I had a wonderful time making the patchwork jacket for my Great British Sewing Bee inspired challenge and I have worn it a lot, but the cropped length and sleeves meant it wasn’t going to see me through the winter. Fortunately, I got the Megan Nielsen Hovea pattern for Christmas and had added the quilted coat to my #makenine22 list, so I was all set to rectify this!
I had originally planned to make my own patchwork for the project, but earlier in the year I splurged on some absolutely gorgeous jacquard fabric from Merchant and Mills and decided to use that instead. The fabric design looks like quilted stars and I thought it would make a really fun and interesting coat.
The jacquard fabric isn’t particularly thick, but it is made up of two layers – much like a double gauze. I pondered what to use for the lining and thought a cotton voile would probably be best as it is nice and lightweight, but I wanted my coat to be really warm and instead opted for some plain quilting cotton. In hindsight I think the voile would have been a better option as my coat has ended up being a little bulky, but it is definitely very toasty!
As well as being a little bulky, I think my coat is a bit too big and if I made it again, I would definitely size down. I am between a size 2 and 4 on the Megan Nielsen size chart and although the pattern states that plenty of ease has been included, I opted to make the size 4 which was probably the wrong decision! It sounds silly, but I feel like someone wearing one of those inflatable sumo wrestler costumes when I put it on at the moment – I think wearing it and washing it to break it in will be key to softening it up, so I will definitely be working on that over the next few months.
In terms of construction, once I had quilted my pieces and cut everything out while painstakingly pattern-matching, actually putting my coat together didn’t take that long at all. I chose to bind the seams using the same quilting cotton I had lined it with and once I had attached the binding using my machine, I slip stitched it down to finish the insides neatly. As a quilter with lots of experience of this, I’m pretty quick and this stage didn’t add much extra time to the project at all.
I decided not to bind the sleeve seams as I was beginning to worry about bulk and stiffness and thought this would be a bad move. Instead, I overlocked the arm syce and sleeve head before inserting the sleeve and then pressed the seam open, which I think is definitely less bulky and was a great call.
I really wanted to be delighted with my finished coat as I had been looking forward to making it for so long and it was such a labour of love, but at the moment, I’m not. It’s certainly very warm and will be worn a lot this winter (mostly around the house) but I just think my choice of lining fabric and size means it has missed the mark slightly and, in all honesty, I’m a bit disappointed with it. I still adore the Hovea pattern and I have seen so many beautiful versions on Instagram that I will definitely make another one. I will just be sure to make better choices about my fabrics and the size I cut next time!