Pattern Description: The pattern is for a coat with a detachable jerkin. I started with this pattern, but changed it beyond recognition, to a pattern for a 50s style swing coat. Why would I do such a thing? Well, I was away from home, without my blocks, and had picked up a magazine on the station at Lille, en route so this was the closest pattern I had to hand. It now still has the darts from the neck, it has a draped collar, the sleeves are now one piece and slightly belled and the shape is flared. It has piping on the neck seam and the ends of the sleeve and the bottom of the coat are in bands of a contrast material.
Pattern Sizing: It comes in 44 to 52. I used the 44 and did an FBA, but then had to reduce the sizing after sewing up the toile.
Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?
Well, no, not in the slightest.
Were the instructions easy to follow? The instructions in the magazine I have are in french. I didn't read these, as I was making such huge changes, but I don't see any glaring omissions if you're making up the original design.
What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?I like the neck darts in this pattern.
Fabric Used: I used a tweedy fabric with a bouclé yarn in it giving it a bumpy surface. Its in blue and black. The bands are in a plain black wool. The interlining is a cotton rayon twill, and the lining a rayon.
Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:
I made a whole lot of changes. First, I needed to do an FBA, as it was for someone who takes an F/G. For this, I closed all of the darts, those in the neck and the underarm dart, opening one temporary bust dart mid shoulder, then slashed and spread the pattern through the bust point until there was enough room. Then I planned the darts again using the new bust point and closed the shoulder dart, opening them up in the new positions.
I changed the collar to a deep draped piece.
I made the sleeve into a one piece and flared the cuff end, and flared the body pattern to give it more swing. Then I planned the bands. These are faced back, so I cut two of each piece.
I made bound buttonholes, so planned a buttonstand for large buttons.
Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?Its only going to happen once.
Conclusion: I like the coat, but starting from the pattern I did wasn't the easiest exercise. The toile needed a lot of alteration, mainly reducing the size. I don't think this is a negative comment on Burda sizing though. The person I made this for has a narrow back and shoulders, and guesstimating sizing from measurements is always difficult for her. I probably should have downsized to a 40, then did the FBA with that. A couple of other things took some time - planning and replanning the bands so that they looked the right proportions on was one, and the other was finding a way of getting the buttonhole to work in the collar. The collar is a wide band, caught in pleats at the centre back and at the front centres, so the buttonhole fell where there was several layers of thick tweed. The tweed was woven with a heavy bouclé yarn in the mix, which made for easy fraying. My buttons had a shank on them and I didn't like the look of having one stitched on top with a press stud fastening under, and after a few attempts settled for making a bound buttonhole through the outside layer of collar, slitting through the two folds and turning in the edges by hand, stitching the whole lot together round the back of the bound buttonhole. Basically a cobbled up solution, but it worked.
Working with a bumpy tweed had some advantages, hand stitches disappeared into the weave very easily, making for a neater look with less actual skill.
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Pattern with more than 5 reviews!
Oh my! That's a lot of work. Occasionally I find a 'quick' coat pattern...but usually they are an ordeal as you have expressed in the blog. Nice review and coat!
11/30/12 5:28 PM
Wow! a lot of work but certainly well worth it. Great looking coat.
12/1/12 10:12 AM