Problems

George Weed had a problem. In Woodbury, Connecticut in 1746 he handed off some bogus examples of the colony's script to a known counterfeiter. George informed this fellow that his brother Samuel signed the notes and could imitate any man's handwriting. The counterfeiter got arrested in Fairfield County in October. Weed passed some fake 20's in a local tavern and visited his "friend" in jail, sharing a mug of flip. The doctor advised him to escape. As soon as the counterfeiter was released on bail, he ratted out his co-conspirator. Weed was arrested but promptly ran from the constable.

Around that time, the great actor turned evangelist George Whitefield visited Connecticut. Weed may have seen him, or someone similar like Eleazer Wheelock, which might explain his problems with the Baptist church he attended in Philadelphia in 1765. He called their attempts to curb his preaching a trick that Dr. Faust played with the Devil:

Whereas George Weed has withdrawn himself from this church without applying properly for a dismission, and has since declined to come to show cause for his conduct for which irregularity and refusal, and also for his declining to pay the money he subscribed towards building the meeting house we do therefore erase his name out of the church book and declare him to be no longer of us, and this we do in hope it may be blest for the good of his soul.

Speaking of problems, here is one of the linings I cut for the coat.

At first, I thought this was because I forgot to iron the silk before I cut it. Yet the other lining piece fits fine. They were both cut at the same time, from the same pattern. Nothing for it but to cut another lining for one side. Ino, I could piece the tail, just don't feel like it.

The silk also tends to explode when cut with a buttonhole chisel.  I could have done the fancy-pants individual lining squares between the buttonholes, but this coat isn't nice enough. 

Instead, I get a confetti of tiny pink threads poking through the buttonhole slit. I learned the hard way not to pull on these, as shown below.

As with the pocket flaps, I have learned a new and better way to handle pleats. Not sure why I have been doing them wrong all these years. More on that later.