Grainline Cascade from Remnants

I don't want to call it too soon but it is looking suspiciously like spring has arrived early this year.  Since winter arrived in May, I wouldn't be at all disappointed, but I do hope to get a few more ski days in yet.  With spring in mind, I best catch up on my winter blog posts.

The star of winter has to be this coat.  I did elude to the fact I had serious coat envy after Courteney made her Grainline Cascade in Marc Jacobs bonded wool coating.  It was lucky then that she actually had some fabric left over from her coat and even better that we were able to do a fabric swap and I was able to make one of my own.

Despite having leftovers, there wasn't quite enough fabric to make an entire coat.  Courteney suggested I use the fabric to make a moto style jacket but after spending quite some time with the fabric placement and patterns, I realised that pattern matching was going to be a nightmare and dismissed the entire plan.  It was then that Grainline Cascade was back on the table. 

I went through my remnant stash and found two different fabric that would be suitable to combine with my Marc Jacobs plaid.  One was a wool knit boucle that I made Courteneys bomber out of last winter and the second was a lighter weight wool blend that I made my Tessuti Sydney jacket out of .  I was determined since this was a leftover coat, not to invest too much money in it.

To line the coat I initially bought some satin from Lincraft but after Courteneys disastrous fraying issue, I decide to line with cotton in the body and bemberg lining for the sleeves.

To add some body and extra warmth to the sleeves, I interlined the wool left over from my Sydney jacket with some brushed cotton shirting.  I then made the zip front bands using some spotted novelty cotton from Lincraft.  The zip came from my stash and Courteney kindly donated her leftover toggles.

Because of fabric constraints, this time around I opted to make the collared version instead of adding a hood and to make it shorter.  I did however make it longer than the pattern so that I could wear jumpers and sweat shirts easily underneath.

My new coat hasn't had a lot of use because it was completed not long before we left for Queenstown.  Courteney and I also had to co-ordinate our clothing while we were away to make sure we were not wearing our coats at the same time.  When we arrived home I developed the flu and have been pretty much house bound for the last month so at this point my new coat may not see much wear before next winter.

The above photos were taken at our rental in Queenstown.  It would be hard to beat that view!