Diary of a Chain Stitcher

Those of you who follow me on Instagram may have seen on my stories that I spent a large chunk of December working on a new coat. I've been meaning to make one for the last couple of winters but never seem to find the time. This year I planned ahead and got the fabric early (I think back in August!) and the forecast of a very cold spell here in the UK before Christmas motivated me to get going. 

The idea of making this coat began around this time last year but the prospect of actually doing it was so daunting that I didn't start making it until winter really kicked in here in London in November. I finished it just in time to wear home for Christmas! I was at the Spring Knitting & Stitching Show with my mum last year (which coincidentally I did yesterday...has anyone else been? So much fun!) when I spotted a few bolts of to-die-for for coating lurking at the bottom of the Higgs & Higgs stall. Mum was laughing because apparently I just zoned in on what everyone else was missing down by their feet and made a beeline right in there on my hands and knees! I bought some gorgeous soft pre-washed grey denim from them this year that I can't wait to make into dungarees. They had the fabric in a few pale neutral colours including a camel and cream but the soft grey stole my heart on sight. It looked glorious and as soon as I touched it I knew it was special. The reve...

I posted my Electric Blue Biker Jacket version of the Pauline Alice Quart Coat a few weeks ago and said I'd be back to talk in more detail about the construction of the shoulders and sleeve heads. The shaping of these is probably the one aspect of the jacket that I'm most proud of. Which is surprising as they were the one element of construction that I was most concerned about! After setting in the sleeves themselves (probably my least favourite sewing technique but which went smoother than I ever imagined because of the beautiful crepe's response to shaping with steam) there was the question of how to tackle the sleeve heads and shoulder pads. I did a lot of research and experimentation so I thought you might be interested to read about that here. It was my first real experience of inserting either of these elements and I was slightly concerned about how extreme the effect of using both of them might be but after trying on the jacket before, after sleeve heads and...