Butterick 5824: Grey Wool Coat

Finished, just in time for Winter Storm Brutus!!  This pattern is part of the new Patterns by Gertie line for Butterick.  I participated in the October coat sew-along on Gertie’s blog and I’m really glad I did.  There is no way I would have finished the coat on my own.  Well, not before next summer anyway!  The pattern is labeled easy, but I beg to differ.  The back collar treatment is a bit tricky, but Gertie put a great video on her blog that helps explain it much better than the written instructions ever could.  That was the only step that threw me for a loop.  Having sewn tailored jackets in the past, I found the process to be quite enjoyable.  Okay, upon journaling my review thus far, perhaps I was a bit hasty to correlate easy with beginner.  Yes, the pattern is easy if you are at least an experienced beginner.  I would not recommend this pattern as a first project, however.  That said, I LOVE this coat.

It certainly has the largest skirt sweep of any garment I own.  There is a lot of fabric there!  I purchased the grey wool at Joann fabrics ($30/yd) with a 50% off coupon for $15/yd.  Gotta love those coupons.  All that fabric gives the coat great twirl factor:

It is lined with lavender China silk, which I purchased at Yellowbird Fabrics in SLC.  When I was at Sewing Summit last month, I had the privilege of attending Saria Mitnick’s lecture on special occasion sewing.  After reading her Collette Sewing Handbook last year, I determined that I would sew with silk whenever the opportunity lended itself, and her lecture was the boost I needed to invest those $$ in high quality fabric.  Mind you, this coat requires yards and yards of outer fabric as well as lining fabric.  I was tempted to settle for a polyester lining because of the cost factor.  After all, it wouldn’t show and nobody would know whether it was silk or polyester, right?  Wrong.  I would know and it mattered to me.  So glad I made the leap from polyester to silk.  What a difference in the drape and the feel of the coat.  Here’s a picture of the lining before I finished the sleeve and bottom hems.

BTW, if you ever have the opportunity to attend an event where Sarai Mitnick is speaking, I encourage you to go.  It will be time well spent.

I made bound buttonholes and for the inside “slit”, I used the straight stitch buttonhole (#59) on my sewing machine.  It helps to reinforce the area around the slit so it doesn’t stretch out.

One last finishing detail is this great retro–inspired rooster pin that I purchased especially for my new coat.

Rooster Pin by Heidi Daus for HSN

Lastly, here is a gratuitous Basset photo of my big boy in the background plowing through the snow with his sniffer as all good hound dogs would do.

On my sewing table this week is Vogue 8667.  Thanks for stopping by and please leave a comment as I love to interact with other blog readers.

Pam