I didn’t realize how much work those winter coats were going to be last month. My daughter’s study abroad deadline forced me to finish the coat from Sew Serendipity and I thought I might share the finishing touches.
Buttons went on after the cuffs and hems and topstitching. I love the buttons and experimented with beads in the X of the thread but the beads were too big.
I wanted to sew small buttons to the back side to make the orange thread neater. Anybody know what that small button is called? I didn’t. It’s a backer button. I was worried that the smaller holes wouldn’t match up with the holes of the bigger buttons but it went very smoothly. I also wanted to make a bit of a shank to allow for the thick fabric. I’ve done that before-put a crochet hook between the fabric and button and sew, then take out the hook and wrap thread…but it never seems to be enough to make a shank. But then I consulted with Debbie and she straightened me out-put the crochet hook (or toothpick, etc.) on TOP of the button and sew it on. Oohhhhh! And just in case, I looked it up in Vogue and it was the same as Debbie’s advice. Wonder where my idea came from….

And then there was this pucker at the top corner of each center. At least it was symmetrical. With a buttonhole right next to it there wasn’t much I could do so I pressed it as well as I could and left it there! Can you tell I was getting to the end of my patience for this project?

But the fact that the jacket made the final suitcase cut for Wales was worth it all. I hope she gets lots of wear out of it. And I am in search of a similar pattern as I won’t be using that one again.