Carnaby Coat

You might remember the Elton Coat, which I made last fall, and which, while turning out amazing and fabulous, is a tad too small for me.  Oh, I wear the Elton Coat, you’d better believe it, because a coat made from shiny gold upholstery fabric screams that I have got style.  The only thing is, when I wear it, all I can do is sort of lean against the wall with my arms straight down, concentrating on trying to get blood to circulate to my fingers…I exaggerate, it’s not that bad.  But, I do want a coat that fits me, and I already have the pattern.

I decided it was time to try again.  I had a few yards of upholstery canvas in a print reminiscent of the vinyl glider cushions in my grandma’s breezeway, so of course I thought it would make an awesome coat.  Right?  You don’t do that, too?  Hmm.

My machine, Miss Kastner, and I are still getting to know one another, and it’s mostly been two straws in the milkshake.  We had our first argument today, though, over the buttonholer attachment, and except for the fact that we couldn’t agree on a thread tension, we talked it out and got those babies buttonholed.  I had to dig deep in the Youtube archives to find anybody who wanted to talk about the Singer Professional Buttonholer for Slant Needle Machines, whew.  I am super intimidated by buttonholes anyway, and this attachment comes with four hundred individual pieces and its own instruction manual, and is the size of a handheld mixer.  Not surprisingly, it took me six full hours to figure out how to attach and use it.  But Miss K and I persevered together. 

The buttons are self-covered, in the lining fabric.  I knew that if I had a prayer of keeping this coat from looking like the bathroom wallpaper, I was going to have to get it right with the buttons.  I think the gingham adds just enough cheek to the whole thing, don’t you?

I’m in love with the fashions of 1960’s Carnaby Street.  I want a striped suit.  I want a white ruffled blouse with deep lace cuffs.   I want a tunic-length scrappy granny square vest and white go-go boots.  Yeah, baby!  

The pattern is McCalls 5525, minus all the tabs and flaps and gadgets.  I think I’ll wear this with skinny dark wash jeans and knee boots, and a big helping of irony.