Coat progress

How wonderful to have had those few days sewing together with friends. I’m back home now and it’s been great. We concluded that at home we all seldom have time to have so much dedicated sewing time in a few days (or even during one day). For me it was great to start on the coat and have it close to finishing. It still needs a couple of hours, but it would have taken me much longer otherwise.

Discussing design options, fitting, techniques is a great aspect of a get together with sewing friends. This collar and inset was something that was not in the original pattern but the result of discussing the muslin. I was not happy with the collar of the original (just a rectangle) and lowered it center front, gave it shape and added the trim. Initially the trim was a different fabric, but after two hours of work and not being able to attach it in a satisfactory way I was considering my options when Viv added another option to the mix and this is the result.

Added a pocket with zipper:

And because the fabric was thinner I added interlining as an afterthought. I used an extra layer of cotton fabric giving the coat more weight and an extra layer against the cold. As I did not initially plan for the interlining, I sewed it in to the seam allowanced instead of adding it to the pattern pieces in an earlier stage and then use it as one layer of fabric. After the coat is finished you will not see this fabric any more. During these get togethers we always do an “ugly fabric swap” and this was what I ended up with(it’s always a hilarious hour when we swap, you don’t know what’s there and you don’t know what you’ll get till the very end because of the rules of the game). It was exactly enough for this and I was happy to use it as I had no fabric with me to use as interlining.