I was at Kennet Valley Guild on Saturday when we held a mini workshop day. This means six or eight courses each 2 hours long. Half of the courses are in the morning, the others in the afternoon. I had a happy time learning how to warp up an inkle loom and how to produce a good selvedge. The rest of the time was spent gossiping and catching up with people.
One important event was that Jean McVeigh brought in the completed small Newbury Coat.
The coat is modelled by Wesley Crowley of Leamington Spa who is the brother of a friend of my grandson. And I am grateful to him and his parents for doing this. You will note that the fabric is not a uniform blue. This is due to the original yarn being from different fleeces and being differently spun. When I dyed several skeins together, they would come out different shades, though each skein was uniform. Bah! Oddly enough that did not happen when the full size coat was made in 2011 and that must be due to indigo dyeing which is surface dyeing whereas the small coat was acid dyed. I thought it better not to indigo dye as the dye does sometimes rub off and we intend to let school children try this on.
It is beautifully made, lined throughout and every hem handfinished. The fabric is quite thick and the collar is underlined with the lining fabric rather than being two layers of the wool fabric.
The poor quality of the photos is due to using the iPad!!! I will take some close ups of the coat.
An i9ncredible amount of effort has gone into this small coat. Spinning, dyeing, weaving and making up. Thanks are due to everyone who took part and especially Jean McVeigh who has produced a masterpiece.
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