"Matilda" Coat

I was inspired to make this coat after watching the BBC drama "Requiem". The central character "Matilda" is seen throughout wearing a light blue, full length wool coat which reminded me of one I had when I was a teenager. I loved the look of it whenever I saw it and wanted to make one.

I finally found a pattern after looking at 100's of coat sewing patterns online - the Burda 6845. It is a full length, semi-fitted coat with flap pockets, sleeve vents and a walking slit at the back.

I knew I wanted a blue wool for the outer but was not quite sure what I wanted for the lining. While browsing online for wool fabrics I came across a little shop called Holm Sown which had the most beautiful felted merino wool fabric - not too light, not too dark, similar to a French Navy. They also had this amazing loud and very colourful viscose that immediately caught my eye as being the perfect surprise lining fabric.

I made a start sewing it together very slowly and carefully, mocking up every stage of the construction before sewing it together and finally after 3 weeks of head scratching, watching hours of sewing tutorials on youtube and nearly wearing out my seam ripper I had me a "Matilda" coat which I am quietly rather proud off.

Make Nine Sewing Patterns

As I said in my last post I plan to make a mini capsule wardrobe I can wear to nights out.  I think the colour palette is going to be navy and white with a hint of pink thrown in - nice and classic. The fabrics will be a mix of cottons, linens and viscose. The patterns I am working from are some Colette patterns I got about 2 years ago.

So the items in the collection will include some lightweight blouses

 2 pairs of trousers, 1 wide leg and 1 slimfit.

2 coats, 1 winter jacket and 1 summer 3/4 length jacket.

and finally 1 dress as I am not much of a dress person.

I have started making fitting muslins for the tops to gauge my sizing for these patterns and ordered some fabrics.  Will leave the winter jacket to last as it is the most complicated piece so if I do not get it done I will do the top variation from the dress pattern. Hopefully it will all go to plan and by the end of the year I will a capsule wardrobe that will be suitable to wear to any occasion.

Sewing Challenges 2018

So this year I thought I would take part in a few sewing  challenges to up my sewing skills and work with some different fabrics I have not tried before. Some of the challenges have set patterns and some you can choose yourself. There are also prizes to be won.  The ones I have chosen to participate in are sewmystyle2018 and  # and #2018makenine.

The sew my style challenge has a different pattern choice to make every month for the whole year. The items are posted on instagram monthly and a random winner is selected to win a prize.



This is my first make for the challenge.


It is the sunny top from Friday Pattern Co and is a knit t shirt.  I found the pattern and instructions hard to follow so ended up re-drafting the top half from another pattern I had and looking at tutorials on working with knit fabrics on line. In the end it turned out fine for my first time sewing with knit fabric.  Looking forward to the next pattern which is a full length winter coat so that will be a challenge.

The next one I decided to take part in is the #2018sewnine.  In this one you pick your own 9 patterns to sew up by the end of the year and post in instagram.  I happen to have 9 Colette patterns that I have had for several years so have decided to make a mini capsule wardrobe from them.  There is 1 coat, 1 jacket, 1 shift dress, 1 slim leg trouser, 1 wide leg trouser, 3 blouses and 1 shirt.  I plan to try and co-ordinate them to mix and match into a mini wardrobe of going out clothes - dressy but casual.  I will start with choosing a colour pallette  and fabrics then making muslins of all the patterns before sewing them up.

I will post pictures of my progress for both challenges throughout the year. I may or  may not complete them but we will see how far I get.