Plum Cloak: Progress to Date

In 2008, after moving half way across the country to Colorado with nothing but my husband and two cats, I was feeling empowered and had a bit of free time on my hands. I had always wanted to learn how to sew but had let myself be a victim of circumstance. In the summer of 2008, I suddenly decided it was time to teach myself to sew. I had two projects in mind: a quilt and a cloak. The quilt has been pieced, although I still haven't quilted it, and now, 5 years later, I'm finally getting some traction on the cloak.

A couple of years ago, I hit up a sale at my local fabulous fabric store, Denver Fabrics, and purchased a gorgeous plum-colored wool coating. I had to buy 7 1/2 yards! I was incredibly intimidated by how to handle that much fabric. I found The Great Coat Sewalong blog, which strongly recommended having wool fabric professionally steamed to pre-treat it. I sat on that wool for over a year, immobilized by my own feelings of inadequacy and uncertainty. Then one day I just decided to lay it out and start cutting.

On again off again cutting, and months and months later I finally had all of the wool pieces cut out! The pattern recommended stay stitching around the neck and the non-shoulder curved seams. I used fusible stay tape instead. I managed to sew all of the seams of the outer layer, including the hood. The hood has two darts on each side. I had never sewn darts before, but I was really pleased with how they came out. I used a tutorial from Sew4Home that was very helpful.

All through the sewing process, I was following Ann from GorgeousFabrics' Pressinatrix recommendations. However, when I got to the shoulder seams and the darts, I realized that I couldn't appropriately press these extremely curved seams on my flat ironing board. I had always thought that tools like pressing hams were for extreme sewists, but I now find myself in need of one! I'm not sure if that's a measure of how far I have come with sewing or a re-education of my naive preconceptions. Regardless, I can't move forward on the cloak shell until my newly-ordered ham arrives.

With pressing still incomplete, the shoulder seams stand out pretty far from my shoulders. Not sure if that's just the shape of the pattern or if it has anything to do with those seams not being pressed completely flat. At this point, I want to try ironing them with the ham and see if pressing them well settles them down a bit. If that doesn't do the trick, I intend to take in the seams a bit. We'll see if I can get my husband to help me with the pinning/marking.

For lining, I have a rayon/silk blend that I got from Mood. I'm a bit intimidated by the slipperiness of the fabric. Cutting precisely is definitely the area where I feel I make the most significant mistakes. I don't have a cutting mat large enough for the length of this cloak, so a rotary cutter is out. Lately I stumbled on Gertie's recommendation (from Gertie's New Blog for Better Sewing) of sandwiching slippery fabrics between two layers of tissue paper. A massive, last-me-the-rest-of-my-life roll of tissue paper is on its way!

While I wait for various sewing tools, I have a chance to catch up on my blog (or is that to pretend that I have a blog) and I'm also looking into hemming ideas. I really like the suggestion from Did You Make That? of using lace to bridge between the heavy wool fabric to the blind/catch stitch of the hem.