it started, like so many innocent things, with a casual conversation.
ginger: “hey, i am thinking of making a coat.”
me: “yay, that is awesome!”
ginger: ….
ginger: “don’t you think you want to make a coat too?”
me: ….
me: “OF COURSE I DO! let us be best friends forever and i will terrify you with my intricate and insane plots for tailoring and interlining and doug the pug will hide in the piles of your shredded fabrics that i have persuaded you to buy, mwah ha ha.”
ok, it didn’t really go like that.
but i find it helpful to blame ginger for my current, WIP-ified predicament. as you know by now, we settled on the gerard coat by republique du chiffon, which really has a great, on-trend silhouette and that je-n’est-sais-quoi that so many of the cute europrean patterns have. ginger soon zoomed in on the gorgeous pink boucle (with, i confess, some gentle persuasion on my part) and i immediately went for a dyed mohair number from elliott berman textiles that you may have spotted already expertly deployed by rolling in cloth.
and here i got ambitious, but in a different way than ginger.
- i decided to interline the coat. i am a small person and i get cold. easily. the giant mohair blanket was not going to be enough for me, so i cut another layer of lambswool interlining (from steinlauf and stoller).
- i decided to do some light tailoring on the coat with horsehair canvas from the stash.
- doing both of these things meant cutting an extra four pieces of each pattern piece, and that was before i cut the lining.
and o! the lining! i was desperate to cut everything out all in one day and used some stash, off-white flannel-backed satin. but really the off-white was way too plain and since it was polyester i could not tie-dye it into oblivion. so i scored two competing options from B&J fabrics and after much instagram persuasion settled on the gray.
then me and gerry had a little spat. nothing major, but i had so many cut-out pieces and bits and bobs that i was completely not in the mood to associate myself with him and i needed some alone time. dude, i can’t be tied down. i’m a free spirit. or at least that would have been the conversation if, you know, garments could talk.
ginger: “how are you doing with your coat?”
me: …
ginger: “i am DONE. DONE. mwah ha ha.”
and now, back on track, i have this. more to come when i get that lining in there and that hem tacked down.
hehe oh boy. I can’t wait to see you rockin this coat.
soon! i am in the home stretch!
Pretty……..
thanks! i wanted a sort of unconventional coat fabric and i think i got there.
Hahaha, this post makes me smile. I admire your patience in this project, it would drive me nuts 🙂
sometimes a good, multi-step project that can be put away and picked up again is the perfect thing…and sometimes it is horrifying! 🙂
Morning……at least it is in the UK……I love the fabric you’ve chosen, it’s looking good. BTW did you finish your beautiful mutli-coloured zip frenchie? Maybe you could post some photos to inspire those of us that are just starting the pattern-cutting stage.
i have finished my zip frenchie (which, thank you, i am always going to call it that from now on) and have been forbidden from positing it until i am able to take proper photographs of it. very, very soon – I HOPE. but spoiler alert: i love it.
Such excellent fabric! And a classic tale of construction! Great stuff!
let us just hope it has a happy ending 🙂
This is going to be gorgeous. I have been eying mohair lately but I’m on the fence. I’m not sure how it would look on a guy — THIS guy.
it’s true, between the shape of the coat and the hugeness of the fabric it is a bit overwhelming (especially the brief moment where i had sleeve heads attached), but i decided to embrace it and feel small in the coat.
it’s going to look brilliant! it will be worth all the extra effort!
i think you are right!
STOP BLOGGING AND FINISH YOUR COAT!! Just kidding… but only KIND OF. 😉
THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT
Your Gérard will be the best, just because you took extra tailoring steps. It looks pretty good already!
thank you carmen, i think you are right – that little bit of tailoring goes a long way in taking the coat to that next level…
I LOooOOOOOOooooVE it!!!
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Omg! I love it already. That fabric is everything!