It’s been a minute since I’ve been this excited about a sewing project. I was already planning to make a nylon quilted coat using this pattern, and then Matchy Matchy released a batch of pre-quilted fabrics in excellent color combos, plus matching nylon fabric for binding.
Pre-quilted fabric comes with risks and this one was no exception. The first kinda bummer part was that the brown was clearly the wrong side of the fabric – the stitch quality is just inferior. And then there are the issues of thread nests, skipped stitches, and thread tails. Thread tails are just clipped and burned and the other issues are hopefully just avoided during cutting. If you want perfect quilted lines, you gotta stitch them yourself.
Before doing anything with the fronts, I decided I wanted to have keyhole buttonholes on this project. Because my automatic buttonhole foot loves to get stuck on anything, I installed the buttonholes before sewing the fronts to any other pieces and definitely before binding the front the edge. I was surprised to learn that this nylon fabric is a pretty forgiving – I tested unpicking a buttonhole on some scrap fabric and it looked almost untouched.
After the buttonholes were installed, I made a test welt pocket since the construction was new to me. The test pocket came out really clean but then I didn’t immediately construct the pockets on the fronts and kinda forgot everything I learned during the test. I didn’t attempt to pattern match the welt on the test, but I should have! I got close on the real deal, but they’re off a bit. Sure, I could have scooted the welt over, but I was more concerned about the pocket placement being even on both sides of the coat.
Before actually sewing the welt pockets, I worked on finishing the back bottom with bias and sewing the sleeve darts. The nylon binding is a lot easier to sew than I thought it would be.
One thing to note about both the front and back pieces is that they have these little tabs. The instructions aren’t explicit, but you’re supposed to bind around and off like I’ve done here. It’s a tiny curve, so just do your best!
I think this is the nicest looking split hem construction I’ve seen on a quilted coat.
I purchased the matching nylon fabric in each color because I wasn’t sure if I’d like the brown binding on the inside of the coat. I’m glad I went this route and also that I cut out binding as I needed it, not all at the beginning of project. It saved a lot of fabric, time, and it minimized the need to stitch binding strips together. I also found that the top of the pocket was fine to bind with the larger width of binding, you just have to be careful when attaching it.
I’d say the most challenging part of this make was binding the seam between the hood and the body of the coat. There are a lot of intersecting bulky seams right at center back. Smashing them with a hammer and slowly hand cranking over them was the only way I could make it work. I used a Microtex 80 needle for most of the construction and a size 90 while attaching the hood.
I was so focused on making it through the hood step that I didn’t notice I’d caught one seam in the wrong direction until it was time to sew up the side seams. The pattern instructs you to press the raglan seams in a way that will allow you to nest the underarm seams, which a) makes them join together really nicely and b) reduces bulk. So one seam on my coat twists from the neckline to the underarm. It hasn’t been causing any problems while wearing, so I probably won’t fix it!
I had already purchased Matchy Matchy’s coordinating Tomato buttons for another project (they ended up being too small) and they were perfect here.
I didn’t actually read the binding tutorial in the instructions, but my preferred method is to attach the binding to the wrong side, then topstitch it from the right side. This method means you’re less likely to miss catching the folded edge and you just have a lot more control over the end result.
The fit of this coat is so good! I think the raglan sleeves fit really well and this is a rare pattern where I didn’t have to shorten the sleeves. If you never have to shorten sleeves, you’ll probably need to add some length. I also love how instead of patch pockets, this quilted coat pattern uses angled welt pockets. It’s so easy to just put your hands in these pockets, or grab whatever is stored in there. Patch pockets are great, but these are greater.
This pattern and fabric combo is so nice. The quilted puffer is perfect for layering over a sweater or just a t-shirt and gives a decent amount of warmth for being so thin. I usually don’t like using plastic fabric, but I also really hate cramming a wool sweater into a grippy cotton coat sleeve. The hood is unfortunately quite small for my big head and hair.
This pattern is fantastic, this fabric is nice, and the final coat makes me super happy.
On a totally unrelated note, my MIL gifted me A SINGER FEATHERWEIGHT! It needs a new belt, a deep clean, and the case needs a lot of work, but I’m so excited! The serial number isn’t documented, but I’m guessing it’s either from the late 30’s or very early 40’s before WWII halted production. I’d like to document getting this machine in working order, but who knows if I’ll keep that promise : )
