Coat Sew-Along: Week 4

The final sew-along for our coat-along!! Many-a-new-coat was born in the last days of January. We were thrilled by all of you who joined in, and inspired by all your coats and jackets! Now, get ready for a parade of pretty darned inspiring coats. Read through to the end to see some of our sew-alongers' finished coats and see to who we chose as our coat along prize winner! First, here is how our three coats finished up...

Amber's Cascade Duffel Coat: Week 4

I started this week with finishing up my hood. A sewing ham came in handy for much of this coat-along, but especially for pressing the seams on the 3 piece hood. I call this part "hoods over my hammy". Like the Denny's dish? Get it? Sorry. I'm delirious from sewing. Next, lining the hood. Once you get the hood facing in, the lining seems too big, but don't worry, this is intentional. The extra lining fabric pleats over the hood facing to give the lining some movement in the hood. Jen's Cascade Sew-along covers the hood construction here, and it's really helpful. Once the hood was finished it was stitched into place onto the outer jacket.

Sewing the lining is a breeze. If I ever become a cult leader for lightning worshippers I've got a great idea for a robe now, but this lining is going in my coat. The lining is sewn to the outer coat along the center front and the top neck, catching the hood in this seam. This particular seam was probably the toughest part of the coat, as you are sewing through so many layers of wool. Everything went smoothly for me though, even though it was a little scary. Once that seam is done, the hem facing and bottom edge of the lining are sewn together. Again, it seems like your lining is too big but, like the hood, you will just add a little pleat in the lining at the hem of the coat once it is turned. To turn the coat, a hole is seam ripped into the lining sleeve, and then the entire coat is pulled through this. It seemed like it would never fit through, but alas, with some gentle tugging my whole coat came through the sleeve. Almost there!

I stitched up the two little holes at the hem, and the hole in the sleeve lining. Then after some seriously steamy pressing of the facings, my Cascade is finished, just in time for this beautiful snowy weather. And, boy, is it warm and cozy in this Pendleton Melton! I love it!

Jaime's Clare Coat: Week 4

Woohoo I finished my coat!! I'm so proud of this baby as I'm sure everyone who joined this sew-along is feeling. Here are the deets. I decided to let the arm seams out 1/4" (for 1/2" total) because it was feeling tight. I let it out on the upper seam of the arm in both the lining and the shell. I'm glad I did because overall the coat is a bit tight - not too tight to wear over regular tee's or shirts, but a bit tight for a big winter sweater. I think next time I'd go up a size to the 6.

Bagging the lining ended up being soo easy! I was again reminded how nice it is to line things rather than finishing seams with facings or bias tape. It looks totally crazy when you connect the lining at the cuffs - but it wasn't hard to figure out and went together great.

I went ahead and top-stitched around the edge of the coat to help stabilize the seams. The buttons were a bit of a beast. I didn't want to risk messing this whole jacket up by sewing buttonholes into the multiple layers of thick wool so I chose to add snaps (which are also quick to work when taking the coat on and off) and just sew buttons on the outside for decoration. This worked great, except it meant I had 18 items to hand sew on and this took me several hours. (6 buttons and then 2 sides of each snap for 12 more). I choose some beautiful black horn buttons for the outside.

Overall I love this jacket. The giant collar is flattering and cozy and I'm in love with this olive green thick wool. Also, I did a pretty great job matching my plaids.

Sara's Landgate Jacket: Week 4

The first thing I had to tackle this week was the fact that I left my side seam pockets and drawstring casing pieces at home. I had to cut more fabric and recut my pieces. Which ended up being a good thing as I realized that previously I had only cut out 2 pocket pieces instead of the 4 needed. After that situation was sorted, I tackled attaching the hood to the body. It wasn't incredibly hard, just annoying trying to get such a thick fabric to cooperate. After the hood is attached, you finish the seam and top stitch. There is a LOT of top stitching on this coat. I'm really glad that I chose a contrast color for the top stitching - all that hard work isn't invisible!

The next step was for me to sew the in-seam pocket bags to the coat body. After they are attached, came the part I've been waiting for all month: sewing the side seams and trying it on! I quickly sewed up the side seams using the normal seam allowance of 5/8" on the sleeves and pivoting in to a 1/4" seam allowance on the body. I held off on finishing the seam allowances with the serger. Then, I got to try it on to see if my side gussets worked or not. THEY WORKED!! It fits exactly how I wanted it to fit! Since I didn't need to make any last minute adjustments to the fit, I went ahead and finished the side seams with the serger.

Then, I had to make the waist drawstring casing. This is pretty easy if you've transferred all the weird markings at the waist. You line the casing up on the inside of the jacket using the widest lines, and then pin it down. I made sure to catch the top of my side pocket bags in the waistband casing so that they wouldn't flop around or droop past the hemline while wearing it. Then, you flip it to the right side and top stitch along the narrower set of lines. If you pinned it correctly then you should catch all of the casing in your stitching.

The last step was to hem the sleeves and bottom. I turned the sleeve down exactly as the pattern called for. I think I took almost 2" off of the bottom hem. I thought I might have to do this, so I planned ahead and took 1.5" off of all of my pockets - side seam and patch - so that they wouldn't get

I'm seriously in love with this jacket! I've worn it every day since I finished it. It's even roomy enough to fit over my warmest sweater.

Sew-Along Coats

We had several folks sew with us at the shop during the month. We loved seeing their coats come together and here are some of their beautiful completed coats!

Jocelyn's Landgate Jacket for Cycling
What fabric did you use?
Waxed linen
Is this your first time sewing a jacket?
No
Did you do any modifications to the pattern?
Widened the hip, omitted zip and zip guard, omitted waist draw string, reshaped hem to hi-low, made a zip hip pocket, and added a carabiner (for keys) to seam.
Any new skills or techniques you learned while making this?
I made a custom pocket with a set-in vertical zipper - new to me!
What did you enjoy most about the sew-along?
Sharing ideas and seeing everyone's modifications and custom creations.

Kaylee's Cascade Duffel Coat: View A

What fabric did you use?
Walking Rock Red/Black Pendelton, Black Melton Wool, In Full Bloom Japanese Voile
Is this your first time sewing a coat?
Yes
Did you do any modifications to the pattern?
Triangle shaped toggles instead of the suggested half-moon shape.
Any new skills or techniques you learned while making this?
This was my first time making toggles so every step of that process was new to me.
​What did you enjoy most about the sew-along?
It gave me a great incentive to try something that seemed very intimidating! I'm so glad I did too. It turns out that while there was a daunting number of steps and an even more daunting list of pieces to cut, coats are not that hard to make.

 

Emily's Clare Coat: View A
What fabric did you use?
Soft shell fleece
Is this your first time sewing a jacket?
Yes
Did you do any modifications to the pattern?
Added funnel collar and full length sleeves
Any new skills or techniques you learned while making this?
Full bust adjustment, bagging a lining, using a zipper foot.
What did you enjoy most about the sew-along?
Seeing everyone else's progress

#FancySewAlong Coats!

We really enjoyed seeing folks' progress who participated in our sew-along on Instagram! Amazing coats were stitched up far and wide. Here are the amazing finished coats.

With all these warm beauties, we think everyone deserves a prize! Coats are an epic sewing project and these coats are stunning. We must choose a winner though, and the sewist that won us over did a really great job of making her own yellow toggles and cutting selected pieces on the bias for a really lovely look. She also made an awesome sewing ham from her coat scraps and took a picture of her just finished coat with her cat. All things that impressed us. Aleah you are our winner!

Next week, check back as we share our three test sewist's coats in more detail so you can really get a look at the three finished coats.