Divine Inspiration

Do you ever have a difficult project to tackle and the solution hits you in the middle of the night?  Sometimes those wakeful hours are productive and result in your sewing space looking like this the next day.

It all started about a month ago when our pastor approached me in need of help for a vintage cope that he had recently acquired.  He had spotted it at a children's play, being used as a costume.  He managed to convince the school that he would replace the costume if they would give him the cope.
Well....to say that the garment was in need of repair would be putting it mildly.  This had definitely seen better days.

The original label was still inside so that is where my research started.  They were great help in dating it for me - the 1950s - but were unable to offer help in obtaining original fabric, trim, etc.  Thus began my search.

The fringe is a metal bouillon fringe with large sections missing.  One phone call led to another and another and another, but I eventually located some.

The fabric was a dead end so there it sat.  I could use a different fabric that "blended" but felt that the impact would be lost.  That is when the middle of the night inspiration came to me.  I could use the fabric under the gorgeous trim.  I could replace it with a neutral fabric as it would be under the trim when I sewed the trim back in place.  The lining fabric would be fine just blended.  The red velvet trim is in remarkably good condition.  That would have been really hard impossible to replace.

 Complete deconstruction started.  It took a full day for that.  Patterns were made and work started.  Parts were so badly worn that it was hard to even make a pattern from the old, but I managed.

Then there was the black paint!  Oh my!  The cope was apparently worn around a wet stage.  ;-)  Fortunately, I managed to only need to remove 3/4 of an inch from the length.  The garment has extra length across the back anyway so it will not be noticed.

After several days of sewing the final hand stitching was completed today.  The Cope is now ready for another 75 years.

Onto a new project .... are you joining in for Bonnie Hunter's En Provence?  It all starts in a few weeks.  There is still plenty of time to join in on the fun.