Christmas is less than a week away, can you believe it? I have the luxury of being able to visit my parents in PA and work from their house, and in the evenings this week I’ve been planning out some projects that I’ll start when I get home after the holidays.
A few weeks ago I posted plans for a Gerard coat out of Italian wool from Mood Fabrics. Well, I learned my lesson: order fabric swatches before buying online. The wool arrived later that week and looks and feels absolutely gorgeous, but it in no way, shape, or form is it suitable for a coat, like it was classified on Mood’s website (since ordering, they’ve changed their search menu classifications). Looking at the fabric description now, it says it’s a medium weight and would be good for a suit or dress, which I agree with. So, I’m now going to use it to make a blazer. I bought the above Vogue pattern for the jacket and made a muslin this week, but I think I’m going to look for a different pattern option – the Vogue blazer is completely cut on the bias and I have some fitting issues in the back that I don’t want to deal with. Hoping the Simplicity pattern I bought for Pam Howard’s Modern Jacket Techniques class on Craftsy fits the bill!
As a side note, have you seen Sonja’s kick-ass Gerard?? Seriously, that girl has skillz. And a lot more patience than I do to get the PDF pattern assembled!
And now, on to what will be called The Great Coat Project of 2015 – I present to you my fabric selection for Vogue 1365:
I found a beautiful cashmere coating fabric and coordinating rayon lining at Metro Textiles this month on a recent NYC trip – purple is a color I’ve been gravitating towards a lot this year, and the thought of a deep purple winter coat made me swoon.
As I’ve been sourcing my materials for this mega-project, there are some things I’ve been trying to take into consideration. Cashmere, it turns out, needs to be underlined to give it structure and support when tailoring. I’m thinking about using flannel for underlining (plus it’ll serve as interlining for extra warmth), but I’m scared that even after I preshrink it, it’ll shrink further. I also invested in two different weights of hair canvas at Steinlauf and Stoller (so I can try different options), additional sew-in interfacing (just in case), shoulder pads from Sil Thread, and a buckle kit and coat snaps from Pacific Trimming. And I’ve been reading up a storm: combing through my tailoring book for bits of info and tips, reading a new tailoring book Chris gave me for Christmas, scouring various blogs for tips on coat making, digging through Threads magazines, and so on. I want to be as prepared as I can be to make this coat a success!
That’s pretty much it going on around here…the rest of the year will be pretty quiet. I did bring my serger with me with plans to sew up some clothes for my sister this weekend, which I’m looking forward to! More on that later 🙂
The purple looks gorgeous, look forward to seeing your coat progress. You just saved me from a disaster! I was choosing between wool Melton and cashmere for a jacket and didn't realise cashmere needs underlining. Probably everyone knows that but me! So I'll be learning from your processes. Happy Christmas and new year.
Oh, WOW, this coat is going to be gorgeous! The color you chose will look SO good on you!!! I can't wait to see it!!! What a fun project!
Thanks for the shout-out! You're too sweet! Happy holidays, and I look forward to seeing your coat in 2015! 🙂
We'll all follow your progress with interest. So jealous about your offhand comments about trips to the garment district!