Hi fellow sewers

So i've finished my Sussex Seamstress Firle coat. I will get some pics of me wearing it. For now i thought i'd share these.

I absolutely loved sewing with boiled wool. My Pfaff had no problems at all.

I did line the coat. I was on the home straight when I decided it was too big. So I took the lining apart. I had started with a size 14. I just felt the coat was generally too big. I cut the pattern pieces down to a size 12. Where i could, sometimes the pattern changes shape and you cut your size. Then when you need to make a smaller sIze, you have cut a bit of the shape off. If that makes sense.

As much as possible I made a size 12 up in the lining. But wasn't happy with it. I really needed to get a copy shop O printed again. So I could cut the pattern our accurately. I either waited to get that arranged, or carry on.

I decided to take in a bit of the back panel out if the boiled wool coat. I think it was 4 cm at the hem. Grading to 1 cm at the arms. Which helped.

Rather than turning over the front edge by 3 cm, all the way up and including around the hood, I went for 4 cm. Which also helped a bit.

I made a decision not line the coat again. I made loads of bias binding with gorgeous Stof cotton fabric, left over from a shirt project. I'm pretty new to this. I covered the hood joins and shoulder joins with bias binding. I would have attempted Hong King seams if i had started the coat from scratch. I watched Jo from Minerva make a FPC coat from boiled wool. The video gave me the ideas for changing direction with my coat.

I used bias binding to cover the hem at the base of the coat. Also the sleeve turn ups. And the front seams.

I really enjoyed this change of direction. Probably more than lining the coat, if i'm honest. I went from being upset that the coat wouldn't turn out very well, to being pretty happy with it.

The coat was easy to make. Sewing the binding on took hours. And then adding toggles. It was a real labour of love. I do love hand sewing. I think adding the bias binding elevates the coat.

I do feel like I made this coat twice! Adding extra bits to the pockets and changing direction was a challenge. But honestly it was worth it.

I am now a massive fan of boiled wool. I went into the project with trepidation and ended up in love with it.

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