Neon Polar Bear Nova Coat

I'm a little embarrassed about this one. I already made one coat this year, my Moonrise Kingdom coat. It's awesome, a dream come true, I'm so happy with it...but I almost immediately made another coat. Actually, it was a coat sandwich with lingerie in the middle. Anyway.

I blame Josie at LA Finch Fabrics for this one. Not my inability to control my fabric shopping. Wool is my weakness, especially affordable wool that is high quality. When Josie stocked these teddy French Terry wools, I tried to resist. The pink! The black! It would make such a good coat! And then I finally bought the Nova Coat pattern (I can't remember why...probably saw yet another cool one on IG). I knew the FT and the Nova would be a perfect match. 

But white? I live in the country, have three kids and four pets. Why did I buy white?

Well. I had this idea. White plus NEON. A neon pink lining. Neon green piping along the interesting seam lines of the Nova. Wouldn't that be cool?? And so I got online to order the coating and low and behold, Josie had just stocked a pretty coral rayon challis that was on sale. It all came together, what else was I supposed to do but give in to the idea?

To prep the wool, I talked to some other sewists who had bought it. I decided to dampen the fabric with a spray bottle, then put it into my dryer on low heat with some wet towels. It did shrink a few inches with that very simple treatment (and maybe 10 minutes on high heat before I remembered to do low). Buy extra and prep it!

I will describe this fabric more as a boucle than a French Terry. It has a nice stretch and heft. I've seen some people make tops with it, but for me that would be too bulky. I like it for a coat, personally. Just keep it FAR away from velcro (ask me how I know).

The Nova Coat comes in 5 sizes. I measured into a 2 for the bust and a 3 for the hips. The pattern pieces are unusual and I did a lot of head scratching about how to grade out. Then I realized, there is a gajillion inches of ease and I don't need to grade. Honestly, I could probably make a size 1 and it would fit too. This one is a straight size 2 without mods.

This coat came together really quickly, as far as coats go. I even had to spend extra time basting the piping in and it was still fast. The directions were great. I only got confused once, with the mitered corner on the inside, but I kinda just pinched it out until it looked right. I don't think I've ever had a coat lining sit so smoothly inside a shell as I did this one (granted, it might be because the rayon challis grew so there isn't any pulling). If you use this fabric, I would recommend a walking foot just because of the bulk. My walking foot didn't cooperate well with the piping (the foot is too wide) so I had resort to a regular or even zipper foot. The walking foot was better.

The sleeves are finished with a facing and the lining is sewn to the facing. I LOVE this method in coats and used it for my Yuzu Raglan, I'm not sure why more patterns don't do it this way.

This patch thing is wonky AF not CUTE AF

I used a leopard print faux fur as my neckline facing. It doesn't match the rest of the coat, at all. It's totally ridiculous. But I think we've already established the ridiculousness of this coat in general. Don't tempt me to do something cool with a small facing, I'll do it and laugh at myself for years.

This Nova is super cozy and fun to wear. I will do my best to keep in clean but my expectations are low. I will also stop making coats...this year...maybe...

Moonrise Kingdom Coat

I can't believe I'm here. Inside this coat that I've been dreaming of for I don't even know how long. 

The Wes Anderson movie Moonrise Kingdom came out in 2012, ironically the year I started learning how to sew. I'm not sure when I first saw it, but I certainly fell in love right away. As my sewing skills grew, I realized that if I could find the right fabric, I *probably* could recreate the iconic pink coat that the main character Suzy Bishop wears in the climax of the film.

Every time I got an email from a fabric shop about new wool coatings, I looked for the right fabric. Pink and white small scale houndstooth. Fabric Mart. Emma One Sock. Mood. Blackbird. Places that I knew I could count on for quality wool coatings. Every winter became a sad treasure hunt that never paid off. 

Until 2022.

Finally, finally, finally...Emma One Sock stocked THE ONE (it's sold out, I'm sorry). The one I had been waiting for. It was 100% perfect. It has since sold out, but at $25/yard it was even reasonably priced (it's a blend). I ordered it, it arrived, and it was still perfect in person. Thus began the search for the perfect pattern.

If you've been around the sewing interwebs long, you've probably seen the Tilly and the Buttons version of the Moonrise Kingdom coat. Tilly used the Watson Jacket pattern from Papercut. I attempted to track down a copy of this pattern, but it's no longer in print. It has notable differences anyway, so I decided to go ahead and find a good coat base and hack it from there. I landed on Lisette for Butterick, B6385. The length was correct and the collar looked similar. Even though Big 4 patterns aren't my favorite, I've worked with some Lisette patterns in the past and trust Liesl+Co wholeheartedly. This pattern also comes with multiple cup sizes, the front center pattern piece (with the dart) are the pieces that are drafted differently. I used a C-cup piece.

I made a muslin because I often have to grade out in the hips with long coats. The bodice is a 10 and I graded to a 14 in the hips. It was a pain in the arse because there are so many panels to the pattern and I wasn't sure of the easiest way to accomplish the grading. I ended up only grading out on the side seams.

I played around with muslin and draping and looked at pattern pieces for capes online (I have some resources saved on Pinterest). I wish I would've actually drafted something on paper but I hate math, so, there. In the end, the cape is fine. A little more swish would've been good but I'm okay with it. The neck edge of the cape is the same as the neck of the coat. I basted them together and sewed the coat like normal. The cape is a single layer and the edges are finished with rayon seam binding.

I also increased the height of the collar by 2". Suzy's coat looked like it had a very tall collar, tall enough that it could flop over and be buttoned into the cape. Two inches ended up working out great.

I omitted the welt pockets and changed them to in-seam. I used the pocket bag pattern pieces that came with the coat and they are a bit small to use as in-seam pockets.

The pleat is sewn down in a few places and open in others

This pattern has some nice details and finishes that you won't see in all coat patterns. The lining is hand-sewn, there is a very particular back lining pleat, etc. The only thing I disliked is that there is no shoulder seam, it has a yoke that comes over the shoulder into a forward seam. I would have preferred a traditional shoulder seam just to make my cape-drafting easier.

I only saw one "mistake" and that was that the back pleat in the lining was basted closed, but then you were never told to remove the basting stitches.

My lining is a cotton lawn that I got in a $5 mystery box from Michael's (watch the unboxing video here, it's hilarious). For the sleeve lining, I used a poly woven leftover from a previous coat (I think it's the same as what's in my Oslo coat). The buttons are from Jo-Ann's.

This was me trying to make Suzy's face

The beret. Oh Lordy this beret. The only reason I made it is because I already had the most perfect fabric. It's an expensive, thick, reversible wool coating from Blackbird and I absolutely ruined it trying to make a poncho thingy. I managed to make this beret from it but it took a LOT of trial and error. If you review Suzy's beret, there are no visible seams on it. If you look at beret patterns online, they all have seams. I should've just made one with seams and been done with it, but I'm a glutton for punishment. Anyway. This is as good as it's going to get and that's that.

I didn't intend for this coat and beret to become a costume, but now that I've put all the work into it, that may happen come Halloween. We'll see. It's sort of an obscure reference if you're not a Wes Anderson fan. In any case, it feels amazing to have had this goal for so long, and to finally see it come to life.

Cashmere Rumana Coat

How many handmade coats does one person need? Don't answer that.

Last year, I scored some amazing cashmere/wool/nylon coating from Fabric Mart (side note, I buy almost all my wool coating from FM, they carry deadstock so you never know when or what you're going to find but if you see something you love, NAB IT). They had a ton of colors of this stuff and it was hard not to buy more than one cut. This fabric was overstock from Michael Kors and was $20/yard when I bought it. Pretty hard to beat that price, and it's easily the nicest coating I've ever used. The lining is a grey silk crepe de chine that I ordered from FM at the same time.

I knew almost immediately that I wanted to make a long coat, and landed on the Rumana from By Hand London. I ordered the pattern to be printed at PDF Plotting, made a muslin...and then did nothing. Well, not nothing, I opted to sew the Oslo Coat which had been sitting in my sewing room for a year before jumping on to the "new pretty" Rumana. Which meant the Rumana sat in my sewing room for a year. Notice a trend?

Anyway. After years of sewing coats, I recommend that you start one in September. Don't wait until it's actually cold. Don't wait until October because then you'll be overwhelmed with Halloween sewing. Or maybe that's all just me and seasonally specific to southern Indiana.

The day I finished the coat it was something like 80 degrees. As of this writing, it's November and I still haven't worn it. But that's okay! It just means that the mistakes (because obviously there are mistakes) won't be on the front of my mind when I eventually pull it out to wear.

The Rumana is a long coat with princess seams, a back vent, and welt-ish pockets. My measurements are 33-28-38 which put me at a size US4 in the bust and US8 in the hips. I also needed to shorten it 3 inches, I'm 5'4". I could not find what height it's drafted for, those 3" I removed based on how my muslin looked. All those seam lines make adjustments easy, but also leave a lot of room for error if you don't adjust across all the pieces (including the lining) correctly. To keep things simple, I cut a size US6 across the board, and then let the seams out over the hips. In retrospect, I probably should have just graded appropriately over the hips. It does fit very closely, which I think turned out fine since I don't anticipate this as an every day, over all the bulky hoodies, kind of coat.

As far as coats go, I found construction to be not too bad. I'm not sure why. I feel like I'm losing perspective on time because my kids are at school all day, and I can work for a few hours uninterrupted (a luxury, I know!!). I've also made five or six lined wool winter coats and countless jackets, so I do have a fair amount of experience. Does that sound braggy? I'm not trying to brag, just to give an appropriate assessment of the pattern and skills needed to sew it.

There is a sewalong online, which I always find helpful with coats. I do have one GIANT beef with the directions, which led to my huge mistake. The buttons are on the "wrong" side. If you follow the illustrations in the pdf, they are wrong. If you follow the written word, they will be correct. If you use your brain, you'll be fine. Now you can see how I ended up doing it wrong.

Nobody will know except me when I go to button the coat and have to do it backwards. But still. Sucks to spend so much time on something and not have it be correct.

The other thing I think I might have done wrong is the vent. It looks fine, but I can't help shaking the feeling that it's also backwards. This was my first time sewing a vent so I don't really know. My hand-sewing also looks a little tortured.

Long coats have a tendency to feel extra fancy to me, and obviously this color screams LOOK AT ME. But my friends who do not live in the Midwest tell me that long coats are fine everywhere else and not "too fancy" for every day wear. We'll see how often I reach for this one, versus my old friend the short olive Yuzu Coat.

Tailoring the Oslo Coat

 My journey of hand tailoring seemed to be filled with innumerable choices. Which interfacing? Which thread? How exactly does pad stitching work? Some of my choices were successful, some less so. This post will detail all those intricacies and my advice on what worked, and what I'd do differently next time.

What is hand tailoring? First, hand tailoring does NOT mean sewing entirely by hand. Hand tailoring means shaping the pieces of the coat or jacket using hand sewing stitches. It means sew-in interfacing instead of fusible. It means inserting the lining by hand. It probably means a lot of other things, but that's the high-level summary.

Almost every piece of my pattern had some sort of hand work to it, whether it was sew-in interfacing, pad stitching, or both. I also added sleeve and back stays (a stay is a piece of lightweight woven fabric meant to reduce tension and stress on the main fabric). For the sake of simplicity, I will go through each piece one at a time.

FRONT BODICE

You're probably thinking, this is a weird looking front bodice, and it is. The Oslo Coat has a shawl collar AND raglan sleeves, both of which alter the traditional look of a notched collar, set-in sleeve front. To properly orient yourself, note that the black line you see above is the roll line (the line of the coat which folds back to create the lapel). The portion above that goes around behind the neck, creating the collar. The outer edge is center front.

My pattern called for interfacing the collared portion, the center front, and the lower hem. My pattern did NOT have the roll line marked, but it did have the break point (the point at the center front where the roll line ends). One of my biggest head-scratching moments came when I tried to determine the roll line. I had to lay the coat front and front facing together, try to simulate what they'd look like when sewn, and how they'd roll over one another. I had actually sewn the roll line tape down on one side before I realized it was in the wrong spot. There was a lot of trial and error here. Lesson one: choose a pattern for hand-tailoring only if it has the roll line already marked.

The collar portion of the front is interfaced with lightweight, sew-in hair canvas. I cut the hair canvas according to my pattern, but then trimmed the edges 1/2" so that it would not be sewn into the seam. Instead, the edges were catchstitched. Each stitch takes only a tiny bite of the outer fabric, so that the thread won't be seen from the right side.

In the above photo, you can also see a closer look at the heavy weight flannel which extends just above the bust. This piece was not part of my pattern. My fabric had a decent amount of drape, and although this coat is a drapey style, I hoped to avoid the "caving in" of the fabric above the bust, which sometimes happens on coats. The flannel filled out the hollow above the bust. To attach it, I sewed it by machine to the hair canvas, and then treated them as one when I catchstitched the edges.

Once the large piece of interfacing was catchstitched down, I sewed the roll line tape on top of it, also using catchstitches. That leads me to my second lesson: hand tailoring is much easier with a busy, textured fabric. I was using black silk thread for all my hand stitches, and it blended in SO well with this fabric. I do not have the skills to make invisible stitches on a flat, thick coating with no depth to it.

Next came the pad stitching. I watched many videos, I marked all my lines, I removed the lines (a heat-disappearing pen works amazingly for this task!) I remarked them, I pad stitched badly for a while...basically, it took practice. Much like all of sewing! The purpose of pad stitching is to allow your hands, needle, and thread to shape the fabric in a curve. Fusible interfacing does not give the same flexibility.

Having done all this pad stitching, I can say I doubt I'd do it again on a shawl collar. I believe I had more success shaping the fabric with steam and my iron than I did with needle and thread. But take my words with a grain of salt, this was my first time using these methods and it's possible I just did them badly!

Padstitching done, it remained to interface the center front, which I chose to do with fusible interfacing (I used knit fusible because it seemed the best weight of what I had on hand). This portion needed reinforcement only for one buttonhole. 

Finally, I hand basted heavyweight, bias-cut rectangles of hair canvas 1/2" up from the hem. This was a change from my pattern, which called for the interfacing along the bottom edge. I moved it up the 1/2" to keep it from the seam allowance. I chose heavyweight, versus the lightweight I used in other areas, to give the hems weight and crispness.

FRONT FACING

This is the portion of my tailoring journey that generated the most questions. The books I consulted didn't seem to remember that facings existed. There were no directions about interfacing or pad stitching them. The vague, general consensus was that facings were often not interfaced at all, however, my pattern called for interfacing the entire front facing.

Again, I cut my lightweight, sew-in interfacing to size, and then trimmed 1/2" from the edges, with the exception of the edge where the facing would be sewn to the lining (in this photo, it is the edge in the center of the mat). I felt that if any edge needed reinforcement, it would probably be that one. Again I catchstitched the edges to the outer fabric. I decided, based on nothing really, to tape the roll line of the facing. I did not do any pad stitching (you can see one row of it above, but that was mostly because I had thread left on my needle after sewing down the tape). 

As I mentioned before, the roll line was not marked on my pattern. Again I had to lay my pieces together and transfer the roll line from the front piece to the facings. More guessing. In the end, I wish I would not have done this step, I think the collar would lay better without two taped lines trying to match up. Lesson three: do not pad stitch or shape the front facing. 

BACK

The back of the coat did not call for interfacing except at the hem. I opted to include a back stay. I drafted it myself and it is cut from regular muslin with the bottom edge finished with pinking shears. The stays DO extend into the seam allowance for extra reinforcement.

The bottom of the coat also has a strip of bias cut, heavyweight hair canvas, like the front of the coat. In the above photo it is only pinned on, but I did end up basting it by hand. I also removed 1/2" on each short end so that it would not be sewn in the side seam.

SLEEVES

This coat has a two-piece raglan sleeve, both pieces shown below. I created a sleeve stay, just like I did with the back stay. Since it's a two-piece sleeve it did mean drafting two different shapes.

The sleeve hems also have heavyweight interfacing, 1/2" up from the edge. These pieces I did NOT cut on the bias, as one of my books said it was optional and I couldn't imagine wanting my sleeve hems to stretch. Again, this was sort of an experiment, and in the end I think the sleeves would have a more natural shape if I had cut the interfacing on the bias. They are pinned on in the above photo, but I hand-basted them after removing 1/2" from the short ends/seam allowances.

BACK NECK FACING

This piece called for interfacing, and I hand basted in the lightweight sew-in hair canvas, removing 1/2" from the top portion to reduce bulk. I would definitely repeat this process for a back neck facing. I always have trouble fusing and neatly sewing curved pieces like this, and hand sewing gave me much more control and accuracy.

BOUND BUTTONHOLE

I have never made a bound buttonhole before, but since there was only one it seemed like a good time to try. It is similar to welt pockets, which I've done. 

I made a practice buttonhole in identically fused fabric. It was successful, I liked how it looked on the outside, but I couldn't understand the directions (from my various sewing books) about finishing the back. My tailoring book essentially said to slash the front facing and hand sew the flaps under! In other words, the lips are only made through the outer fabric. I'll be honest, it killed me to slash into my almost finished coat and just tuck in the cut edges. In a less textured fabric it would look like absolute garbage. It's a nice finish from the outside, but I don't think I'll do it again.

RAGLAN SHOULDER PADS

Never thought about the existence of raglan shoulder pads? Yeah me neither. But there is a difference! A raglan pad is the same as a regular shoulder pad, except with an extra extension to prevent further collapse down the arm.

I had purchased regular should pads and could have just added on to them, but I decided to save them for my next coat project. I ended up making my own pads. I used a pattern from Closet Core Files and made up the raglan portion. They are NOT pretty, but it was a good exercise. Mine are made from heavy weight flannel, lightweight interfacing, and a variety of thick felted wool sweater scraps. Not being a quilter, I had no batting on hand. It would've been easier to use batting instead of sweaters. 

In the end, I'm not sure the pads were necessary. I can barely see a difference and the pattern wasn't drafted to include them. I have narrow shoulders, so I'll take all the extra I can get, but I won't be making my own again and may never use raglan ones.

LINING

Okay, confession time. I have read SO many blog posts where someone says they inserted their lining by hand. I admit, I had no idea what that actually meant, except that maybe they just sewed the seams by hand. I didn't understand the why or even really the how. I finally stumbled on the process in one of my books. Essentially, the lining is basted into the coat by hand, fiddled with until it works, and then slipstitched together by hand. 

To my estimation, a dressform was a vital component of this process. The coat needs to be turned inside out, to be placed on a dressform, and then hand stitching and adjusting done as needed. I do not have a dressform. I inserted the lining by machine and bagged it out through an opening in the sleeve lining, just as my pattern recommended. It was a million times faster and I had no problem obtaining a nice result. 

So there you have it! That is my long, exhausting trip through hand-tailoring a wool coat. I hope this was helpful and please drop any questions if you have them! Make sure to check out my other posts about the Oslo, covering supplies and a general review.

Wool Oslo Coat

 After a year of planning, sourcing, hemming and hawing, my hand-tailored Oslo Coat is finally here!

I had this coat on my 2019 Make 9 plan. It was the only project I didn't complete. I spent most of the fall of 2019 sourcing all the supplies (fabric is wool/mohair/nylon boucle from Fabric Mart), reading the books, making the plans...only to chicken out from the sewing. I know I'm not the only one who backs off from a project that feels too daunting. Fast forward a year, and my sewing confidence is higher, the timing is right, and the coat is complete.

I made a coat two years ago, but it has a hood and doesn't work that well with scarves. I have a decent collection of wool and cashmere scarves and it drove me crazy to not be able to wear them. I also didn't have a coat that felt nice enough for a dressy occasion. My husband made my day when I put the coat on with my fluffiest scarf, and he said that I looked like an old lady on the way to a funeral. Success!

The pattern I used is the Oslo Coat from Tessuti Fabrics. There are not a lot of reviews out there for this coat, but I read what I could. It seemed that nobody had any issues with the pattern and only recommended moving the pockets up (which I did). I love sewing raglan sleeve coats (like my Yuzu Raglan from two years ago) because you don't have to ease in a set-in sleeve. So, if you're trying to choose a pattern for your first coat, I recommend a raglan.

This was my first Tessuti Fabrics pattern and I have no complaints. The instructions were thorough, contained LOTS of real-life photos and finishing details for a great coat. There were no drafting problems, no mismatched notches, none of the frustrations I've encountered with more well-know patterns. I had my pattern printed at PDF Plotting in large format. I cut a size 8 for my bust of 33" and hip of 38". I'm 5'4" and made no length adjustments. The shoulders feel a touch narrow, but I believe that is because I put in raglan shoulder pads. I do not believe the pads are necessary, I only did it to get the full tailoring experience.

I took my time with this coat (hand-tailoring has a way of being time-consuming) but it was still complete in about 2-3 weeks. I did read one review that said the sewist finished the coat in one night! So again, I can recommend it for a beginner who doesn't want to take a ton of time.

The hand-tailoring aspect requires its own post. Despite a thorough explanation in the book I used, I still came across questions and had to make some things up as I went. It was a good experience and I'm pleased with the results, but I'm not sure I'll do it again! 

Initially, I bought a grey silk habotai for this coat, but halfway through the project decided it was too thin. I ordered this anti-static pongee from Vogue Fabrics, and although it is polyester *gasp the horror* it was easy to work with, actually feels less static-y, and of course the color is a gorgeously perfect match. 

I had fun adding some details but didn't go too crazy with changes. The pattern is so well done it didn't need much to make it special. The hem is even drafted with a purposeful pleat for movement within the lining, something I've never seen before.

I think this project puts me at five coats all-time, including a few for family members and not counting anything in the jacket category. To be honest, I have at least two more coats planned and materials already purchased! As scary as they are to make, how many other handmade items do you put on almost daily for months at a time? An investment of sewing time and money can net you a huge reward in terms of usefulness. If you've never made a coat, I challenge you to give it a try!

Read my post about tailoring techniques here, and supplies here.