Made By A Fabricista: My New Favorite Fall Wool Coat

Hi- 

Hope all is well!  Well it’s that time of year again...fall wardrobe time!  Or shall I say “sewing up” your fall wardrobe time?  I have been busy sewing up as much as I can, before I miss out on the cooler temperatures coming our way in Las Vegas.  One "to sew" item on my list is a coat; therefore, when I saw this canary yellow wool melton coating (although I refer to this as "mustard-colored") from Fabric Mart, I jumped at the opportunity to get some of it.  Right away, I knew I wanted to make Simplicity 8469.  I like a few views of this pattern, but with this fabric I chose to make View A. I must say this is a relatively easy coat pattern to sew and I enjoyed making it.

This is my first time sewing with wool melton and the texture reminds me of felt.  I wasn’t sure how to pre-treat this fabric, so initially, I pressed and gave it a good steam.  As I was doing this, a lot of lint was coming off the fabric.

Then it occurred to me that if I put the fabric in the dryer on low to medium heat, perhaps I could get more lint to come off.  So I hung my fabric up and evenly sprayed it with water and threw it in the dryer with a couple of my lavender dryer sheets.  There was quite a bit of lint in the lint trap, but the fabric came out beautifully.  I read online that this fabric will continue to develop lint balls for awhile, but with more wear the amount of lint will decrease overtime.  In the meantime, I will just keep a lint shaver handy.

To sew this I used a size 80 or 90 universal needle and I switched to a size 60 or 70 microtex needle to sew my lining, because the lining fabric was a bit fragile.  Initially, I was going to use a neutral colored lining that I found in my stash.  Before pre-treating the lining, I cut the pocket lining out, so I could continue working while the lining was in the washing machine. 

 

Unfortunately, the rest of the neutral lining was ruined in the washing machine.  It developed some sort of stain pattern throughout that was very noticeable in person.  It may have been damaged by the detergent or it may have been a dry clean only fabric.  I think it was given to me, so I can’t say for certain what the proper care instructions should have been.  Therefore, I put my coat project on hold until I could figure out what lining to go with.  After thinking, thinking, and more thinking...one night as I was falling asleep, it’s like a voice in my head screamed LEOPARD PRINT!!!  Of course, this was the best way to go!  

The great news is I had about 4 to 5 yards of leopard print fabric that I picked up a few years ago.  I was never able to decide what I wanted to make with it.  I am a leopard print fanatic, seriously! I have so many items in leopard print, right down to my Snuggie!  So this fabric was special to me and I was saving it for just the right thing!  

Now I must say after sewing with this leopard print fabric, I feel that it is best suited for lining, but it didn’t stop me from making a quick blouse with the leftover.  I made it with Simplicity 8216, View C, which is a pattern I won’t make again, but it really did work for this look!  Go check out my blog to see the blouse without the coat on and read about my little mishap, that turned out okay.

While getting sewing tips for wool melton, I came across a tip that said you really don’t need to use interfacing with this fabric, because of its weight and stability.  I was a little skeptical, so I asked a sewing veteran, Carolyn from Diary of a Sewing Fanatic, for a little advice while chatting on Instagram DM.  She said that I should use interfacing in my facing or it would collapse, she recommended woven interfacing, silk organza, or cotton batiste/twill.  I went to my local fabric store and found a “cotton organdy” which I thought seemed similar to her suggestions after discussing with a couple of the ladies in the store.  It was my first time using sew-in interfacing and I am ADDICTED to using it for jacket/blazer/coat facings.  I have already used sew-in interfacing again in a blazer project that I completed.  I love not getting the shrinkage and bubbling from the fusible interfacing that I use normally.  I was confident that my local fabric store would carry the silk organza interfacing that Carolyn suggested, so I stalled on ordering it for this coat.  However, I still want to order some to have on hand for the next great fabric.

I used magnetic snaps for the closures and these snaps are so great, because they just "automatically" snap into place.  They are also very easy to un-snap to allow the coat to be worn open.  Most of the times I like to wear my coat open, unless it is really cold outside.

I have mentioned on my Instastories that I don’t split, open up, or trim down darts even if they are big, BUT this fabric was so thick that it was necessary for me to split the darts open on this coat.  (Okay pardon my lighting in some of these pictures coming up below, but hopefully you are able to see the details.)

I had a little fun with top stitching, which actually served two purposes...1) to keep the bulky seams in place and 2) to add a little extra detail to the design.

For the sleeve, I wanted to double-over the wool fabric to make the bell portion, but I did not have enough fabric to do it.  I wasn’t interested in lining it per the instructions, so I cut them as single pieces and finished it with neutral bias tape.

I want to make this coat again, but in View C.  It would be amazing to have the cap sleeve version of this coat to wear with long sleeve shirts and turtlenecks for a cool fall evening.

Well, that's all I have for this post, until next time take care. Don't forget to check out my blog for more details on the blouse!

Yours truly, Tee
Maggie Elaine Blog