Cafe Couture's Dress Coat Finished

Hi everyone! I would like to thank you all for your presence here on this blog, such a pleasure to sew along with you all:) I appreciate all the tutorials posted here and thank you Marji for accepting my humble participation:)

Here's my finished coat (actually finished in end october). The only one I finally decideded to sew, as I had problems with the second coat's size grading. Grading a pattern is not an easy thing to do for me and the result was only dissapointing.

Well, let's now focus on my dress coat :) It is actually a short sleeved coat whih I wear with long black wolen gloves, like in the pics above.

This is a vintage Burda pattern from the 1975 and I loved the style. I just altered the pockets and moved the belt above the waist line.

I loved to sew it beacause it's kind of unique and the back is original too.

Here are some details:

And this is the original pattern:

I've Only Just Begun

I've finally gathered all of my supplies - except maybe shoulder pads, which I thought I had ordered with my samples and other supplies, but. . . . I did purchase some at JoAnns today. I don't know if they will work, but they will be a start. I ordered interfacing today.

I also managed to trace the important pattern pieces for a muslin. My goal is to press and cut the muslin after work this week and get it to photo stage before the weekend.

When I purchase the wool from Ann, she said I didn't need to worry about pre-treating. Should I take it to my local dry cleaners to steam, or will it be fine? Also, how should I pretreat the lining? It's poly? Machine wash & dry even though the coat will be dry cleaned?

I've stalled on converting the sleeve to two pieces. I'm not sure if I'll carry on with that or just use the one piece sleeve since I don't really understand the significance of the sleeve being in two pieces. Okay - off to cook dinner.

still working

Digs and Melissa, Congratulations! It is encouraging to see the new coats pop up on the blog.

I'm still working on mine. Today it feels like I'm rounding the corner. The pieces are beginning to go together and it is looking more and more like a coat.

IMHO, the best thing about bound buttonholes is that they are DONE! I'm looking forward to not having all the stress of working buttonholes in a finished garment. I expect to finish mine by the end of January.

I have conquered Stalingrad!

Yes, it's done at long last; I wore it for a test stroll yesterday and to work this morning despite the fact that it's still missing one front button (the local store should re-stock by week's end). Yesterday's photos clearly show the uneven, temporarily pinned up hem with lining peeking out - but all's finished now. I posted a Siege of Stalingrad review for it on Pattern Review. The whole pictorial story can be viewed on my flickr site under the Vogue 1266 set.

This is my 3rd GCSA coat. It was certainly the most complex and time consuming one of the lot. I've learned a tremendous amount during the entire 6-month exercise. Thank you, co-sewers for all your ideas, tips, and process descriptions! And, thank you very much Marji (HUGE BOW), for starting this blog. There's no way in a million years I'd have thought of making a coat without it. Now I see that making a coat doesn't have to be any more intimidating than making a well tailored jacket. Isn't that the best lesson for all future sewing?!

How did I do in comparison with my wishful thinking of last July? Well, I did make the McCall's 5247, but only in a lightweight tartan twill, not the cashmere, which I decided to save for a more interesting pattern. I did make this Vogue coat; I didn't even begin the Burberry-wannabe trenchcoat, but spring is still far ahead; and, to my great surprise, I found a raglan-sleeve Burda pattern for a fun little impromptu short coat that was easy to make and is super comfortable to wear.

OK, who else is still working on their coat? De-lurk and let us rah-rah-rah you onwards!