That one time I made a coat...

It is solidly March here.  Clearly, that is a wonderful time to make a fully lined and insulated duffle coat.  To be honest, I started cutting it back in January, so it was technically still winter.  I came across the Cascade Duffle Coat pattern a while back and kept it in mind.  My wardrobe really wanted/needed a new winter coat.  I'm not sure exactly what drew me in when a peacoat was originally what I had in mind, however, this coat reeled me in, so I picked it up when I found a sale.

I saw a Mood blog post about the coat where the blogger had the most amazing orange and maroon plaid coat.  Clearly, I needed to track down that fabric.  For those who don't know, Virginia Tech is my Alma Matter, so I basically bleed orange and maroon.  It's a thing.

I found that fabric. Yay!  Information about the fabric, not so much.  It might be upholstery fabric mostly made of wool, possibly discontinued. I'm really not sure.  Every place that I saw it listed had different care and fabric content information.  Frustrating.  I decided to go ahead and risk a prewash on delicate in case I ever need to gently cleanse the coat.  That went just fine.  The dryer, however, was another story.  It filled up the lint trap!  Twice! So much fluff.  Plus, I had to give my sewing machine a REALLY good cleaning after wrapping up construction.


This is a lined coat, so I lined it with a nice black and white silky poly from Joann Fabrics. I had it in my stash and I had enough of it.  Plus, I'm pretty happy with the way it looks against my main fabric.

I wanted a warmer coat for the depths of winter to wear every day.  It does get brutally cold, or at least it has the ability to even though the past 2 years haven't really reflected that.  I decided to use some fusible fleece iron-on interfacing attached to the lining.  Best to be prepared.

Fit
I picked the size by my measurements, the largest size the pattern offered.  Phew.  Somewhere I read that you can use the lining of the coat as a muslin.  That's totally up my alley. So I put together parts of the lining first with my fusible fleece and tried it on. Great fit everywhere (generous even in the hips) except the bicep.  A quick 1" bicep adjustment was made before cutting out the main coat.  I sewed the arm lining pieces at a 1/4" to make sure I had enough room.  That did the trick.  The benefits of picking a rather boxy coat.

After that it was onto sewing the main coat.  Even though this pattern has maybe 30 some pieces for the view I made, construction was pretty easy and straightforward.  I flew through it once I really got going. For my first coat, this definitely took less time than I imagined.  Thank goodness for online sew-alongs. I had to reference them quite a few times to make sure I did everything correctly.

I found double-sided tape to be quite useful when installing the zipper and zipper band.  It definitely helped keep everything aligned nicely while sewing.  I managed to forget about putting my toggles on until the very end, right before I added my lining.  It just added a bit of bulk while sewing, but it wasn't too bad.

The expander thingey (Simflex) makes toggle placement easy.  I didn't mark the placement from the pattern figuring I would want them slightly off.

Here is the coat during its birthing.

And the coat was born! I love this thing! Too bad I finished it after most of our cold weather. I've managed to wear it a few times, but it is ready for next year! Now enjoy my attempts at modeling.

Fabric & fixings:
     Main - P. Kaufman Fabrics Aberdeen Sumac Scottish Wool Plaid from Hancock's of Paducah
     Lining - Stretch Chiffon Silky Fabric Black & White Mod Leaf Dots from Joann Fabric

     Zipper panel - Allison Glass fabric (not sure which line) from New River Art & Fiber
     Interfacing -  Pellon 931TD for the coat side and Fusible Fleece attached to the lining from Joann Fabrics
     Toggles - 4 leather sew on toggles from Amazon
   

Pattern: Grainline Studio - Cascade Duffle Coat