When the Vogue patterns were on sale recently I fell for this pattern of a raglan sleeved loose-fitting coat. I had some beautiful pure wool in my stash that had been donated by a friend a few years ago and I thought that it would be ideal for the garment. I decided to make view C but without the strong contrasting right front. The fabric is labelled “Spots” but my husband and and I both preferred the “wrong” side which is checks so that is the side that I decided to use.

I cut out the Large size which is for a 16-18 as in the past I have found Vogue patterns tend to come up on the large side and as I have narrow shoulders compared to the rest of me I did not want to be swamped by the coat. I took care to match the checks as it is a particular “foible” of mine that it is most important to match the design when using checks. As I thought the sharp corner on the hem edge of the left front was jarring, (you can carry asymetry too far) I curved it to match the curve on the right front.

Although it is not included in the instructions, I used Weft Insertion Vilene ref no 401 fusible interfacing on all the pieces of wool fabric. This gives substance to the garment, a longer “life expectancy” and helps to provide a professional finish.

The lining is a copy of the fashion fabric pattern pieces and the jacket is then lined edge-to-edge. This does not provide any room for ease in the lining such as a pleat at the centre back. As I believe that I will be wearing the jacket sometimes whilst driving it is essential to provide for movement in the shoulder, upper back and arms. When cutting out the lining fabric I therefore incorporated a pleat in the centre back and also in the length of the sleeves.

Like Goldilocks and the three bears, to add some structure and definition to the edge-to-edge finishing I auditioned some piping from my stash. First I tried some “thick” piping covered in Black Satin, that was too bulky so I removed the piping cord to give a flat bias trim. Still not right. Then I tried ready-made narrow piping in Rusty Red, better, but the colour was not a sufficiently good match. Finally, I covered the ready-made piping with the Black Satin bias – just right. I made the piping and basted to the entire outside edge of the coat. Around the neckline/collar, down one front, across the back hemline and up the other front before re-joining at the centre back of the collar.

I stitched the lining together with the adaptations mentioned above and then attached to the jacket in accordance to the instructions, leaving a gap in the back hemline to facilitate turning through to the right side. I tried another fitting with the raglan shoulder pads installed and checked the length of the sleeves. I turned up a 2 inch hem on the wool fabric and having reduced the sleeve linings by 2 inches. A big sigh! All along whilst sewing the jacket I had thought that the shaping of the shoulders might be a problem and I was right. The silhouette was very 80’s – talk about power dressing – I looked like and American football player!

There was nothing for it but to make an alteration! Those of you that know me also know that I detest alterations and having to make one on a garment that was so near completion is a real pain. I unstitched the hem lining and removed the shoulder pad, restitched a new shoulder seam by shaving off approximately ¾ inch before returning to the original seamline. Now there was no need for a shoulder pad to fill out the excess fabric and the jacket silhouette though no perfect was more in proportion rather than an upside down triangle.

A final press, stitched the hem on the sleeves, closed the gap in the centre back hemline where I had turned the coat through and the garment was completed. At present, like the pattern there is no closure but that may well change at some stage in the future.