So, I decided at the end of August that I needed to get making some coats before the weather turned. Before it was cold enough to need one and it still wasn’t in a corporeal form… This is in addition to still having numerous items yet unmade from Daughter No2’s summer list and thinking I might give the Refashioners 2017 challenge a go. While I’m listing reasons why September is not a good month in which to try to make 3 or 4 coats, I should add that we had a week away in the beginning and still had Daughter No2 home until the middle of the month before she was back to uni.
But I had decided… So what coats am I making? I have the Eagle Jacket/Coat from Vanessa Pouzet for Daughter No2, the Goldstream Peacoat for Mr Not Compulsive and I wanted a new coat for myself, exactly which one was only decided after I saw @_ym.sews_ Waffle Patterns Tosti in the most amazing yellow dry oilskin. I sort of wanted an Eagle jacket for myself too, but after toiling it realised it wasn’t the shape for me.
So, I took patterns with me on holiday and traced them out on the dining table in the holiday apartment in the evenings, helped by a glass or two of wine. I toiled the Eagle jackets upon our return and Daughter No2 likes hers, the only alteration is to lengthen the sleeve by 2cm. Mine, as already said will be recut as a different toile! Now that I have the go-ahead for the Eagle, I hit a stumbling block. She doesn’t like the fabric from the stash that I picked out. Press pause on that project then.
After toiling the Goldstream Peacoat for the other half, that project was nixed. He didn’t like the shape, it was too bulky, didn’t like the large collar or wide lapels either, then decided he didn’t actually fancy a double breasted coat…. So nothing about the Goldstream Peacoat then. Back to square one, I decided to draft a coat block and put all the “right” ingredients together to form the “perfect” coat.
So in the meantime, it’s now the end of October and still no coats to be seen, but there are a few toiles. None for me, I haven’t got that far! But daughter No1 has chosen an pattern and fabric from the stash that I’ve toiled, fitted and adjusted, so that can get going. Daughter No2 has also chosen a pattern and other fabric from the stash for two new coats, still to be traced, toiled and fitted. The other half has a block that is undergoing a very slow transformation. It seams the perfect coat will take a while to be realised.
Say tuned for more of what I’ve been doing while the coat projects hit their respective brick walls.
THE COMPULSIVE SEAMSTRESS 
Good luck with the coat drafting and sewing! You certainly don’t do things by halves! What pattern drafting books/resources are you using for you coat blocks please?
For the men’s coat I used Patternmaking for Menswear by Injoo Kim & Myoungok Kim, for the others there is a choice, either good old Winnie’s Pattern Cutting book or Fashion Patternmaking Techniques by Antonio Donnanno.