Spring coat finished!

Finally my coat is finished! Like always, I lost a bit patience near the end of garment construction, especially as I had planned to get it finished by end of april. And although there wasn't a lot of things to do, I found that all the finishing takes quite a lot of time, though.

I set the lining in completely by hand, which was an awful lot of work. Not the hand sewing itself, but pinning it in place! I had to do it several times. I think I will not do this again in the future. Or maybe I will make my own mixture of machine and hand sewing (I am a sucker for hand sewn lining...).

I also added some white piping between the facing and the lining, and I covered the inner snap with lining fabric, which I find is so so nice (and it was even easy and quick to do)!

So now I only have to wear it, which I think will not happen so much until autumn, as - like any other coat so far - I finished it on time for when I don't need it any more for the season!

Tailoring goes on

The most exciting part of the coat (at least for me): that what is called "the turning of the cloth" in my instruction book. Doesn't that sound great, like the title of an opera or Shakespeare play?

In practice it was less theatrical. First I stitched the undercollar to the coat. 

Then I stitched the upper collar to the facing, and pinned the whole part to the neckline seam of the coat. 

Then I put the coat on my dressform and smoothed the collars out. As both collars are "folded" at the roll line, the upper collar does not meet the edge of the undercollar. I marked the line where the upper collar ends with pins. 

And then finally I stitched the upper collar-facing part to the undercollar-garment part, right sides facing. I have to admit I took a few shortcuts here. The result is - not at all a perfect collar, but the best collar I've ever sewn, and I am really happy with it! Doesn't it look nice?

What you can't see on the photo: some hairs of the hair canvas of the undercollar do prick through the fabric. I cut them short but still they tend to peek out... luckily, there is enough fabric between my neck and the collar so it will not bother me a lot. 

I also set in the sleeves, and I added sleeve heads! I like how sleeve caps are decently supported by sleeveheads. I had to cut them smaller after putting them in, tough, as my shoulders were looking too square first (same reason why I don't like shoulder pads). 

I also hemmed the coat already, so now it is ready to get its lining, to hide everything that is inside the coat now! I can't wait the coat to be finished (anyway, there will be no occasion to wear it in the next time, as the temperature here jumped up to around 30°C! This happens to me everytime I make a jacket or coat, it's a bit annoying). 

First try in tailoring a spring coat

I've had enough now from my old self-made spring coat, so I thought that I really need a new one, self-made, of course.
I chose a pattern from Burdastyle magazine 1/2011 that I already liked when the issue came out. It is the coat on the title, which comes in petite sizes:

I made some alterations, though. I thought that three-quarter sleeves might be a bit impractical, so made long sleeves instead. Then there is some gathering under the front and back yoke, which I turned into pleats (after several days of thinking if pleats or gathering would be better; I still am not sure if I took the right decision), and also I shortened the coat at the hem.
This time, I had to make several muslins to get the fit right. But I got a lovely, but pricey structured pink wool fabric at my favorite fabric store in Zurich and did not want to mess that!

This is what I have so far:

Still not too sure about the pleats! 

I decided to try my luck at tailoring techniques and to make the coat following the instructions for custom tailoring in this book. So I added a hair canvas interfacing to the front: 

I also added lined patch pockets to the front, which I love because they look so nice, but unfortunately they are too small to put anything bigger than a credit card in it... But luckily there are also big enough in-seam pockets!

The original Burda pattern asks for snaps to close the coat, the buttons are only for decoration. I want to use my buttons, an tried bound buttonholes for the first time, I am quite satisfied as I think they didn't come out too bad!

And this is the undercollar, padstitched, shaped and steamed on my pressing ham! It went better than I expected and took less time than I thought it would, and at the moment I am so happy about it I can't stop looking at it!

The only thing I am really worrying about this coat is the hair canvas: it has really thick and stiff hair in it, I just hope that the hair will not prick through the outer fabric at the edges, making the garment uncomfortable to wear. Let's hope the best!