I have enough fabric, but somehow that never stops me from browsing when a sale is on! Fabric mart had a big sale around Thanksgiving, and I’m always happy with my orders from them. I had my eye on some coat fabric on their site, but it was too rich for my blood ($28 a yard!) Well, they put it on sale for half off, and then took 25% off of that with the Thanksgiving sale, so I had to buy some to make my winter coat.
The fabric is gray with little pink and white specks (almost hearts, but not quite.) On the opposite side it is pink/black plaid. I had thought about using the plaid for the inside of the hood/lapels, but in person I think not. I’m definitely making a toile – no way can I make a coat without adjustment! Now I need to pretreat my fabric. I usually use the dryer method for wools (tumble on high for 40 minutes with damp towels.) Do you think that would work for coating? I can’t see why not, it just makes me nervous! I don’t dryclean lengths of fabric, so my other option is the london shrink method, but that takes ages.
McCalls 5336 is from a lot of vintage patterns I bought at an estate sale this fall. I like the bell sleeves and empire waist! The dress is not lined, so I am not planning on making a toile for this. I’ve gotten to the point where I only need to muslin for new shapes or lined garments, as I know the adjustments I usually need, and anything else is usually fixable at the basting point. This wool is a textured crepe in a color that I think it lovely for fall/winter.
Finally, I bought rayon velvet to make a long cardigan. I chose Mccall’s 6084 because it is made for woven fabrics, and because the front pieces are the same length as the back. I’m a little tired of the jackets with the longer fronts, and I think they might look dated sooner than a straight hemline. This is actually inspired by a Winter Kate velvet cardigan I saw at Nordstrom last year… which I can’t seem to find online. The velvet is hand-dyed (or looks that way at least!) and slightly crushed. I’m planning to wash this in the machine on the handwash cycle, and then hang to dry (brushing with a towel to fix the pile.) I’ve used this method for other rayon velvets before with success. I only go to the drycleaners once a year (for winter coats) so anything else has to be machine or hand washable.
I want to get the last two projects cut tonight, and hopefully my coat toile as well. I need to go through my fabrics to find a suitable weight for a toile (I am bound to have some ugly heavy weight fabric in there!)
Green apples - Stitchywitch Creates 
I bought some of that tie dyed blue rayon velvet too. Isn’t it beautiful! It will make a lovely cardigan/jacket!
Love the velvet, maybe I need to take a look at that pattern, since I do happen to have some velvet in the stash that should probably be used soon….
I’m going to have to check out the wool shrinking method you suggested, because I recently bought some that I plan to use to make a coat with (someday).
I want that 70s pattern! Is the London shrink method the one where you put it in a plastic bag with a wet towel?
Jessica, Fabricate and Mira made a winter coat last year and she had some really helpful comments on what she might have done differently. Might be helpful before you get started with your coat – http://fabricateandmira.wordpress.com/2010/12/30/the-coat-that-didnt-want-to-be/ Best of luck with yours!
LOVE the vintage pattern and the fabric choice! I think it will be beautiful!!
AHHHHHHHH!!!!! Great minds must think alike!!! I bought that same MJ fabric on Cyber Monday to use with the same pattern. How can you beat $10/yd. How funny. I want to play with the reversability of the fabric somehow but I don’t want it to be too obnoxious. Can’t wait to see your verison!
I LOOOVE this dress pattern – the 70’s are definitely my favorite era when it comes to vintage. I can’t wait to see how your dress turns out!
thanks for sharing!
Can’t wait to see your coat!! The dryer method does work really well for coat weight wool. I used it when I made three wool coats last month and it worked really well. I blogged about my pretreatment method here here.