I have come to the understanding that making wool coats is a lot like childbirth.
Wait, hear me out!
You spend a lot of time planning for it, wondering what it will look like, and designing color schemes around it. You are pretty excited as you get started
In the middle, you wonder why you decided to do this in the first place. If it’s your second, you definitely doubt your decision to do it again! And you don’t remember it taking this long the first time around. You wonder if you’ll ever be done.
When it’s over, you fall in love at first sight, immediately forgetting all the turmoil and agony of the process.
In fact, you find yourself planning to do it again much sooner than is reasonable.
I have had this coat pattern for a long, long time. I’ve looked at it and thought about it and debated over those 3/4 length ruffled sleeves and then put it away again and again. This time, I was determined to use it and make it work for me. I was still on a high after my first real successful coat that I wanted to do it again, despite going through the process described above!
I chose to use this gorgeous light gray wool from my Grandma’s Stash. It has little flecks of pink and navy throughout the fibers. I used a similar color for the lining this time, instead of a dramatic contrast, and used light gray satin from my own fabric history. It was a remnant from a medieval under dress I had made during college when I was part of the Society for Creative Anachronism. I’ll have to try to find a photo.
I consider this my Birthday Coat. Not only did Mike let me order more hair canvas for my coat-making adventures when we got paid in January, but I used birthday gift cards to Joann for the buttons and shoulder pads. Things are still so tight for us that this, a bottle of wine (thanks Tom and Danae!), a potted daffodil (thank you, Steve and Beth!) and the renewal of this blog (thanks Rebekah!) were the entirety of my birthday gifts. How can I feel cheated, though, when I get to wear this beautiful coat?!
Even though I love the fit of the fuchsia coat, I noticed that it had several inches of ease. I didn’t necessarily want quite as much with this coat, so I sewed a smaller size (size 10 on this pattern) and I love the final fit.
This pattern was also very well constructed. I like how the pockets are interior and more streamlined in this design. I also really like the pleated upper collar.
So here was my internal debate with the 3/4 length sleeves. Yes, they are super cute and unusual and fun. But would it bother me to have them that length? Would I always wonder about wearing long-sleeved shirts under it or wishing I had long winter gloves? In the end, I decided to go half-way. I would still do a ruffle, but I would make them wrist-length.
Since this McCall’s 5717 pattern used a one-piece sleeve and I’ve been effectively converted to the benefits of a two-piece sleeve, especially for something like this. I used the sleeve, ruffle, and sleeve tab pattern pieces from Simplicity 2508. I had to make adjustments to the sleeve head because Simplicity 2508 is a raglan sleeve, so it took several tries to make sure I cut the shape right for a little poof at the shoulder, but not too much. I also chopped 4″ off the length so that the added ruffle wouldn’t be too long. I think the finished look is perfect, with just enough pleated ruffle to compliment the collar and the overall feminine fit of the coat, but still warm enough to cover my arms.
My only final debate is whether I should move the sleeve tab down, either to the seam of the ruffle, or even onto the ruffle itself, to make it look like the sleeve tab was gathering the ruffles. Still pondering that one.
And these buttons! I had a Joann gift card from Mom to use for my button shopping, and it came down to some light gray plastic ones or these. I was worried these would be too dramatic, too much of a contrast, for the coat. I asked Evelyn, who was with me, and she made it sound painfully obvious that it had to be these. Mike said the same. Then later, Mom confirmed their choice. Now that it’s done, all I can say is, “duh!”
I think they offer the most perfect “steampunk” addition to my coat. The other nice thing is they have a back loop, so I didn’t need to think about sewing with room in the thread, like I did before. They are already lifted enough to leave room for the thickness of the buttonholes. Which I bound again, by the way. Even the sleeve tabs were bound this time, so they are functioning buttonholes.
I also liked how the back lining of this pattern had a pleat, with sewn sections at the top, middle, and bottom. It allows room for movement but also looks professional. I even added a hanging loop to the collar seam. I still want to buy a nice chain one to add to my fuchsia coat sometime.
So after all that work, all that hand-sewing and decision-making, I have a beautiful new gray coat … and a huge Pinterest board full of more coat ideas.
And this just happens to be the perfect pattern to make a Kate Middleton-inspired trench coat someday:
