Plum Cloak: More (Slow) Lining Progress

I've had pretty good luck working with the slippery lining fabric. This is my first time working with a slippery for more than a little, crafty project. I cut the fabric in a double layer, sandwiched between two layers of tissue paper. I took a ton of time trying to ensure the two layers of fabric were perfectly squared and flat. In the photos I took, I can see that there are a couple of spots that aren't completely flat. I eventually got a little fatigued on the whole thing and decided to just go for cutting it.

I sewed two pieces of the lining together over the weekend. I stay-stitched the neckline and shoulder area per the instructions. Then I stitched the seam with my walking foot. After careful pressing, I was so pleased with the results! I didn't bother trying to line up the dots, and I'm not at all bothered by that so far.

But then I took the seam back to the sewing machine and sewed an overcast stitch to protect the seam allowances. It really rippled the seam allowances and made the seam look a lot more messy. Bah!

The seam from the right side doesn't look too bad. There's some wobbliness that wasn't there before. There are some water spots visible here (did I already talk about water spots?). They're not at all noticable except when the fabric is laid completely flat in shiny light. I might try to pull them out at some point, or just live with them. I dunno.

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Frivolous photo: A quick pic of my oldest being freaking adorable. Which is, of course, his natural state of being.

Plum Cloak: Lining Progress

I haven't posted anything in a while, but I have made some progress. I'm down to ~9 grommet holes to sew on my medieval dress. I've also made some progress on my cloak. I'm not exactly sure why I decided to sew on the cloak instead of the dress. Maybe because it's winter and it seemed possible that I would get the cloak done in time to wear it. Maybe because I wouldn't expect to wear the medieval dress until the Renaissance fair this summer at the earliest or Halloween at the latest. At this point it doesn't seem very likely that I will have the cloak done in time to really get any use out of it this winter, but I'm really enjoying working on it.

I stitched together the lining portion of the hood, including the darts and sewed them into the hood. Nothing terribly interesting there. After my not-great experience with the lining rolling forward on the medieval dress, I decided to understitch the lining on the hood. I had just read a suggestion from Peter of Male Pattern Boldness to use a zipper foot to do edge stitching. So I figured I'd try it out. It was a little awkward with all of the bulk of the hood crammed into the arm space of the sewing machine. I guess I could have turned it around. It didn't even occur to me, I'm so used to lining up fabric off the right side of the foot.

I did two samples before I stitched directly onto the hood. I still got a little too far towards the plum wool in one tiny section, but I think it looks pretty darn good. I'm really impressed with how much it helps keep the lining turned under.

I also used a tack (French tack?) to attach the lining to the outer hood fabric at the apex of the hood. This keeps the lining from pulling out of the hood. It worked really well. I didn't take any pictures during the process, but I used my overstitch foot (which zigzags the thread over some wires to keep it spread apart) to start stitching on the seam allowance, stitching over nothing for a while, and then stitched into the seam allowance of the lining. Since there's a center back seam, it was an ideal spot for a tack.

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Frivolous Photo: I made a perfect strawberry rhubarb pie for a Valentine's Day treat. Every time I see rhubarb in the grocery store, I snap it up and make pie! There was something so fabulous about eating pink pie on Valentine's Day.