Dawn: Making Headway

I've made a bit of progress on The Coat and I thought I would post a tip. I used those garage sale stickers to keep the right side and wrong side sorted out. This is dark purple melton wool and it's hard to decipher the right side. I figured the best offense was a good defense. I attached these stickers to the wrong sides of the fabric as I was cutting so I would always know which side was which. These stickers barely stick to regular garage sale things so I knew that them leaving behind residue was not going to be a problem. Before I fused on the interfacing, I removed them of course. That, and they amuse me. These stickers say Make An Offer. It's funny to "open" all the stacks and see what's inside. It's kind of like fortune cookies but, with these, you have to be much more reflective because most of them are prices.


I took several full length photos of the coat but they were all blurry, dark, and crappy. So I settled on two that turned out okay. This is the princess seam detailing with one of the belt loops and belt. When I take the real pictures it will have to be outside during the few daylight hours we have.


Is this lining great or what? This fabric is from Gorgeous Fabrics.

All I have left is to attach the wigan, attach the lining sleeves to the fabric sleeves, sew the hem, attach buttons, sew buttonholes, do a lot of pressing, and do a little topstitching. I am using the Kathleen Fasanella jacket bagging series to line this coat. Although, I'm pretty sure the last time I used this tutorial these was another group of photos that actually showed the process of attaching the lining to the sleeves and everything. Anyone know where it went?

It seems like a lot now that I wrote it all out. Hopefully I'll have it done by the end of the week.

Tany's coat: finished!

Here’s the finished coat:

I was planning to take better pictures of me with the coat on, outside and with natural light but my family came to visit and all my plans have changed, so these are what I have for now (I’ll post better pictures as soon as I can). Photographing black velvet is very hard and the flashlight really changes the coat’s appearance; it looks like it has more reflexes; the coat is much more beautiful in real life and I feel really great wearing it!

You can see more pictures and read a full review at my blog (click here)

Still Here, Still Working - Liana's Coat

Great idea for the roll call Marji! Thank you. I'm still plugging away on my coat, and although life has definitely gotten in the way, I will finish this.

To answer, yes, I'm back working on my coat, although it's been a harrowing process. I've been somehow unwilling to take the next steps with it, and I finally decided that it's because I don't like the extra I added to the front per Roberta Carr's instructions. After careful looking, pinning and checking of both the muslin and the actual coat in process, I've decided to cut off the extra and go with the original Marfy drafting. I don't know why I thought I should try to improve on them, they obviously know more than I do. Ann Rowley some time ago noted that this was NOT the way coats were done anywhere she's been. They always tape the edge and pull up on the tape if it wants to swing open. After my testing, I suspect that Marfy has already taken the whole issue into account somewhat anyway. So, as usual, I make work for myself that I don't need. Part of this epiphany came about after I pulled out my corduroy/suedecloth Marfy carcoat I made last year and thought about it as I wore it. It's about the same circumference or narrower than the cashmere, and seems to be fine, even though I whacked it off shorter than designed. I had forgotten how much I like it until I put it on again. I do wish I had done padstitching in the lapels, but I didn't really know enough I guess. I'm now wondering if I could do a little remedial stitching invisibly through the back of the lapels and get results. Any opinions, or even the voice of experience?

I also have been working on cutting the patch pockets and flaps, and realized quickly that I really can't match the pattern perfectly since there's a dart that ends below the top of the pocket. So, I'm going to match the front and lower edges of the pocket and match the flap to the pocket and call it good. As busy as the pattern is, I think that will be fine. I only get one chance with this since the repeat is large, and I have to have a pocket and flap that match on each side, and I don't believe there is enough fabric to do another set. I'm going to trace 2 copies each of the pocket and flap pieces so I can place them all before I cut.

So, work is progressing, although not as quickly as I could wish. I don't want to rush though, or try to do tricky things (like match and cut out the pockets) at less than optimum times, like late at night when I'm too tired to realize I'm too tired to do things right.

It's so wonderful seeing all the beautiful finished projects here. I hope we're going to be able to extend the life of this blog until most of us finish.

Jenny - I'm back.

It's so great to see some finished coats.  They are giving me the inspiration to make the trek to the finish line with mine.  In September, I found out I'm pregnant and quickly lost ALL desire to sew (morning sickness has that effect on me).  Anyway, I'm almost done with the first trimester now, so I'll be getting back to that coat in the next week or so.  I have to finish it in time to get some wear out of it while I can still button it!

Gry: Progress of a kind

Great to see the finished coats and thanks for the roll call.

In my last post I wrote that the coat would be done soon and that I only needed to

• Finish the collar
  
• Sew the lining
• Hem
• Sew snaps on
  

Hah! The coat is not done yet, even though I really need it now and have begun wearing my old worn-out coat again.

I have worked a lot on the collar. My main problem was to find the right interfacing; I wanted an interfacing that would add a little body to the collar without making it stiff and inflexible. I spent a lot of time visiting different shops and making tests. Els has helped me a lot, both by sending me a set of interfacing samples and by explaining how to make test swatches. I think the main lesson I learned in this process is that you should not be limited by what instructions are given with the interfacing. One of the interfacings I ended up preferring was really intended for silk and much, much lighter than anything suggested by the shop assistants I have asked. From now on, I will save left-overs of interfacing to make samples before I start on new projects.


After a long process I finally cut and made collar and found - alas! - it was too small. I had made the collar larger as Els had suggested in the comments to this post, but not enough. It has taken me very long to make up my mind about whether to cut it again or not since it is only a little too small, but I have decided to do it again. I used silk organza for this first collar which gave the right kind of body, but I think I will use a very light fusible interfacing for the second attempt.

I have made the lining, but have not attached it yet. I have bought snaps and did begin to sew them on, but wasn't quite satisfied with them. They are hard to open and I don't know if I will use them. I work as a volunteer in a second-hand shop and a couple of weeks ago I found a beautiful old coat with a very well-made hidden placket. It is sold by now, but I took pictures of the details (picture below). I am much inclined to try to make a hidden placket after all, now that I have seen how well it can be done in fabric similar to my own.


So this is where I am. I need to redo the collar and decide about the closing of the coat. I really hope to be finished soon - I am very tired of this project and I need that coat.

Vogue2884--almost there!

Of course, being the Person With No Camera, I have no pictures. Perhaps I will ask my daughter to come take photos over the upcoming holiday weekend.

I finished the wool/cashmere shell (cranberry) and have assembled the lining (a printed silk with hot pink roses and bronzy green leaves on a black background). I've decided I would like to add some thin hot pink piping where the facing and lining meet; it would, I believe, give a more finished look to the garment.

It took me a long time to make friends with fusibles and sergers, because I enjoyed handsewing and traditional methods. I did come 'round, and have enjoyed the speed and ease with which garments can be made (and I am aware that some newer fabrics simply behave better with newer methods). The journey back to traditional tailoring methods and materials has been the second best part of this process--the best is yet to come (actually wearing the coat!).

Still Here

Hi Marji, yes the shout out was a good idea. I've let my coat slide a bit as well, but it's still going. I got sandbagged with work for the last several months, and have reverted to smaller projects and some knitting which is more portable. The coat is semi-constructed, lining cut out, and all stacked on a chair in my sewing room. Last weekend I finally holed up in the sewing room, but decided I needed some winter pants so took apart an old pair I loved (and wore out) and made a new pants pattern instead. I'll wear a new pair today. Since it's 25 degrees outside, and we have snow on the ground this morning, the coat is more appealing. I don't know when I'll get to it, the yarn came yesterday for my SWAP cardigan and I'm itching to get started on that.

I love looking at the completed coats, and hope to have mine on my blog within the month. Football weekends (at least the kind I travel for) are nearly over, work is getting under control, and the weather has made any idea of outdoor stuff unappealing, so I'll get cracking. K

Ann's Progress

Hi Marji,

Great idea to roll call :)

I have been working on Burda 7855 and I have made great progress with my coat.

I did blog some on my blog. I guess I've been pretty silent during my progress. I felt that I wasn't really taking great big steps while making the coat, so at the time didn't figure I should post here.
I have the coat and lining done, but not sewn together yet!
From the start I had trouble finding just the right buttons, and just last week, did find what I hope to be the perfect ones. I'm still waiting for them to arrive from The Button Drawer. When they do arrive I will just have to make my bound button holes (a bit out of sequence but still ok) /sew the lining in/ buttons/ hems......take pictures....

Even though it's taken what seems way too long to make this coat,I've had allot of fun.
Congratulations to those who have finished their coats. They all look wonderful and are all very impressive!

WindPro as sew-in interfacing?

One of the advantages of having made the little Burda coat recently is that it allowed me the wearing experience of an interlined garment. I think I'd have preferred it if the interlining was attached to the coat itself rather than the lining. Since my big coat's interlining is a very stable fleece, Windpro from Malden Mills, I'm wondering if that wouldn't suffice, if pad stitched to the fashion fabric, as interfacing support? I realize this sounds a little unconventional - would any of you like to weigh in and help me think this through? Thanks so much!

Michelle L. Stalled for a Long Time, but Forging Ahead Now

I am working on the now-out-of-print Vogue 7988 for my fiance.


For a long time, I was completely afraid to cut into my fabric, because I felt completely overwhelmed and like I didn't know what I was doing.

I also spent a long time reading through some more books and internet resources on men's tailoring. But the best thing I did was I bought a men's coat from the goodwill and completely dismantled it so I could see how it was put together.

After that I was ready to cut into the fabric, and I am in the process of doing all the padstitching.

I also had to purchase a buttonholer for my sewing machine. I tried on scraps of fabric to make the buttonholes by hand, but I am a dismal failure at handmade buttonholes. I can make them on the machine, but I sew on a Singer 401 and 603, so no computerized buttonholes, I had to wait for Ebay to come through for me. Fortunately, it didn't take long.


There is a template for keyhole buttonholes, and I am sure it does a much better job than my shaky fingers do.

Now that I am "forging ahead" I will have some photos of coat progress soon.

Tany's coat: setting in the lining sleeves

Well, these are the last images before showing you the finished coat; at this point I still have to finish hand sewing the lining to the facings, sew the french tacks to the hem and stitch the buttons in place (besides cleaning the lint out of the coat!)

The lining was applied following the instructions in the Reader’s Digest “Complete Guide to Sewing” book so you may need to refer to that book to see additional details and diagrams of the process (I own both the vintage 70’s edition and the newer one and both books explain the process in great detail).

The tailored lining is constructed separately (the sleeves are constructed but not set at this point), leaving the shoulder seams open, and it’s entirely hand sewn to the coat; besides slipstitching the lining to the facings, the lining’s side seam allowances are also tacked to the coat’s side SAs using short running stitches (these stitches should not be visible on the right side of the coat; the needle catches only the SAs). I started by performing this operation on the side seams and then I hand basted the lining to the facings, neckline and shoulders. The lining should also be attached around the armholes using short running stitches on the SAs side. The body of the lining becomes attached and well secured this way. Only at this point we are ready to set in the lining sleeves and that’s what I’ll be illustrating next.

As we did for the coat side seams, the lining and coat back sleeve seams should also be tacked together. To do this the sleeve and the lining sleeve should be wrong side out with the back seams facing each other. The two SAs are basted together by short running stitches, ending 10cm from the sleeve cuff edge:

To turn the lining sleeve over the coat sleeve, I must insert my arm through the lining sleeve and hold to the coat’s cuff, passing the lining through the arm over to the coat’s sleeve:


Before stitching the lining sleeve to the lining, here’s how the armhole looks with the shoulder pad and the “moustache” sleeve already set in place:

Here’s a better view of the shoulder pad before attaching the lining to the facing and shoulder:

The sleeve SAs are turned in (the sleeve cap should be eased and the bottom armhole stay stitched and clipped) and slipstitched using a double strand of thread on the needle for reinforcement:

Now I have to slip stitch the lining to the facings, shoulder and neckline and sleeve hem, remove the bastings, hem the lining, make the French tacks and sew the buttons in place. I will try to get the coat finished by tomorrow. See you soon!

And the responses to the roll call are rolling in

Dawn has left a new comment on your post "A Gallery for finished Coats":

I have the front and back put together and topstitched (did that this morning). I am just trying to figure out how to do the collar. The pattern directions have you sew the undercollar to the lining and facings and the collar to the coat. Then you sew everything together RST. Is that an okay way to do it? I don't know exactly how to do that whole "Pad Stitching" gig because my coat doesn't fold over, it just has the collar.


Dawn, you're still making this Burda coat, correct?
Check out the illustration on the pattern cover. You do have a bit of a lapel and a small roll line.
In any case, even if you decide not to shape the lapel with padstitching or fusible interfacings, you should be creating some shaping in your collar with the inner structure.
You may want to go back and have a look at Paco's tutorial, or the page from Threads on fusing in the shaping.

Paco's photo
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Patrice sent an email:
Funny you should email today... I'm working onB5145 now. :) All I have left are buttons/holes :)

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Adrienne sent an email
Hey Marjorie! I changed my mind COMPLETELY! LOL I plan on working on Vogue 8548 this week! LOL

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.

KayY - I'm done!

I'm checking back in after a long hiatus (my last post was September 7). Since then a lot of stuff got in the way of sewing my coat, and I was making such great progress. I knew it was too good to last! However, I overcame my sewing-related hurdle and had some time, so completed the coat yesterday as I had the day off. There are more pictures on my Flickr page.

When I last posted I was in the midst of the assembly of the shell. That went well until I hit a snag. I had altered the pattern to make it loose-enough for a winter coat and among other things, I extended the shoulder 1cm. This was a mistake. When I added the sleeves, they weighed down the shoulders terribly and made the coat just sag unattractively. I had to do some ripping out, cut the shoulders back and re-set the sleeves. Luckily this was a relatively simple task, just took some mental preparation.

This is what I did inside the shoulder. I decided against putting any padding in the shoulder but I did cut another layer of stiffening following the pattern piece for the shoulder inset (which is shoulder pad shaped). I used 2 layers of the stiffest hair canvas I had, and fused them together using a pressing ham to get the shaping. This pic shows the resulting layer stitched in place by hand. You can also see my home-made sleeve head which I cut out of fleece, using the sleeve cap pattern. This emulates the nice curved sleeve heads that some of you bought - but honestly, they are the easiest thing to make, and if you use your own sleeve pattern they are precisely the right shape and size for the garment.

Here is the sleeve hem, which I did while I had the sleeves off the coat. I used a bias strip of the hair canvas, which is placed over the fold line and extends above the hem edge, as you can see. This supports the hem. In this pic you can also see the black underlining (mystery fabric) which I hope will block the wind.




And the hem. It is faced, using lining fabric. I cut a 3" (or so) wide strip, following the hem edge of my coat pattern pieces. The strips are seamed, serged, and then sewn along the lower edge. This did 2 things for me. It allowed me to maximize my coat's length and it avoided bulk. It also made for a nice finish at the facing edge, as you can see.

Here's my lining. It's an odd black-on-black printed Kasha, purchased in Montreal at a warehouse-y place near the highway, where they practically needed a forklift truck to get at some of the fabric way up high.
And a closer shot, showing my pockets and the red strip (lining fabric, cut on grain) which is sewn between the facing and lining. This adds a subtle pizzazz but, more importantly, stabilized the bias facing/lining seam. It won't stretch now.

My coat pattern had NO POCKETS! I briefly considered making inseam pockets but the side seams are very far back and they would have been awkward. So, I just made big patch pockets in the lining. I added a little patch to the right hand one, for bus tickets.

Last but not least, here is the coat with 2 different fur scarves. Bring on the sub-zero temperatures! I'm ready.

Claire S. - Underlining's Done

The underlining of my coat is done...doing a bit here and there, it took all week. I just finished. These are all the pieces, each showing the underlining side and the wool.

On to the interfacing................

Tany's coat: Now I really understand…

…why a custom tailored coat is so expensive! The amount of hand work is tremendous, there are many hours spent perfecting little details. And the difference shows, I assure you: the coat is heavier, the collar/lapels are crisper and better shaped and the coat hangs much better when it’s on. As a side note, working with velvet on such a project is really hard; besides the mess (my living room’s floor is always covered with little black spots of velvet fur, no matter how many times I vacuum), the velvet acts like a magnet to all the lint/dust around and it’s looking “dirty” until I brush it in the end, so don’t pay any attention to that!

The collar is nearly finished but I still have to finish hand tacking the facings inside (so there is a little rippling on the inside of the collar but it will disappear once I finish the facings). The following pictures show the collar right after the under collar was set (following Paco’s method, the facings/upper collar are stitched first and then the under collar is first machine stitched to the outer edge of the upper collar, turned to the right side under the upper collar and finally stitched by hand to the neckline and lapel’s corner (turning in the SAs ). I still have to press and prick stitch under the edges, but you can preview the clean crisp look of the collar and lapels already:


I also managed to make some progress on the hems; they were cushioned with bias cut interfacing strips, a little wider than the hem allowances, and set by hand (following the traditional method). I also stitched a wide cotton tape to the hem edge; this tape will cover the interfacing that is peaking out of the hem. I like to do things this way because the lining will be free hanging on this coat. The hem is not finished, just hand basted so I can evaluate it’s final aspect:


Another detail that I want to share is the way that the coat’s waist is slightly eased to the satin tapes on the back; I did this to better shape the waist on the back and to avoid adding a center back seam to the coat, as I had determined with the muslin:

This was the result of a weekend in which all the free time was used to work on this coat; there is still much work ahead: tacking the facings (and finishing the buttonholes on the facing side), constructing and setting in the sleeves, applying the sleeve heads and shoulder pads (I have Els' excellent tutorial to assist me on that task) and constructing the lining and applying it to the coat (I’ll be using the traditional method, so the lining will be entirely hand sewn in place).

Claire S. - I'm missing a step somewhere

I've only got 2 more pieces to baste with the underlining and can move on to the interfacing.

I've got sew-in hair canvas to be made into interfacing pieces for front/side front under underarm and for the back per Marji's interfacing post - oh, and the collar, too.

The front facing has me stumped - I've gone through all the posts and if there are instructions for the facing then I've missed them completely.

Does it get hair canvas, interfacing, underlining, nothing ?

Someone? help please...

Claire S. - Moving along

I haven't posted in awhile but I AM finally making some progress. Bits & pieces of progress were posted on my blog.

I've cut out all my wool, and flannel underlining and have started basting the pieces together - I was hoping to have them all done by the beginning of the weekend but it didn't happen, so maybe by the END of the weekend ?

Dawn's Progress

I don't know whether this is something to be happy about or sad but I finally cut out my coat pieces! I am far, far behind. :( I guess life got in the way. Now that it's cut hopefully I'll be quick about sewing it together.

Just thought I'd check in and let people know I haven't given up!

Tany's coat: satin tape and more on the buttonholes

As promised, I’ll show you some details before starting the padstitching on the coat. For attaching the interfacing, tapes and reinforcements I’ll be referring to Paco’s tutorial.

Let’s start by the satin tapes around the waist, which must be set before the interfacing and after stitching all the vertical seams of the coat’s body; the satin tape is hand stitched because I didn’t want to take the risk of damaging the velvet by using the sewing machine:

Another detail is the buttonhole treatment after basting the canvas in place. The right front interfacing must have the buttonholes cut out as rectangles, slightly bigger than the buttonhole size:

The buttonhole’s SAs are slipped through these rectangles as seen in the next picture:

The canvas is then hand basted to the front; the buttonhole Sas are trimmed, graded and tacked down to the interfacing:


Now I’m ready to start padstitching!