My coat for Gertie's sew-along is a Murphy's Law at every turn.  The universe keeps telling me to stop, to put it down, to give up.  But I am stubborn and determined to see it through to the end.

I couldn't quite decide if I wanted to attempt the coat or not, but then I saw this amazing creation that Katrina from Edelweiss Patterns Blog made using Gertie's pattern:

Have you ever seen anything so gorgeous?  I had to have one of my own.  So I joined the sew-along with visions of of beauty in my head.

I searched all over for a suitable fabric.  I think everyone knows of my Fabric.com debacle and the cancelled coat fabric order because they don't know how computers work (if not, read about it here).  I headed over to Gorgeous Fabrics and ordered a purple wool and floral lining.  I received the purple wool but the wrong lining.

Gorgeous Fabrics was nice enough to send me the correct lining AND let me keep this one.  But the purple wool has an obvious diagonal stripe which the pattern says not to use.  Fabric #2 was now out.

Fabric #3 is a solid red wool from my local JoAnn's.  My lining is a red floral that I adore.

I'm ready to begin!  I now have 7 yards of purple wool, 6.5 yards of red wool, and three different linings.  And I thought this would be cheaper than buying a new coat...and I see a purple wool skirt and a couple of blouses in my future...

I made two muslins, one which was too small and one which was too big (which also took two patterns...and a little more money).  Was trying to be Goldilocks that difficult? I set it all aside out of frustration (and a little fear of cutting my red fabric...I just couldn't bear to buy more!).

In the meantime I managed to lose a smidgen of weight and the first muslin fit.  Or maybe I was just stretching it really, really hard to fit.  Gertie warned that it would take about 2 hours to cut out my main fabric.  It only took me two weeks!  Phoebe liked to help when she could...

I was lucky to get one piece cut out before she drew blood.  Thank goodness the coat is red...hides the bloodstains...

I finally, after two months of preparation, did some actual sewing today.  I followed Gertie's blog posts and videos as I went and successfully managed to make the bodice!  Only I put it all together backwards.  The next few hours were spent pulling out multiple seams and sewing them all back in again (correctly this time).  I had wanted to get my skirt done today also, but because I did such a great job screwing it up, I figured I better stop while I was ahead.  Here is what I have so far...


 It looks a little tight because I have lost weight since making my dress form so the dress form is the fatter me with about 20 layers of duck tape added. And sorry about the lousy pictures.  When I find $400 laying on the sidewalk I'll use it to buy a decent camera (or use it to pay off all of my fabric purchases).  The sleeves really are even and the glowing orb is just a lamp. 

And if Phoebe doesn't stop helping me?  I'm giving her away....this mess is courtesy of her:


Like how I worked a pin cushion into the shot? 

Because I have over booked myself all week this week, I won't get the chance to work on my coat.  This week could induce a mental breakdown.  But I'll just keep reminding myself that I will have a nice cozy coat created in time for Spring!