A winter coat

I’m still here, still sewing.  Just a little hiccup in my intentions for regular blogging.

The coat…  The fabric and lining were given to me a few years back by a friend who no longer sews.  She’s much shorter than I am, and I knew there would be only enough fabric for a shorter coat.  Year in and year out I would look at patterns, come up with impossibly complicated schemes, and come spring, the fabric would be bundled up and put away for the summer.  Problem was, there were a few moth holes that had to be dealt with.  I couldn’t just toss the fabric – I just had to come up with a solution.  Last year I bought a new pattern. 

Vogue 9133

This past fall I finally kicked myself in the behind and decided to just lay out the pattern, cut the pieces, then deal with the moth holes.  At the Creativ Festival in Toronto I picked up some squares of wool, sold for wool applique.  That’s when the decision was made to simply cover up the offending holes (there really weren’t that many) with applique.  And so the ball got rolling and before the snow began to fly I actually had a new winter coat.  I must say, though I’m rather partial to long coats (keeps the legs warmer), this shorter length is certainly much more convenient for such mundane things as getting in and out of the car.

On the technical end…  The pattern is for an unlined coat.  (That just doesn’t work for winter around here!)  So I added a lining.

  I also underlined in cotton flannel for added warmth.  The lining is flannel backed.  All in all, a rather warm coat.  Mind you, with all the added layers, the sleeves are a little tight, especially if I’m already wearing a jacket, but I’m still pretty happy with the results.  I opted for the in-seam pockets. 

With only one buttonhole to make, I held my breath and made it a bound one.  For the applique – I cut leaf shapes and started pinning them in place, making sure to start with the spots with bright red tailor’s tacks marking holes.  They were stitched by had with buttonhole stitch.  Guess I got a little carried away with the applique - it's a bit addictive - stitching my hand– and, well, I didn’t want it to look as though I was covering holes!

May-be I need one of these unlined, as the pattern was intended, for spring, but we’ll have to see about that.

That’s one more piece (actually 3 pieces – wool, cotton flannel, lining) gone from stash to closet.  Yeah!

I really do need to learn to stop making things so complicated in my head.  This coat could have been done years ago - literally.