Jamie: Hubby's muslin - Burda 8275

As a refresher, here is the picture of the coat:


I assembled the muslin and had hubby try it on. I have the sleeve assembled, but not set in yet - my in-laws are in town and have taken over my sewing room. I won't have sleeve pictures to add until probably Thursday.

The waist actually hits him just about at his natural waist. He has lost 30lbs over the past several months and probably has another 15lbs to lose (basically, what is left of his belly). He hasn't dropped in size too much, just firmed up, so I'm not worried about it being too big later. I'm also going to shorten it quite a bit to hit him somewhere between hip/high thigh level. I should probably cut it off where it will ultimately hit and then add the sleeve with a shoulder pad and see if it makes any difference.

I took these pictures with him wearing a sweatshirt, as that is the heaviest thing he'll probably ever wear underneath the coat; however, the wool is actually a double-faced (but neither of us liked the copenhagen blue color on the reverse so I don't care about hiding that side under interfacing and lining). It is rather thick so he'll probably not wear anything heavy underneath it. Our coldest winter temperatures go into the teens, but usually only for a week or two. I think the next set of pictures will be without anything heavy underneath it.

A few questions about the fit. It is good through the shoulders, but there are some vertical wrinkles in the back that I'm not sure what to do about. There is a curved seam in the upper center back that I'm going to straighten and that might take care of those wrinkles. There is also a little bit of gape in the center front where the lapels meet. I'm not sure if that has to do with his slight protruding belly, but will that go away as his belly continues to recede or will it just get worse? Any ideas on what I can do about that? I think the men's tailoring book might have some fit advice on that topic, but I haven't looked at it yet. I think the pockets are in the right places - he doesn't keep his hands in his pockets anyway.

There are a few great things about this pattern that I've already noticed. There are separate upper and under collar pieces (I already have the undercollar felt so keep extra bulk out of the collar). There are separate lining pieces for the entire coat and they include lining welt pockets (which I was planning on adding before I knew they already existed). I also like the fact that this coat has vented sleeves and a walking vent in the back - although not as necessary since this will be a shortened coat, I like the way it looks. The welt pockets on the side also cut across the seam between the front and side pieces (no actual side seams).

Overall, I think the fit is pretty decent. I would greatly appreciate any ideas on how to make it better. Fortunately, I'm making this in a dark charcoal gray so any residual fitting issues that I might not be able to completely work out won't be as apparent as if I were using a lighter color.

I'm not sure I'll get to my own muslin in time to post for critiques, but Marji already gave me some good ideas on how to make my houndstooth more coat-worthy so I'm more optimistic about using this fabric/pattern combo that I originally posted about.

Jamie's plan

This is going to be my first attempt at making a winter coat. I've made a lot of jackets and some unlined spring/summer coats in the past, but never anything like this!

I was originally going to make the Vogue Michael Kors coat from hubby's charcoal wool flannel, but he remembered that I had promised to make a coat for him too! So I'm going to attempt to make two - one for him and one for me. His will be from a very dark heathered charcoal wool flannel and Burda 8275:

I'm going to shorten it because he wants it to hit mid-thigh.

For mine, I went back and forth between a solid wool mohair blend (so gorgeous!) and a wool blend houndstooth. I wasn't sure of any of the patterns I have for the mohair, so I decided to use the houndstooth:

I'll be using McCalls 5247 View C (the version in red on the pattern envelope):


I realized after I put away the camera that I actually took a picture of the wrong side of the fabric, but you should get the idea :)

My only concern with this fabric is that it has lines of lurex running through it and I've heard horror stories about what happens when the needle hits lurex. Any thoughts??