Bunny coat- sewing in progress

This coat is coming together so much more quickly than I anticipated! I am just loving seeing it come together, and that it great motivation for fitting in just one more little seam. Initially I wasn’t sure what the experience of sewing with the fur would be like, especially with the constraint that it can’t really be pressed so many of the seams need topstitching flat, but so far it hasn’t been a problem at all.

Speaking of the fur, it is so satisfying teasing the trapped sections of fur out of the seams once they have been sewn. On the seams where there is fur sewn to fur you can hardly see the seam once it’s done because it gets covered over by the pile.

I did a few test swatches of the settings that I planned to use for the applique sections and ended up choosing a much shorter stitch length than the book recommends. I just preferred the way that the dense stitching completely covered the cut edge of the applique piece.

I also found some suitably coloured and themed quilting cotton to line the pockets. The patch pockets would be so bulky if they were lined in fur like the rest of the coat, so it was definitely a good choice. I like these leaves because they remind me of autumn which seems appropriate in a coat.

The hood is also partially constructed now, including these amazing bunny ears! They are pretty heavy, and I was impressed that my sewing machine coped with 7 layers of corduroy and 2 of fur plus seam allowances without complaint! I did switch to a slightly chunkier needle for that section though. The inside of the hood is just so soft and snuggly!

The only problem that I have run into so far with sewing this up was entirely of my own making. When trying to topstitch one of the seams while keeping the fur out of the way I managed to stitch through my finger! ouch! fortunately it was only the skin at the very tip and it seems to be healing nicely but I’ve been a lot more cautious and careful since then!

I still have the lining to construct, and I’m hoping that it won’t stall me in the same way that lining my Taylor Trench seems to have! I really need to get back on to finishing that coat project too at some point soon! In the meantime, I’m really enjoying the process of creating something which will hopefully be a treasured hand me down for children in my family for many years to come!

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