I’m making a coat! Oh yes, I made a decision and I’m running with it, running pretty quickly, because I want it finished to wear to London next Thursday! I traced the hoodie coat from the October 2018 Burda magazine yesterday and made a toile to check for fit. I knew I’d need an FBA, I just needed to know how big – & I suspected I’d need a bicep adjustment too.
I needed to move the bust dart down 2cm as well as doing a 3cm FBA, and I widened the upper arm area, the bicep adjustment, by 4cm. Other adjustments I’ve made to the pattern pieces are to add width and depth to the outer standing collar, the facing edge of the hood, the outer sleeve tabs and back belt piece, as well as the pocket flap.
The starting point of the coat is always the interfacing. I’m using Gill Arnold‘s weft insertion on the yokes, front and back, under the arm on the side body piece and in the sleeve head. I’ve also cut 5cm wide bias strips to interface the hem area of both the sleeves and the jacket body. I’ll also interface the centre front, about 7-8cm wide, and the outer standing collar piece with the same. I’ll use the fine sheer interfacing on the inner collar, the front and back facings, the front fastening band and the hood facing piece.
My fabric is a gorgeous camel-beige coloured wool and cashmere melton that I bought at the NEC about 4-5 years ago from the Rosenberg and Sons stand. It was a fabulous price, only £10/m! So I was fully justified in nabbing 2m, even though I had no idea of what I’d make back then, and it’s languished in the stash until the right thing arrived. I used to have the right lining too – but I used that in the grey houndstooth jacket I made Daughter No1 back in August! I’ve managed to cut the front facing, hood pieces and back yoke from the left over pieces of that lining and have ordered another metre of the same colour from the Lining Company. It will hopefully arrive by the end of the week!
The opening zipper for the front and the front band buttons have come out of the stash. It’s not normal for me to have such a long open ended zipper in the zip box, but I’d bought it years ago to mend the zipper on something else and then changed my mind and got someone else to do it for me! (lazy…) The buttons are vintage minitary buttons in the most beautiful weathered brass. Unfortunately I did not have enough to use ont he back belt as well, but I did find a pair of leather buttons in teh button box that will do the job just beautifully.
Now that all the pieces are interfaced, I’m left with the job of tailor tacking everything and getting started with the fun part – putting it all together!
THE COMPULSIVE SEAMSTRESS 