Qu'il est laid le gilet !

I am no Venus, but I now could gallivant about in a (faux) fur coat cardigan !
Making this cardigan was a long and unpleasant affair.

Faux-Chinchilla with possible choice of buttons

I pinned and pinned the beast like no tomorrow but the long hair made the pieces shift against one another and I always had a big discrepancy at the end of the seam. I tried many times with my teflon roller foot and without, with a thousands pins and with a hundred thousands and used up a lot of very good quality thread that my seam ripper enjoyed slaughtering . My seam-ripper has won the sweet and well deserved name of Jack, and I got nowhere.

Cutting the thing to start with was also no walk in the park !

A kind soul advised me to hand baste the beast, and then sew it once tamed.
So it was basted and sewn the cardigan of doom and I HATE the thing !

Don't be fooled by the smile, I hate this cardigan !

It's sad and drab and ....

The funny things my hair's doing behind my back ! Cheeky, tricky hair!

Way too big !
I look like a giant Chinchilla is swallowing me. Or as if I stole my nana's fur coat. None of those looks are good on me, no Sir.

I drafted the pattern by myself (which was no mean feat) and wanted a loose cool, dropped shoulders faux-fur cardigan, so I added quite a bit of ease to my original measurements.
The second part of the problem is that I recently turned raw-vegan. Between the time I started to draft the pattern (I'd say november) and the time the whole thing was sewn, my new diet had seriously kicked in and I had lost 4 more kilos and a good size in RTW.

I'm still proud that I have been able to draft the cardigan and facing and lining. It's tremendous progress for me.

Even added an inside secret pocket.

I didn't add any closure yet, because Dame Christiane, my mother, agreed to take this cardigan off my hands, so we'll decide together how she wants to close it . I'd try to have her choose the hooks because buttons might make the cardy too busy.

The facings are made of red velvet from my stock. The lining is good quality anti-static lining bought in Toto, Lille.
The fur is from Tyssavel, a sadly now closed fake fur factory from northern France.

Love me a secret pocket !

Sleeve's inside, just because.

All together I'd say this was an expensive (for me) project. The fur was 35€ a meter , the lining I can't remember the price of. The time I spent on it, between the pattern making, the sewing and all was way too much and almost killed my sewing mojo.

But I did learn a thing or two, namely that fur is no good look on me. On the plus side, I made some progress on my pattern making skills and I also now know that I have to redo my basic pattern sloppers. Last but not least, my mum might now have a fake-fur cardigan she'll like. So, no regrets.

What did sewing taught you lately ?