Jedi Smurf Coat: Sewing the Skirt

I'm back with the next update on sewing the coat. 

In this post, I talked about the trouble I had sewing the pockets onto the front skirt panels. I emailed Burda for help; they replied with pictures of how the pockets are to be sewn. It makes SO MUCH more sense now!

The instructions say to lay hip yoke piece (12) right sides together with lower front. Seam line meets with open side edge.

What the instructions don't say is that this piece should be oriented upside down! I tried every configuration I could think of - EXCEPT this. 😬

 

Such a small - but important - detail! Now I see why it's important to clip at the mark: it helps making turning the hip yoke to the inside easier.

 

Despite now understanding how this is supposed to work, I still did my own thing because my fabric was just too thick to do it this way.

After the pocket flap is attached, I stitched the pocket lining to the front, right sides together. The pocket flap is sandwiched between the two layers.

After rolling and pressing the seam to the inside, I understitched the lining in place.

Next I pinned the hip yoke to the pocket lining, right sides together.

(wrong side of the skirt faces up)

 

I stitched the vertical seam from the waistline to the point where the pocket flap ends.

 

 

Sewing this area took a bit of finesse. I basted by hand and sewed carefully to make the front corner area remained smooth and flat.

 

Once the front hip yoke is sewn (and edges finished) to the pocket lining, I stitched in the ditch through all layers to secure yoke to the front.

 

 

The pockets sag a bit because of the weight of my fabric. Even in the model photos, there appears to be some level of bagginess.

As of today, the lining is completely sewn and attached to the facing. I'm dragging my feet on finishing the coat because the already-hemmed lining is longer than the coat in a few places. Why? I have no idea. I need to trim all of that off and re-hem it. 

 

Finally, I need to attach the sleeve lining to the sleeves, add buttonholes, and attach the buttons.

Preliminary assessment:  ehhhh...it looks great from the front on the dress form. On me though, I don't think it's the right shape/style. The coat is very full and sticks out in unflattering ways.

It's hella warm, though. 😁

L

 

 

 

 

Jedi Smurf Coat: Sewing the Muslin (part 1 - bodice & sleeves)

Even though I pretty much know my Burda size, occasionally I still make muslins to gauge fit. As this coat has a particular style and my fabric was expensive, I wanted to make sure that I understood the construction steps.

Usually when I make a muslin, I don't include facings, collars, pockets, or anything that doesn't pose a fit challenge. But with this coat, I cut out every non-lining piece - including the facings. There are three different separate facing pieces and I wanted to know how they all worked.

The front facing is stitched to the dolman sleeve and the the free edge of the facing is stitched to the bodice. This gives that "floating" look of the the gun flap.

 

The back facing, dolman sleeve, and back bodice are stitched similarly.

 

The inner and outer hood are both cut from shell fabric. Once the hood is attached, the back neck facing is stitched to the bodice self-facings and the neckline enclosed in one long seam. This might present a problem because of the number of layers stitched in this area. I thought about using lining fabric for the inner hood to reduce bulk, but I don't want the contrast fabric to show on the outside. I'll have to think about this.

 

For the most part, assembling the upper front went smoothly. It will be time consuming with all of the pieces, interfacing, topstitching, pressing, and buttonholes, but it won't be a challenge.

 

Next I'll talk about sewing the lower front and those pockets. 😬

L