MMM12 - Day Seven/Charcoal and Claret

My husband was away last week working in Sydney so what better opportunity to sink my teeth into a big project.  The weather is cooling dramatically so this coat is starting to be needed now.  The fabric is wool flannel from one of my op shop hauls that I wrote about here.  I only had 2 metres of this fabric which necessitated trimming it with something else.  I was very pleased with myself when, on visiting the fabric shop, my $8 wool flannel retailed at $60 per metre....score!  Anyho, because the grey wool flannel had a reddish tinge to it, I decided to trim it with this dark red wool fabric kind of reminiscent of claret. Because I was only doing the front facings, sleeve facings and the collar in red, I only needed to buy 40 centimetres of the red fabric. 

For the pattern I used Simplicity 2508.  I cut it to a size 10 and size 12 in the hips as normal but this pattern runs extremely large and I ended up adjusting it after the fact taking in a total of 6cm in the hips in total and adding more definition in the waist area and back darts.

I had already bought some taffeta lining from Spotlight to line the coat but felt that I needed to make it a little warmer.  Our winters are not nearly as savage as a lot of the northern hemisphere experiences but we do get some frosts in the winter and I also wanted this coat to take me to the rugby in the evening if required as well.  I wanted something reasonably light weight and not to add bulk to the coat.  I had some very fine microfleece in my stash from my nappy making days, so this was the perfect use for it.  The challenge then was to stitch in to the lining and have everything sit neatly without either bunching or making the seams to bulky.  This is how I did it:

Firstly I lay my lining and microfleece interlining pieces flat and pinned them all of the way around and then I stay stitched them in place using a 1.2cm seam allowance.

I then trimmed my microfleece interlining back to within a couple of millimetres of the stitching, being very careful not to cut the taffeta lining. 

My cutting got a little wobbly in places because I couldn't find my little scissors at the time, but it didn't matter because this wasn't seen in the finished product.  Once all of the interlining had been stitched to my pieces, I then proceeded to sew my lining as normal.  My seam being 1.5cm, it covered the stay stitching on the interlining so there was no need to remove it.

To complete the coat, I added large red buttons with metal centres on the front of the coat and matching smaller buttons on the sleeve cuffs.

The coat got it's inaugural wear this morning when I had to take my son to the doctor early.  It is deliciously warm and cosy to wear and I am sure it will become a wardrobe staple as the weather closes in.

This new coat was my main me made item of clothing today, but I also wore, a me made skirt, and merino polo neck top but I will save that post for another day.