Clare coat

When I booked the sewing outerwear retreat at Guthrie and Ghani, I wasn't sure whether to make the Clare coat or the Kelly anorak. The Kelly looked a lot more difficult so I picked this one for the retreat,  hoping I'd manage the other one, all by myself! I finally decided to get going in November and thought it would be best to take it slowly for such a difficult and involved piece. I took a lot of time cutting the pieces,  fabric and lining. Next step was to fuse the interfacing to the coat fully. I had partially fused interfacing to the entire piece of fabric before cutting the pieces.

I then slowly started to assemble the pieces together, basting the darts before sewing them,  and generally taking my time to sew and to press.

I assembled the lining first because I thought that would be easier to manage.

Finally by the end of November, I had the outside of the coat and the lining.

It was time to add the collar and to make it all into one single piece. I must admit I was dreading that part and I wasn't sure I understood the explanations very well. I had to read quite a few times but that's probably due to my lack of experience in coat making!

Anyway the assembly of the coat to the lining came together a lot easier than I thought. My sewing machine struggled a little with top stitching all the way around the coat because of the number of layers in some places, particularly around the seams.

The final step was to hand sew the fasteners and for some unknown reasons, it took me a few weeks to finally do it.... but since yesterday,  this is all done and even the label has been sewn on!

So my last finish for 2018, a brand new coat that I'm really proud to have managed to make... all by myself!

One last OPAM and one last item of my Q4 FAL list.

Celine