I have Conquered!!!!

Actually a lot of my problem was sheer not-stopping-to-think-it-through stupidity.

Orginally, I wanted to make Pumpkin's coat out of the Michael Miller corduroy that is black with huge white polka dots. Pumpkin could totally pull it off in a I Love Lucy sort of way. My little two year old is a chameleon of style. Anything looks good. Anything. She sure didn't get that from me by the way. But anyhoo, the Michael Miller cords were almost $12 a yard-gulp . . .

Corduroy, as you no doubt know already, has a direction or nap to it. If you brush your hand one direction the pile of the fabric stand up and if you brush your hand in the other direction it is smooth. I cut out the original coat with no thought about the direction I was placing the pattern pieces.

See what I mean??? I just rushed into it with no thought except to try and save as much of the fabric as I could so I could make something else out of it. When will I ever learn to stop and think???

Oh, that reminds me of another pitfall to sewing with corduroy. You can't just plop your iron on top and iron away because that will ruin the pile. Hold the iron just barely above and steam it instead. I almost forgot about that too, but remembered just in the nick of time.

I also didn't follow the directions (another bad trait of mine) which made the coat a wee bit more complicated. I admit that I rarely make the pattern exactly like they tell me too-but often have other ideas that I think are better. With this pattern, I changed the pockets, added a ruffle to the sleeves, and lined it with fleece because I wanted it to be warm and cozy.

I have no idea if I lined it correctly or not. I sewed the outer coat at 4/8ths inch and the lining at 5/8ths inch to allow for the extra bulkiness of the fleece. It seemed to work so I was very relieved about that. I was also worried about the bulkiness at the collar area because with a layer of fleece, a layer of corduroy, interfacing, facing, and two layers of more corduroy for the collar it had the potential for disaster. I wouldn't try that with a wimpy machine! I have a vintage Bernina Nova 900 so it got through okay. (Although I was holding my breath the whole time!) After trimming the seam allowances and making sure I steamed it good, I think I managed to get it to not look bulky.

One Christmas present down, oh so many more to go. . .

What are you busy working on? Do you have any projects that gave you a huge headache while working on them and an even bigger sense of satisfaction when you conquered them?