République du Chiffon Ernest Coat

What a joy this coat is, now I have made it & what a lot of work it was to get it there!
So there are very few guides on creating the Ernest Coat so I was very nervous about doing it, especially as the pattern is from a French company and then translated into English. In fact there were only a few places I struggled, the pattern was very clear and the final fit for me was spot on (which was great as I do have narrow shoulders/ back but I didn't need to make any adjustments). This was my first jacket make, and I don't think it will be my last.

I am not going through the whole process of making the jacket, as the instructions were great, just picking up the bits where I struggled to either get the process right, or couldn’t quite understand the instructions. I picked some lovely Moon wool from Abakhan (not too thick which with my machine, Janome Memory Craft 4800 was a good choice as it does struggle with thick material and buttonholes) and the lining material came from there too, on sale too which was nice! I really do love this coat, it may not be perfect but I made it, when a year and 3 months ago I couldn't sew! This was a great challenge and is so pretty, as I work full time this did take me nearly 3 weeks to complete. Before I get into the bits 'n pieces of its construction here’s a quick summary…

What went wrong?

I accidentally missed a step with making the pockets (see below) which made them “flappy”, the arms were a complete nightmare to fit in as I didn’t do the whole tacking and doing the whole sleeve ease thing. The lining wasn’t quite right at the bottom corners, so some hand stitching/ bodging was required towards the end of the process. I also couldn’t easily work out which way around the sleeves went. I felt a bit dim at that stage. The buttonholes definitely tested me, with only the fourth one coming out OK due to:

• My lack of machine knowledge (who knew you could drop the feeddogs?)
• Pure stupidity (drop the foot before sewing buttonholes!)
• When setting up automatic buttonhole sewing make sure that when you have got the material lined up the sodding foot is set up to begin at the start and you haven’t knocked it. Seriously. :D
• I used standard interfacing which didn't really cut the mustard for the collar or sharp edges on the whole.

What would I do next time?

• Put in a hanger hook bar thingy so the jacket can be hung up on hooks
• Use tacking and gathers to fit the sleeves
• Do the lining from top to bottom, so neck line down one side, then the other and then do the hem line
• Be prepared for lots of hand sewing, I hadn’t realised that there is a lot of hand sewing behind the scenes.
• Use woven interfacing and have it go past the seam line, I think that will give crisper edges to the collar and the front of the coat. 

The bits I could have done with some help on

1. The pockets
   This one was ok, except there was one stage that I just didn’t understand which was about getting the pocket cuff pieces to lie flat. I didn’t realise I needed to do some top stitching for this across the shorter edges – and if I am honest I didn’t want any top stitching on those pieces. I hand sewed the pieces to the jacket body so that you couldn’t see the stitches from the front which I think makes it look much cleaner.
   

   

   Flappy pocket cuffs

   

   Non flappy pocket cuffs

The Collar
This was interesting fitting the collar and the facings – check it works with tacking before doing the sewing. I tacked the collar to the front and back pieces before adding on the facings.  I did find that the bodyform I have really helped with placing the collar and could not do it as per the instructions on the floor. I would say a tailors ham for ironing would also have made my life much easier when trying to get the lines right. The collar edge wasn't as crisp as I hoped, but I think this was due to how I did the interfacing (to reduce bulk I used interfacing up to the seam line but not past it) and the type of interfacing I used (a lovely lady in Abakhan mentioned for jackets woven lining is best). 

The edge of the collar and the first buttonhole

The arms
Oh god the arms. These nearly broke me! There is no guide as to which is front and which is back and to this day I am not sure I got it right. I tried. I really did. There is a difference in the dips for the arms but I just couldn’t get my head around it. The shoulder pieces seemed huge in comparison to the space between the front and back pieces. I won in the end but it took A LOT of unpicking and stretching and pulling. I really regret not using the tacking and gathering method recommended by Tilly and the Buttons (among others) but this is what happens when you follow a pattern blindly.

Buttonholes. I’m going to have to repeat myself with Oh God. The buttonholes….my machine is probably not the best for thick materials. I knew that going in and still I went in. The first try with the autotmatic buttonhole foot was awful, I did a great practice one and promptly tried on my jacket. It was just too thick in the top corners so the foot got stuck, I turned to my instructions hoping for a non-automatic way of doing buttons, still no luck. For the second one I tried hand sewing the button hole, it was a disaster…..so I went back to my machine instructions…and saw a bit about dropping the feeder dogs for buttonholes, in a separate place than how to do buttonholes, WHY???, and yes it worked! Well it would have worked on button hole no3 if I had firstly checked after sliding the material under the foot  that the automatic buttonhole foot was in the right position, and  then secondly if I had put the sodding foot down. I was so angry by then I had to stop, have a cuppa and reset for buttonhole number four. Which worked! I was so happy, and cross that I made all those earlier mistakes. Thankfully you can’t really see them so there’s that. 

The final buttonhole from the lining view

Adding the lining
I was very nervous, especially as at this point the instructions stopped giving me illustrations about this one thing.  Thankfully they did give a link to their Michelle jacket instructions which I promptly copied out for the adding the lining stages (although Google Translate is not the best - For example I am still not sure what “I'm going to glaze my bottom shapes (how to demonstrate the interest of frosting and finishes in a happy image!).” actually means 😀 ). I also used the Tilly and the Buttons instructions for  bagging out to do the sleeve as they were easier to follow.
 Any way I did manage the lining by following  the instructions BUT I had some issues at the end where it just wasn’t quite right at the hem – and I had to do some unpicking and resewing/ hand sewing to resolve the problems. Next time I am definitely going to try doing from the neck down before doing the hem.Also the arm isn't hanging 100% right after adding the lining and I'm thinking of trying to stitch the ditch to get it to hang better, but having worn the jacket out no one seems to have noticed the arms so I might well leave it.