A New Wool Coat, Part 1

First of all, I want to thank everyone for their lovely comments about my good news - the support and good will from the online sewing community is truly amazing!

And lest you think that I am resting on my laurels, here is my latest project.

Although I certainly do not NEED a new coat, I had a hankering to cut into some lovely wool coating last week, so I did.

I have been trying to find the right fabric for this pattern for years.

I originally wanted to make this into a coat dress with an emerald green damask fabric.  (Once again, I  dreamed up a fabric that does not exist, or at least, one I could not find.)

Of course, as soon as I cut into the wool fabric, I wanted my new coat.  Does this happen to anyone else?  I have so many different ideas for so many projects that I will never have enough time to finish them all, which makes me impatient to finish whatever I am working on.  Once I have my pattern and fabric, I want to wear my new creation! 

But I took a deep breath, stepped back, and decided that I was going to make this coat the right way.  After all, I waited five years for the right fabric, and it deserves the few extra hours it will take to make the coat last a lifetime.

I am underlining the wool coating with cotton flannel.  Because of the added bulk, once I press open the seams, I am catch-stitching them to the flannel underlining.  Turns out, this makes it so much easier to match seams!  The collar and facing pieces are getting underlined with plain black cotton.  I may add cuffs to the long sleeved version, but I am not sure about that yet.

The coat instructions use purchased shoulder pads.  I prefer to make my own, and thanks to my collection of Vintage Vogue reproductions, I have plenty of pattern pieces to choose from!  I ended up borrowing the shoulder pad pattern pieces from this dress.

I was not sure about a lining fabric, until I realized that my pink satin was the only suitable yardage in my stash that was three yards long.  I believe that I am going to be very happy with my color choice – the pale pink and black work great together.  Hmm . . . maybe I need to make a black dress with pink accents to match . . .