The fairytale coat

I hadn't made Maia a winter coat yet this year and once my Thinsulate arrived I had no excuse. I've been agonising over which of my fabrics to use and then last month when Vonnie and I were out fabric shopping I saw this amazing fabric. The print was huge, but I was quietly confident that if I placed the pieces strategically it could work for a coat.


I think my favourite bit of the fabric is this cute little woodland house that sits on the hood.


Or maybe this quaint little fence that runs across the back?


Or maybe the big dopey fox. It's got to be the fox. In order to maintain the continuity of the fox across the front I had to use a zip instead of my usual buttons. And because I was doing a zip, I decided to change the whole pattern... This coat is raglan style, which technically should be quicker to do than the inset sleeves I use for my other coat patterns. And it might have been if I hadn't made this coat four layers. In order to combat the wandering Thinsulate I sandwiched it between the twill and a layer of waterproof nylon. 'Nylon?', you ask, 'Isn't that a total pain to sew because it's so slippery?' Yes, yes, a million times, yes.



And this is the other side in fuchsia twill.


In order the combat the difficulty of folding over four layers (and sewing though eight layers) to insert the zipper, I faced it with ribbon instead. I'm thinking for the next one I will have the ribbon to the outside rather than the inside for a nice contrast.

What do you think? Obviously there are a couple of things I'll be amending for version two but is yet another coat pattern a good idea?