A Charming Coat

I had high hopes for this Charm Pattern.  And while I did end up with a wearable garment that looks pretty good, this project gave me a lot of grief.  Considering that it is a fairly simple design, that was not something that I was expecting when I first chose the project.

I had enough wool yardage leftover from making this skirt for a short jacket, and a swing coat seemed like the perfect silhouette.  It would also accommodate many of the dresses that I wear with a petticoat, so it was an obvious and useful choice.

The wool is rather thick, so I pulled out my clapper to help with pressing.  That, and a lot of steam is the way to go with wool.

And I can't resist a patch pocket!  I find it much easier to hand baste pieces like this in place, especially when I will be machine sewing them into place.

As an added bit of stability, a length of fusible interfacing was added to the area at the top of the pocket placement on the wrong side of the fabric.  This gives some extra oomph to those corners that tend to see wear/pulling.

And so far I was liking the way this was going together.

The sleeve went in without too much grief, although I probably could have removed a bit of the sleeve head excess.

This design has the option of adding some rather theatrical cuffs.  And since I had enough fabric, why would I not?!  They are substantial, and I believe added to my aggravation later in the process.

The facing was interfaced with a fusible, just standard construction stuff.

And, of course, I went for a bound buttonhole.  Because of the bulk of my wool, I used a coordinating piece of cotton to create a window in the facing side of the buttonhole as I didn't think turning in a narrow fold of bulky wool would look good or lay flat enough.

Lining is in short supply around these parts, but I do have a roll of striped silk that I found at a garage sale years ago and it definitely comes in handy.  I dug around to see what color dye I had on hand, and thought that a blue would contrast nicely with the bright green wool.

The lining went together without any issue.

And I did remember to switch needles, since the wool is so much thicker than the silk.  No silk was pulled or snagged in the sewing of this lining!  Microtex needles are pretty phenomenal.

I didn't have quite as much of a hem as I would have liked. but it still works.

Next is a bit of hand sewing.

At this point, the garment is usually finished.  But in this case, there were some issues that cropped up and were too much to ignore.

Those cuffs, however fabulous, are quite heavy.  The pattern piece is essentially a rectangle, but it should be shaped as they want to restrict the sleeves when folded into place (the fold of the cuff should be wider than where it is stitched to the sleeve to create a larger circumference that doesn't push the sleeve in).  But the major problem is that the lining is no match for the heavy wool and the lining has no choice but to pull on the sleeve.  This creates huge drag lines.  This is the fault of the instructions, in my opinion, and unfortunately, the sleeve lining is cut to have a 5/8" seam allowance which means there is no extra length to work with.  If you are to follow the instructions, the edge of the cuff is stitched directly to the sleeve lining.  A properly drafted coat lining includes extra length at the hem and sleeve hem edges to create an extra fold of lining so that nothing pulls or drags.  The fact that the lining is significantly less weighty than the wool (especially multiple layers of wool cuff) exacerbates this issue.  I suspect that leaving the cuff off would produce a slightly better result . . . but it would still be an issue.

I had dyed a limited amount of silk for my lining, so there was no way to cut out two extra sleeves.  And I really didn't feel like redoing my lining at this point.  My only other option was to add a strip of extra fabric along the lining sleeve edge.

It's not an elegant solution, but it works.  And I was so disgusted with the project at this point that I didn't even bother to take pictures after I had corrected the issue.  You can see how the wool sleeve bags at the point where it meets the cuff.  Essentially, the lining is too short and is restricting the wool sleeve from hanging naturally.

Now that the coat has been in a time-out for almost a year, I have decided to forgive it and myself.  What really aggravates me is that I knew this was going to be an issue as soon as I read through the directions.  But did I trust my gut?  No, of course not!  I won't be making that mistake with a coat lining again, that's for sure!  In the end, I have a very wearable wool coat, and I am thankful for that.  I just thought that this was going to be a drama free and easy project to stitch together, and it was definitely not that!