One thing I won't miss about Chicago

... will be the weather.  4 degrees at mid-day today, with a healthy 7 inches of week-old snow on the ground.  Gotta love lake affect snow!
I apologize for being so late to update - a combo of finals, last minute college essays (ultimately unnecessary) and a half-finished hand sewn bodice that refused to fit because my new corset changes my shape so drastically.  But after looking at Samantha McCarty's absolutely lovely paletot I decided that it might behoove me to make one of my own, seeing as I had all the makings of it in my stash.

Selfie game sooooo strong

 I apologize for all of these pictures being taken by myself of myself - my parents are enjoying a well deserved vacation whilst I am home alone, and thus I have no photographers.  Count on nice, pretty pictures being up by Monday, though! (If I have time while finals cramming.)

The lowdown:
- Pattern: Drafted from History of Fashion with few modifications - it was literally three big, rhomboid pieces with sleeves.

- Materials:  Silk taffeta, muslin, and batting lining, wool gaberdine that was at one point a skirt, cannibalized fur coat.  I had a long moral discussion with myself about using innocent critters to clothe myself, but as they had already been killed and made into a drab looking coat I decided that it wouldn't be any more dignified to let the fur gather dust.

- Time: Only about a week, actually, but the quilting took up most of it.  If I had stuck with a plain lining I could have done it in a day or so.

- Positives:  Really cozy!  The fur is amazingly soft (:c) and I'm happy to finally get rid of some of that low slub silk and all of that red wool (though I still have a bit left...)

- Negatives:  I somehow messed up the sleeves. As usual.  But it doesn't make it structurally unsound, so I'm keeping them.  Also, I'm going to need to redo the collar, because it's too bulky.  And I wish that I had cut the fur at an angle so I didn't constantly have to take up the excess at the top, but there's no helping that.  A big thanks to the ladies at the SA for instructing me in proper fur cutting techniques!

 The lining was all machine quilted into diamonds.  It's silk and muslin at the bottom and the batting begins at about stomach level (you can sort of see where it gets more opaque in the picture.)

 The whole thing was bag lined, and then the outer sleeve was put on, and then the inner sleeve was whipstitched to the body to hide an raw edges.

Inner sleeve

Gutta-perch like buttons

I'm debating whether or not to add fur to the cuffs... One one hand, cozy and warm, but on the other hand, I feel like they would flop all over the place and get in my way.

My inspiration picture has cuffs, but..

I also found these pictures of myself from TN.  I don't even want to talk about how low-cut my dress ended up being. >:c

My baby boo!

Now I must go study like mad for finals, attend many Christmas parties, and start scratching together a RevWar kit for next year.  Ciao!