Back in the Costuming Zone...

 Four weeks from LAST night, the 2022 Christmas production opens.

Yeah, I'm just a little anxious.  Life has been very busy.   My Sweet Babboo had shoulder surgery last month and he needed more repair and so has a lot more of a recovery than I did.  He's not going to be driving for at least another 3 -4 weeks, so I'm doing the chauffer thing just about daily.  Working from home to minimize the to-and-froing,  I also scaled back my costuming commitment...someone else is handling the Costume Mistress role for this production, I am kind of organizing the opening scene, which is a play-within-a-play Dickens scene.  I expect to be making a bunch of little girl pantalets at some point but for now I have a specific assignment.

One of our main characters is a time-traveling Ebenezer Scrooge...long story.  Last year, the part was played by a guest actor who had his own costume.  But he's unavailable this year; he's traveling with a production called 'The Ebenezer Experience'...if you get a chance, it's worth seeing.  So...one of our own will play the part this year.  So he needs a costume.  And he's 6'4" tall...so we had nothing in our stash that worked.  So 'tis my job to get something for him to wear.

He's providing his own pants and shirt, so I'm working on the vest and cloak.  And, as the gimmick used for time travel is a pocket watch, the vest must have functional welt pockets.

I had been picking up costume patterns over the years whenever Hancocks (RIP) had a Big Sale, and I pulled a pattern from the collection that really looks rather hideous on the envelope photo

but had a suitable starting point for a vest.

I'm using view B, but I altered the neckline considerably.  In addition to making it about 3" longer, lol.  I also added a center back seam and a slight curve to the upper back after fitting a first pass muslin.

The fabric came from one of the other ladies on the costuming team...she has an upholstery business and this was a remnant.   I had to make an emergency trip to Joann's for lining and paid a truly ridiculous price for some poly lining...I couldn't manage to pull one of the '40% off any full price fabric' up on my phone in a timely manner; apparently I had to have a password for the app to do that. I'd made the run to the store while My Sweet Babboo was doing his physical therapy so I was on a time crunch.  I gritted my teeth and paid for it, and grumbled all the way home.  Grumbled more when I cut it out, but what ya gonna do?  They're the only fabric store in town.

Took me three tries to get the welts right; first ones came out too small, even though the pattern measured right.  I did an envelope-style welt so I'm guessing something happened with the diagonal seams.  Block fused interfacing to another piece of fabric to cut longer welts and cut the first one out upside down (the stripe order matters).  Fused another piece and recut that welt a third time.

I have absolutely everything done on the vest I can do other than the welts.  The lining/ facing assembly is constructed, the vest back has the tie ends attached...I'm gonna hafta take a deep breath and tackle the welts.  I cut them with the stripes going horizontally, so I'm going to have to sew them exactly right or the stripes will show the boo boo.  But I've got to sew it with the lining on top of the welt, so it's going to be blind.     Gonna do that tomorrow...when I'm a little fresher than I am at past midnight, lol.

Once that's done, it's just a matter of bagging on the lining and adding the velcro closure and the just-for-show buttons, which I don't have yet.

After this, it's a cloak for him.  I have nearly six yards of fabric; I'm going to make a cloak with a short cape and a collar.  I hope.  The fabric is narrow; each piece, except hopefully the collar, will need a length of fabric.  So it's gonna be close.

After that, I have some skirts to make up...and then possibly the bloomers.  We'll see.

Costume check will likely be three weeks from tomorrow.  I'm running out of time.