Completed! A Robson Coat

Hello blogging world!I feel like I've been away ages! So today I would like to share with you a make which I finished up at the end of August but has remained unblogged due to lack of photos... After a summer where I did not feel like sewing a black trench coat - my mum's Robson Trench is finally complete!

Starry Robson Coat

I must admit that I am rather jealous and totally wanted to keep it for myself :D
So here was my brief:
a trench coat
with buttons (NO ZIP)
lightweight to wear in the spring/summer/autumn
showerproof
no hood
shoulders that were broad to help getting it on and off.

I totally reckon I nailed it :-). See my mum has issues with her motor skills and has no depth perception making zips an imposibility and coats with narrow shoulders a right royal pain. My mum is about a size smaller than me in measurements, so i made up a size 10 in the shoulders and a size 8 in the sleeves and in the waist. I think the sizing worked out ok

The fabric as usual was bought in mandors back in May - that's how long this has been in the pipelie for! I think it took us about 40 minutes to pick something that she liked and wasn't tooo expensive. As it was only a 45" fabric the instructions suggested 6m. so we didn't really want to go much above £8/m - it ended up at £6.99 so bargain!! The fabric is a lightweight cotton poplin and the lining a plain polycotton which I bought in Norman Cummings on a trip to Linlithgow. Annoyingly there was a repair in the outer shell fabric which I hadn't noticed until it was all cut out so one of the pieces needed recutting.

I cut off about 19cm (7 1/2 inches) off the bottom to make it more summer appropriate and less of a faff too. (Length is also a problem when it becomes a trip hazard...)

The storm flap at the back ended up a bit squint...oops!

So the instructions call for you to bind all your seams with bias binding however I decided to see what effect french seams would have - next time ill be sticking to instructions as these turned out too bulky. As a result half the seams are french and half of them are bound... makes for an interesting design feature!

Using the shell as binding makes a good target for the arms!

One of my only problems I had while making this coat is that i forgot to put the notches onto my traced pieces - to be honest this is the main reason that this took so long to finish. I think i set them in about 5 times *next time trace ALL markings* but once I was happy it only took about an hour to attach the binding to the sleeves and all the other little things that remained.

that button looks awful!

So lessons learned for next time then - (I do have a version of this lined up for me but it's not my main everyday autumn jacket.) cut a straight size 10, do not french seam, mark all notches, check fabric before cutting, add back on the bottom section of coat. I'm not entirely happy with my sewing process this time but I am happy with the end result , and that's the main thing right?

Has anyone else got any jacket patterns that they would recommend? Its getting to that time where I can't leave home without one!

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend :-)

JCS xx