Coat sewing, part one

It was love at first sight. Coat fabric with felted roses in vibrant colours! My projects usually start with a pattern, followed by a long search for the right fabric. This time it was the other way around. I immediately envisioned a simple coat with black accents. Piping, bound buttonholes? During the drive home from the fabric market I thought about some of my favourite coat patterns that either needed more drape or had details that would get lost in the busy print. Then I remembered a very simple Knipmode pattern that only needed some minor adjustments to fit the bill.

Knipmode October 2016 #104

I liked the panels and the two part sleeves but found the zipper too casual for the fabric. I added an overlap and underlap tat centre front and made a muslin, using badly faded 20+ years old wool from my stash. I'll draft a new collar, taking inspiration from the asymmetric collar on my husband's Hugo Boss coat. 

The fit was fine. Maybe a bit roomy, but I always find that hard to judge on a coat muslin. Lining, underlining and inner workings take up space, but how much exactly? To be on the safe side I marked all stitching lines and added generous seam allowances. Fitting on the go will still be an option.

I underlined with a soft olive green flannel for extra warmth. Cutting all pattern pieces in wool, flannel and lining resulted in piles of fabric on every surface of the sewing room. Basting outer fabric and underlining together already reduced the mess considerately.
To accentuate the side panels I added black satin flat piping. Sewing inset corners with two layers of wool, two layers of flannel and piping was challenging. I started with the back panels, the easy part.

At the front I needed to incorporate the pockets in the insets. That's when adding piping became a puzzle that kept me awake at night. Catch stitching the seam allowances of the vertical seam to the underlining really helped getting a clean finish and a sharp corner.

I've done a few test runs for the bound buttonholes as soon as my buttons arrived. My favourite sewing technique. I'm enjoying this project so much!

Best colour representation

To be continued!