Isla trench coat - my trench project

Hello,

I finally got to post about my huge project from the spring: The Isla trench coat

This post has been in the making for a long time and I hope you can learn something, if you plan on making a trench coat someday.

I don't know where I got the idea to make a trench coat. I own one that I bought secondhand and it is okay to use, but somehow I decided that I needed a one.

I bought this lovely dark forest or army green fabric from Marimekko's Outlet a couple of years ago and planned to make overalls from it at first. But then I just changed the plan and wanted to make it into a coat instead. My problem was that I had only bought 2,75meters of it so I knew there was no extra fabric,

I think I spent countless of hours thinking about the pattern and the features the coat should have- I even started to watch a trench sew along from YouTube just to be sure that I could actually sew it without destroyin my fabric. 

Then I started to search for the pattern and that took months to decide. I had some patterns from the 90s or early 2000s in my stash and those were a no. Then I bought a few of Finnish sewing magazines second hand and traced three different trench coats and made two muslins. And those just didn't fit right or there were some features that I didn't like in the patterns. After the second muslin that wasn't quite right and I was back to square one, I almost gave up on the project. 

I had gone through different options that I found as PDFs and Named's Isla trench coat had been modified by so many people on Instagram and in sewing blogs that I decided to give it ago. The pattern itself wasn't the cheapest, but I had seen so many wonderful coats on Instagram so I knew that you could end up with a fabulous coat. The pattern was totally worth it. Even though it was a lot of work to tape all the patterns together (and I figured out the layering when printing out the lining section). I chose the size 40 and then adjust the pattern from that size if needed.

Modifications I made before sewing the muslin:

The original is a long trench coat, but I wanted to shorten it. I shortened the original pattern by 23cm, if I remember correctly it was 4cm below the bust darts, 6cm above the hip line. And 13 cm in the hem.

This shortening solved one problem for me: I have wide shoulders so my size was 40 based on the bust measurement, but my waist and hips were smaller in size. When shortening the pattern, I ended up tracing the pattern to a smaller size in the hem. It worked really well, otherwise the coat would've been too wide to my taste. I had to remember to do the same for the lining also.

The pattern is designed for 170cm and I'm shorter (164cm), I changed the place for the pockets by moving them upwards by 2cm and a size smaller inwards. This way the pockets sit comfortably and not too low.

I also added some length, maybe 1 or 2cm to the sleeves just in case. So often when I buy a jacket that fits otherwise, but the sleeves are too short.

I shortened the vent also. I don't remember how much, but quite a lot. 

With these modifications the muslin fit really well and didn't do any other modifications in the end.

The cutting part was easy, except my orange viscose lining. I had to cut some parts twice, because it was just so slippery and moved when cutting. I absolutely wanted an orange lining from viscose, and there was only one place in Finland that sold it. 

There was just enough fabric for the coat, I think I still have about 40cmx30cm piece left. 

The sewing process:

It took actually quite long, almost a month, because I only had a bit time here and there to sew. The difficult parts were the welted pockets, I almost cut too much when turning the openings inside. Luckily I had some textile glue that used to prevent the fabric from tearing. And there was so much ironing, after every step. 

I didn't have too much trouble when sewing otherwise... I even figured how to sew the vent with the help of YouTube (just insert: "how to sew a vent" and watch couple of videos). Some sharp corners aren't as pointy as I would like and my topstitching isn't always even, but I can live with that and it really doesn't show since my thread matched the fabric so well. 

I was worried about the sleeves, but I didn't have trouble when inserting them into the armholes. I had paid extra attention to the seam allowances and the shape of the pieces while cutting, so the prep worked well done paid off.

Even the lining was quite straightforward to sew and didn't give me headache. Only when I turned the coat, the lining tore at the opening a little (there was too much fabric), but I was able to fix it. At first I made the buttonholes too small and had to continue them for a few millimeters, but they turned out fine.

The pattern was well written. Even as a non-native English speaker, I was able to sew it. I haven't sewn that much from English patterns, but Named's website provided a glossary for Finnish-English. That helped and also the illustrations in the pattern are quite good and simple.

The details of this pattern are quite amazing, the only thing missing are probably the eupalettes on the shoulders, but I guess this coat doesn't need them. The strap collar is pretty and shapes of the capes are just perfect. 

I found my buttons from a online second hand market place, after a few weeks of waiting and checking if someone was selling buttons. I had visited a few shops and checked a few online shops for buttons. It was so hard to find matching buttons in different sizes from one place. The coat needed different sized buttons and most places only sold one size that was good enough or were just so expensive, so it was a real find in the end. 

I'm so happy with the result and it was worth going through all the trouble when choosing the pattern and making all those muslins and tracing all the version. I already am planning some other projects from the magazines I bought for the pattern and the shirt in the first picture is actually from one of those magazines, so even that money wasn't wasted.

I ended up with a coat that I totally wore in May almost daily, even when the weather got a bit too hot for a lined coat.

- Minttusuklaa