I made this new coat-ish/dress-ish/shirt-ish sort of a thing for myself!
How beautiful is this linen?? It’s stunning, isn’t it. I’m head over heels in love with the print – gorgeously colourful, bird-strewn, with the looks of an ancient, beautiful patchwork… the colours are so painterly/flower-garden with that lovely distressed quality that appeals to my quixotic little heart that likes stuff to be rustic but also pretty too. I’d only bought a shortish length really, and it really teetered on the verge of being Too Good To Cut, I had it laid out for quite a while, trying to gathering the courage to take the scissors to it! I only managed it really because it was on my list of twelve things and having those intentions blogged sorta forces me to stick by my own self-commitments. I bought it some time last year from Fabulous Fabrics, using a voucher that was a birthday gift from some of my lovely friends.
The pattern is the Carolyn pj pattern by Closet Core patterns, yes, the one named after ME! I can’t say still how thrilled I STILL am to have a pattern named after me, it was such a huge honour, and I often think how I’d like to have more of “my” pattern in my own wardrobe too… I still wear my white Carolyn shirt quite a lot. I saw Rosie from ArtworkerProjects had made her Carolyn as a shirtdress, and this made me think I’d like to make something like that, and I’d also seen, and pinned this beautiful coat once upon a time, and the two thoughts slowly alchemistry-ed and absolved themselves into this one project in my mind, eventually…
I lengthened the body pieces, obviously, and I also lengthened the turning point of the lapel a little, so the coat buttons a little lower than it does on the pattern. The other, internal, change I made was to add a back facing… this stabilises this area, something not necessary in a shirt but that you definitely want in a coat, for sure!
Oh, I added pockets… #ofcourse
I finished all the internal raw edges with HongKong seaming… because obviously in a garment that will flap open while you’re wearing it you want the insides to be as pretty as possible! For this, I used the leftovers of the turquoise poplin, that I used for one of the masks I made for Craig’s Mum.
Now’s the moment when I indulge in a bit of zero-waste bragging, ahem #insufferable? #moi? … so; I made a long bias strip using the entirety of the turquoise leftovers and have about 15cm of it left… when this happens in a project it’s actually SO satisfying!! Also, there are only the smallest of the colourful linen print scraps leftover too… I might have enough for a doll’s mini-dress, but not much else!
For the button, and continuing on with my policy of not buying any buttons unless I Absolutely Have To; I found this purple, wool-covered button in my stash, and I love how it doesn’t really match, but at the same time it’s kind of a perfect match too.
So, if you hate obsessiveness in sewing, look away right now. I initially just used off- white thread in my bobbin for when I stitched down the front and back facings… and it looked pretty terrible. I tried to not let it bother me, but ultimately twas a lost cause… eventually I had to unpick most of it and re-do it using matching threads. So, some of the sections are in blue, some are in red, some are in off-white and some in pink. Yes, this is a weird thing to do, but I’m very satisfied with how it looks, so… yeah. I think it was worth unpicking and re-doing, from my point of view!
This is the latest, and ninth, thing in my little collection of twelve things, that I proposed I would make for myself at the beginning of the year and … regretted…? many times over?!?! ok, not so much “regretted-regretted”, because I sincerely love all the fabrics, and have sincerely loved all of the finished products too, just “regretted” as in “have struggled with” as in I just don’t have as much spare time nowadays to lavish on them as I initially thought I would. I’m NOT trying to busy-brag because I kinda loooooathe when some people go on and on about not having time for fun stuff like it’s your job or something, so I apologise for those overtones… wooo! Sorry about that.
Anyway! I’m so happy I’ve got this made! and also that I stuck with my original “coat” plan and didn’t get sidetracked into some little sundress like I was SORELY tempted to do instead, multiple times over! I really love it!
Details:
Coat; from the Closet Core patterns Carolyn pj pattern, linen from Fabulous Fabrics
White dress; Vogue 1351, white crepe from Fabulous Fabrics, details here
Sandals; ye olde favourites from Zomp boutique
Your coat is beautiful. I would have trouble cutting into a fabric this pretty I would be so afraid of spoiling it but oh your results are splendid.
thank you so much Connie! 🙂
Such amazingly beautiful fabric. I understand your hesitation. But you carried it off using a simple and very useful style. Really stunning. Brava!
thank you very much Barbara! I’m planning to get lots of wear out of it 🙂
very pretty, love all those colors in that fabric. And I just noticed that your make nine plan is quite colorful this year as well – including turquoise 🙂 that cute skirt.
thanks Beth! I like to think my wardrobe is getting prettier! I felt like it was looking very drab for a few years there 🙂
I absolutely LOVE this jacket/coat! The fabric is just so perfect so I can understand your hesitancy is deciding what to make but, no fear, you’ve made a fabulous garment. Thanks for sharing.
thank you very much Karen! 🙂
I can see why you fell in love with this gorgeous linen – it really is a piece made in fabric heaven. The resulting jacket is perfect and I hope you find plenty of excuses to wear it often.
thank you Sarah Liz! I do plan to wear it a lot, even though socialising has dropped off quite a lot!
Hong kong seams are on my list of things to try out. Your coat is amazing. Jo xxx
thank you Jo! Once you try Hong Kong seams you will find more and more excuses to use them; they really look so pretty! 🙂
your jacket looks amazing. I too love linen in colorfoul prints. Hope Cassie and all of you are doing well. Anita from a decidedly chilly Basel
thank you so much Anita! We are all very well and happy, thank you, I hope you are doing really well too 🙂
I love all you do !!! The fabric choice as the garment !!!!!