Well, hubby may not enjoy my singleminded coat obsession while the kids turn the house upside down, but I feel like I have made good progress and now I can put it aside and make dinner. Here are the front right and rear panels. I'm particularly pleased with the rear pleat, which I think will work out nicely when it's all sewn up.
I need to loose a couple of inches from either side of the rear panel (just folded it over in the picture) which I think will be easy enough to do. I just need to position the original panel over the top and trim as appropriate.
Look at that crazy zigzag stitch down the front; silly error. I started slicing into the panel I had already cut out thinking that it was a spare piece. Instead of making a whole new panel I just patched it up. Doh.
Next I need to take off the excess from either side of the rear skirt panel and sew it to the top rear panel (currently it's held in place by loose taking stitches). Then fix an extra piece above the underarm section which seems to have come short given my SBA alteration.
After that I'll attach the front to the back at the shoulders and see if the side panles meet up nicely. Then, I'm not sure if I'll work on the sleeves or the neck.
If anyone's reading this I'd love some advice / opinion on arms. The original coat had quite deep arm holes and I've thought about making them narrower at the armpit. I hope to add an insulating lining that the original one did not have so perhaps reducing the arm holes too much will make the whole too restrictive.... thinking thinking.
