Lindsay T: Finished my Chanel-style bouclé coat

I honestly never thought I'd see the day when this coat was finished!

I'm really pleased with how it turned out, and this sewalong was a great help. Thank you so much, Marji, for organizing and overseeing it. And many thanks to the experts who posted tutorials here—I relied heavily on your advice.

Stop by my blog for photos of me wearing my coat while shopping in Soho (NYC), my thoughts on the whole coat sewing process, and more detail photos of my coat. Here's my review on PatternReview.

Lindsay T: First Attempt at My Muslin

I'm making Vogue 7978, the view with the stand-up collar, out of bouclé.

My coat "vision": A lightweight, three-season coat that I can wear into the city and occasionally to work. Will be reminiscent of Chanel and will magically make me look 20 pounds thinner and 10 years younger. Or 10 pounds thinner and 20 years younger. I will probably wear it most often unbuttoned with jeans.

Here is my first draft muslin. It feels like the fit is where I want it to be, but I can't tell from these photos. The front looks a little baggy here but it doesn't feel baggy. You can see that I somehow cut the side panels a couple inches shorter than the other panels. I put on some shoulder pads (underneath the turtleneck) that aren't quite as thick as I'd like them to be, but that's all I had available. My DD gave me an unsolicited "looks good, Mom!" Experts, please weigh in with your opinions. Thanks!