Project 7 of 50: Another coat

If I thought I was going to whip up 50 quick projects to satisfy my goal, my daughter had other ideas.

In the wake of my niece's coat success, my daughter decided that she wanted one "exactly the same". Well, there was no more of the red floral fabric, and the pattern didn't come in her size. Thankfully, she was willing to 'settle' for one of the other cute corduroys I had in my stash, and I could easily grade the pattern up. This was her final selection.

The coat pattern: Ottobre 06-2008-17

When I went to cut out the main pieces, I realised I actually didn't have enough of the corduroy! Oh No! In the end, I had to buy some coordinating quilting fabric to cut the facings from. Believe me, I shopped the stash first. I did have a piece that could have been OK, but it wasn't quite long enough and DD didn't like it anyway. If it was a smaller project, I probably would have used it anyway, but I figured that I was putting in some serious (for me) hours on this coat, I wanted it to be just right. So a small purchase was made.

I took this project along to a couple of sewing lessons. I'd already made this pattern before, so it was the perfect vehicle for learning a few new techniques. Normally, I'm a bit slap-happy when it comes to the actual sewing of garments (I tend to obsess over fit), but this time, I was more careful.

For this version of the coat, I learned how to attach a coat lining properly (leave it loose at the bottome! Whoops!), how to join the lining, facing and coat neatly at the bottom of the coat, how to attach the sleeve lining and the coat sleeve easily and how to apply a Hong Kong finish to the coat hem.

Get ready for the picture show. We took a LOT! And, for your reading pleasure, the captions have been written by Captain Obvious!

Proving that the coat was a success, it was on with seconds of her arriving home and hasn't been off for hours! :-)

Front view

Back view

Front view (with hood up)

Back view (with hood up)

Demonstrating the use of pockets (and leaning on a post!)

Just generally looking cool!

Now that's the kid I know! :-)