Intro to Sewing Coats: Chloe Coat Chloe Coat sizes 8-20
Chloe Coat - Instructions - Please use these instructions alongside our online videos to help you sew your Chloe Coat. All the seam allowances are 1.5cm unless otherwise stated. - Marking your fabric and darts - 1. Interface your fabric, making sure to place the pieces in the correct positions. Use our PDF guide to help you. 2. Mark the pocket positioning and the darts on the front coat pieces. Be sure to snip all the notches. 3. Placing the back panels right sides together, pin the centre back edges and stitch in place. Press the seams open. You may need to put two or three clips into the seam allowance where the seam is curved to help it lay flat. 4. Staystitch the neckline within the 1cm seam allowance to prevent the neckline from stretching. 5. Staystitch the front neckline of the coat. 6. Pin the long dart on each front panel and stitch, making sure to match up the notches. Snip open the seam allowance at the top of the dart, cutting no further than 5mm from the point. Press the seam allowances open, clipping into them if necessary to help the piece lie flat.
- Joining the shoulder seams - 7. Place the front and back pieces right sides together at the shoulders and align the notches. There is some ease between the notches on the back shoulder. Be sure to ease in this fullness between the notches as you pin. 8. Stitch in place, pressing the seam flat to ease in the fullness. Press the seam allowances open. - Side seams and fitting - t9. At this point, pin the side seams of your coat with a 2cm seam allowance and check the fit in a mirror. Use the notch at the centre-front neckline to pin the fronts together. Use the seam allowance to take the coat out or in if needed. If you decide to sew the seams on a smaller or larger seam allowance, make a note of the measurements and be sure to do the same when sewing your sleeves and lining. 10. Once you re happy with the fit, stitch the side seams, making sure the notches are still aligned. Trim down the seam allowances to 1.5cm. Press the seam allowances open, clipping into them if necessary. Skip to step 12 if you re using a press stud/popper fastening for the coat. 11. In order to create space for the placket, you will need to trim down your right-hand facing and left-hand front. Draw a chalk line parallel to your centre front, 3cm away from the edge on both pieces. Trim this off. See our Zip Placket PDF for more guidance. Make sure to re-cut your notches once you ve done this.
- Setting in the sleeves - 12. Stitch two rows of easing stitches between the notches on the sleevehead, at 1cm and 1.4cm from the raw edge. Pull the threads to slightly gather the sleevehead. 13. With right sides together, pin the underarm edges together. There is ease between the notches on the back sleeve edge near the elbow. Be sure to ease in this fullness between the notches as you pin. Stitch in place, press the seam flat to ease in the fullness. Press the seam allowances open. 14. Align the centre notch of the sleeves to the shoulder, and the sleeve seam to the side seam, as well as the side notches. Pin in place. Adjust the gathers if necessary. 15. Hand tack your sleeves into place this helps with balancing the shoulder fullness and making sure it s even. Try on your coat and make sure the fit is correct. 16. Machine stitch your sleeve in place. - Stitching ice wool to the sleevehead - 17. Adding a strip of ice wool will support the sleevehead and give it a professional finish. Fold the rectangle of ice wool so it is 1cm off centre in width. Fold in half lengthways and use a pin to mark the half way point. 18. Place the folded ice wool against the inside of the sleevehead (on the sleeve side) with the folded edge of the wool against the raw edges of the seam allowance. Pin together along the stitching line of the sleevehead.
19. Hand stitch the ice wool to the sleevehead as pinned. Work from the body side so you re able to see the machine stitching. Stitch close to these stitches, just inside of the seam allowance, making your stitches 1cm wide. Use a double thread and keep the tension fairly loose. - Inserting the zip- Skip to step 25 if you re using a press stud/popper fastening for the coat. 20. Mark a point 3cm down from the front neckline of the coat. This will be where you line up the top of your zip. 21. Placing right sides together, pin the left hand side of your zip to the left hand front edge of the coat. This will be the side of the zip with the zip head. Turn the top of the zip tape under. Tack the zip in place with a line of stitching approximately 1cm from the edge so it doesn t move when stitching the placket. 22. With right sides together, pin the placket to the front of the coat, sandwiching the zip between the two pieces. Stitch together with a 1cm seam allowance. 23. Pin the other side of the zip to the right hand facing piece, right sides together. Tack the zip in place with a line of stitching approximately 1cm from the edge. 24. With right sides together, pin the placket to the facing, sandwiching the zip between the two pieces. Stitch together with a 1cm seam allowance. - Pockets - 25. With the right sides together, pin the top notched edge of the pocket with the top notched edge of the pocket lining. Stitch from one edge to the notch, leave a gap and then stitch from the next notch to the other edge. This creates a gap to turn the pocket through. Press the seam allowances towards the lining.
26. With right sides together, fold the pocket flat, aligning the notches on the sides. Note that the curved edge of the pocket and pocket lining pieces should meet. Starting at the top, stitch around the raw edges with a 1cm seam allowance. 27. Turn the pocket through to the right side through the gap. If your fabric is bulky, you can trim down the seam allowance before this step. Carefully press the edges of the pocket, making sure that the seam is rolled towards the lining side of the pocket. This is so that the lining will not show when the pocket is stitched to the coat. Slip stitch the gap in the top edge of the pocket to close. 28. Lay the coat fronts flat on the table. Using the pocket positioning on the front of the coat, use these as balance points to line up your pockets. To make sure they are level, measure the distance from the centre front at the top edge and the bottom edge. Try your coat on at this point to make sure the pockets are in the correct position for you - make sure they re the right level for your hands. If you have lengthened or shortened your coat, you may need to adjust the positioning. Pin and stitch in place, making sure to do a strong backstitch at the beginning and end to strengthen the top edges. - Making up the lining - 29. With the right sides together, pin the back lining shoulders to the front lining shoulders. Instead of easing in the fabric, create a small pleat with the excess and pin in place. Stitch the seams, and press the seam allowances towards the front. 30. Placing right sides together, align the notches of the back lining with the front lining at the side seams. Pin and stitch in place. Press the seam allowance towards the back, clipping the seam allowance if necessary to allow it to lie flat.
31. Stitch two rows of easing stitches between the notches on the sleevehead, at 1cm and 1.4cm from the edge. Pull the threads to slightly gather the sleevehead. 32. With right sides together, pin the underarm edges together. There is some ease between the notches on the back sleeve edge near the elbow. Form this into a small pleat between the notches as you pin. Press the seam allowances towards the front. Remember, if you ve increased or decreased your side seam allowance on your coat, you ll need to do the same for your underarm seams on your lining. 33. Fold your back lining right sides together, matching the two notches at the centre back. Machine tack this pleat to one side, being careful to keep inside the seam allowance. - Attaching the facing to the lining - 34. With right sides together, align the notches of the back neck facing shoulder seams with the front facing shoulder seams. Pin and stitch in place. Press the seams open. 35. With right sides together, pin the curved front edge of the lining to the curved inner edge of the facing. Be careful not to stretch the facing or lining near the curve. Align the centre back of the facing with the centre back pleat on the lining, and align the shoulder seams of the facing with the shoulder seams on the lining. 36. Turn up the lining hem by 1.5cm. (Note that your facing will extend beyond this). Stitch the facing and lining together, starting and stopping at the lining hem.
37. With the sleeve right side out and the body lining inside out, insert the sleeve into the armhole. Match the underarm seams with the lining side seams and match the notches, adjusting the gathers as necessary. Pin in place and stitch. It s quite difficult to ease in lining, so a few tucks and gathers are totally fine. As the lining is on the inside, you won t see these. - Attaching the lining to the coat - 38. With right sides together, pin the neckline of the coat to the neckline of the facing. Ensure the centre-back seams and shoulder seams match, before pinning in place. Stitch from one side of the neckline to the other with a 1cm seam. Trim away the corners of the seam allowances on the shoulder to reduce bulk. Clip into the curve around the neckline at 1cm intervals. 39. To avoid stretching the neckline, understitch the neckline without pressing it first. Press the neckline fully once the understitching is complete. 40. With right sides together, pin the facing and coat edges at the centre fronts. Fold the neckline seam allowance towards the facing, carefully folding along the pressed edge of the neckline. Put a horizontal pin in the fold to help you find the top of your stitching. 41. Stitch the facing in place from the neckline to the bottom edge. Understitch this seam. You won t be able to stitch right up to the neckline, so just sew as far as you can comfortably reach. Press the seam flat. - Finishing the sleeve hems - 42. Press the sleeve hems of the coat up by 5cm.
43. To help avoid twisting your sleeve lining when you pull it through, from the right side, feed your lining into the sleeve of the coat. At the cuff, fold back the raw edge of the lining at the underarm seam and match it to raw edges at the underarm seam on the coat. Put a pin through the seam line. 44. Lay your coat out flat, with the wrong sides facing upwards and the sleeves pulled through to the wrong side. Take the sleeve lining hem and slide this into the sleeve hem of the shell. Align the underarm seams and then the rest of the raw edges, and pin in place. Take a minute to check the sleeve isn t twisted it should have formed what looks like a tube. If it s twisted, once you sew it, you won t be able to get your arm in! 45. Stitch in place carefully, being careful not to catch any extra fabric underneath the foot of the machine. Repeat with the other sleeve. 46. Turn the coat through to the right side and pull the sleeves through. You may want to catch stitch the seam to prevent the lining from rolling out. - Finishing the coat hem - 47. To make sure you can turn through your lining, unpick a 10cm section of stitching in the side seam of your lining. 48. Fold up the hem of the coat by 6cm, continuing across the facing. Pin this in place and press. 49. Fold the facing back into its finished position. Adjust the fold so that it sits a little higher than the hem of the coat, to avoid it being seen from the outside. Press this in place.
50. Turn the coat through to the wrong side and trim down the facing hem, continuing just past the front edge, to 1.5cm. 51. Align the raw edges of the hem and the lining hem. Pin in place. 52. To machine the hem, start halfway between the facing and the side seam and stitch until the same point on the other side. In the corner where the lining joins the hem and facing, things won t quite match up, as linings are bigger to allow movement, so this needs to be hand finished. 53. Tuck the extra fabric under so it sits where previously pressed. Fold the lining in place, until it sits flat beneath the lining pleat, before slipstitching. 54. You may want to catch stitch at the side seams to keep the hem in place. - Attaching the press studs - 55. If you re using press studs to close your coat, use the guides on the pattern to mark with pins where these need to be stitched. Try your coat on to double check the positioning is correct for you, especially if you have lengthened or shortened your coat. Adjust the spacing if you need to. 56. Stitch the press studs in place. Enjoy your Chloe Coat! For even more guidance on techniques, please see our blog or YouTube channel : www.sewoverit.co.uk/blog