The coat has a collar!

I've been sulking a bit over the lack of fabric for the facings for my coat, and ignoring it. Since it's been sitting on my dummy, which is stored in my bedroom, that's been a bit hard! So I finally got over myself and got on with it, and attached the collar. This was the point at which I was very, very glad that I'd tediously thread marked all the match points. The curves on collar and front edge are very different and vary along their lengths, so getting the collar on properly without all the match points would have had me swearing like a sailor! As it was, it took much careful pinning on the tightest bits of the curves, but was otherwise straightforward.

I pinned it closed where the buttonhole and button markings line up, just to get an idea of how it will look. I will have a long hard think about further buttons lower down. I think it'll need one or two to stop it flapping open, but I like the smooth line. So far, I am very pleased with it. I was a bit worried that the jacket design wouldn't lend itself to coat length, but think it looks just fine as a coat.

I haven't pressed it at all, because after I'd pinned it on I realised that I'd lengthened the collar pieces to the same length as the coat pieces, and when I hem the coat they'd be too long. It'll be very easy to fix, but I've left them at the moment till I decide exactly how long to hem the coat. AMEW again, but fairly mild this time! (The other AMEW moment was realising that I hadn't taken note of which side of the collar was which, and I had to drag out the pattern pieces and figure out which was left and which was right. If I'd spent ages pinning and got to a point at which I realised I'd got it the wrong way round, I'd, um, not have been pleased.)

And just for the heck of it, here's the back, showing the belt tie. I like this idea - shaping, but no fuss.

Oh, and my neice was sort of impressed with the library bag. Her mother (who WAS impressed and appreciative!) reckons she'll be really keen on it, especially when they go to the library. What H was REALLY impressed with was the $3 Murray Wiggle toy I picked up at Kmart before Christmas. She LOVES Murray Wiggle, and had been to a Wiggles concert a month ago. She cheerfully informed us that it was the best Murray Wiggle toy she ever had! Being a veteran of a few three year olds myself, this was exactly what I expected. (Murray was an even bigger hit than anticipated though).