Here it is: The project I’ve been working on for the past two months. My first genuine tailored coat. I’d made sack-coat-like garments before, but nothing with interlinings and padstitching and all those other things that go into a fine garment. I began my creative process by spending three weeks drafting coat patterns and cutting muslin test garments, with the help of a lot of old, digitized tailoring books. Then I bought fabric and dove right into the construction, working as purposefully as I could. It was a wild ride.
This garment was really cheap to make because the fabric isn’t that great. The suiting is brown hopsack 100% linen from Jo-Ann Fabrics, which I bought on sale. I didn’t use any actual hair canvas on the inside; all the interlinings are various loose-weave muslins which I just pretended were hair canvas and handled as such. The nicest part is the lining, which is real Bemberg rayon.
It turned out pretty great. Setting the sleeve was a nightmare, as was making buttonholes. (They look awful, I’m afraid! That’s 90% of the reason this is a one-button coat.) But overall it looks better than I hoped it would, and it fits really well. Turns out three weeks of pattern fitting and adjustment really pays off. If I were to do this exact same project for a second time, I think I could do a much much better job. Despite its flaws, though, this is still the best-fitting coat in my closet, and because of that, the most comfortable. I’m already itching to start another!
