I could not stop going on about my new coat in the pub

I bought the most amazing coat from a charity shop yesterday. Its fits so good, the only thing that needed doing was replacing the elastic in the back becuase it had gone old and crumbly.

I didn't have long to do it, but I desperately wanted to do it properly and not botch it, as per my new sewing ethic. I picked out the old bit of elastic (a pain since I seem to have lost my 3 (!) seam rippers, thank god for tiny ultra sharp scissors) and sewed one end of the elastic, unstreched to the side seam with the end of the front drawstring waist lying flat on top of it. I tried to pull the elastic and sew, but that was a massive failure, this piece of elastic is a efty mutha. So I flat-sewed the middle of the elastic to the middle of the back, therefore giving me a quantifiable amount to stretch. Then I sewed the left end of the elastic to the left seam again with the end of the left drawstring lying flat on top.
I was getting quite agitated by this time, especially as I was due to go to the pub. My agitation was further exacerbated by the needle breaking off and pinging me in the face! (a first!). I changed the neede, calmed down and finished sewing the elastic. Perfect! This coat combines 3 trends in one, nautical, dress coat and cinched in waist, how cool is that?

(I can't put pics up on blogger so for the time being here is a link to them on flickr)