Alright, since it’s almost summer I guess it’s fitting that I share my new wool coat with faux fur collar. On a side note, first day of summer is actually a national holiday in Iceland and was on April 21. So at least it would be fitting if I was planning on spending my summer in Iceland because you never no what kind of weather you’ll be getting and need to be prepared for it all. But I’m not, so maybe we could all just pretend that I am extremely great at planning ahead and that I now have a new coat all ready for fall! But my friends and family know that’s just one big lie. So I guess my reason is that I have had this wool fabric for some time now and then the Nina Coat pattern from Shwin Designs came along and I saw a match and wanted to give it try.
You have probably all heard of Murphy’s law – anything that can go wrong will go wrong! Well, that’s pretty much how this project worked. But before I continue let me just tell you that nothing of that was related to the pattern at all. The only thing I would change in the pattern if I’m ever courageous enough to try again is adding a little bit of length to sleeves On the other hand if I had bothered measuring the pattern pieces and my arm length before cutting and sewing I could have easily added the length.
The fabric I used for the lining was some slippery sob! It grew and moved all over the place and I had to rip out seams all the time, and I really hate redoing stuff. Good thing most of my sewing happens after the kids are in bed because the language coming from my sewing room was not pretty by far!! There is also a reason I’m not showing you the inside of my coat, it’s not my finest work. In the end I just decided that I couldn’t do it any better and keep my sanity at the same time.
The outer shell came together without to much of a problem, I only had to redo one of the princess seams after sewing the wrong ends together. The fabric I used is from Stoff og Stil, I can’t find it there now. I bought it on sale last summer I think so it’s probably out of production. One side is a regular grey herringbone and the other side has this enamel on top of it.
I was going to use regular buttons. I took my time and carefully measured and measured again the placement of the buttonholes to make sure I got it just right. I held my breath while I sewed them and tried to be as careful as I could. Well, do you see any buttonholes on my coat? No, needless to say they were absolutely horrible!! Thankfully I was able to rip the stitches out without ruining my coat. So I went to my local hobby shop and found these fur clips and made them work.
This coat has been ready for some time now. I was afraid my computer would crash as soon as I started writing my blog post about it. Knock on wood, it looks like this part is going smoothly! I guess it’s a good thing I can hang my new coat in the closet and let it wait there until fall, I feel we need some time apart before I can start to appreciate it.
Like I said at the beginning, there is nothing wrong with the pattern and I love the princess seams, the circle skirt and the big collar. The instructions are great and there is an extensive guide to walk you through any alterations you could do for a great fit for your body type.
Love
Dagbjört
by dagbjort 