The blouse’s armhole: meeting-point of sleeve and body, also needed to capture part of the collar and hold the earlierly hemmed lining, for which was opted to unite all those layers in a single seam and encapsulate their allowances with a hand-sewn bias border as a neat and simple way of finishing this conclusive joining.

Trimming corners

Attaching border

Ready to Merge

Securing the seams

Trimming corners and cutting darts before stretching and cross-stitching all seams cleanly opened, leaving no excess material in the way of drawing the now finished cover over its dome construction; after which the newly attached border is to be wrapped over the padded crown, joining the fur directly onto its satin lining.

In finishing neck-, wrist- and hemline for the tightly fitting red raglan blouse I opted to use borders from strips of the same velveteen fabric, cut evenly along the stretch-direction, stitched onto the piece’s right side using a narrow zig-zag and finely fixed against the wrong side by a loosened hem-stitch, minimally constraining the elastic fibers, allowing the blouse to faultlessly expand over the broader hands, head and shoulders while putting it on.

The from brass rings diverging bonds that grace the scarlet cape proved to be quite a task to make, needing the addition of internal poppeline layers to retain weight and interfacing, meticulous steam-brushing in order to get the seams pressed, to be followed by the laborious hand-work of attaching each bond onto its rings.