Thank you all for such generous and encouraging comments on my
red coat - it was wonderful to read such positive feedback! As promised, this next post will focus on the tutorials, supplies and resources that I found so helpful whilst making the coat.
If you're thinking of trying the pattern (
McCalls 7058) then I'd highly recommend you read Manju's
excellent review. I picked up some really useful tips from her blog post, including the idea of adding a flannel underlining for extra warmth. To attach the underlining, I followed Manju's method of machining the flannel to the pattern pieces with a half inch seam allowance, then trimming back as far as I could down to the stitching line. I also removed the flannel from the hem allowance before hemming to reduce bulk.
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Flannel underlining trimmed back to stitching line |
For interfacing I used
Washable Supersoft interfacing from English Couture, which is a perfect weight for the wool. I also purchased my
sleeve heads from English Couture and inserted them using
this method by Poppy Kettle. If you want to make your own sleeve heads, the tutorial also shows you how. I'd never used sleeve heads before and the result is subtle, but definitely worth it.
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Sleeve without sleeve head |
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Sleeve with sleeve head |
The dimpled, slightly collapsed look of the sleeves is now supported well and takes on a more rounded, tailored look.
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Underlined, interfaced and with sleeve heads added. |
Once all the laborious work of underlining, interfacing, pressing etc had been done, it was time to add the lining. The instructions have you attach the lining around the facing and collar by machine, then hand sew the sleeves hems and coat hems, but I was keen to machine everything. This was partly laziness, but also because I find linings that are machined in place tend to be more robust than hand sewn ones, however neatly and carefully you sew them. If you're thinking of bagging a lining, then I'd highly recommend the following tutorials. Between the two of them they really do cover everything you can think of:
How to Bag a Jacket Lining on the Grainline blog
Bagging a Coat Lining which is part of the
Clare Coat Sewalong on Closet Case Files
The basic technique on the Grainline blog is very straight forward and that's essentially what I did to bag the lining. The Clare Coat sew along post also has some excellent additional tips which I used to ensure as professional a finish as I could. For example, the traditional method of turning the coat the right way round is to pull it through a gap in one of the sleeve seams. A woollen coat, completely underlined in flannel, with interfacing and lining is thick and unwieldy and the thought of trying to turn the entire thing out through such a tiny gap filled me with horror. Heather's tip was to leave a generous gap in the
lining hem instead, then catch stitch it closed at the end. This made far more sense to me and the whole process was a lot easier as a result. To help anchor the lining to the coat, I added a threadchain to the underarm seam to link them together. I used the
Susan Khalje tutorial for the threadchain as recommended in the Clare Coat tutorial and it worked a treat.
I'd originally planned to use giant snaps as closures, but had a last minute
disaster change of heart and had to use buttons instead. I actually spent two hours sewing all the snaps into position before deciding they didn't look right (sigh). It was annoying, but I'd invested so much time and effort into making this coat I figured an extra week's delay wasn't going to make much difference. The problem was that my interfaced and underlined coat edges wouldn't even fit underneath my buttonhole foot, so there was no way I could even contemplate sewing buttonholes unless I made them by hand. Er no, I decided to pay a visit to
D M Buttons in Soho to have some professionally made instead.
I'd read about the company on a few sewing blogs, but never actually used them myself. The whole process couldn't have been easier: I left my coat with owner David and went to get my hair cut, when I returned an hour or so later, my coat had six
perfect buttonholes! They looked so much more professional than anything I could have produced on my own machine. I didn't need to do much prep either, just marked the buttonhole positions on the right side of the fabric beforehand and brought along one of my buttons for reference. And the best bit? The price - just £4.00 for six! I'm never making my own buttonholes again!
One final thing I should mention is my new
Tailor's Clapper, which I found invaluable during the pressing process. My wool was quite hefty and really not interested in lying flat along the seam lines. After a lengthy session at the ironing board, using the clapper and a LOT of steam, those seams were as flat as pancakes. If you're unsure about using a clapper, watch
this short video from Did You Make That. Before your very eyes you'll see a springy, unruly piece of crepe being magically flattened into submission by a steam iron and a lump of wood!
I know some of you were interested to see how much this coat actually cost me to make. It wasn't cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but infinitely cheaper than a comparable RTW coat made with designer Italian wool! Thread, vintage buttons and sleeve heads were all from my stash, so I'm not including them in the cost.
Main coat fabric: two metres of red Italian wool twill from Fabric Godmother: £52.00
Lining fabric: two metres of steel blue lining fabric from Ditto Fabrics: £8.00
Finishing Touches
Professional press at dry cleaners: £8.00
TOTAL £94.30
I'm delighted with the final coat (pictures of me prancing around in it can be seen
here!) and pleased I took the time to finish everything properly. What I also found really heartening was the fact that so many wonderful free resources were there to help me at the click of a mouse. So I'd just like to say an enormous THANK YOU to all the generous sewing bloggers and authors mentioned in this post for sharing their knowledge. Believe me, it's very much appreciated! x