and He has a Coat....

I finished making Rex's coat yesterday. Well, at least the main sewing part.  I'm really happy with how it turned out, even though several things needed to be redone, and there's still one minor issue with the lining to be figured out for next time. I can already imagine the coat being made in richer fabrics for fancier outfits from the period. With Marie Antoinette style gowns for Bianca.

Now the fun begins. I get to sand the fabric and stain it to make the coat look old and lived in, like it's been his only coat for the past two years - worn in town and country, on ships and in the wilderness.  Which I why I thought I should take a 'before' picture.

​And while I was at it, I decided to take a photo of him with Bianca, whose latest outfit now includes a knit cowl scarf and an apron. 

Rex's coat still needs the buttons, as well as some fake buttonholes.  I had chosen some dark gray buttons, because I didn't want anything flashy, but there weren't enough. I really didn't make to make buttons out of polymer clay, so I printed off some discount coupons and headed over to  Michaels to see if they had any tiny buttons in the right colour. No. Only packages with really bright colours. So I checked out their bead section, and they had some strings of an embossed silver metal bead, about the right size.  Kind of a bright silver, which wasn't really what I wanted, but I bought two strings of them anyways. So today I brushed one string with dark brown paint, killing some of the flashy silver. Now they look more like 'brass'.....

Rex will also need some knit fingerless gloves, and the first set I made were too 'rough' and thick. I had combined two very thin yarns and knit them together to give it a more 'home-spun' look, but they turned out too thick for my taste. So I knit a second colour combo, alternating two medium browns. Unfortunately I cast off too tight and messed it up when I tried to undo it, so now I have to start all over. Again. I just hope there's enough of the one yarn.

Now to go 'age' that coat....and start some more arm warmers....
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