Finally finished!!!

Post #7                                                                             Thursday, March 26, 2015

WAYYYYYYY back in June, I started a caraco jacket to wear in Colonial Williamsburg for our day of 18th century, after the ladies and I took a gown workshop with Burnley and Trowbridge.  As the new year started, I finally decided to finish some of those UFO's in my sewing room...one of them being the caraco. All that needed done was to finish off the front closure....I had just folded it back and pinned it shut...and to add the trim.

Ahhh....trim. Finishes off the look, and really makes the outfit. BUT GAD DANG!!!! IT TAKES FOREVER!!!!!

                                                     Here's the jacket before any trim.


I ended up doing a gathered strip of self fabric....which meant....for each strip of fabric, I would stitch the edging a total of 6 times....2 sides hemmed, 2 sides gathered, then 2 sides stitched down onto the garment. UGH. HATE doing trim....but I have to admit. It DOES make all the difference.

Not only did I add the self fabric trim to the neckline, I brought it down the front, and around the sleeve cuffs. The cuffs have a larger piece of ruffled fabric. Something I was experimenting with. I also finished a red silk taffetta petticoat to go with the jacket. And I thought I hated gathering ruffles for the jacket!!! the ruffle on the bottom of the petticoat was a BEAST. I am MUCH better matched to pleating instead of gathering, but sometimes, gathers are what is needed.

I'm hoping this blog post will break my silence, and I look forward to posting quite a few more in the near future.
Not only am I "kind of" following along with the Sew Forenightly, but I've also convinced myself that 2015 is the year of finishing unfinished projects, and doing for others. So, each month, I have promised myself that I will make one thing for myself and one thing for someone else, whether it's a friend, or for my husband, or something I have promised to do but have taken forever and a day to finish.
So far so good! These two projects were for my month of January. Febuary and March will be posted in the next couple of days!

So....in a nutshell....go the extra mile and add trim. It may take something that seems uniform and "seen before" to a new level.