McCall's 6800 Revisited

So I loved my purple coat so much that I decided to make it again. This time it turned in to an absolutely mammoth project. See the original review here.

I've been really busy lately, but finally managed to finish making this second version of McCall's 6800. I love how it turned out! The teal and brown go so well together.

View made: D

Fabrics Used: Suiting, Cotton and fleece

This coat turned in to a huge project. First, I had to decide how exactly I wanted the plaid to look, since this coat has not one, but two princess seams per side, not to mention three pieces of fabric per side. I settled on making the panels in the following sequence:

1. Front: Straight grain, bias grain, straight grain
2. Back: straight grain, bias grain, straight grain, strait grain, bias grain straight grain
3. Sleeves: straight grain with bias grain inserts.

Cutting the pieces this way and matching the plaid was a nightmare. I had to cut pieces singly for the most part, which was frustrating since there is an abundance of pieces to be cut.

I also needed many an internet tutorial about matching plaids. This one was particularly helpful.

Once all my pieces were cut out, I realized that it had been a good choice to cut the middles on the bias because matching the plaid was tricky. It also adds a lot of visual interest. Like the above tutorial says though, cutting was the most work. Once I got to actually sewing the thing, it went pretty quickly. In order to make it look pretty and to keep the seams going the way I wanted (I've always had problems pressing suiting) I edgestitched all the seams in teal thread. I was going to topstitch as well, but I tried a seam and the thread got lost among the plaid so it wouldn't have added anything.

So, top layer done, I hung it on the back of my bathroom door where it has been sitting since October.

Next, I needed to do the lining. I wanted this to be a winter coat, so I cut out a layer of cotton (for the lining you see) and a layer of fleece (for in between). Next, I surged the fleece and the cotton together, hereafter treating them as one layer of fabric. The fleece was kind of hard to sew since it was so heavy and bulky.

I had problems with the seams staying flat and open in the lining. My solution was to sew them down using a double needle. It turned out really well. It looks really nice, however, I did need to hand tack the seams down too.

Once the lining and outer layer were attached, it was time to hem it. On the purple jacket, I did a deep hem, which didn't work well at all. This time, I did a simple narrow hem, which worked MUCH better. I simply surged to the right length, turned under twice and sewed it down. I did the same for the sleeves, however, I ended up needing to cut out the fleece in the sleeve hem as it was just TOO bulky.

Another note: The pattern wants you to interface the whole front section. I didn't do this because it was three layers thick and the fleece was pretty solid, in the grand scheme of things. I just put a strip of interfacing down where the buttonholes were going to be and where the buttons were going to be for extra-super-insane security.

And TA DA!! Some buttons and a hood and I was done.

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