A New Coat

I am absolutely in love with my new coat. I took some pictures this morning to show my progress, but I ended up working on it all day long and finishing it! Except for the collar/ neckline, this was a super simple coat. Raglan sleeves - so no set in sleeves or fussy fitting there. In seam pockets, so no welts or even patch pockets to worry about. The directions for bagging the lining are very clear, so the only hand sewing is hemming the sleeves and bottom hem and a tiny bit of catch stitching here and there. This is a Sandra Betzina pattern from Vogue, number 1024. I used a great wool coating from Gorgeous Fabrics, and the collar is "Veloba" which is a fairly flat faux fur. The lining is polyester crepe backed satin. I'll need to get a picture of that tomorrow and post it, because it is a beautiful lining.






As I said, the coat was very easy EXCEPT for the collar. I don't know if I didn't get may marking or cutting right, but I had the hardest time lining everything up at the neck edge to attach the collar to the edge. I had the same problem with the lining. I made it work, but it doesn't look as perfect as it should. Fortunately, I'm not turning this in anywhere to be examined by the sewing police! I did mark my notches and dots and squares with tailor's tacks, so I'm not sure what went wrong. There is one small error in the pattern, and that is that the notches on the upper sleeve do not line up. Mine were about 1.5" off, so I walked the pattern and found that they were mis-marked, so I fixed that on the pattern. I don't know why I had so much trouble with the neck.





The collar is interfaced on this jacket and so are the hems of the sleeves and the bottom hem. I used Patti Palmer's Perfect Fuse Medium for this and I really like the way it worked out. I had used the lighter weight Perfect Fuse before, but this is the first time I used the Medium. The facing is cut on grain and the strips for the hems are cut on the bias.






If you have never made a coat before, this is a good one to try. She gives very clear directions, and even gives you tips on hemming and hand stitching.























I would like to make this again in a shorter version, and I recently purchased some brushed wool melton from Fabric.com that I would like to use. Either that, or I have some really nice looking woven suede that I picked up at Hancocks that would give it a totally different look.