Ottobre design 06-2012 40. Klassikko Duffle coat

This duffle coat pattern is Ottobre design 06-2012 40. Klassikko. It was not an easy make but I am super happy with the result.

I was determined to make both of my children warm wool coats for the winter. The previous coats they had were too small and shabby and I am generally not happy with the ready-to-wear coats. Usually they are made of very thin wool and they do not have a thermal lining that is so useful in Finnish weather.

The pattern I chose for my son, was a classic duffle coat. It has a hood, two patch pockets and separate yokes on the front and the back. The coat is closed with a zipper and three duffle fastenings. The sizes for the pattern range from 134 to 170 cm. This was a slightly problematic for me since my son is 134 cm tall but very slim. Luckily the same Ottobre design magazine had a very similar pattern for the smaller boys sized 98 to 128 cm. So after I had traced the coat pattern in the size 134 cm, I placed the pattern pieces on the pattern for the smaller coat and narrowed the width down to 128 cm.  I furthermore narrowed the shoulders about 1 cm from the both sides. After these changes there still was some room for my son to grow but not too much.

My fabric was thick wool coating that I found at the factory remnants section of Eurokangas. The original pattern has just your basic satin lining fabric combined with cotton flannel yokes. I went for some red quilted lining, though. It has thin wadding that adds extra warmth but doesn’t add too much bulk.

There were quite a many pieces for this coat, due to separate yokes and the pockets. Furthermore, all the gray parts in the schematic picture above had to be interfaced, which took ages!

Most of the sewing instruction for this pattern referred to the instructions for the smaller coat. This was sometimes a bit confusing, since I had to go back and forth all the time. It did not really help that I have a tendency to skip the instructions and follow my own sewing routine whenever I can. I ended up leaving out the lining from the coat pockets and my topstitching (that I did using doubled sewing thread) ended up being quite different from the original. To add some interest to the inside of the coat, I replaced the red fabric in the quilted wadding with some cotton poplin. I was able to carefully rip the red fabric away and I quilted the wadding and the cotton together to preserve the warmth. You can see a glimpse of the yoke further down this post.

I had some worries that the back pleat wouldn’t work well with the quilted lining. To keep it from bulging too much, I edge stitched the boxed pleat in place. This worked well. My new pressing tools were essential in creating smooth and professional looking seams. I first melded the seams using my dauber, then iron and finally clapper and then repeated the process on the opened seam allowances.

Below you can see a close-up on the shoulder seam where the front and back yokes add to the bulk. Since I am new with using these tools I was amazed with how the bulk just disappeared under the clapper. The resulting seam is completely flat!

Topstitching the seams took some effort, but it really adds to the look of this coat. I doubled my thread (see my sewing trick here) and used both a teflon foot and a walking foot to get a nice result.

…pin the lining and the sleeve hems together like they were shaking hands with each other…

Here is the coat at the final stages. You can see the amount of interfacing and the what the wadded and quilted lining looks like on the wrong side. You may also notice that I used tie-interfacing to ease in the sleeves to get nice looking shoulders with little effort. I have previously explained how this is accomplished. Here I am just about to sew the sleeve hem to the lining. This was a process that I used to dread since I had difficulties in imagining the geometry. What you have to do, is to separate the lining and the coat the wrong side up just like in the picture and then pin the lining and the sleeve hems together like they were shaking hands with each other. Believe me, when you turn the coat the right side up the sleeve lining will go to the right place!

I think that the details make this coat special. The cotton yoke adds a bit pattern to the inside of the coat. The zipper keeps the coat firmly shut but the duffle buttons are a nice detail. I bought the wooden buttons from Eurokangas, but I used faux leather bias binding from www.myfabrics.co.uk to make the loops. The leather ends I cut from the piece of leather I had in my stash. It was quite difficult to align the fastenings since I couldn’t use pins. Finally I found a piece of the two sided fusible web that I had previously used for making appliqués and I used it to iron the leather pieces in place.

So, after all this work, I am super happy with the result:

The fit is just right for my son:

Here is the duffle coat from the back:

My son describes the coat as comfortable and warm and he also thinks that it fits well. He’s favourite things are the navy blue colour, the hood and the secret yoke detail that only can be seen from the inside.

I think this coat is a bit too fancy for school. K can wear his old sporty winter coat at school and we’ll save this new coat for weekends.

So, all in all, this pattern is a great one, if you want to make a classic coat for your son or some other little boy. However, you may have to take it in a bit, if your boy is slim. I recommend taking time with this make, since it is not the easiest project. Thus, I do not recommend this for beginners. I have made several coats before and even I spend a lot of time ripping out and restitching the seams.

I hope you enjoyed reading this long post! The next time I will show the coat that I made for my daughter. Happy sewing!

Katja

Lyhyesti suomeksi.

Tämän duffelitakin tein pojalleni Ottobre design 06-2012 40. Klassikko -kaavalla. Tästä kaavasta on tarjolla koot 134-170 cm, mikä osoittautui hieman hankalaksi. Poikani on nimittäin rakenteeltaan sen verran hoikka, että kaavaa täytyi kaventaa rutkasti. Apuna onneksi toimi varsin hyvin samassa lehdessä oleva pienemmän pojan takki.

Kankaaksi löysin Eurokankaan palalaarista paksua tummansinistä villakangasta. Vuorin päätin tehdä punaisesta tikkikankaasta. Tukikangasta tähän takkiin sai kulumaan aika rutkasti, sillä kaikki päällyskankaasta leikatut osat tuettiin vähintään osin.

Takin ohjeessa viitattiin usein saman lehden pienempien poikien takin ohjeeseen, mikä jonkin verran häiritsi ompelua, kun lehteä piti plärätä edestakaisin. Loppujen lopuksi ompelinkin takin enimmäkseen vanhan rutiinin mukaisesti, vilkaisten ohjeisiin vain satunnaisesti. Tämän vuoksi myös jätin taskut vuorittamatta ja tein päällitikkaukset aika lailla eri tavalla kuin mitä alkuperäisessä ohjeessa. Ylimääräisenä yksityiskohtana tein takakappaleen kaarrokkeen kuviollisesta puuvillakankaasta, johon tikkasin varovasti tikkikankaasta irrottamani vanuvuorin.

Alkuperäisessä ohjeessa käytettiin tikkivuorin sijasta tavallista vuorisatiinia, mikä hieman jännitti minua. Pelkäsin, että takakappaleen väljyyslaskos jäisi ikävästi näkymään takin läpi. En kuitenkaan uskaltanut jättää laskosta poiskaan. Lopulta ratkaisin ongelman tikkaamalla laskoksen reunat, mikä sai laskoksen asettumaan nätisti littanaksi.

Tärkein oppi tämän takin kanssa tuli siinä, että opin silittämään villakankaan saumat oikein. Edellisessä postauksessa esittelemäni silitysapuneuvot olivat elintärkeitä paksujen saumojen kanssa. Jopa olkasaumoissa olevat tuplakaarrokkeiden saumanvarat katosivat clapperin alla lähestulkoon olemattomiin. (Jos tiedät, mitä “tailor’s clapper” on suomeksi, niin laita minulle viestiä!).

Sekä tekijä, että uuden takin omistaja olivat molemmat tyytyväisiä lopputulokseen. Nyt pitäisi pojan pysyä lämpimänä kovemmallakin pakkasella! Kouluun tämä takki taitaa olla vähän turhan siisti, mutta ainakin viikonloppuna tämä nuori mies kulkee kaupungilla tyylikkäänä!

Voin siis suositella tätä kaavaa lämpimästi, jos haluat ommella klassisen takin pojalle. Aloittelijalle en kuitenkaan tätä ohjetta suosittele ja kokeneenkin ompelijan on parasta varata projektiin aikaa.

Hauskoja ompeluhetkiä!

t. Katja