OOooh, this has been a great challenge! Thank you again to Needlework Monday for pushing me!!

...I am in the middle of this Year Of Needlework Mastery, and am pretty good at keeping motivated BUT I really needed a challenge like this to take me to another level this month!

I am hugely, genuinely grateful to everyone who has cheered me on in this project, as it was profoundly difficult in places - especially when I had to get my head around the lining at the end!

I LOVE a hard challenge, and am pushing myself in all areas of sewing that I want to be better at: it is very important to me to get encouragement, or else I'll crash!

the corrected coat, ready for the lining

back of the corrected coat, ready for the lining

So the lining was a sheet I picked up at the 2 Euro stall in Telese, next to the infamously fabulous 50c stall! - I spotted it immediately, and thought it would be large enough to line the whole thing, whilst giving a lot of leaway for my non-pattern-following approach...

I wanted to use a whole piece for the back, but in the initial draping it was clear that this wouldn't work: so I cut the skirt part first, then draped the upper back separately. The skirt part was very difficult for some reason - it almost made me give up the idea of a lining!

I kept going out of sheer frustration, and this paid off; as always happens with concerted mastery of the spontaeous creative Way, the materials eventually - with a bit of adjusting and swearing - fell into the right position, and then I sewed by hand.

Oh, and the pockets: almost forgot to add a detailed photo here, and to show the buttons that I put on: these are from my collection of mother-of-pearl buttons that I gather from garments bought cheaply at the market - and then reposition on homemade or other garments which they are better suited to. These were my two largest natural shell buttons; they required a reinforcing button behind them, to stop the fabric of the midriff from distorting.

phase one of the lining: I actually did the photoshoot with the pins of the top half in place - oopah - only got pricked a little!!

As I write this, I am draping the upper back and then will drape the front panels. I may not line the sleeves, as they'll be less visible, but I like the idea of this additional layer of insulation, for the autumn chill and winds...

...and the coat does have a particularly 'scribbly' inside which shows all the workings of the spontaneous Way!

Either way, I am happy with the results, even with the lack of perfect symmetry, the imperfectly stiff collar, the zip which sits outwards a bit too much, and even the overall Not Really My Usual Style (possibly a bit contrived-retro for me??): it all comes together nevertheless, in this Overall Pretty Beautiful handmade coat.

And I love sharing the story of the jeans too: these jeans in particular are special because they were from Sergio's house ...they would have been thrown out, which would've been a waste indeed. Again, the other posts about this coat are:

PART ONE

PART TWO

PART THREE

I love when something is saved from being wasted. I love the act of taking something which has effectively been abandoned, or lost its purpose, and making it beautiful again, even making it more special and meaningful than the original pieces - which were nice, but essentially were just boring old branded jeans, yawn!

I hope you enjoy these photos, and I hope very much that this project inspires you!

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