Liv Inspires

It seems I am late -again- to write about a winter coat on the brink of spring. I could argument, that it is not THAT thick and I can still wear it in early spring-time while it gets warmer. Truth is, though, that I still have to find a way how to keep my projects up to date with this blog. Or at least with seasons. Not such an easy task with little kids around and a pregnant photographer :-)

Nevertheless, I am very happy to be able to share… wait for it… The Asymmetric Winter Coat! For mom. Matching to the lovely Asymmetric (Fairy tale) Daughter’s Winter Coat (and its matching Doll version)..

Tadaaa.

Yes, you are right, it is exactly the one, I had my meltdown over. It has taken me rather a long time to make. Well, to fit, to be exact. Ok, I admit, most of the time it’s been hanging on the sewing mannequin, waiting to get some attention. And every time I would take it down to get something done I just got rather frustrated about not being able to find a way to fit properly and it quickly found its way back to sitting up there.

The thing was (if you haven’t read the meltdown post where I mentioned it a bit), I used a pattern that was too big for me. Ever since my pregnancy with Liv my body is stuck somewhere in between sizes. My breast grew quite a bit, my belly has (even 2 years after giving birth) still some jelly-belly as I like to call it (though, I admit, I have not been working too much to get rid of it), and I grew overall a little bit bigger. Everybody used to tell me all the extra weight would go away when I’ll be breastfeeding. Well. I am still breastfeeding and it has not gone away on itself.

And now there’s the never-ending problem with sizes. I take measures. They show me I’m some size bigger. But then it’s actually too big on other parts, where I haven’t grown much bigger. I always try to adjust the pattern beforehand. But I don’t have my new body-form that well “in hand” so I don’t always get it quite at first try.

Well, like with this coat. Of course, I made a beta-version out of some extra old stash fabric I had at home which I wouldn’t really want to use for anything anyway, so it was perfect to be the trial version for my coat. Or so it seemed. I adjusted some problems there, but overall it seemed like it would be OK. It was not a too soft fabric, but it turned out still softer than I should have used, because when I cut the pattern out of the thick curtain fabric it just didn’t fit as well. And the most annoying thing of all- it didn’t fit on the back! The one place where it’s the hardest to make adjustments when sewing on yourself!

To cut the story short. After some unsuccessful attempts to adjust the back, I finally sat down with it (after winter was already midway over anyway) for about two or more evenings, I basically ripped the whole back up apart, ripped the sleeves off again, and little by little made adjustments, until it finally fitted! Or at least, well enough for what I could still do with a pattern that was not exactly best, and for which I still had nerves left. After all, I still wanted to have a chance to wear the matching coats with my daughter, while it still fits her, after I’ve designed it that way! Anyway, turns out a bigger pattern is not always easier to adjust than a slightly small pattern..

What is done is done. And this is finally done.

These winter coats have been pretty much an upcycling project, which was pretty exciting. If you haven’t read about it in the post about Liv’s coat, then I’ll tell you again. They have been made out of curtain fabric from IKEA. We have those petrol curtains in our bedroom, and when I was cutting quite a bit off from them (because our bed is right under the window), my initial thought was it would make a beautiful winter coat for Liv. And since there was still some fabric left, I made a matching one for me too. Yay.

Originally I meant to make a hoodie for me too, but there wasn’t enough fabric for that. So I left that away. I actually like it this way probably better anyway.

There wasn’t enough fabric for my sleeves either. So I took advantage of some faux leather, which was in my stash of fabric at home anyway and made them out of it. I really love the biker-touch it adds to the whole coat!

For interlining (the middle layer), I used some flanel fabric I also had at home. (The same one, I used for Liv’s coat too.) The only new thing about the coat is my lining (ok, and zipper), because I didn’t have (enough) any matching fabric to go for that at home. But since linings are cheap, the whole winter-coats-project was really cheap! Yay! If I don’t count those nerves I had about fitting the back.

Didn’t turn out too bad in the end, I think. Even the back. I definitely have to buy some more of the curtain fabric to make another matching coat for Liv next winter! I never thought it would be so fun to be going around in matching stuff with my daughter.