Rouge Lady Grey - With Guest Model

I hope you're all having a happy weekend - I am! Today my gorgeous youngest sister, Ruth, came over for afternoon tea and generously agreed to model my finished Lady Grey coat for me. I would love to be able to model my most prided project to date, but my belly is far too big now for that!

So here is my darling sister in all the Lady Grey glory:

Doesn't she look amazing? My beautifully pad-stitched lapels and lapel roll lines:

The pad-stitched collar:

The lining - I actually had to add a ribbon hem - the lining is soooo short! I was quite annoyed about this to begin (should have read reviews again), but think the ribbon looks pretty, so I've gotten over it:

To tailor the coat, I followed Gertie's Lady Grey Sew-A-Long posts. I followed them pretty much to the t., which involved:

•    Interfacing by hand-stitching all coat pieces with hair canvas;

•    Marking and stitching the lapel roll line;

•    Pad-stitching the lapels;

•    Stitching the seams down flat to the coat (I didn't topstitch them as I thought the stitching wouldn't show anyway).  

•    Stitching together the coat shell pieces (not the collar or the sleeves);

•    Stitching together the lining pieces (not the sleeves); and

•    Hemming the lining using lace. 

•    Marking and stitching the collar roll line;

•    Pad-stitching the collar;

•    Attaching the collar to the shell;

•    Hemming the shell with lace (and also ribbon); and

•     Attaching the lining to the shell by hand. 

This coat took me a long time - I had two weeks off work, and Michael was away in the USA, so I worked on it full-time during that time. I then worked on it on a more part-time basis for another two weeks. The hand-stitching is very time consuming, plus I had never pad-stitched anything before.

It was very fun to sew - and very good for me to sew something more advanced than I usually do. Definitely my most satisfying project to date, especially when Ruthy put it on and I could see how nicely it sat.

It was so fun to have Ruthy to style - she was looking stunning (no surprise there, she always does), the sun was out, the chocolate pudding was tasty, and Michael's photo taking skills were right on the money. An excellent afternoon! Hope your weekends are going as nicely as mine.