Cozy light coatigan

When autumn came, I was at the same time excited and confused in trying to figure out what my sewing plans should be for this cold season. I rushed to few of the online stores and bought a stack of wool coating, ordered a good handful of coats patterns and… well, sat there, looking at all of that being uncertain if I would ever be able to make a coat at all. Some of my newly bought fabrics were very heavy, 600 GSM sort of Yorkshire wool. On one hand, the least that I wanted was ruining such beautiful pieces of artisanship, on the other hand I was also unsure if my sewing machine would persevere or if I myself would be able to figure the coat out.

Thus I decided to start slowly. Took the least heavy fabric of all that I had, chose the unlined coatigan pattern from Burda magazine and decided to face the challenge head on! I am absolutely pleased with how my new coatigan turned out. It is meant for beautiful autumn days, not too cold weather, though. I have worn it multiple times and was thinking all along, how great it was to wear something that cozy that I have actually made myself!

Fabric that I used for this make was absolutely beautiful Thistledown marl from Fabworks Mill shop online store (the details are at the bottom of the post). I had few options in mind for this fabric, however, ended up choosing a light coat pattern from Burda 2020/01 magazine. I decided to go ahead with few amendments to the original pattern. The original coat in the magazine featured inseam pockets, whereas I decided to install front pockets, I also made a belt.

This was not an easy make. The fabric, although absolutely beautiful, was not too easy to handle as it frayed quite a bit. Another challenge, which I hadn’t foreseen at first, was related with the fact that the coatigan is unlined. I thought that it should be an easier make, than a proper lined coat, however, after completing this project I must admit that probably the lining is an easier solution than being in a position to finish all the seams with bias tape. It took me ages and a ton of patience to do that!

I started by sewing the pockets. Had a small piece of beige lining that was left from the light autumn dress. Lined the pockets and sewed them onto the front pieces. Then had to fiddle a bit with the back seam which I decided to make as a flat felled seam. When the time to start the collar came, I probably made a mistake by over-locking the inside seams of the collar – a little bit of a bulk is slightly visible through the top collar. Back then I could not think of any other way to finish those seams. Retrospectively, I probably should have left them unfinished as they are inside the collar and not in any way exposed.

The rest of the coatigan came together quite easily. However it took a lot of time and a lot of thread to finish all the seams using the bias tape. At first I had chosen very narrow bias tape and had a very hard time folding it around the thickness of the fabric. That is why for more bulky seams, like the sleeves seams I ended up using wider bias tape. Finally I made the belt, used the pattern of another coat, which sits in my plans.

Finishing the hem was a final challenge. First, I interfaced the width of the hem using 3+3 cm perforated interfacing tape. It was a clever decision, as it appeared later. The tape is rather sturdy which makes the hem fall nicely and stay stable. And then I used the blind hem seam on my sewing machine to finish the hem. Applied the same interfacing tape to the hem of the sleeves, however had to finish them by hand.

I used Burda 2020/01 pattern #101 and cut it in size 36. The fabric was this lovely 100 pct wool Thistledown marl from the Heart of Huddersfield collection by Fabworks Mill shop that I bought online. The color of this marl is called Sweet Dough. I needed 2 meters of the main fabric, few small pieces of the lining for the pockets and medium weight interfacing. Other notions were thread and many meters of the bias tape. This coatigan cost me 62 EUR. It was made in late October 2020.

I absolutely love this new garment. It wears and feels very well, it’s warm and cozy. And, which is probably even more important, it was my first coat-like project that will hopefully launch me into the world of heavier and more complex coats. I have plans for at least 3 coats for this season and can’t wait to start working on them!

Let’s all stay healthy!

~Giedre~