Handmade swap

I spent a little bit of time this week going through my photos, and I realised that I hadn't posted anything about the outfit I made for the handmade winter clothing swap I took part in recently.  So here it is, modelled by the very accommodating P.  I had thought she would be a bit disappointed that she wasn't going to keep this coat, but actually she was really excited to find out that another girl was going to get it, and she was very eager to see photos of the other girl in it.

The pattern is a dressing gown pattern that I was given.  I cast about in my meagre pattern stash and thought I could make a nice coat using the basics of the dressing gown pattern.  However, when I got the pattern pieces out, I found the instructions were actually for a completely different top.  But I had already decided to do the coat, so I decided to go ahead anyway.  Its pretty much the same process as a top, so I just sewed it like one.  

It doesn't have a collar because I wasn't sure how to make that work with the pattern pieces.  The outer layer is a purple suede, and the inside is some pink cotton that I have in my stash.  I decided to line it because that seemed the easier option, and it was really straightforward.

Plus, check out the buttonhole.  Pretty normal, maybe a little wonky but overall I'm really happy how well they came out - its the first time I'd buttonholed with my machine, and I was terrified I was going to make a mistake and ruin the whole coat.

I'm really happy about how it all turned out.  The pattern was really straightforward, even without instructions.  I'm keen to make P one with a wool layer on the outside (especially since I'm currently obsessed with making woollen things).