Luzerne trench coat

At the beginning of May I got a new job – starting June 1st. My sewing immediately kicked into overdrive and I was consumed with a desire to sew as much as possible – I made myself a Beatrix blouse and two more Bonnie tops in just three days. But I got to thinking, I use to sew a lot in the evenings after work,  and what I really should do with my remaining free days was tackle something new and challenging. I’ve wanted a beige trench coat for ages and I decided that this  was the time to go for it.

I chose the Luzerne trench coat from Deer and Doe and  found some beautiful light weight twill at Raystich. I had wanted something a little heavier, but it was the exact color I had in mind so decided just to go for it. And in the end it was the perfect weight!

Now the very first step had me out of my comfort zone: bound buttonholes. I’ve never made these before and I really should have practiced a few times on some scrap. But after procrastinating for a day I jumped straight in. A note for next time, when sewing the squares, it’s best to use a slightly shorter stitch to ensure the corners are night and tight. While they are not brilliant, they’re not an eye sore so I decided to be happy with them.

As the pattern requires 10 meters of bias binding for Hong Kong seams (though in the end for size 40 I only needed 9 meters) I decided to buy some  (instead of making it myself like I normally do). However at first I couldn’t find anything that caught my eye.  Then I saw IT.  You know how it is, nothing is right and then it jumps out at you and no matter how expensive it is you have to have it (it was £2.20 a meter – you do the math). And I love the effect!

For the buttons I headed over the McCulloch & Walllis to find myself the exact buttons I wanted. All in all my supplies set me back a pretty penny but as I finally am leaving unemployment behind, I decided to treat myself!

Now the facing was a little tricky. Obviously the princess seams and back yoke were sewn with a 5/8″ seam, but that meant that the facing with is bias bound edge extended 5/8″ over the seam. After basting the facing to the coat, I felt like this resulted in excess amounts of fabric just flapping about inside (as you can see in the photos below). In the end I tacked it down at the seams.

I am so pleased with the final result and the pockets oh the pockets – it is exactly what I wanted and it turned out pretty good. I’m super glad I took it on while I had whole days to devote to sewing as it progressed quite rapidly.