Tessie's Sewing Box

Yes. She talked me into filling the box for her. Tessie is now the proud owner of her very own sewing box.

There was a method to my madness. As I filled it, I managed to do a bit of cleaning out of my sewing supplies. At least, now my thread is in order. And I did get rid of the bad spools.

Here's the first side of the box. She has eight kinds of antique lace to choose from and several kinds of black braids. She also wound five different kinds of straw for hats on cards. The box in the bottom has lots of ribbon roses and bows, ready for decorating things.The book behind her is a needle book that I made some time ago. Under her foot is a box of pins and in front of that is a case with a thimble that fits me, not her. My tiny needle nosed bottle of glue is there also.

On the other side, she has all of the fabric stuffed in. I made her stop when the lid wouldn't go down anymore.

Zar discovered what we were doing. He isn't a happy camper. Work has ceased on the cottage for the day. Tessie threatened to throw the spool at his head if he didn't leave. He beat a hasty retreat.

You may be wondering what the new garment is that Tessie is wearing. It is a called a "bog coat". She was looking for something new for me to make for her and I suggested this.

In 1991, Virginia Avery put out a sewing book called "Wonderful Wearables". It is one of my all time favorites for easy clothes to make.

That's where I first learned about the bog coat. It is a one piece garment and one of the oldest known examples of sewing. The first one was dug up in Norway. The estimate it to be from 1000 B.C.. I have heard that the pattern goes all the way back to ancient Egypt.

Anyway, to make a long story short, about 20 years ago, someone figured out how it was made and did a pattern for it. It is an amazing piece. I made several and am getting the bug to make a few more for myself. They take no time and look good when you finish. You can get more complicated and gather the sleeves into a cuff or put on a collar.

This is the first mini sized one that I have made. I will tell you the measurements that I used for Tessie's and you can do the same for your person.

The width of the coat has to fit around the hips plus a half inch.(On a real person it is hips+6".) Usually you can get away with just measuring from wrist to wrist and then add just a tiny bit more on the mini one for a glued hem. For Tessie, it was four inches.

The length of the coat is whatever you want it to be. In this case, I wanted a short one so I simply made it 4" long.

You measure down from the top 1" and fold that over. This will be your sleeves. (On a real person this is 12") Where the fabric edge meets the fabric beneath, you cut a line that is a quarter of the width of the material....In this case, 1". Fold both sides to the center.

Cut up the center frontof the folded sleeve and cut a small hole for the neck.

At this point I glued a hem in the end of each sleeve. It is easier now than after you sew the sleeve. Now fold down the sleeve with right sides together and sew the seam at the bottom of the sleeve to the end of the cut on each side.

Fold the bottom to the center and it will meet with the top front. Sew from the sleeve to the front edge on each side.

After that is done, all you have to do is glue(or stitch) hems in all of the edges and decorate if you wish.

If you want to look at a pattern for the real thing, go here.http://www.thequiltercommunity.com/Wc8f1c1a1f8b9e.htm If I used this one, I would change the neck. It seems extremely large to me.

I need to see if Zar and Tessie have settled the argument of which one of them I am working for today.....Hey! Wait a minute! It's Saturday. I am taking the day off.

See you tomorrow.