coat | bluesewncat

Winter is coming

Posted on October 12, 2014 by bluesewncat

2014 Pentax K-5 11 094 Prepare yourselves! Winter is coming! And I have made myself a coat, and I’ve taken a million pictures of it… Well it is the coat of my dreams. Loose and swingy and of so structured! I’m particularly pleased with the collar, say hello to my first drafted collar. This is my favourite coat so far, I’ve always wanted a very oversized yet structured coat, I have already made a grandad coat, which I also love to pieces but I needed something new and a little bit more refined. This coat fulfills that purpose.

The pattern is new for me as it’s been drawn up with new tailoring blocks, because my old ones were getting weird with the darts. I also made my first drafted collar, so it’s as smart as a suit! The general shape of the coat wasn’t dufficult but having my bust dart hidden under the collar and getting the front to sit flat were little problems to deal with.

The fabric was last years Christmas gift, from Murphy sheehy’s, of course. My love for them continues each day! It’s a felted wool with a slight tartan pattern, there is a base of charcoal grey with the plaid being in a deep navy. I was already in love with the mix of grey and navy, but throw in my new-found love of all things tartan and I was sold!

The coat was a good sew. The wool took the ease in the collar and sleeves like a dream, it sits ‘just so’ and I’m a bit obsessed with the hang of it. Another feature that I love is the button holes and the welt pockets. Both made in leather, it was possibly a bit ambitious for my first giete button hole and welt pocket, but the detail really does add to the coat though.

Overall I’m thrilled with this coat, so thrilled that I wore it during the end of summer, despite my ridiculous combinations with shorts and Birkenstocks… This combined with Coddington styled hair (out to my shoulders!) I always got looks walking around town!

Why am I smiling….

Posted on September 9, 2012 by bluesewncat

You may be wondering why I’m smiling, well…. I made myself a coat! Isn’t it cute, I love how it turned out.

I’ve had this coat finished for the past two weeks and then I had sewn up the toggles last week but it was too nice to take photo’s of it for the last week, please Irish weather doesn’t need any provoking.

Anyhoo… It’s made using some tweed that was my grandmothers, really nice quality and to me, free! I loved using it because apart from it being scratchy it was a nice weight to work with on the sewing machine. The whole of the wool has stayflex in it (super soft woven interfacing) and is lined with a green lining. I bought the stayflex while I was in the grafton academy and I bought the lining in studio 54.

I also got the buttons in rubenesque, they were €3 each but they were worth it. The toggles were made by moi out of faux leather bought in the woollen mills, sorry no link, you can read about it here. All I did with the toggles was cut roughly 2cm wide stripes and hand sew a running or tacking like stitch to seal off the inside of the faux leather. The flaps of the pockets are made of the same faux leather and the top stitching is hand sewn as well.

I’m sorry for my many fashion crimes in this photo, socks with open top shoes, jean shorts with winter coat, but it was the end of the day and I was far too lazy to change. I absolutely love the look of the coat in this picture, the swing in the back of it is fantastic. That is why you cut to the grainline…

This is another of my own patterns, I made it during my last week in the Grafton academy. I actually sewed this up in 3 and 1/2 days which I’m very proud of considering it’s my first coat and full lining! The design was loosely based on this coat, ever since I’ve seen this coat I’ve wanted to make something similar, for a year now I keep on going back to the photos to oogle over it.

I specifically designed it to be loose enough to fit my jumpers and have the shoulders fit so I love the look and it’s practical!

Here’s a photo of the collar while it’s down, I think I the collar up even though that wasn’t the original design. Well that’s my coat, I’m really happy with it.