Coat conundrum

Well it turns out I don’t need to make curtains for my sewing room after all. My mother has very kindly offered to make me some. Thanks, mum! So we shall be doing some mother-daughter fabric shopping in December for curtain fabric and hopefully also for the kimono I said I’d make for her. I’d better hurry up and work out the layout for it.

In the meantime I’ve been thinking about making a coat this year. I have two very different potential patterns for it: Colette Patterns’ Lady Grey and Vogue 1276. The Vogue has two views but the one I’m thinking of is the long grey one. I’m not at all convinced by the short multicoloured one.


Or rather, I had two patterns to choose from. The December Burda arrived today, which was a completely unexpected surprise as I haven’t had the usual email to say it’s been shipped. There’s a great coat pattern in that, model 104. And it only needs a little over two metres of fabric. The Vogue and the Lady Grey want something like four or five metres, which is a little nerve-wracking when you’ve never sewn a coat before.

So now I’m trying to choose between three patterns. Decisions, decisions. I’ll just have to make my mind up fast before the January Burda arrives!

9 thoughts on “Coat conundrum”

  2. Wide collar will broaden the shoulders, belt will accentuate the waist. burda’s pockets will widen the hips and broaden the figure due to horizontal seams. In my opinion 🙂

  3. To add to above post – you can pull either of those coats off, it is more the mater of which part of your figure you’d like to draw attention to.

  4. Three cheers for Mom Daze for sparing you the curtains!

    I sewed myself a Lady Grey last winter, and it is probably my all time favorite garment – I love it! It’s a great pattern that flatters a variety of figures. I would imagine that the Vogue would be similar. I had never sewn a coat before either, but the pattern is really straight forward with good instructions. Gertie of Gertie’s Blog for Better Sewing did a Lady Grey sew along starting last Sept or Oct and it was loaded with good tips and tutorials for first time coat sewists. Oh, and mine definitely took less fabric than the pattern suggested.

  5. I love both the first two patterns you have chosen; with that wonderful big dramatic collar to frame the face; the Burda looks lovely too with a more traditional smaller collar. Good to read Clio’s comment that the Lady Grey doesn’t use as much fabric as the pattern stipulated (although not good news if you had actually gone out and bought the full amount); since it is a hip length coat you wouldn’t expect to use 4-5m.

    Good luck with the coat! 🙂 (and thank you too, for your kind comments to me)

  6. I love the possiblity of using two coordinated or not so dissimilar colored fabric for that Burda one. It could be really cool and very much unlike that two-color Vogue one up there. It could be much more subtle.

  7. I like the Burda coat. I’ve seen some great and some odd Lady Greys. Personally it seems to look better on curvy girls and in a bright colour.

  8. I like the Burda coat alot! I saw that in my Burda and laughed because I’m currently making my first coat from an older Burda pattern (2008?), but it’s a similar style.

    I like the other two patterns too, but wonder how warm the Lady Gray portrait collar and wide bracelet sleeves would be. But of course I live in California and don’t need a serious coat, so I’d bow to your greater cold weather living knowledge.

    Can’t wait to see what you’ll pick!

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