Coat Progress!

I spent weeks agonizing over and trying to figure out padstitching, and a couple of weeks working on all the interfacing details, but it turned out to not be a big deal!  Last night, amidst sneezes, coughs, and wiping a red, chapped nose, I finished off the pad stitching, cobbled together some rolled towel tailors hams, and steamed the heck out of the collars.  I used an iron full of water each, so it should hopefully work well.  I even bought glass-headed pins for this specifically.

At almost $9 a box, I'll be saving them just for projects like this--they're too expensive for general use, I think.  And yes, that's one towel.  It's a bath sheet with rolled ends.After the girls go home tonight, I'm going to attempt to sew together the outer coat shells.  Gracie's has raglan sleeves, which means that my scraps will come in handy--it's not something that's in books, but raglan sleeves require reinforcement where all the seams meet at the arms.  Otherwise, they rip out far too easily! (I learned this at my mother's knee, and she learned it from Grandma.)  I can probably get the shells done tonight... hopefully.  I haven't cut out the lining yet.  I've been putting it off until the last minute, because I don't know exactly how the flannel-backed satin will react after it's cut.  My best guess is that it will fray, so I purposely waited so it would have less chance to do it!