And here's another coat that I've been working on for what seems like an age...
This project has been a real trial and has been put down and picked up a number of times. The final result is pretty good, but not perfect (but what is) so I'm happy I persevered with it, but it caused me a lot of angst in the meantime.
So the first step in making this coat was the pattern. I didn't want to use the same pattern as my previous coat - the green vinyl rain coat - as I wasn't happy with how that turned out so that meant it was back to the drawing board.
I took my basic sloper and traced around it, I then extended the pattern down over my waistline and hips so that I didn't have the same problem that I did on the green coat. Finally I split the front and back pieces into two through the dart locations to create the princess seam lines that I love . I then took the coat pattern from my very first coat - Simplicity 1732 and laid that over the new pattern just to see how different the patterns were and to get an idea of how much ease I wanted to put onto my sloper and where. Realistically the two patterns were very similar at this point - but it was now tailored to my actual dimensions.
With the two patterns overlays I traced the Simplicity pattern from the hip line down to ankle length - I love the flare of the original coat and wanted to duplicate this. I also used the Simplicity pattern to modify my sleeve pattern into a two piece sleeve. I must say this step took me forever! (I would have liked to just use the pattern pieces from simplicity but my arm scythe is a different length on my pattern, plus the simplicity pattern sleeve is puffed and I didn't want that detail on this coat).
Now for the final design details. Whilst browsing the internet I'd found the Waffle Patterns Peppernoot Coat pattern and fell in love with it - specifically the seaming across the back and the front shoulders so I wanted to copy this. I traced the lines that I wanted onto my pattern and cut along those lines, then joined the front and back yoke sections at the shoulder to create one pattern piece for the yoke - In hind site this was a bad idea because that is the one area of this coat that just doesn't sit right, so I obviously did something wrong - though I can't for the life of me figure out what....
My first step now was to make a muslin. I had a small piece of material left over from making the coat for Kathy, that I probably wasn't going to use for anything else, so I decided to use that for my muslin as its about the same weight as the material that I would use for the final. Because the piece of material I had was so small I had to cut each piece in two sections, above the waist and just a small section of below the waist. I sewed it all together and with a few minor adjustments - especially in the sleeve - I had something I was happy with.
Now it was time to start cutting my real fabric. A long time ago I found this piece of purple fake velvet with just an almost corduroy look and a subtle floral design all over that I really liked - Once again its an upholstery fabric, but that's never stopped me.
I decided that I'd like to use that for this coat - however I only had 3 yards of it. I laid the material out on the kitchen floor and started playing around with the pattern pieces. I finally found that if I cut about 3 inches off the bottom and about 1 inch off the length of the sleeves - and didn't worry about a facing for the time being - I could do it.....So I did.
I really wanted to showcase the back and shoulder seaming so I found some purple and pink trim at my local discount fabric shop and sewed that into the seams. Each of the other seams was top stitched as well to try and really make them a feature.
To deal with the sleeves which were now just a smidge too short I found another purple upholstery velvet in a slightly different colour that I thought made a good contrast. I cut a 2 inch wide cuff out of this fabric. I finished off the ends of the cuff rather than joining it in the round, and with another piece of the trim used this cuff to finish the sleeve. By finishing off the two ends of the cuff rather than joining them the cuff flares just slightly which I really liked the look of.
At this point I tried the coat on......and hit a stumbling block. The coat looked more like a bathrobe than a coat. I even posted pictures on the internet and asked the opinion of some internet strangers and the verdict was unanimous - bathrobe...
So I tried pinning it up to a 3/4 length and somehow that change of length took it from bathrobe....to smoking jacket. It now reminded me a little of Willy Wonka's coat in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Gene Wilder's version of course). That I can handle - and so I took the scissors to it and cut it off. Rather than cutting it straight across though, I cut the front off a bit more than the back but you can't even tell in the final product.
Next step - lining. My original plan for this coat was that it was going to be ultra warm coat for the middle of winter. My original black and red coat was made from the outer upholstery fabric, satin lining and a fleece interlining and that's pretty toasty, but I was going to try for just a smidge more with this coat. I went to the fabric store looking for options - I was thinking flannel backed satin with a fleece interlining but of course I couldn't buy that at the local store, and I have some irrational hatred of online shopping, so in the end I ended up with a basic satin, some warm and natural cotton batting and some insul-bright. My plan was to quilt the warm and natural cotton to the back of the satin, then have the insul-bright as in interlining.
Before cutting into my lining material I went back to my pattern and retraced the pattern without the yoke seaming. I also cut the pattern off at the same level as my coat. I cut out all three layers (satin lining, warm and natural cotton batting and insul-bright) then started quilting the cotton onto the satin. That took a long time, but was strangely satisfying. I did not plan out any quilting lines or anything - just made it up as I went along crossing diagonally across the piece, turning at each side and heading back in the opposite directions then back down the piece in the same way making a basic cross hatch pattern.
I love the look of the final product - so much so that I contemplated throwing out the purple velvet coat and just making the lining the actual coat - maybe my next coat will have to be made from quilted satin...
The good thing about cutting off the bottom of the coat was that I now had material to make the facing for the coat. I had to cut everything at a very weird angle just to get enough material but I figured it out, Each facing is in three pieces, but at least it's there. Because all the pieces are cut in different directions the facing does not lie perfectly straight.
Next up was the interlining - made from the insul-bright fabric. I wasn't sure how this would work, but I wanted to try it as I figured it would make the coat nice and wind proof. I sewed it up to the same pattern as the lining and tried it on. Of course it was too small.
The insul-bright has no stretch at all, so whilst I can put it on, when I put it in between the other two layers it makes everything just too constrictive.
It was at this point that I just threw the coat in a corner and walked away for a little while.....
After taking some time off and not thinking about it at all for a while, finally it was about time to pull it out again. The first thing I noticed when I tried the coat on again was the I still hadn't put any pockets in. Now pockets are a must in coats as far as I'm concerned. I knew I wanted pockets but I wasn't sure quite what type of pocket. I tried a patch pocket but I didn't like it, I thought about a welt pocket, but I felt like it'd break up the line of the coat too much. In the end I decided I'd just put in an inseam pocket. Of course this meant unpicking not just the two seams, but the top stitching on those seams as well as the serging. The problem with inseam pockets was that there wasn't much room between the front seams and the front of the coat in which the pocket bag could sit. I thought about putting the pockets in the very side seams but it just felt all wrong when I tried it out. So I just made the pocket bag as big as I could between the seam and the front of the coat and down as deep as I could.
It took a bit of playing around with but I finally managed to get them in and sitting nicely, although I did have to go back and do a little hand stitching to stop them for bagging out.
Once again I was sick of the sight of the coat so it went back to its naughty corner for a while whilst I stewed over what else I had to do. When I was finally ready to pick it up again I was ready to tackle the front opening and collar. This, unfortunately, did not work at all well. My original plan for the front opening was to do a zipper with a placket over the top which I would then snap or button down. Because I wasn't entirely sure what I was going to do when I started I cut one of the front pieces with an extra 4-5 inches of width at the center front, and the other with an extra 5/8 inch.
After my initial coat fitting I found that I had too much extra room around my waist making the coat look shapeless.
So I'd gone back and taken in the front and the side seams a bit so it looked much better. I then went and changed the lining pieces to match the new seams, however when I was cutting the lining/facing I cut it with just the basic 5/8" seam allowance along center front and no more. Once the lining and the coat were put together I realised that I had taken too much out of the front and I could no longer get the coat closed around the waistline. On the main coat this wasn't a problem as I could just use some of the extra fabric I had left at center front to give me the extra width I needed but that left a very small gap between the edge of the facing and the center zipper... So what does this have to do with the front placket - well after spending so much time playing around with where to place the zipper and putting the coat away for days on end, then picking it up and trying again - and getting fed up and putting it away....are you getting the drift, well I finally got fed up and decided to skip the placket all together and just leave the zipper exposed. It made life so much easier.
Somewhere in all this faffing around I also made the decision that I couldn't use the interlining - it just wasn't going to work, so I unpicked it all and took the interlining out.
Once I removed the placket and the interlining things went more smoothly. I finally got the front to sit properly - I realised that when I moved the center front zip to give my extra room around the waist I'd also moved it out all the way up the chest and it was now gaping around the neckline. I finally moved the zipper back in to where it was meant to be on center line and the neckline was sitting nicely once more.
Last but not least was the collar. As I said at the beginning of this post, with the new yoke piece that I had cut the neckline never sat very nicely. It felt like it was trying to crawl right up the back of my neck. I ended up cutting the neckline out by about 1 inch at center back and the tapered the front to a V at the top of the zipper. I had cut out a stand collar right back at the beginning of this process, the length of which was based on the original neckline. By the time I had cut out the neckline the collar only went from one side to the other and did not come around to the front of the coat at all. I planned many times to try and piece together a new collar from whatever pieces i had left over but in the end I quite liked the look of the half collar. When it sits just right it actually makes are really nice shape - if I could just get it to sit perfectly right at all times I'd be happy. As it stands at the moment I like it but there are still times when it feels like its trying to strangle me. I may have to add just a touch more top stitching or something.
And now the coat was just about finished. It just need the bottom hem and I had to do something with the sleeve lining hem. To take care of the sleeve lining I went back to something I read ages ago - a tutorial to adding a cuff to the lining of the store bought jacket to make it warmer. I quite liked that idea and decided to give it a try. I ended up cutting 1 inch off the length of the sleeve lining, then cut a 2inch wide cuff out of black knit ribbing and sewed it on the bottom of the sleeve. I acutally love this finish and it does seem to keep things nice and snug. I haven't attached the sleeve lining to the sleeve in any way, but I don't think it's necessary.
As for the bottom hem, I was over the whole thing by this time its it was done simply. I turned the coat under 1/2 inch and stitched it down by machine, turned it under another 1/2 inch and hand sewed it.
The lining - I hadn't cut it any shorter than the coat so I turned it up 5/8" and machine stitched, then turned it again by about 1inch and hand sewed it.
Final verdict: Still has a few issues with comfort around the neckline, but I wore it today and it was nice and snuggly warm so overall I'd say about a 7 out of 10.
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