It’s a coat. Burda round coat 10/2013 #102

It’s been ages since I last posted here, but I’m glad to be back in the land of the interwebs. After spending three months in a short term let, without proper internet connection, we have finally moved to the house we’ve been trying to buy since the end of August. It’ll be a work in progress for a while but at least, we won’t be going anywhere else anytime soon and I can finally unpack all my sewing madness into a new room, haha! This room however, may be converted into a nursery in a few months, as I’m having a baby and a growing belly at the moment. Don’t be scared, I’m not going to bore you with my maternity stuff, after all we are here for the sewing, which despite the inconvenience and lack of actual space in the previous flat, I haven’t stopped doing. You may see some non-garment related sewing  though but that’ll be it.

One of my very recent sewing endeavours has been my first ever coat. Burda 10/2013 is a pattern I had been stalking for a while and finally got round to making. The cocoon style is a bit unusual for me as I like my coats fitted rather than loose, but I wanted something you can wrap into and this coat is perfect for this purpose.

The fabric is 100% wool (yes sorry I haven’t been very ethical here, but it had to be something warm) from Truro Fabrics. I really liked this shop, which I discovered while looking around for wool, particularly because you can get samples before committing to an expensive fabric like wool. Of course, when I purchased it, I didn’t think of the stripes and got only 2.5metres, which was enough for making the coat but not for matching all the stripes. Front and back are ok though. I decided to use the stripe vertically for the lower pieces of the coat to avoid tmatching them and to give a different perspective to it.

As you can see there’s no pattern matching on the sides or the sleeves, but that’s something I can live with.

As far as the construction is concerned, once you decipher the pattern that not only comes with the typical almost non-existent  Burda instructions, but also with some extra pieces for a different coat, it’s pretty straightforward. I did make two muslins but it was worth it.

The thing that I found most buffling was the self-facing bands. I must have stalked every version of this coat on the internet trying to figure out how you put them together, but I got there in the end. Way of the Wool‘s was a great help and directed me also to Grainline‘s tutorial on bagging a jacket lining. I love this version here, which was equally helpful, despite it being in a language I don’t speak. Great colour too. The lining is also from Truro Fabrics.

 

I raised the pockets a bit as they were so low that my short hands couldn’t reach them and what’s the point of having warm pockets if they are too far away from you? I used the wool for them which made them a bit chunky but definitely warm. I also purchased some fake fur for the lower pieces but decided against it, as I feared it would make the coat too gimmicky. I really like it as it is. The pattern asks for four fasteners, but I used six giant ones. Anything to keep the cold outside.

That was it from, I will be back sooner rather than later, with some other things I’ve sewn in the last couple of months. Until then, have a great week.

Posing like a professional model.