This beast has been on my To Sew list for two years, and then I finally went and busted it out in a weekend! I’m a little crazy like that sometimes.
Even though I’ve technically made one other coat, I really feel like this is my first one because I used all of the coat making techniques for the first time (horsehair interfacing, bound buttonholes, bagged lining, etc). And while I have a few things to adjust, I am also incredibly pleased with it!
Both this incredible fuchsia wool and the snow leopard satin lining, and even the buttons!, are from my Grandma’s Stash. She just had amazing taste! I had to be a bit creative with the wool because I forgot that I would need to cut four of the front piece (two for the lining) and so I wasn’t as thoughtful with my pattern placements as I should have been. You can see on the facing below where I had to sew two pieces of wool together, but that seam is very minor and I’m sure most people won’t even notices.
The pattern suggested 6″ of ease, but I felt like that was too much, even for a coat, so I went with a size 10 (5″ of ease) and I still feel like I could go one size smaller. Yes, I can layer sweaters under it now, but not all coats need that much room.
Other than that, I thought the pattern was very well drafted. It had so many options that I could use it many times and none of the coats would really look the same. I really learned something after my blue plaid coat: some coat styles are better suited for me than others. That other pattern was just too much skirt on a coat (though I may still try to salvage it by removing the skirt and making it into a cropped coat?). This pattern, with all of the princess seams, is slimming.
Last year I had ordered some horsehair canvas interfacing because I had heard how well it worked for coats. The thing is, I didn’t order enough because I didn’t think about how much a coat would actually used. With both front pieces (front and facings) , pockets, sleeve and back tabs, and collar, as well as the upper back, all interfaced, I swiftly ran out and had to use makeshift interfacing for the front pieces. I think that’s why there is so much puckering around the bottonholes.
I was so proud of my first attempt at bound buttonholes! I would read the instructions for bound buttonholes over and over and it would never make sense, but once I actually tried one, it worked and everything fell into place. And I made them on the facings and then hand-stitched the edges of the buttonholes in the facing to the back of the buttonholes on the front piece. I used some of the tips from www.anelisemadeit.blogspot.com here and also consulted my vintage Singer Sewing manual. Both resources helped me better understand what I was doing, and also how to sew the buttons with some space for all those layers of wool!
Even bagging the lining made so much more sense to me once I actually did it. I think I will benefit from more practice and better ironing, but I am happy with my first attempt at it. And the satin feels amazing! I have enough left over to make the pajamas that are on my #2018MakeNine sewing list as well.
I love my coat so much that I’ve already created a Pinterest board dedicated only to coat inspiration. Honestly though, even before Kate Middleton wore coats as amazing as her dresses, I loved how Mary Margaret wore a vast array of colorful coats on Once Upon a Time. I’m going to order me some more horsehair canvas interfacing and start planning another one…
