Digs: A rethink?

So, fall is all around us, and it's starting to feel cold. Still, I haven't progressed much beyond my two muslins. I decided that my little coral coloured McCall's can wait till spring. By the time I finish it, it'll be too cold to wear it!

The big Siege of Stalingrad will have to get done, but it seems such a huge project! I hate the thought of tackling it. And it's such a SERIOUS coat - black with grey pinstripe.... that coat's never going to have any fun.

So today, looking for instant gratification, I made a little fall number from Burda 7856, view A, to cheer me up.

This is the easiest garment I ever tackled. I picked the size based on the finished bust width (10 had tons of room for me, I have a suit jacket under the coat in the photos here and it still feels roomy), cut, sewed - well no, it sewed itself. I made no adjustments for my height - it's a little longer than on the model, but I like it that way. Because it's wide across the middle I thought it would make me look like the pillsbury doughboy, but surprisingly no, it's cute. I love the big, wide open collar; I also love that this project was practically free: I used a piece of wool coating (woven in black & red giant herringbone, very geometric) I'd bought a thousand years ago to serve as a bedspread/blanket. It's been begging me for another life for years.... Love it - bouncy tough stuff, I felt it needed no interfacing anywhere, but I did interface the under collar. The lining, a silk jacquard with a Christmas motif, and the interlining, a soft knit poly fleece, were Fabric Mart freebies. No design changes except cutting the upper back on the bias, and adding cuffs to the sleeves just for the fun of it. It's SO much easier to "fire all torpedos, full speed ahead" when the fear of wrecking some pricey and delicate piece of cloth doesn't enter the picture.

I've been wearing it since last week, and am happy to report the interlining is keeping my core warm even though the coat's too short to do much for my legs. The oversize beret's a hit: DH said, "it's very Left Bank", and my little son's been stealing it every night! He's asked for one for himself: so that'll be this weekend's project.

The photos, btw, are courtesy of the first snowfall of the season, 11 cm overnight, even before the leaves are off all of our trees. We Canucks DO love our weather.