Child's Paletot: Second Mockup & Trim Ideas

Here is the next mockup I did, after mild alterations.  Not too shabby, I thought.  I'm not too thrilled by the floppy folds, but I bet when it's made up in wool and lining and interlining, it'll probably be stiffer.  Maybe the wool will lay in graceful folds.  Maybe?

I mainly had to increase the neck size a bit, make the torso an inch and a half longer, move the front armscye in a little, and lowered the hem for my long-legged gal.  There are 2 extra inches around the waist to make up for bulk and it's roomy while still being fitted, but I think I might actually add another inch for growth.  I also need to round up the back a little -- it's a little too pointed, which you really can't see in these photos.

Question:  Does anyone know if paletot's were supposed to close all the way down the front, or just to the waist?  I closed it just to the waist in her mockup.  All the engravings I've seen show it where it looks closed all the way down, but something always gets a little wonky when you try to close a straight-front coat over a skirt -- even a mildly voluminous one.

Took some pictures of the wool I have that I might use on Victoria's paletot.  As you can see, it's not light blue, exactly.  Medium blue, I guess.  It looks great on Victoria.  I guess I'm so used to black or brown for coats that I'm having trouble really visualizing a coat this color, although it's probably period-correct.

Black velvet would still look very nice as trim on this, in bands around the skirt, sleeves, and collar.  Black velvet goes with almost anything.  I thought about a braiding pattern.  Very period; lots of designs to choose from.  I dug through my stash and found swatches of some red gimp thread and white soutache braid to hold up to the wool and see how they looked.  What do you think?

The red does have a nice contrast -- but very militaristic in my opinion.  Not my favorite.

The white soutache is from that navy blue dress I started (but didn't finish), in which I did a lovely braiding pattern from Godey's around the skirt.  It's one of the coolest sewing things I ever did, because it looked so striking -- and it ruined me (almost) entirely of other trim ideas.  :)  But it takes so long to do.  This dress, by the way, looks a little too boyish for Victoria.  Plus, the bodice I made for it is already too small for her.  I got the idea from an original boy's dress anyway.  I'll probably end up selling it so it can be worn by some sweet little boy; I'd hate for it to never get used after all that work putting the braid on.  Anyway.

So there are some ideas.  When I started out the paletot, I really was leaning towards a solid band trim of some kind (velvet or whatever).  I like the "tailored" look of it.  Besides, the front of the paletot will close edge-to-edge, rather than overlapping and buttoning-down.  (Did that eve make sense?)  That design might lend itself more to frogs or bands of fabric with buttons.  I suppose I might end up doing soutache, but I need to think more on it.

Hope you're all having a great day!

- Amy