New winter coat

I am soooo happy to finally be writing this post. My coat is complete!

Burda World of Fashion 10-2007-119

Fabric
Fashion fabric: Wool herringbone from Fashion Fabrics Club, purchased ~1 year ago
Lining: Flannel backed satin (aka Kasha lining)
Interfacing: Fusible weft

Construction/alterations
I decided to follow Laura's example and skip the shoulder pads that were causing me such grief. It looks and feels fine without them.

Also some minor tweaking for fit and personal preference:

• Widened the back "belt" tab to 10 inches
• Added 1/2 inch height to the collar
• Added 1/2 inch length between the bust and waist
• Added 1 inch length to the sleeves
• Took out 2 inches length near hem

I used the lining for the front part of the pocket. The back of the pocket is cut on with the upper side front pattern piece.

The third row of buttons has an in-seam buttonhole. I considered removing the seam and making a bound buttonhole like the others, but as others mentioned, it is a really neat feature so I kept it.

I added a hidden snap below the bottom button (near the waistline) to help keep the coat closed. When wearing, the coat openings below the buttons have a tendency to drift open.

Each of the sleeves has a buttoned tab.

I hemmed the coat and the lining by hand.

I added a grosgrain ribbon at the back of the neck so I can hang the coat from a hook.

Conclusion

I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. The flannel backed satin lining really does add warmth, it's a cozy coat. Also, I think I opened up a whole new world for myself - I am no longer going to avoid BWOF's coat patterns (the combination of my lack of experience with coats and their terse instructions scared me off). In fact, I already have my eyes on another BWOF coat...

Sunday afternoon sewing, or, How an inanimate object tested my patience

It was all going along so nicely. Sunday was turning out to be a productive day.

And then, I got to the shoulder pads.

I don't know how many times I tried the coat on, pinning the shoulder pads here, there, then a quarter-inch that way. Now, the sleeve seam is puffing out. Let's try some basting stitches to see if that helps.

All I know is, I am burning up from the action of putting on and taking off a wool coat all afternoon.

I'm so glad Google led me to this Simplicity tip on inserting shoulder pads - I would have put it them backwards otherwise.

Anyway, it's good enough, for now at least. I'm going to sleep on it and I hope to see it in a new light tomorrow!

A little bit of everything

Thanks for all of your kind words about my mom's knitted pieces! Yes, I do believe I got some of her genes. (Thank goodness - if I had more of my dad's genes, I'd have a blog about car mechanics. Or the Denver Broncos.) Someone asked about the pattern for the scarf; I just updated the last post to include a link to that.

*****

I have been very tardy in responding to a query or two about thread tracing. Thread tracing is when you mark the sewing lines on your fabric pieces with a long running stitch made by hand. This is done in contrasting thread. One reason to do this is you don't have to rely on a particular seam allowance width to know where the sewing line is. Also, the sewing line and other markings are visible from both sides of the fabric. Tany thread traces most of her garments; following her blog is really what inspired me to try this technique. She has created some excellent tutorials on thread tracing so I will defer to those for the details:

Thread tracing part 1: Tailor's tacks and thread tracing basics

Thread tracing part 2: Darts and other markings inside the pattern piece

Thread tracing part 3: Thread tracing fabric that needs to be interfaced

This is the first time I have thread traced all fabric pieces for a garment. I decided to do this because the wool I'm using for my coat is somewhat thick and woven, I was concerned about the raw edges unravelling while handling the pieces, so I wanted to cut large seam allowances.

Every single one of my fabric pieces required at least some interfacing (the hems, the upper bodice, the pocket openings), so I skipped the tailors tacks; after fusing, I thread traced each fabric piece in a single layer using the pattern piece pinned on as a guide (as described in Part 3 of Tany's tutorial).

Yes, it takes a little bit of time, but I'm sooo glad I did it. I feel confident that I'm putting the pieces together accurately, and it's actually easier to sew the pieces together right along the thread tracing than to try to maintain the SA width by watching the gauge on the machine.

*****

Speaking of the coat, I am actually making progress. The first thing I tackled was the buttonholes. I tried a bound buttonhole technique described in The Bishop Method of Clothing Construction (thanks Cidell for reminding me to take a look at this book). It's found on page 192 of the book (the 1966 edition), and it's referred to as the "trade-method".

I'm not sure that you can see the buttonholes very clearly, the herringbone fabric kind of hides the details (which may be a good thing). But I am really happy with how these turned out, and they were very easy to do.

Prep work

So my sewing machine was not ready to pick up today as I thought it would be. They said maybe on Wednesday. That's okay. I'm not dismayed (yet). Do you see that pile of fabric sitting on top of my ironing board? Those are all of my coat pattern pieces, waiting to be fused and thread traced. I've decided to thread trace the seam lines (for the first time ever!) so I don't have to stress about the fabric unraveling. I also cut wider SAs than I normally do, 1 inch or wider.

Last night I started thread tracing the sleeves, just to get the hang of it. They are 2-piece raglan sleeves, so there are 4 pieces altogether. While watching last week's Project Runway episode that I Tivo'd while out of town (45 minutes?) I did the tailor tacks in one pair of pattern pieces, and I got exactly one of those pieces thread traced. From now on, no more TV watching while thread tracing!

The button debate

Well! You guys have given me a lot to think about as far as button placement on my double breasted coat.

The majority of you were in favor of the 6-button version; several were in favor of the 8-button version, and a handful of you were on the fence.

Pros of the 6-button coat: Current style/trendy, in-seam buttonhole is a neat feature
Pros of the 8-button coat: Security, warmth

So, it looks like it's style vs. practicality. Isn't that always what it comes down to?

I snooped around the internet to get other examples of button placement, and pretty much anything goes right now.

I did have a minor revelation after all of your different opinions started coming in. The pattern pieces that are sewn together to create that horizontal seam meet as straight, parallel lines. That seam provides no shaping at all, it is purely decorative. Which means I could get rid of it entirely and place the buttons wherever I want, without having to work with or around the seam. But since the in-seam buttonhole is popular and a unique feature of this coat, I am hesitant to do that.

Honestly, I still haven't decided.

Here are the fabric and buttons that I'll use for the coat. The fabric is a wool herringbone that I got last year from Fashion Fabrics Club. I had big plans to use it with a vintage coat pattern. I guess I got distracted by something else before I got that far.

The buttons are 1.25" / 32mm wide, from my local fabric shop. They only had a few in stock so I ordered more.

I harassed the kind people on the Pattern Review message boards with a bunch of questions about lambswool as I was considering interlining with lambswool for added warmth. In the end, I decided to ditch the lambswool idea and just use flannel-backed satin (pictured above) as my lining. This is my first winter coat, and I figure I should get the hang of handling thick fabrics, inserting coat linings, etc, before I dive into lambswool interlining. Besides, I think this will be plenty warm for most of our cold days.

I can't believe that I actually bought shoulder pads! I'm anti-shoulder pad, but I suppose I'll make an exception for thick coats. These are 0.5" / 14 mm thick raglan style shoulder pads. I inserted them into my muslin coat while I was wearing it and actually you can't even tell.

Many of you commented on the fabric that I used for my muslin. It is nice fabric, actually. I got it about 2 years ago at a thrift store. It is a greyish-blue wool tweed, and it has a rainbow assortment of little colored flecks running throughout. It's cute, but I soon realized it's just not something I want to wear. It would be great for a little girl's coat. After 2 years in my stash, I felt it was appropriate to sacrifice as a muslin.

I did, though, make use of some of the tweed yardage to make this little kitty last year. The pattern is from the Denyse Schmidt Quilts book I mentioned a couple of posts back. Check out Tabitha when I try to get her to interact with the tweed kitty. Her face clearly expresses her annoyance. After this photo, she put her head down and pretended like she was asleep, in the hopes that would make me go away.

Deciding

This is my muslin for BWOF 10-2007-119, and I am trying to decide on button placement. The pattern calls for 6 buttons in front, like the top photo, and the bottom buttonhole is actually just an opening in a horizontal seam. There is a facing behind it, also with an opening in the horizontal seam, and you are supposed to hand stitch the opening. This seemed strange to me at first, but I did find this Paul and Joe Sister coat that also has a buttonhole in a horizontal seam, so I guess it's not so unusual.

vs.

I'm trying to decide if I want to have 8 buttons in front and just avoid the buttonhole-in-seam all together. I did take Susan Khalje's "Couture Hand Stitches" on Pattern Review, so I have info on how to hand stitch the buttonholes.

In order to "un-petite" the pattern, I compared my measurements to BWOF's petite chart measurements. I added just 1/2 inch length to the pattern pieces between the bust and waist, and 1/2" to the sleeves. Easy!

I added 1 inch to the collar height, but it's a little too tall, I'm going to remove 1/2 inch. Previously I had considered using the ruffled "statement" collar from Vogue 8438, but I decided against that. Instead, I am going to attempt to make a removable hood, using info provided in a November 2005 Threads article, "Build Lightweight Warmth into Coats." If I have enough fabric. More on that later.