Flourish Coat

This was probably one of the most ambitious sewing projects I’ve ever undertaken, and I am so thrilled with the outcome! 

I was part of the sew and show team for the Flourish coat (where I was given a complimentary copy of the pattern in exchange for taking photos and sharing it on release). I was so stoked to be able to take part in this as I fell in love with the dramatic coat design when I first laid eyes on the line drawing months ago. 

Initially I was going to make the collared version however a brief browse of "long coats with hoods" on Pinterest shortly changed my mind - I was swayed by the romanticism of the deep hood - like you could step right out of A Wheel of Time or something 😂. I also chose the sleeve tab option and the optional skirt lining

Fitting details: I sewed a size D (my bust size put me between D and E but as I am still breastfeeding I felt like I could safely size down). I did make a toile and found that I needed to widen the shoulders by 1.5cm (it sounds marginal but made a surprising amount of difference to loosening a bit of tightness in the upper back). This was very easy to do with a guide that can be found on the T&T blog (link here). I didn’t shorten the pattern at all despite it being drafted for a 165cm figure, as I wanted an ankle length coat. (note I do find most of my "height loss" is in my legs with most patterns. The waistline of this coat hit me perfectly at my natural waist.) 

I did nip the lower half of the back seams in a bit (by an extra 1cm per side) just above the waist as it was a bit roomy due to my omission of the lacing.

I shortened the sleeves by 6cms. 

Fabric Details: This coat is a serious fabric hogger due to the volume of the skirt, esp as I chose to line it. Luckily I had recently invested in getting a projector for pattern cutting (you guys - LIFE CHANGING. I love it so much and wished I committed sooner!) so I was able to pattern tetris on Inkscape prior to cutting to get the maximum use out of my widths of fabric. I ended up needing only 3m of main coating, ~1m of facing fabric (so approx 4mx150cm total of outer fabric, the pattern suggested 4.6m), and 2.5m of lining (150cm). (but it was a close call, a small amount of selvage may have been included in the seam allowances here and there)

I was a bit nervous as I had quite a thick outer material - a beautiful wool coating from The Fabric Shop in the colour Mulled Wine. The website had described it as light to medium weight but I would personally call it heavy (I have a wool in my stash that's 360gsm that I was hoping to use but didn't have enough of, and comparing the two this was significantly thicker).

As per the advice within the tutorial I ended up using a much thinner thinner flower printed corduroy as my facing rather than the main fabric to reduce bulk. I took extra care to made sure to roll the edges in slightly when I pressed, and I also topstitched along the front edges of the coat, and also hand stitch fixed the sleeve facing and the hem facing, in order to make absolutely sure the different colored facing didn’t peek through when I have the coat buttoned. 

My lining is a lovely slippery rayon originally bought from Drapers Fabrics. 

There were many firsts in sewing of this pattern and I was very grateful as always for the excellent detailed instructions that is the hallmark of a T&T pattern. The video was also fantastic for visualizing some of the trickier steps. I learnt a lot about sewing a lined coat through this project - such as adding in extra tucks and pleats around the center bodice and skirt hem lining to allow for movement room, how to attach the sleeves neatly (with the adorably named kissing elephant technique). 

They also included helpful tips I would not have thought of, such as hanging the skirt and skirt lining for a day or two after sewing each up and recutting it to account for the stretch in the slightly biased cut panels before putting them together (which I definitely wouldn't recommend skipping - my wool was a lot more tightly woven than my lining, so the lining had stretched out a good few cms more than the wool on certain sections) 

I omitted the back lacing as I was worried my fabric would have been too thick for it but in hindsight it probably would have been alright and I do slightly regret not having put it in as the versions with the lacing all look so good! 😆

I love this coat so much and can't wait for autumn to roll around again so I can wear it out and look totally OTT swishing about the neighbourhood! 😆