After finishing my Alisha Dress (I need to take pictures!), I felt kind of stuck with what I wanted to make next. Don’t know about you, but I feel less inspired to sew when the weather gets cold, and it’s been pretty nasty cold this past week – all I want to wear right now are hoodies and sweatpants. Last night I pulled out my Fashionary for the first time and started to sketch and color some ideas, based on some cute outfits I saw on Pinterest and what was floating around in my head.
I fell in love with an oversized, tweedy wool coat I saw – the girl in the photo paired it with skinny black pants and purple Hunter rain boots, topped off with a black slouchy hat. Maybe it’s because I was freezing my butt off last night in my apartment, but a big, oversized coat feels like the perfect next to make for the impending winter weather. And I absolutely love coats! Living in the Boston area, I have quite a collection of coats and jackets for all weather. Since winter seems to last forever here, a variety helps to make the winter a little more bearable.
I hemmed and hawed and looked at a lot of options, but the Gerard Coat from Republique du Chiffon is the best pattern choice I could find – the styling is just right, and I may lengthen it a bit for more booty coverage. I’d like for this to be a coat I can wear in moderate cold weather (around the 25-30 degree mark), so I’m debating whether to use flannel or Thinsulate to interline it. Never using Thinsulate before, I’m not sure how thick it is or how it will change the drape of the wool; I’ll have to wait for my fabric from Mood to arrive to make a decision.
Hopefully the fabric will arrive by the weekend!
I can't answer about how it will change wool drape, but I did use Thinsulate in the coat I just made. I think it was about 3/8"-1/2" thick, but a lot of that was just the loft, so it definitely squishes down to go underneath the presser foot just fine! I also attached it to the lining rather than the outside fabric, since that's what was suggested on the Vogue Fabrics website that I purchased it from. My outside fabric was pretty heavy on its own, so it worked out well for me.
I'm making the Gerard coat right now! It's a bit of an undertaking… there are SO many pieces, and I'm starting to feel a little stressed that I'll never get through the project! I have a sort of strange cotton/nylon boucle, I guess, that's pretty lightweight for a coat, so I've fused it to light interfacing to give it a bit more structure and I'm interlining with a wool-blend flannel. Like Becky I'm quilting the interlining to the lining… we'll see how the weight ends up! It's a really cute style… I'm excited to see yours!
I'm making a Gerard right now too! Tracing, adding seam allowance,, and cutting out all the pieces took ages, but the coat itself is coming together pretty quickly. I found the instructions a little sparse, but nothing's been too hard to figure out (and this is my first coat). Can't wait to see yours!