How to sew a coat while ruling the world

I am the master of the universe, the queen of winter, cold and snow. I rule the rain and clouds and will walk upon your shivers. The frost is helpless in the face of my woolen empire. My faithful minions – Scissors, Thread and The Machine – are eager for the next adventure. With their flashing steel they cut the fabric of time. Machines needle will defend me against the forces of nature. And Thread will clad me in an indestructible armor.




Not sure if I could have exaggerated more… wait… no, I don’t think I could :-D

So, I am back to earth and will reveal the reason of my modest bragging. I have sewn a coat. Yes, me who could not make the easiest skirt of the world work for her. I have honestly made a woolen coat which fits me well enough to be worn in public. I guess one component of my success was the stretchy boiled wool fabric which is much more forgiving than woven fabric (yes, woven fabric, I am speaking of you and your betrayal) and the other is a new book I could not resist to buy.
It is Yuko Katayama, Mein Lieblings-Mantel selbstgenäht from Stiebner. This translates roughly into „Sewing my beloved coat“. Sadly, for all English readers, the book is till now only published in German and Japanese. But as most Japanese sewing books, I guess with a bit of experience you do not need the text and the pictures are enough.




Before I jump into a short review, I must tell you that nobody bought me the book, and sadly nobody pays me to write my opinion (hey there Stiebner publishing house, I am not disinclined to get paid with money, fame or world domination). But I highly recommended this lovely book, if you are in search of a handmade coat or jacket. The book offers 5 different styles of coats – drop shoulder, raglan sleeves, set in sleeves, set in sleeves with a high sleeve head and kimono-style sleeves. Katayama does not stop here, but also presents several variations: There are options for collars, pockets, length-variations, coats with lining or without etc. All in all, 18 different coats are presented with textual and pictorial explanations, but if you are adventurous you could create many more different styles. All used techniques are explained. For example, how to sew a bound buttonhole or how the lining is attached to the inside of the coat. Some of the techniques are backed up by short videos you can access with your phone or tablet (I haven’t tried this out so far).




The book is originally written in Japanese and perhaps also for the Japanese market, so the sizes are smaller than the European sizes. We are presented with 4 sizes (S-XL) which are tailored for 1,64 cm height (which is exactly my height 🎉). Chest measurements starts with 78 cm (S) and reach up to 90 cm (XL). But the finished measurements of the coats are slightly oversized, so that someone bigger than XL can also use the patterns (I am talking about myself 😄). Annoyingly the raglan and the kimono-sleeve pattern are designed smaller than the other coats. And guess which are the patterns I want to try out? SIGH! The kimono-sleeve coat has a finished bust measurement of 112 and the raglan coat of 111,5 cm. I have chosen the raglan coat without lining, so I had to do a bit of thinking and resizing. The publisher offers a tutorial to modify the pattern sizes on the website, but although I honor the effort, the tutorial is not very profound. For example, there is no advice how to alter the sleeve width or armhole height and I never tried this for a raglan sleeve.




After grumbling for a day, I decided to simply draw the whole pattern one size bigger. As the pattern is layered I could orientate my resizing at the existing distances between the smaller sizes. In hindsight this was not necessary, the coat would have been big enough in XL 😂 With my altered sizing my finished coat now has a bust measurement of 120 cm and the hip width is 130 cm (all measurements taken when its closed).
The fabric I used is a kind of tweedy boiled wool with a lot of stretch. The fabric is perfect for such a lazy and impatient sewist like me –it does not fray and it molds itself around my curves.




I cut out all parts of the coat and added the seam allowance, as it is not included in the paper pattern. I decided to make the rounded collar and to use a patch pocket. For the button band the pattern recommends bound buttonholes, but this appeared to complicated and I changed the design to „normal“ buttonholes (which I have never made before 😱). And this button band is the starting point and I went through it with bravery: interfacing ironed on, one test and I was ready to go. And surprisingly all went well… suspiciously well…. Slightly in doubt I may have overlooked something I preceded with sewing back and fronts together, closing the sleeves and after this setting in the first sleeve.




Still all went well. I tried the coat on, and it looked already like something you could wear in daylight. On to the next sleeve and the collar. Sewing a collar was also completely new to me. But the explanations of the book were enough to understand how to do it. First, I was told to attach the under collar to the body of the coat and then to attach the upside part of the collar to the facing. Next step was to sew the facing including the collar on the fronts of the coat and then top stitch. Along the front with the buttonholes….! You already notice the problem? I forgot to sew buttonholes into the facing – ahhhhhhhhhhhh.





Now I ran out of luck. Panicked I tried to sew buttonholes into the already sewn in facing and forgot to iron on some interfacing before doing so. The soft fabric was pulled into the stitch plate and together with half of the bobbin thread formed a horrible mess. I had to open the machine and tried half an hour to get the facing out of the stitch plate without cutting a hole into it. I managed… but instead I cut a hole into my finger (I exaggerated, I only poked my finger with the seam ripper). But the problem persisted. I could not make buttonholes into the facing. The seams were too thick and the sewing foot always got stuck. I had to do it by hand, and you all know how much I despise hand-sewing. After this, I needed a time out 😂




Next day with more patience I hemmed the coat and sewed on the buttons. The uppermost buttonhole is still not functioning, but the rest works ok. The last thing which I must do in the next days is to attach the pockets. But I was so excited about the coat, that I took it out for a dinner and museum visit without the pockets.





After reading the introduction you understand how happy I am that I managed to sew a coat (I still cannot believe it while writing it down). I know I made the simplest coat variation, without the lining and with the easiest sleeve option of raglan sleeves, but nevertheless, I did it.



Thank you @crosheille for initiating and @muscara, @shanibeer, @marblely for hosting the #needleworkmonday. If you want to see more beautiful projects with yarn, fabric and most of all needles, follow @needleworkmonday. Or even better grab your needles and keyboard and join the #needleworkmonday community.