Trenchcoat update: 04-April

The trenchcoat now has sleeves!

Yes, my sewing room really looks like this. You can now feel better about yours.

It also has a self-fabric belt!

Constructed & top-stitched self-fabric belt

I'd already finished constructing the lining, and I plan to insert that this weekend. I do need to buy more thread, though, before I'll be able to get much further. Amazingly, I was able to find the thread and buttons that I'd originally purchased/began using on this project from when I started this coat 2 1/2 years ago.

Assuming that I get the lining inserted this weekend, then over the next week, I'll just have to do my buttonholes and buttons, and then I'm done! The end is in sight! Even better, I'm (currently) on track to complete my coat by April 15th end date of the trenchcoat sewalong.

In other news, I'm disappointed in how I've been doing in fabric in vs. fabric out this year. I hadn't realized how "off pace" I was until I revisited at my goals for the year the other day. I'd wanted to have twice as much fabric "out" (either through sewing or donation) as I purchased this year. I'm pretty much flipped on that goal--slightly over twice as much "in" as "out". I plan to remedy that somewhat this weekend by going through my stash and pulling out enough stash fabric for donation to bring me into stash parity for the year. I already had ~12 yards pulled aside for donation, so I think I can pretty easily bring that total to at least 25 yards.

One question to my followers? Do you count fabric used in a UFO in your stash reduction tools? The trenchcoat took about 4 yards of fabric, so it would be nice to count that towards my stash-busting goals. ;)