My famous blue raincoat :)

(title of a Leonard Cohen song that I love)

Now... some girls have a Birkin bag. Some girls have a Kelly.
But I am the happy owner of a Tany trenchcoat!

When I saw this picture, I thought immediately of the midnight blue taffeta that Tany sent me a while ago. This is one of the reasons for which the trenchcoat is named after her. The other reasons... do I really need to mention them? Besides being an inspiration for many of us, she is such a warm, supportive, lovely person.

Burda WOF 02/2008, 117 Coat:



I loved the "runway" look of this trench the minute I saw it. The volume in the skirt (a big trend for this spring/summer) , the shirring in the waist, the lapels with a collar with stand... all these details attracted me. The 20 rows of topstitching on the hem portion of the coat give the effect of a petticoat underneath. If you don't want that much volume on you, you could easily skip the topstitching on the hem. Without it, the coat drapes at the hem instead of standing away from the body and it looks beautiful that way too.

Speaking of topstitching, this was a very time-consuming project (I again forgot to keep track of the time I spent on this project):

• There are 8 rows of shirring in the waist. I used a tubular elastic for that, encased in a zigzag stitch (4 mm width, 3 mm length). My pearl and piping foot helped a lot, the elastic fitted in it perfectly
• There are 20 rows of topstitching on the hem (spaced at 1 cm apart/approx 3/8 inch), plus 10 rows of topstitching on each sleeve cuff. I used a silk thread for the topstitching.

• To make my life even more beautiful, I decided to add another 10 rows of topstitching on the collar and 10 rows on each lapel. It did seem like this project will never ed (sooo much topstitching) but it was worthwhile to add topstitching on the collar and lapels. Not only it ties in with the hem and cuffs, but it gives better shape and structure to the collar and lapels. If you look in the Burda pictures, you can see that their lapels are a bit floppy.

• This coat is unlined. At first I wanted to line it with a beautiful blue satin I had in my stash, but I realized that with all the shirring at the waist, lining the coat could mean some bulkier stiff gathers and I didn't want that on my petite frame. The coat being unlined, I used a Hong Kong finish on the seams (cutting bias strips from the blue satin) and I bound the pockets.

• The trench is fastened with snaps, handsewn. I eliminated the first two pairs/rows of snaps because I knew I would never wear my coat buttoned to the collar, I want it to have lapels. But I did add another three pairs of snaps after the last one (the Burda snaps stop at mid-thigh) because guess what... This trench can easily be worn as a dress as well! I wouldn't want to show that much thigh :), so more snaps were in order.
  
• I've added another snap at the waist, at mid-way between the bust row of snaps and the second one, which is a bit below waist. If you look at the enlarged Burda pictures, there is some strange gaping at the waist. I got the same gaping, it is due to the snaps placing, but the additional snap at the waist solved this problem.