Why I ignore my instincts over and over,

is one of the great mysteries of me.  Simplicity 2508 The Coat I've been contemplating since October when I bought the lovely cashmere/wool herringbone- and by the way cashmere is wool so what does that mean anyway?  Why don't they say cashmere goat wool/plain old sheep wool or something?  But, I digress.  Anyway, I finally cut out the coat.

I fused the pockets, collar and the back tab first. And then I sewed the back tab to get a feel for the fabric.  Looks nice. Photo makes it look uneven but it's a weird illusion- I measured.

It took me hours to do it.  I made one mistake doing that- I didn't cut out the right sleeve length for the long cuff.  So I cut the sleeve too long and I didn't have room for the cuff facings but I didn't figure it out till it was all cut out.  Oh, well.

The pattern is a 14-20 which is weird because I usually make a 10 for knits and 12 for wovens.  So, I pretty much knew that I cutting out a too big pattern but I thought I could just alter it along the way.  And I can.  But really that was my first mistake- not making a muslin, but that's so boring.

Sleeve seams are seawn but the the sleeves are just pinned into the garment.  And that's not dust on the vent it's discolored, I checked.

I fused the front pieces and I knew instinctively that the fusing was too heavy for the fabric but like me, I just kept going.   I finally got all the panels sewn together so I could try it on for fitting and it had several problems.  a) it's ginormous  b) it has way too much flare and c) the darn fusing is so heavy that the flare of the side front flops over the top of it.  Am I right about c?

The good news is that it's salvageable.  BUT, I think I have to rip out the front panel and peal off the fusing and use a lighter one.  AND, I need to reduce the flare as well as trim down the size all together.  I think that will help.  I don't have that sinking "this is a disaster" feeling yet, but it's looming.

Anybody have any suggestions?