Pelisse- recycling and speed challenge

Spot of light relief this week. I'm putting the time into completing large scale pieces so set a quick challenge.
Task: buy a charity shop garment and create a  regency garment for Gwen in a day. Complete it for under £5, all in.

First find the garment. I was expecting soft cotton summery frocks, flowing skirts, delicate prints. Nope. Still in deepest darkest Winter mode, scratchy wool, jersey knits, heavy colours. There were some nice pieces but not enough fabric  for the price. Ended up with a fake denim look skirt for £2.99.
Issue one - denim? Time correct or not? Serge de Nimes was certainly around  but used for work clothes. Issue 2 - this is fake denim - it's tencel and the distressed and faded bits are manufactured. However there was quite a lot of it, it is quite soft and flexible. I will lie through my teeth and call it 'cotton twill'.

Second - decide on the garment - a pelisse, long ladies coat- think spencer with a skirt. Still like shapes  they make. It is also a flexible thing, the complexity, cut and fullness can be altered to suit the available fabric. The basic shape was meant to be like these examples, high stand collar, short revers and falling quite straight.

Third - sort out a pattern, fitting a quick draft for the bodice to see how much  fabric would be left for the skirt.  The pieces are quite standard but the number of large pieces is a problem, fitting them onto  the largest area of material  means a reduction in the skirt width.
It is unlined (couldn't find a lined skirt I wanted to make from!) so the front is extended to make facings which are turned inside  to make the revers. The sleeves were the most complex part- it had to be in 2 parts to fit on the fabric-, the top is cut wider and  pleated on the centre line, the bottom is tapering to the wrist. I'm not using a pattern for these- it will be maximising what is there after cutting the front  and centre back out. The side pieces and collar are small enough to fit on the scraps.











Assembling - fairly straight forward - the most time consuming area was the sleeves, fixing the pleats and finishing with piping along the joining seam took about 2 hours!. The seams are top stitched to flatten them but otherwise un finished to get the whole thing completed in the  time limit.    Sewing through layers of this fabric was difficult and then painful so short cuts for the skirt were most welcome.

The photos are a gallop through the  process, making the bodice, working the collar, making and attaching the sleeves and then adding the skirt. The skirt is nearly as found - about a 1/3 of the original garment was used to make the bodice so not much room for manoeuvre.  There were 2 triangular inserts  which I  placed on the  side seams to flare over the hips Gwen should have,  and then gathered the excess fabric at the centre back. It is really too long for Gwen, but  in keeping with the "up-cycling" theme it seemed silly to cut off one hem just to make another an inch away! I tried working out the proportions from the fashion plate  and this isn't too far away.

The front is just slightly crossed over and is held with a loop over the bottom right of the 4 buttons. The collar stands without any problem and would frame the face nicely. The frothy lace is just some scrap placed in for the photo, but it does seem to finish the look, the power of accessorising.

Summary -  I don't know what is happening with the photos - the originals are great but the upload seems to be having a bit of a migraine attack with them.
One simple pelisse done in the time allowed using all but scraps of the original garment. It looks like a warm, winter weight garment, quite plain and functional rather than grand and fancy. The only purchase was the victim skirt, all threads and buttons are from the leftovers of other projects. The problem areas are the bulk on the underarm seam affecting the hang even with the seam allowances clipped, and I set the collar about 5mm too far back.  The last is annoying as I fitted the collar and then shortened it !
 It is crying out for more embellishment. The buttons have given a focus to the front but there is plenty of space for frogging or decoration - and on  the back . I did toy with putting a belt across the centre back piece but I like seeing the tops of the gathers, that contrast between the smooth and then the volume is a beautiful detail.  I do wish that I had deconstructed the run and fell seams on the skirt - the machined lines and artificial colouring is distracting. If I decide to make more of this coat then a bit of unpicking will have to happen.

At the moment I am suffering from sewing finger -

the needle used was a 'sharp', slim and very pointy, unfortunately it was sharp at both ends, one finger has lots of little perforations from the point and the other is sore and shredded from pushing the needle though! Solution - toughen up the skin - no more washing up and cleaning windows, perhaps even weeding will have to go- all that washing of hands......