Bracken Crafts- 100 garments: Lilac Velvet Coat - Arkivestry for Simplicity 1732

This is my new winter coat made from lilac upholstery grade velvet. Its a dull grey winter day today in Coventry, UK so sorry about photo quality etc.

This was really a HUGE project for me but I am very happy with the final outcome.I actually started this coat last winter, in February I think, and never finished it because it kind of evolved. The pattern is Arkivestry for Simplicity 1732.

The fur collar and cuffs are made from a long faux fur infinity scarf I found for 99p in a charity shop and this is how the whole project began. I have had the pattern for ages but never had the right fabric.

To make the lilac velvet fabric work I had to cut the side panels the opposite way to the centre panels in order to eke it out. I suppose so long as I do not tell then most folk will think the different direction of the nap are intentional details.

Its taken quite a while because I started this in February 2017 and actually spent about 3 weeks virtually constantly stitching ( as in whenever I was not at work I was stitching this up). Then gave up in May and ignored this all summer then the last 3 weeks just to work out how to finish it. Then actually doing the finishing has taken quite a while but now its done.

I had sewed everything up pretty fast really and started to hand sew up the lining hem to the velvet outer. Well as you know I hate hand sewing and when March came in 2017 it was quite warm and I no longer needed this coat. So I found other projects and it sat there waiting which as it turns out was for the best.

The actual construction is pretty easy. I even added braid to decorate the sleeves where the fur and velvet meets to continue the Arrivestry Steam Punk theme. I decided to use my black braid around the sleeves, which I bought for just such a project while not yet knowing what I was going to do with it. I like the effect very much. Its hard to see on the photos but I will take more and add them later to try to show this bit.

Then I made my only mistake with this. I have this lilac faux silk / satin. Possibly it is charmeuse but I am not certain. I bought 6m of it ages ago and was a real bargain, but it will be difficult to wear in every day life though I do see a nice work shirt coming out of it at some future occasion once I find the right pattern. Its more the sort of fabric people make bridesmaids dresses from then line coats with but it’s the perfect colour and I want this to be a very special coat so have taken a lot of time over this garment.

But what I should have done here was use the satin side in the sleeves and the silk side for the body because I love the luxurious look the silk gives as a lining but the sleeves do not really have enough “slip” so the satin side would have worked better. I even considered taking them out and redoing them but I had already spliced them all around to help them lay flat and was not sure I could achieve this and in the end its not the end of the world and not unliveable so I decided to just live with this and learn for my next coat.

The fact is it still works. It just could have been better. But then sewing is a learning process and from now on I will be considering this sleeve lining issue at my planning stage. I had to hand stitch the hem and the sleeve linings to the velvet outer and here is where I gave up. By then it was May and it was very hot so I was not going to wear this coat for months so I just put it aside till now. I also hate hand stitching anything!

But then November arrived and I started to think of caots again. It was not too cold yet but I knew it would be soon, so time to get round to finishing this. Despite my extreme hatred of hand stitching I could really do with a nice new (warm) coat and this is going to be useable for normal life ( work) as well as for my weekends so I really have to get my act together and get on with the job.

When I eventually went back to making this coat I decide not to make buton holes as I had originally intended. I would probably have put buttons on this coat had I not left it sitting waiting for so long, but I was bored and did some searching for frog fastenings back in the spring thinking perhaps I could incorporate them into some as yet unknown steam punk outfit. Then I came across the Jane Austen site.

This inspired me but I still did nothing about making any frogs. Summer came and went. My coat went in and out of my stash pile but it was hot and dry and I did not need a warm winter coat.

Christmas came and I finally got round to actually experimenting with making frogs.

So instead of buttons I decided to have a go at making frog fastenings because they will compliment the black braid trim around my sleeves. I spent weeks looking at the Jane Austen site as well as numerous historical sites where there are images of frogs. Then further weeks watching You Tube videos on making frogs. There are lots of videos it turns out but back in June I had bought dressing gown type of cord for no particular purpose but just because it seemed a good idea to own some. The videos all seem to use parachute cord. Well I have what I have.

Is it going to be too thick?

Who knows till you try it out!

I should have taken lots of photos here but forgot in my concentration with making these but if you did fancy making frogs there is loads of info on the web.

So first I made two knots for the buttons and then made them into frogs and then two more frogs with no button, Then started to pin them on my coat. I decided only needed to make 4 of these. That is 2 each of the button ones and two of the loop ones. Thats really because these are very big frogs due to my cord being dressing gown weight not thin stuff usually used but I reckon they work fine and I bet in the " olden days" when these were the norm they used all sorts. I read you can make them from thin tubes of fabric but my velvet would be too thick I think so better with this cord ( and easier!).

Have to say I usually rush to finish most projects because I want to post about them and do regular posts on this blog but maybe I need to now take longer than a week over most projects because the end result of this coat is lovely.

At this point its a great thing I did not get round to sewing in my lining because I needed to undo the small bit I did sew of the hem lining, to sew these on and get a decent finish.

So this is my final coat:

So to make this this is the order in which I worked to make this coat:

I started as the pattern tells you by sewing up the outer and the lining. Then, first the sleeve linings attached to the sleeves and by hand stitching – which I absolutely hate. Then I started to do the hem but my haterd of hand sewing stoped futher progress. I had to undio the hem I had actually got round to sewing in order to add the frog fastenings.

First though I needed to actually make the Frog fastenings - making took a day but thinking about this probably 3 months!

Then Frog fastenings to attach to the front of coat- this was very tedius and took me two days of hand sewing them on.

Then finally finish the hem which took a further two days.

And this is my best coat yet!

Its also quite nice to make something bigger because generally my projects are easy, and fast, and done very quickly but this has taken me ages and loads of thinking about how to do it.

Its been a real challenge in fact but I think the result is worth all that work.

Best of all is the frogs do actually seem to really work to keep the coat closed. Of course I have yet to wear this on a windy day but so far so good and I am very impressed with them. I expected to need to add hidden secret press studs but there is no other fastening other than my very amateurish frogs. I will be making more of these on future garments now because I love the way they look even with them being very imperfect.

Ah and incase you wanted to know I am also wearing my sailor trousers ( I had to take them up a bit after the original post!)