At some point in the past, I bought between 4 and 5 meters of some thick red fabric. Vaguely wool-esque, but probably mostly poly-something. I’d planned to make a coat out of it, and some time in November, I finally started on the project.
I found the pattern in Knipmode 9-2019, pattern 15 – Robe Manteau. It was never going to be that simple though. Changes and alterations would be needed. First, it was going to be shorter than the original pattern, mainly because I’m short. Next, the neckline was going to be altered dramatically, because I’m always cold and therefore having such an open neck was not an option. I settled on this type of neckline, and used the scale model to figure out how to make my own collar. Cue pieces of paper stuck to other pieces and pins everywhere! I also wanted a hood and stole the pattern from Simplicity Naaimode 14 model 51 (also known as Simplicity 2056) but reduced in height.
It took me forever to decide on all of this, and then I started with an old tablecloth to see if the pattern even fit me. It did, mostly. The only change to the original was in the back center seam, where I took out a lot at the top and added some in around the waist; and reduced the length of course. Then I started cutting out the outside and the waterproof and stitched them together around the outsides on almost all pieces. The only ones where I varied that were the center fronts, where I didn’t want to have 5 million layers, so I settled on using the waterproof as lining, and the pocket flaps.
The pockets are lined with the super soft white plaid fabric used for poppys. That was the start of the project. Then loads of pushing really heavy fabric through my sewing machine to sew the outside together. Once the outside was complete (apart from the hem), I needed to puzzle the lining together. The lining was an off-cut of fabric with white flowers, teal and red. There were practically no left-overs once I finished cutting out the lining.
The lining was hand sewn in because it was just easier than trying to wrangle 26 kilos of fabric under my machine (perhaps that was a slight exaggeration, but you get the drift). The zipper is two way, the hood can be detached with another zipper and it’s got elastic pulls. I’m quite fond of it, even though it started pilling about 10 seconds after I first put it on. We’ll see how damaged it gets over the course of this winter. The fun thing about a new coat is that I have an excuse to make new hats and scarves, so expect some black knitting in my future.
Whooooh dit is echt impressively good. Supermooi!
Thanks!