The Reveal

First, I am so sorry for my tease yesterday.  I had every intention of getting pictures up… but life with four children and so much snow… it kind of got in the way!

Now on to the eye candy!  But I have to warn you… the pictures of her in the coat aren’t the best.  Besides some lighting issues, she wasn’t really cooperative.

I thought I’d take a picture of the Ella Coat on Ms. S before I felted it.  Gives you an idea of how HUGE it is before.

Some details on the process.  You take that huge coat that you spent HOURS on and place it in a pillow case.  You can use a large lingerie bag, but a pillow case is what I have… and I close it with a chip clip.   How silly!  Then you beginning filling your washer with HOT water and a little dab of Dawn dish soap.  I’m not sure the Dawn does anything but I’ve been told it helps break down the fibers.  Praying beings and you place the pillow case in the water {oh, I have a pair of jeans in there too to help with the agitation}.

This time I timed the process.  I checked the coat every five minutes out of total nervousness.  I knew from Ms. A’s coat that the body felts much quicker than the arms.  Why is that?  I don’t know.  Every time I checked it I would squeeze out the water, lay it on a table and measure it.  When the coat reached Nora’s measurements I rinsed it in cold and spun it.  I never noticed how long it takes my washer to do this part.

Then the real “fun” begins.  I still need to hand finish felting the arms.  They needed to lose four inches!  I refilled the washer with hot water and then just held the arms in the water rubbing them with my hands, checking the length until I couldn’t take it anymore.  I’m not sure I’m happy with the length of the arms, but I decided to give it a try.  I might felt them a little more… thinking on it.  All in all I had two hours just felting it and getting it into shape.  I don’t think my hot water is hot enough…

Ready yet?  Eye Candy begins…

The Collar

Ruffle up the front

It took over a day to dry.  I think it’s because my house is cold.  Once it’s out of the washer you pull it to the right measurements then fill it with towels to shape it.  Then you tell all the children to stay far away from it.  No touching , no eating near it.  And you have to watch for those pesky cats.  They NEVER get up on anything.  They must smell the wet wool and think they must lay on it.  But I’m smarter and scarier… they learn not to do that!

OK… enough talking.  Here are the pictures of it on Ms. S.  Not the best shots as she wasn’t feeling well and all those snow clouds take my good light away.  What do you think?  I’ll post a picture of Ms. A’s coat too from last year.

Ms. A’s coat

I’m looking forward to seeing them both in their coats.  I just have to figure out how to close up Ms. S’s coat.  I used buttons to close Ms. A’s but I’m not happy with the button holes.  I’ve read some have used zippers… oh the decisions.  Funny… in the post I talked about felting Ms. A’s coat, I took the same shot up the ruffle.  My new lens does a much better job with that shot this year!

And a shot out for the designer of the Ella Coat – Nora Bellows.  She is such a talented designer and so helpful.  The first time I made this coat I emailed her a few times and she was always right on top of answering me and helping me out.  Check out her patterns at your local yarn shop and if they don’t carry them you can order direct from her.  I took a class from her once {how I met her} and would love to take another one some day!