Friday, January 12, 2018

The emperor's new coat

Ever since the periods of low income for me and my husband, I have been in the habit of fixing our clothes myself by hand rather than buying new ones or going to a tailor. Yes, I was also stitching up holes in socks too (I only later learned what darning is). Our doggie Aschiuta also contributed to those sock holes getting larger and more numerous...

We are now doing better with money and can afford to throw away socks with holes, but I still like to repair clothes on my own and sometimes even embellish them. After learning how to tat, that also meant appliques. In fact, this is one of the reasons I learned tatting.

Thus, my knit vest got a tatted rose in the front, my beret (after getting elastic on to fit better) earned its little red maple leaf and poochie's little coat got a snowflake. I also made myself a belt, but that is a story for another post...

My mom bought me a winter coat last year, long, warm and navy blue. I wanted to customise it, of course and I was originally going to change the plain black buttons, but I couldn't decide on a button design. So, instead, I made up my mind to add tatting instead. And what works best with a winter coat? I'd say snowflakes.

I had been making some snowflakes following the First Snowfall design by Robin Perfetti (she kindly offers free designs on her blog here) in a blue and white variegated pearl cotton thread. I really like this design, it looks very elegant. I thought I would sewa few of these on the hem of my coat.

So since spring and until December I worked on and off on the snowflakes until I had 11 of them. I then measured and calculated and measured some more to make them sit evenly, pinned them in place with safety pins and got to work on sewing them on. I added a few at a time and only finished during the Christmas week, while we were on holiday at my mother-in-law's place.

Since the thread is variegated and I did not care at what point in the colourway I would start, the snowflakes all look a bit different, but I really like that. I also got a few compliments from family, so I guess it doesn't look too bad.

The coat posing on the back of a chair.

Not sure if it shows very well, but they are in zig-zag positions. Also, my phone camera captured the light in weird ways.

Ah well, I like my new coat.

4 comments:

  1. Ooo what a fun enhancement! I think they look lovely, too :-)
    You'd make a great emperor (err, penguin ;-P)
    Hugs

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you! I think for the emperor penguin look I also need a yellow scarf :D

    ReplyDelete

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