SWAP item #5 - Not your usual coat

More than two weeks have gone since my last post. My working life has been so busy and stressful that I ended up having some health problems last week, that got me a bit worried. I'm quite alright now, taking some pills, lots of vitamins + minerals. A discussion with my boss concerning my workload and stress levels also helped so I do hope that the next weeks will be a bit easier on me.

I've worked on this coat on and off for two weeks. The pattern is BWOF 11/2007, coat 115.
You can see the jacket version of this pattern made by Paco Peralta here.


(I was in a playful mood last night when I took the pictures and I decided to imitate Jackie O :) )

Why is this not your usual coat?

• First, because of the print. The red/white/black boucle from TimmelFabrics gives a different touch to this coat. It looks more cheerful and less formal to me, plus it ties in beautifully with my SWAP wardrobe. I only have coats in solids but this coat made me think about other prints (well, plaids, houndstooth) for coats.
  
• Second - it is all in the lining. The lining is a wool jersey, very soft and thin (I've read about Coco Chanel using wool jersey in her jackets). I think I've said it many times lately that I've become very partial to underlinings. After making my Chanel style jacket, I was absolutely thrilled with the softness and lightness of this jacket (after all, the Chanel technique of quilting the lining to the jacket is closer to an underlining than an actual lining), with the way the lining moves together with the garment, and not as a separate body joined at some seams. Read here an online Threads article by Sandra Betzina about lining versus underlining.
  
• I therefore decided to use for this coat a technique described by Shannon Gifford - click here for the Threads online article. She calls this technique "Line and Underline in one step", but I've also saw it called "flatlining". I won't insist on the technique as it is clearly described in the article but feel free to ask if you have any questions. I did however some things differently: 1) I didn't cut the seam allowances to 1/4 inches (approx 4 mm), as I'm using boucle and this ravels so easy that you don't want to take that chance; 2) In my opinion, topstitching the seam is not absolutely necessary. After pressing the seams well, I could have left them like that. I decided to topstitch because I thought a supplementary stitch will help even more in stabilising the boucle and preventing raveling and because the boucle is forgiving and all the stitching is "burried" in it any way. 3) I wanted to get closer to the Chanel technique, therefore after lining the entire coat, I quilted the lining to the coat. Yes, I get crazy ideas like that some times, must be all the work stress :) This time I spaced my quilting lines at 2 inches apart (approx 5 cm) instead of 1 inch (the way I did in my Chanel style jacket) and I've used again silk thread and my walking foot. And lots of pins. There are three rows of quilting on each panel, this makes for 24 long lines of quilting. It was difficult and time consuming because this time I was working with the entire coat sewn, not with one pattern piece at the time and my sewing table being quite small, my pins kept hitting other things on the table and coming loose and the coat was hanging all over the place. Well, I managed and to my surprise, the wool jersey burries the stitching even better than the boucle!
  
• What was different from making a Chanel style jacket: I taped the roll line, I taped the center fronts and the neckline, I staystitched and taped the armhole, I've interfaced the hem, extending the interfacing past the hemline. I didn't use a chain in the hem but still I needed something to weigh down this very light and drapey coat. Therefore I borrowed another technique of Paco and inserted a curtain weight cord in the hem - see here the photo on Paco's blog of the cord and the way it is inserted.
  
• The facings, the hem and the sleeve seams are bound with satin bias tape. The facings are slipstitched by hand to the coat.

• Changes made to the pattern: I ditched the pockets (you cannot have in-seam pockets with this underlining technique). I first thought of making patch pockets but I didn't think they would go very well with this design so I gave up pockets altogether. I don't use coat pockets very much anyway, they go out of shape so easy. I also ditched the zippers inserted in the sleeve seam.
  

The result is an incredibly light coat, feels lighter than a cardigan and is very good for spring. Despite the lightness, is surprisingly warm, due to the wool jersey used in the underlining.