The Dior coat

Acknoledgment: you will have to excuse the amount of pictures in this post but... it's the Dior coat! The Dior coat for god's sake! My hands have been bleeding over this precious for the past weeks! So please, indulge.

And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am glad to present: 

The Dior coat in all its spendour:

What do you think about the Mary Poppins look? 

It was raining yesterday but the week-ends are my only possibility to take pictures as my photographer/boyfriend is free and surprisingly, the light was perfect (I haven't changed anything, no filter, no photoshop, nothing. How good is the photographer?)

More about the coat:

I designed the pattern myself from a princess seam slopper I did for the scallop coat I made in october. I made some changes based on the inspiration coats I posted previously.

The idea was to accentuate the waist and have a full skirt like the type of coats popular in the late 40's, early 50's. I also had some contempory inspiration but even those were based on retro models.

 I tried a model pose, but I can't say I am good at it...

Earlier this year, I purchased an e-course on Craftsy called the Starlet Suit Jacket (sorry, I can't link it, it appears to have disappeared from the classes availables). The course focuses on sewing a fitted jacket with hand-tailoring (or fusible-tailoring), using bound-buttonholes. welt pockets, and other vintage/tailoring technics.

I mostly bought this class because the instructor was Gretchen Hirsch, whose blog I religiously follow and whose book I bought and devoured. The woman is so passionate about vintage technics, her style is very close to mine and I love the fact that she is self taught (by that I mean that she has not been to fashion school, because she obviously has been to a lot of sewing classes with the crème de la crème of US sewing teachers).

Anyway, the craftsy class was great and I learnt so much from Gertie while sewing my coat. I even took the welt pocket pattern from her jacket and added it to my coat as I found it very elegant and I wanted to included as much technics as I could. I fear those technics are disappearing and that's a shame as no machine will ever be able to make such beautiful and delicate buttonholes for example. Go to any store and try to find a jacket or a coat with bound-buttonholes, that might be mission impossible (or they will be very expensive).

Here they are:

Welt pocket and 8 bound buttonholes (it took forever but it was worth it).

I interfaced the front, the side front and the facing with weft fusible interfacing. I wasn't feeling confident enough to do the whole hand tailoring method for the moment and I was also afraid it would take me months instead of weeks. And as my wool was very thick, the interfacing was just for shaping, not for supporting the fabric. So I am very happy with the fusible method. But next time, I definitely want to try the hand-tailoring method.

I wanted the shoulders to be structured without giving me crazy swimmer back. In the craftsy class, Gertie explains how to use biais cut mohair strips to consolidate the sleeve cap and give structure in the sleeve head, that technic is often used on tailored jackets and coats and it works wonderfully. I also added small shoulder pads.

I love the K line of the back.

As I might have repeated thousands of times, the fabric is pure double face wool from Dior in fuschia. It is very heavy, the coat has to weigh about 3 kg! But it feels so luxurious, even more when you get a peek of the bright fuschia silk lining (sorry, I realise we didn't take any pictures of the lining). There were some moments I thought my sewing machine was going to die from the thickness of the fabric. Imagine sewing the seam allowances where you have 4 layers... a nightmare! But Elna survived! Good girl!

I am very happy and proud of the work I have done with this coat. I love a fast sewing project like a little dress or skirt that you can wear the following day but spending hours and hours on a project like this one is rewarding in a different way. I have learnt a lot in terms of sewing technics and for me that's so much as I am self taught. 

Just look at the smile on my face. A pink Dior coat is the perfect way to brighten a rainy day...

Hola chicas,

Tengo que deciros que este post va a ser largo. Ya habéis visto la parte en inglés, ¿no? Empieza bien, jeje.

¡Os presento el abrigo Dior en todo su esplendor!

¿Que os parece? Espero que no estéis decepcionadas después de toda la espera.

Lo terminé ayer y nos fuimos al parque a hacer unas fotos a pesar de la lluvia. Se nos ocurrió un tema de Mary Poppins con el paraguas, ¿va bien con el abrigo, no?

Como os contaba en el post anterior, he diseñado el patrón del abrigo basándome en una forma con la cintura muy ceñida y una falda amplia típica del final de los años 40 y principio de los años 50. Pero seguro que ya sabéis que es el estilo que más me gusta.

Hace unos meses, había comprado un e-curso en la plataforma Craftsy del Starlet Suit Jacket (ahora no está disponible pero tienen otros muy chulos), una chaqueta corta tipo Dior. El curso está dado por Gretchen Hirsch, la genialísima autora del blog Gertie's new blog for better sewing, y del libro con (casi) el mismo nombre. Soy fan de los dos y del estilo de esta chica, estaba segura que el curso iba a gustarme. Y me ha gustado un montón.

Explica todas las técnicas necesarias para coser una chaqueta de sastrería: solapas de sastre con entretela aplicada a mano o termofijada (he puesto termofijada, tenía miedo de pasar meses en lugar de semanas si elegía a mano), ojales sastre o ribeteados, bolsillos insertados (gracias a las chicas del grupo Corte y confección de facebook por la ayuda para el vocabulario) y más...

Me ha gustado mucho aprender estas técnicas que ahora están consideradas como "vintage" porque creo que incluso si no voy a utilizarlas para todos mis proyectos, no deben perderse. Hay muchas ténicas de costura a mano que no se enseñan y la sastrería se está convirtiendo en un arte en peligro de extinción. A mi manera, intento perpetuarlo con mucha modestia.

Creo que me ha salido bien la forma típica del New Look de Dior. Había hecho una prueba del patrón antes de cortar mi tela para comprobar la talla y el diseño, y después de hacer los pequeños cambios, estaba lista para cortar.

He puesto unas hombreras pequeñas para dar un poco de estructura y acentuar la forma de ánfora o de 8.

He aprendido muchas técnicas y estoy muy contenta y orgullosa de haber hecho este abrigo sola. Se nota en la sonrisa, ¿no? Para dar alegría a un día lluvioso, nada mejor que vestir un abrigo rosa fuscia!

Adiós chicas...