as how it’s a costume to be worn on the groom’s very, very drunken night of freedom, no one’s going to notice anyway…
Apparently Simon loved the coat so much that instead of feeling a bit embarrassed, he embraced it and wouldn’t take it off all night – he was even threatening to wear it into the office today! Now I’m starting to wish we’d actually had enough time to attach all the embellishments properly if people are going to see it up close and in the daylight…
And in “July is Knit Month” news, I’ve had an incredibly prolific weekend! I ended up making five garments in total (including this coat) and I’ve already worn three of them today (and it’s only 11am!). Anyone want to venture any guesses? I’ll have photos of them all throughout the week!