Oof...a rough weekend in the sewing room....

 Good for humility, I guess.  This shoulda been something I could do in my sleep.

It's Bible costume season again.  This is not for the current church production...I am not really involved in that again, too much travel at the wrong time this year for me to be part of that team.  But I did have a friend who is participating in a walk-through program as John the Beloved and he needed a costume.  He purchased the fabric from JoAnns and Hobby Lobby and brought it to me to sew up.

First is the coat... It's a very pretty piece of upholstery fabric that has a sprayed-on interfacing.  I washed it and it softend up considerably but that backing was icky and it's going to start flaking off before long.  The coat will hang much better once it DOES rub off, I think, but it's going to be messy.  He decided he wanted sleeves, so I planned to make a Bog Coat; however, the fabric was only 54" wide and my friend is a strapping 6'4" fellow and, since the width of the fabric is the finished circumference of the coat, I didn't think that would be roomy enough.  So I altered up my trusty McCall's Bible costume...cutting the front open and the back on the fold and adding slits to the sides.  I had to cut everything on the cross - grain because he really only got enough to make a sleeveless vest. So in my humble opinion, between the bulk of the fabric, the spray on interfacing and the cross-grain cut, it doesn't hang as nicely as I would like.  I did manage to get that tried on him this morning, though, and he is pleased so that's all that matters.  I bought it back home to hem up the sleeves.

I already had the under gown cut out and, once I had the coat sleeves hemmed, proceeded to work on the gown.  Shoulda been a piece of cake.

But the right side and the wrong side are nearly indistinguishable, and that bit me.  I added self-drafted pockets and put the right one on too high, gauging off of the notch that marked the sleeve front instead of the notch that marked the waist line.  I'd already trimmed, turned and pressed the pocket facing before I realized my error.  

Cut it back, unstitched it, patched the hole in the seam allowance, cut a new pocket and tried again.

And noticed when I started to pin up the sideseams that the finished pocket bag was on the OUTSIDE of the robe.

I unpicked it, filled in the hole in the seam allowance and gave up.  He's got one pocket on the left side.

If you click on that to embiggen it you will see my hasty patch jobs.  The edge didn't really waver that much...that's just the unstable fabric showing it's tricks.

The fabric, while it appears to be a woven, behaves like a knit. A very unstable knit.  It wasn't nice to sew as it kept shifting and stretching in odd places.  The neckband (I elected to put a band rather than a facing) twisted oddly on one side.  Didn't want to risk damaging the picky fabric so I left it; I don't think it's going to be terribly noticeable but I'm not happy with it.

The whole thing is VERY heavy; my plastic hanger was threatening to buckle when I took the picture.

I have about 3 more costumes to make in the next couple of weeks...one IS for the Easter mini-production...so that's what my sewing is gong to be for the foreseeable future.

Hopefully the next ones will be more cooperative.  And I won't be stupid.