Wool coat of my dreams in the Making

Merry meet all,

I am bitten by the sewing bug once again! My next sewing project is a wool coat. Inspirations seized me! I wish the muse would arrive and help me with writing the same way but that’s another story. The coat will be tons of hard work. I am nervous about sewing it so to combat my anxiety, I have researched how others have done it and how it is done. I have been lucky so far. The pattern is vintage and has lots of details: a lined hood with darts, buttons and buttonholes, facing and interfacing, upper and lower collars, a centre front and back with middle fronts and backs, and side front and side back. It is enough to scare the most seasoned sewer. 

This project will not be an instant overnight effort. It may take me a week to a month to sew the coat. I have the lining fabric, I have cut out the pattern tissue, the pattern pieces. I want to do a mock up of the whole garment but I can’t afford it right now. I did a mock up of the sleeves. I am really glad I did for two reasons: I realized I needed to add an inch to the lower hem of the under sleeves on each arm and I learned how to sew the under sleeve to the upper sleeve. I also learned how the sleeve would feel on my body. I can easily move my arm up, down and in a circle. Making adjustments early on in the construction of the coat saves a person so much pain later on. When I cut out the pattern pieces (of the wool), I laid the whole 4 meters down on the floor and cut each pattern piece out in a single layer. I had to sweep and mop the floor – cat hair much? Then I flipped over the pattern tissue to cut the pattern on the left side. The fabric covered the kitchen floor. 

I like the colour of the lining for the coat. It matches the coat and has a brown reddish colour but it will do. The interfacing is black except for the belt. The black interfacing will match the brown wool coat. The fabric for the coat is a gorgeous brown soft wool/polyester fabric. I love it. Oh so beautiful! The interfacing for the belt is white but it will be concealed. I have the threads, a belt buckle, the belt pattern is cut out and ready to go and I cut out the pattern too for the belt carriers. The belt does not go with the McCalls 6800 pattern B, but I love how couture it looks. So the belt stays. 

I pinned the centre front, middle front and side front patterns together and tried it on. The centre front pattern piece stops just above my knee. The pattern of the coat has a high and low hem. I hope it all fits me correctly. I might get a bit of fabric from Fabricville so I can do a mock up of the rest of the coat. Or if that isn’t possible, I can pin all the pattern pieces together and try it on and see how it fits on me. I don’t own a full length mirror or a dress form (at least not one that truly mirrors my figure), so I have to wait until I can get a mirror. In the meantime, I will pin all the pattern pieces together then see how it fits on me. Again, if I am to make a mock up of the left side of the whole coat for myself, I need newspaper, tracing paper, muslin etc, to do it. 

I still have to cut out the lining and the interfacing for the coat. After that, I need to transfer all the markings and notches to the wrong side of the pattern on the wool fabric. I am going to make my own press cloth. I don’t want to scorch the wool and so I will not be pressing on the top right side of the garment, only on the wrong side. I sew the facings to the lining and sew the lining and facing to the coat. That is so just nightmare inducing. I can’t get my head around how I turn the facing and lining to the inside of the coat. But I am not at that stop yet. I am grateful that I had enough fabric for all these pattern pieces. I searched for the fabric at Fabricville but I didn’t see it there. I purchased 4.5 meters of the beautiful soft brown wool. There was not much remaining on the bolt after that. I also bought the wool on sale – 50% off a meter! Excellent. 

Anything that is worth doing is worth all the hard effort. I am confident I will turn out a beautiful brown wool coat. This investment has to last a lifetime. Wool is a resilient fabric! I completed the bodice corset that I sewed to accompany the awesome black witchy top I bought from Killstar. I need to add on a black bias tape so the lining of the corset doesn’t show on the outside or top side of the bodice. I need to stock up on extra bobbins. 

This may be extra ambitious of me well, anyone hoping to sew a wool coat is ambitious period, but I’m sewing my own press cloth. I just laid two pieces of white cloth together and tucked in the raw edges. I ironed and pressed it. I will sew it once I have an extra bobbin. I was hoping to go to Fabricville today but I have to wait the delivery of a parcel- a bad ass hoodie from Wish. I have muslin for a press cloth fabric but the sewing machine won’t sew muslin. Argh! I am not the patient type but in order to make the coat, I shall have to try. 

The next turn in the Wheel of the Year is Imbolc! I shall keep you posted!

 

Blessings, Spiderwitch