sewing

In hindsight, jumping right into another coat tailoring project right after my duffle coat might have been a little much. But I fell in love with the fabric, saw this similar orange tweedy coat for $400 at J. Crew, and thought, “Oh what the hell.”

Did I get a little burned out, especially when I had to go back and cut out the interlining I laboriously put in to make it SUPER WARM but only ended up making it too heavy and stiff to wear? Yes, yes I did. But do I love the finished project? Oh yes I do.

FABRIC

That gorgeous tweed is from Linton Tweeds in England, who got their big break working with Chanel back in the 30s (!). It arrived in about three days and is just lovely–heavy and soft, with great body. Considering the quality, it really isn’t all that expensive, either, even with shipping (especially compared with $400 J. Crew RTW).

PATTERN & FIT

This is the Grainline Yates coat and, like the Grainline Cascade, it’s beautifully drafted. All the tailoring for the lapel roll is done with just interfacing and it worked wonderfully. This time I didn’t deviate from the interfacing instructions except to add a back stay, since the tweed is pretty loosely woven.

Like the Cascade Duffle, I cut a size 12 even though my measurements put me in a 10. The shoulders are (again) a little big, but I added shoulder pads (and a sleeve head) for now; the fit isn’t 100% perfect but I’m also not getting any smaller as the years pass, so I’m sure I’ll grow into it.

I lengthened everything by 4 inches and redrafted the back to be a single piece so I wouldn’t have to deal with matching the houndstooth pattern.

DETAILS

I used contrast! royal blue! flannel back satin! for the lining (which I had on hand) and ordered more satin bias from Pacific Trim for a lining detail. I added an inside welt pocket again and the snaps are faux tortoiseshell from Mood. (I was not about to attempt buttonholes in a loosely woven tweed right next to a seam, no thank you and I said good day, sir.).

FINAL THOUGHTS

I ended up documenting most of the steps of making this on Instagram and saving it to a story highlight (“Coat!” at the top), which you can find here if you’re interested.

I haven’t touched a woven fabric or interfacing since I finished this, but I do love it. And we can thank Doc for the excellent pictures; he even suggested the mural on the side of the Hawkwatch building for a background, which I love.

I finished this back in December (before I started in on Coatstravaganza) and put it on Instagram, but realized I never blogged it. This is the Closet Core Patterns pouf, which you not only sew from scraps, you stuff with scraps, too.

Waaaaaay back in the day (RIP, old blog pics), I tried making something similar from an Amy Butler pattern. It didn’t have a zipper. It was supposed to be stuffed tight with fiberfill. I was too inexperienced to realize what a bad combo that was, but you can imagine the difficulties. I never liked the finished product.

This (free!) pattern has a zipper and is stuffed with fabric. What a difference! I’d been saving big scraps, old homemade clothes that would be tricky to donate, old worn out/ripped clothes that would just get thrown away, and sooo many underwear muslins for quite a while, thinking I would either find a fabric recycling program or…make this pouf.

Long-time readers will see parts of some pants, a shower curtain, a living room curtain, a jacket, and an ironing board cover up there in the mix. I made my own giant piping cord to be fancy, and added a covered button in the middle to hide my points not perfectly aligning.

My pouf took the entire black bag (!) and most of the white (!!) initially; after about a month of settling I shoved the rest  of the white bag in. That’s about 25 pounds (!!!) of filling that would have ended up in the landfill or still be sitting in the basement.

It’s solid enough to be a real seat that you don’t have to warn guests about it, too. Highly recommend making this and putting your fabric garbage to good use.

Back in November I got it in my head to make a bright plaid duffle coat–and here it is! It was definitely the most involved project I’ve ever done, in terms of steps and specialty materials, but nothing about this was really very complicated. It just took time, which was a lovely way to spend the week between Christmas and New Year’s. (It also helped that my Bernina sewed through everything beautifully and without complaint. Unasked-for life advice: Buy the deluxe sewing machine, you will never regret it.)

Anyway! Here is my NEW COAT:

CONSTRUCTION
The pattern includes pieces to interface strategic points of wear (front and back yokes, armscyes, behind the pockets) but I added a back stay out of muslin, as well. I debated interfacing the full fronts but decided against it; we’ll see if I regret this and the fronts gets droopy.

I used weft interfacing everywhere except the shoulders and back yoke,where I switched to hair canvas. I also added shoulder pads and the first sleeve heads I’ve ever used (following this how-to).

The combo of hair canvas, shoulder pads, and sleeve heads makes for a heavily tailored shoulder–here it is standing up on its own (!).

I’m pretty happy with how the tailoring additions worked, though: I cut a straight size 12 and the shoulders were just a hair too big. I opted to keep them too big because I plan to keep lifting, so the shoulder pads and sleeve heads help to fill out that extra quarter inch until my muscles do.

DETAILS
Part of what made this such a fun project to get wrapped up in was planning and executing the details to make it fancy, like a $400 ready-to-wear J. Crew coat. I added satin bias trim in between the lining and the facing, and I added a double welt interior chest pocket (following this tutorial).

I’m also really tickled by the zipper I found. This is a YKK “Everbright” with a custom pull, which I didn’t think you could get outside of the Garment District. But then I stumbled on Zipper and Thread out of New Jersey, who will do single zippers in a custom length with your choice of pull.

I also added a coat chain for hanging, for even more fanciness:

PATTERN THOUGHTS
This was just beautifully drafted. I already knew the Grainline block works well for my body (I didn’t even have to lengthen the sleeves!) but I was really impressed by how everything went together so precisely. The faced hems were a revelation and the only way I’m doing a bagged lining ever again–they ensure an even turn and no droopy hem.

I have just two minor quibbles–one is that Grainline just adds a bottom extension to the shorter version to get a long version, rather than including a new pattern piece for the longer version (I drafted one anyway to eliminate that seam). My other issue is that the underlap of the front zipper is the same size as the overlap, which means you have to press like hell to get the center front to lie flat. Including a separate piece for the underlap that’s a little smaller to accommodate for turn of cloth would have been more in line with how precisely drafted the rest of this is.

IN CONCLUSION:
I love this coat. I don’t think I realized it would be close to a 30 hour project so I kind of wish I had splashed out on slightly nicer fabric, but I do love all the Bob Ross colors in it. While making it, I was also worried the style would be a little too classic/preppy to work with my wardrobe, but it looks good with all my boots and knit tops.

SOURCES:
Pattern – Cascade Duffle Coat from Grainline Studio
Coat fabric – Fabric.com
Quilted lining and fusible hair canvas – Farmhouse Fabrics
Sleeve lining – stash
Weft interfacing, shoulder pads, and sleeve heads – Wawak
Toggle closures and satin bias trim – Pacific Trim
Coat chain – Etsy
#5 separating zipper – Zipper and Thread

Is it even a holiday season if I don’t make at least one version of McCalls 6044? At this point, probably not. Shaking things up a bit, this year my dad got a shirt, in a tasteful Dad Plaid.

I wanted to make him something warm since he keeps his house cold, so I got some Kaufman Durango Flannel from Bolt Fabrics (now sold out). The thickness of it made for some tricky sleeve vents and hems but it’s stayed together so far and he reports it’s cozy.

(Check out those pattern-matched pockets!)

Doc got another birthday shirt, which is never really a surprise since I run the fabric choices by him first. Because he has excellent taste, he picked this “Hats for Cats” print from Hart’s Fabric. It’s quilting cotton but maybe the nicest quilting cotton I’ve ever seen–much closer to a shirting, in my opinion.

The print was a lot of fun to work with (and not only because I didn’t have to match any plaids, just these shoulder overlays): There are indeed cats! wearing hats! all over it.

Finally, is it even a gift given in 2020 if you don’t make a matching mask?

When I made my fleece tights last November, I said I’d need another layer over them for cold weather. Did I ever get another layer? Nope. I was cold on every hike from December to March. After the first cold-leg hike of this year, I started looking at RTW insulated pants. Reader, I screamed. They were $200 to $300 and looked so bad–bulky and ill fitting and low rise.

So I spent about 6 hours researching technical fabrics and digging for pattern reviews and generally pondering, and came up with my first pair of snow pants.

Are they warm? Yes! Are they fairly sleek? Yes! Are they easy to move in? Yes! Are they the highest rise imaginable so your pack doesn’t push the waist of your pants down? Oh hell yes:

That detail shot shows you the fabrics–a fleece-back softshell with an additional layer of nylon Taslan on the front. The fleece is wicking and insulating and the Taslan has a DWR (durable water repellent) finish.

I used the Controlled Exposure Stretch Fleece Pants pattern and would recommend–the fitting instructions were good and the articulated knee detail is just really professional.
Look at that snow bead up! That Taslan is good stuff.

I didn’t get a swatch of my fabrics before I started and my main fabric (Schoeller Extreme, beautiful quality) didn’t have anywhere near the recommended stretch for the pattern. I did make a muslin first in woven fabric and then basted everything in my actual fabric to check the fit–but I ended up needing to put in a back zipper to get them over my butt. Because of that, I did a separate waistband vs. the foldover with elastic as drafted in the pattern. I think that worked the best, since that Schoeller Extreme is extremely thick.

I got everything from The Rain Shed in Oregon, down to the pocket zippers. They were super helpful–my original choice was sold out, so they gave me options via email and just subbed things out without even adjusting the price up (!). Highly recommend.

The pants had their test run when it was right around freezing and they were perfect. I could tell they were wicking and the warmth was just right. They’re sleek but just roomy enough for a base layer underneath when it goes below 20. Total price for the project was $35–that is just a win on all fronts.