Wednesday, November 10, 2021

The Making of my Quilt Coat Part 2 - the assembly

Last week, I shared the process of creating the panels and all the prep required to get ready to assemble my quilt coat.  Today, I want to share all about the assembly process.  I chose the Patchwork Chore Quilt by Patchwork and Poodles and followed the extra instructions for a zipper (see instructions).

The pattern includes 3 options of finishing options for the seams, one of which is designed so the coat can be worn reversible.  This option requires some handwork - which I like! - especially on the sleeves.

I decided to start my assembly process with the sleeves for two reasons - it would be a smaller panel to remake if I messed things up and it gave me an chance to practice the seam finishing technique in a less obvious spot.   I highly recommend the use of  Swedish Tracing Paper (affiliate link) - it gave me easy visibility to the fabric underneath the pattern piece so I was able to line my points up right in the center.


Sleeve assembly went well.  The seam finishing technique was a bit like sewing on a binding although it was a lot more awkward to hold onto that an actual quilt binding.  (The photo also shows that I did take the time to zigzag the edges of all the pieces before assembly.


I did take care to make sure the seams would be lying the correct way to nest with the side seams.  (The pattern instructions weren't clear on this.)


The pattern calls for a lot of bias binding of two different widths - one for finishing the seams and one for binding the bottom of the sleeves and the coat.  I was able to cut all the binding from a 1/2 yard of fabric.  The pieces cut were all large enough that they didn't actually needed to be seamed together except for the binding on the coat bottom.  Instead of following the pattern instructions and sewing it on as a bias double fold tape, I just attached it as I would a quilt binding and then hand stitched. use a bias double fold binding where you sew it on with the machine in one step.  



I took a deep breath when the time came to cut the main panel.  Everything was carefully pinned and the back center lined up nicely with a column of geese.  



I think these look so pretty!


Instead of hand finishing the shoulder seams, I choose to use my sewing machine.  The seam will be visible on the back and I'm likely to be the only person that knows it is there!


With shoulder seams sewn, time for the collar!

I kept it simple - just a low volume fabric without any geese.  These silicon pins are great - they are heat resistant and you can just iron right over them so I was able to get a nice crisp finish.


Instructions called for twill tape to cover the seam.  I decided to use some bias binding again to finish it off as well as the roughly 1" from where the collar ended until top edge of front panels.  (I may have messed something up because I don't think there was supposed to be that much of a gap.)


I pressed well and the top stitched the top edge, folding the rest around the seam and finishing by hand.  The picture below shows the finished top edge from the inside and outside.

Next step - and the last for this post - is basting on the zipper.  Since I lengthened the pattern (there are instructions for this), my zipper is a 24" (metal) zipper.


One more post to come on the finished coat!

Have a wonderful day! Patty

6 comments:

  1. Looks awesome. Can't wait to see your finish.

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  2. This is going to be an awesome quilt coat. Thanks for sharing how you are progressing and all your tips. I made a quilted coat for my husband, many years ago. He absolutely loved it, but with your tips I now am inspired to make another one for him (and probably one for me too).

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  3. Great job. I made one from what was suppose to be a large bag for holding large cutting board. I loved the coat. Still have.
    Thanks for sharing.

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  4. I've been sewing garments for 50 years and I've never has the interest in sewing a quilted coat but yours might have changed my mind. I can't wait to see it done!

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  5. Good for you to tackle such a project! I made a couple jackets too, back in the mid-1990s when they were popular (What goes around comes around, right?) You're doing a good job, being careful, and making it all come together as it should. Hope you enjoy wearing it too, which you surely will in cooler weather.

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