Sorry, I got distracted

I was hoping to have good progress pictures of the mantellino by now.  I spent much of last night sewing together the lining and its really yummy.  My partner in craft/crime Davey came over with lunch yesterday and brought the most beautiful chocolatey brown shearling hide.  He'd bought it for vague projects.  I instantly stole it and decided I should use it to line my muff and make a Russian hat.  After a few more thinks I decided to line the mantellino in it too.  I cut out the mantellino lining right then which took most of the hide so now I need another for the muff.  He's been sent back to the leather store (not that he wouldn't have gone anyway.)   Its just buttery soft and lovely and a pleasure to work with.  I'd never seen such a pretty color of brown either, being more used to the goldish and white that is usually seen.  I now want to line a silk caftan in it.  Yum, yum, yummy!  Not to mention, with his wholesaler's discount, its actually cheaper than many fabrics.

Anyway, the new lining had me re-think the embellishment on the mantellino.  I decided to not do the flowers and do some cutwork instead.  So, the silk is becoming an intermediate layer between the shearling and the velveteen in both the cape and muff.  I'm shaping the cutwork to be basically the krin symbol.  I've seen some cutwork that is basically floral and stylizing the heart and fleur motif wasn't too difficult   I'm just doing it as a border around the edge rather than over the whole cloak.  I got the shearling sewn and attached to the silk and 8 of the cutwork motifs cut.  20 more to go around the bottom edge. 

Today's plan was to finish cutting and start the hand sewing of the shell to the lining and silk.  Instead, I lost my cell phone and got distracted by pockets.  I wear skirts by preference and rarely have pockets in them and thus have a tendency to hold my cell phone in my hand and put it down on random surfaces.  Then, my 16 month old son has a tendency to pick it up.  That's when the trouble begins.  So, I've been thinking about making some tie on pockets to wear with my everyday clothes.  Goofy, I know, but practical.  Then, I found this giant database of hundreds and hundreds of pockets of the 17-19th centuries.  So that has been what I've been doing instead of cutting and sewing.  I've been drooling over embroidery and patchwork and applique and all sorts of beautiful and plain pockets. I'm a total patchwork addict and many of my skirts are patchy so those are my favorites.

I'd say I'll get the mantellino done tomorrow but I'm eventing over the weekend, so who knows.  It is a handwork project, however, so I'll at least pack it with the very best of intentions of working on it.