Of Dreams and Seams: The Diva Coat! Making-of #1

As promised, after giving you a first overview of my coat making-of in THIS POST, I will show and tell some more details in about 3 more posts. Today, I will cover what I accomplished on my first four out of a total of 12 work days for this coat.

This coat was my contribution to the BurdaStyle Sewing Handbook.

Day 1 (half day): Preparing the Paper Pattern

The fabric arrived!

When the box arrived, I was - of course - super excited to open it. However, when I took out the fabric I was completely thrown - it was, well, BLUE! I had actually planned a petrol color for this coat, a color that I went completely crazy over at the time I planned this project. I was so fixated on that color, that I actually considered dying the fabric, but Burda told me not to - who knows if it would have turned out anyway! So I went with the blue, and not only did I get used to it, but I started to really fall in love with it. It's funny that so many people have by now reacted so positively to this stale blue color over in my BurdaStyle studio!

The pattern arrived, too. I went to the nearby copy shop to print it out and spent 1-2 hours taping and cutting it out. Ugh.

Day 2 (half day): Buying the Materials

I spent at least 2 hours in the fabric store and spent about 200 Euros, omg!

I bought: Muslin material, Interlining for warmth, fusible lining for stability, lining, black wool for collar and cuffs and belt, black fake furry stuff for the inside of collar and cuffs, black ribbon for embellishment next to zipper, an 80 cm zipper (riri!), about 20 m of white ribbon for embellishment, stay tape (not sure I’ll use it on the coat). Ok, I admit, I bought way too much of everything. I just wasn’t sure how much I would need, but I am sure I can use it all for future projects...

Very happy I found almost everything, except for a really wide belt buckle...

These are the changes from the original pattern I decided on:

Mandarin-type collar
Bishop sleeves with cuffs
A zipper instead of buttons
Balloon-shaped hem
Pleat in center back (bottom)
Add interlining for warmth
Add lining to the sleeves
Wider belt
quilting the bodice side pieces

Day 3 (whole day): Making the Muslin

Made changes on the Paper Pattern for Collar, Sleeves and Bottom Part of Coat. Calculating, cutting. Finally cutting the Muslin - I used size 36. The Muslin turned out quite tight, and as it is supposed to be a winter coat with thick sweaters underneath, I decided to add 1 cm to side, back and front center seams and to change the side front pattern piece a touch, so the waist doesn’t get too wide for me. I also decided to move the shoulder seam back 1 cm.

I had to re-do the collar about 3 times to get it to where I wanted it. Also the sleeves needed a second go (you see two different versions in the picture below), as well as the „ballooning construction“. I know balloon hems are often made with elastic, but I really didn't want that. Call me stubborn.

Here are the changed pattern pieces:

Above you see the completely new bottom pieces, ballooning out at the hem. Then I added a "balloon band" to the bottom, to which width I eased in the bottoms of the pattern pieces. Those balloon bands then got sewn to the lining, which came down only to the marked lines in the pattern pieces. This way, the "ballooned" hem got folded under, held up by the lining. Ugh. Was that sort of understandable

This is the new sleeve, a bishop sleeve, with green scribbled on measurements for the cuffs...

The completely new collar, a mandarin type shape. I love how I wrote "alterated" instead of "altered". Ha!

The side front bodice piece, marked in red the additional 1 cm to the side, but taking in the princess line to get back to the small waist.

On all the other bodice pieces I marked in red the additional cm for the width, and I took off/added the one cm at the shoulders to move it to the back. Didn't feel like cutting out all new paper pattern pieces, so I just marked it in red...

After transferring all the changes to the paper pattern, I went to the second hand store around the corner and found a great wide belt with a big old buckle!

Day 4 (half day): Making the Bodice

Cutting out all the parts took a long time! I needed the 8 bodice pieces in the shell fabric, in the interlining fabric, as well as the 4 quilted pieces in an extra layer of cotton. Since I needed to add the interlining to the shell fabric for the quilting, I decided to attach it to the shell fabric also for the rest of the coat, even though I read that it is attached to the lining normally. It made no sense for my design though, as it will also help the ballooning effect... First thing I had to do was run to the store again to buy black thread for the quilting (I thought I had it at home...).

I quilted the pieces first with a rough shape, because I thought it would shrink them, but it turns out it actually spread it out! When quilted, I cut the pieces out exactly. I had to run to the store a second time for yet more thread, what a drag, and all of that on an extremely hot day. Another 8 Euros spent for the quilting thread in total... sheesh!

The material is a treat to work with and very easy to cut out. I was pleased with myself for not having made mistakes cutting out the pieces - after all, it was a risk to just write the extra measurements on the paper pattern...

If you ever have to ease heavy fabrics, such as here on the princess seams, try rolling the layers. The longer side needs to be the outer, the shorter the inner layer. It is so much easier to ease that way. Just a breeze! :-)

I stepped on my needle pouch and the back part of a sewing needle stuck in the sole of my foot, I think it almost came out on the other side. People, keep your rooms tidy when you sew! Don’t be like me, with things – dangerous things! – lying all around!!!