06-19 DONE. 151 hours and 40 minutes later, the coats are complete.

06-18 The lining has been cut, inserted, pressed, stitched; pockets are in, details have been stitched. Almost good to go! All that really remains now is to sew on the buttons/snaps and do some final pressing. These coats are unbelievable. I’m totally in love.

06-12 Very productive day on the grey coat! Took it in so it actually fits me (my initial pattern had way too much ease), sewed belt loops, and created a vent in the back. Also dyed the linings of both coats. Progress!

06-11 Bought all buttons and snaps today, as well as the belt for the grey jacket, and a lovely large bead for the shawl. Also finished stitching the shawl pleats. The lining arrived last night, and today I made the dye stock solutions, so tomorrow I’ll dye! It’s lovely tussah silk. Very excited!

06-10 Sewed shell of orange coat together today, and made patterns for the pockets for both coats. My biggest challenge today was how to attach the shawl. There was a lot of creative problem solving going on. What I ended up doing was cutting away a section of the right front panel so there would be no overlap of panel over the shawl beneath. To control the volume, I put a large soft pleat at the back centre, and I’ll be easing in the bottom over the shoulders to attach into the neck seam. Each end of the shawl section is pleated and hand-stitched to secure.

06-09 This week I’ve just been slowly chipping away at this project. I cut all panels from my yardages and the unbleached cotton interfacing, joined these together, and sewed the shell of the grey coat. I’m not 100% happy with the extent of the flare from the waist, so I may take it in. I ordered the lining online, and hopefully it’ll be arriving sometime this week.

06-03 Cut the pattern pieces from the red-gold yardage. My teacher advised putting masking tape on the seam allowances around the edges of the panels so that they won’t fray, which was a fantastic idea and saved me a lot of fretting. I’ll be stitching interfacing to these panels this week yet, which should stabilize them beyond worry.

05-31 The yardage has been totally finished for a few days. Yesterday I stitched up prototypes based on the patterns that I made. It’s really really exciting … I can’t wait to start putting the final pieces together.

05-24 Wove 23 feet in about 6.5 hours today.

05-23 Dressed loom with grey, began weaving.

05-21 Completed wet finishing of first yardage.

05-20 Began wet finishing; washed and dried. Will press at school this week because there’s an awesome iron and an ironing table there. I was a little worried about the colours, because the golden-yellow was veering a little to the green, but I think I’m pretty happy with the result. The red-orange warms up the gold. Seeing colours interact in weaving is one of the coolest things.

05-17 Finished weaving first yardage. About 29 feet. Also wound grey warp, but forgot to take pictures while on the warping board.

05-16 Almost 15 feet (out of minimum 27) woven.

05-14 Loom is all dressed! Started weaving the first yardage.

05-13 Wound red-orange warp.

05-12 All dyed. Going to wind the red-orange warp at school tomorrow. I’m a bit nervous that the red-orange/gold will make a super-bright safety-vest-looking fabric when woven. If it does, I’ll probably overdye it.

05-06 For the third semester, one of our classes is a self-directed studio course. We basically take what we like to do in the studio and do it more, which is great. I’m creating two one-of-a-kind fall/winter coats out of material which I’ll be weaving myself and patterns that I’ve drafted. The MacAusland’s wool is super nice to work with, and the fabric it makes when woven is delightful. I’m so excited to watch this project progress! Today I dyed 18 skeins of yarn a golden colour. This week I will dye 19 more red, and 27 more grey.

Photos in order:

• June 21 - the finished coats on display at the KSA summer show
• June 14 - lining pieces cut
• June 13 - the lining dyed
• June 13 - vent detail on bottom back of grey coat, originally inside breast pocket opening on thrifted leather coat!
• June 13 - buttons covered in black leather. since leather is thicker than most fabric, had to have notches cut away to get it to fit into the button
• June 10 - shawl basted on
• June 10 - the revised neckline with a section cut away from right front to allow for shawl on panel beneath
• June 8 - back view of the grey coat. Loving the hood and the shape of that back panel.
• June 7 - red-orange coat panels with interfacing sewn on and looking snazzy
• June 5 - interfacing panels are cut and ready to be sewn onto the woven fabric.
• June 5 - pieces for coat 2 are all cut.
• June 3 - pieces for coat 1 are all cut!
• June 3 - the tape around the SA of the panels to keep the fabric from fraying excessively
• June 3 - two of the pattern pieces laid out on the yardage.
• May 30 - the prototype in scrap fabric of one of the coats - this is the one that will be made from the orange yardage.
• May 24 - the grey in this picture is much more true. two shuttles because the yarn is variegated and different in colour between skeins, so I’m alternating with a pick of each.
• May 23 - grey wool on loom. the colour in reality is much darker than in the picture.
• May 20 - fabric drying outside on the deck after washing
• May 17 - fabric off the loom
• May 16 - seeing the pattern develop
• May 16 - beginning to weave!
• May 14 - in the process of beaming
• May 13 - one of the four red-orange warps on the warping board
• May 10 - 27 skeins of grey wool drying
• May 9 - 27 skeins of wool being dyed dark grey
• May 9 - The final red-orange colour of the yarn - AMAZING
• May 8 - 19 skeins of wool being dyed red-orange
• May 8 - 18 skeins of golden-yellow yarn extracted from dye bath, drying on studio racks
• May 6 - 18 skeins of wool being dyed golden-yellow
• May 3 - 58 skeins of yarn the way they came from MacAusland’s, undyed and full of lanolin and gunk

Red-Orange/Gold Yardage Overview

• 10yd warp, 368 ends, wound four separate warps of 92 ends each
• on-loom width: 46”
• this 8-shaft 8-treadle network draft found on Eva Stossel’s website
• 8 epi / ppi
• wove to about 29 feet of length

Grey Yardage Overview

• 10yd warp, 268 ends, wound two separate warps, one of 132 ends and the other of 136

• on-loom width: 33.5”

• 2/2 twill, treadled straight

• 8 epi / ppi