This was a real fell-in-love with the fabric and had a vision project, and luckily it just about turned out how I imagined! It’s yet another spin on the Lysimaque Nenuphar pattern, taken the way of Shrimps with a bit of hacking and that statement fabric…
I bought this fabric as soon as I saw it on Simply Fabrics’ Instagram feed (it’s still available and agh check out this ex-Gucci cornflower blue faux fur too??!!) and knew I’d be making a fun coat from it ASAP. It’s apparently ex Paloma Wool, which happens to be my favourite RTW brand, although I can’t find the matching garment in question in their archive.
I still love last winter’s Nenuphar but it’s quite plain and who doesn’t need a bit more enjoyment in their clothes right now – not to mention warmth, this thing is wool-rich, heavy and c-o-s-y. I was a bit intimidated when the fabric arrived: it’s got such mighty, puffy loft that I could barely fold it into my fabric storage cubbies, which was at least good motivation to sew it up quickly rather than get sewing stage fright and put it off.
I added length to the Nenuphar pieces to get the below-butt fit I was after and similarly to before cut self-drafted facings. I also increased the depth and spread of the collar to account for the bouncy fabric’s turn of cloth, and finally added a jaunty side-angle to the pocket tops for more ergonomic hand-stuffing.
The fabric really dictated the sewing process and I had to play it slightly on edge at times to tame it: it’s an alarming-to-sewists blend of thick, loopy-textured and very ravel-prone. I overlocked all the raw edges prior to sewing and even that was shedding off in places by the time I picked up the pieces again!
That said, I used most of the normal tricks for such a combo – walking foot, sturdy needle, elongated stitch length, judiciously applied interfacing, reinforcing stress points with twill tape, not trimming seams too closely, using a lighter weight fabric for the undercollar and pocket lining, pressing and clapping the life out of it – and other than getting a bit of a workout manhandling it around my sewing room by the end it wasn’t too dramatic.
I gave it the full bagged lining treatment, both to add more stability and because the inside of the textile was quite rough. I used Stoff & Stil’s woven viscose, a favourite for being silky and fluid but still relatively stable to work with, and was pleased that the dark grey was a decent match for my flowers. It’s been a while since I bagged a coat so I referred to the method and pattern cutting from the Named Yona coat to jog my memory.
It closes with concealed sewn-on chunky snaps also from S&S, because buttonholes in this fabric hahahah are you kidding me.
Enjoyed a couple of weekend walks where it kept me admirably cosy, in and around the frankly horrible news of the new Covid strain to hit the south of the UK and resulting new tier 4 restrictions. So it’ll be walks around the park only in this guy’s near future.
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