Simplicity 2256: The big reveal!

It seems like this has been the season for the coat in blogland. Did you see Karen's? Wow. Or Kristine's? A-MAY-ZING! I've been thinking about sewing a coat for some time, but between fear of tailoring and living in Texas, it hasn't happened until now.

I'm really more of a jacket length kind of girl, so I decided on Simplicity 2256 as my pattern. I fell in love with this style as soon as I laid eyes on it. I love the curved, layered collar, the empire line and the simplicity of style. I think it has a nod to a vintage look, without actually feeling like it came from a particular era.

And look - pockets! I love these sneaky little in-seam pockets. The pattern was a pleasure to sew - beautifully drafted and well fit. The instructions were good and although I generally find that Project Runway patterns can be a little difficult to follow, as they can jump around a little, this one wasn’t that way at all. I had no trouble following it. I did mark the instruction sheet to make it easier to follow the components that I was including. I'll talk more tomorrow about the few fit changes I made, but they were minor and typical for me. I only had 2 issues with the pattern. The first was that it is unlined. Truly, if you saw this jacket/coat in a shop and it wasn't lined, you'd never buy it.

I did draft a lining for it, of course. It would have been nice to have one included. My other complaint was the pocket bags. Then pattern only includes one size piece for the pocket bags, and it is miniscule. Admittedly, the size of the pocket is limited by the size of the lower front panel, but the included pattern piece was just silly small. I don't think you could even fit your keys in there, much less your entire hand. I enlarged the pattern piece to fit within the front panel, and it is just the right size for my keys on one side, phone on the other with just enough space to keep my hands toasty too.

The fabric is a heavy wool coating from Hancock's. I absolutely love it and have been hoarding saving it for about 2 years. The lining is a silver brocade that came from a Fabric Mart mystery bundle. It acts like polyester, but is fairly heavy, which was a good pairing with the heavy coating.

There is a lot more to say about this coat, and tailoring in general, so I'm going to spread it out over the next 3 days. Tomorrow we'll talk about fit, tissue fitting and muslin making, then I'll discuss structure and shaping with some tailoring techniques (and a video - don't miss it!), then I'll discuss a couple of finishing touches - bound buttonholes and lining.

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