Sewaholic ‘Minoru’ Jacket – Sewing my first fully lined coat!

Hi!

Thanks for joining me…I’m so excited to share this make with you as I’m incredibly proud – and somewhat relieved – to have made it! Making a fully lined coat has been on my ‘skills list’ for ages. Y’see, to my mind, it had always seemed like one of those highly impressive and unfeasibly difficult sewing projects; something only a ‘real’ sewist makes. And now I’ve done it, I’m happy to report it’s really not that hard at all! We can all make one! This is the ‘Minoru’ Raincoat / Jacket by Sewaholic...

Making the Deer & Doe ‘Luzerne’ trench coat recently, which is finished with bias binding internally, gave me the hunger to step up and tackle a full lining. No handstitching, I wanted to learn to do it all by machine. The Minoru Jacket seemed like a good option as it has also has some other great features, most notably the hood which can be hidden inside a zipped compartment in its high dramatic collar, as well as having inside breast pockets. Unfortunately…

…it doesn’t have front pockets though and I quickly tired of the idea of drafting and adding my own. All in all, I don’t totally regret that decision because I went ahead and added an open ended zip to the front which means if I need pockets or merely start feeling awkward, I can always unzip the bottom and stick my flapping hands in my trouser pockets, haha! (EDIT : if you do want front pockets, see Tamsin’s really helpful note and link in the Comments section below).

But anyway, I’m waffling – lets get back to talking about the lining! The hood is the one part of the jacket pattern that isn’t lined, however it’s an incredibly simple thing to do. Sewaholic have a supporting ‘sewalong’ for this jacket which goes into much greater detail than the pattern instructions do. Here with the hood (but mostly with the machine sewing of the sleeve lining – more of that in a minute) it was a really welcome additional resource. Put simply, instead of sewing a 1″ hem around the front of the hood, you instead attach the lining (made in exactly the same way as the hood) right sides together and sew with a 1″ seam allowance before turning right side out. I also ‘stitched in the ditch’ in the centre seam to secure the hood lining to the hood at the crown.

I love this bronze lining fabric, so having it show on the outside of the coat by lining the hood, was perfect!

The main body lining is a cinch and posed no problems whatsoever; the instructions are clear and well set out (not forgetting that additional sewalong too!) However, my first attempt at lining a sleeve, securing the lining at the cuff by machine stitching, was initially quite a different story!

Oh my word, it drove me stark raving flippin’ bonkers! The pattern instructions simply have you slipstitch the sleeve in place at the cuff, which is sufficient, but I didn’t want to do that. The sewalong was truly useful here and I readily grasped the ol’ lining up of the two sleeve seams before turning out both sleeve and lining through the open hem of the lining … but oh my goodness, I just couldn’t then grasp how I was meant to pin and sew the resulting two facing tubes together at the cuff seam! I stared at the sewalong pictures and tried various ways of pinning them together until I literally lost my mind! And then, in the usual way of things, the brain cells reconnected, the fog lifted and it turned out to be, well, flippin’ obvious!

I quickly snapped a picture once I’d pinned lining and sleeve together so I wouldn’t forget … here it is, in case it’s of any use to you to. You turn the cuff itself back into the sleeve so as to make the cuff seam accessible. You then pin lining and sleeve / cuff hem together (right sides facing); you will need to tuck the lining fabric into the cavity of the fabric sleeve as best you can, so its out of the way of your machine foot a whilst sewing in the round, adjusting the fabric under your foot as you go. I think mine was a bit more awkward than it might have been because, at an earlier stage, I’d decided to reduce the size of the gathered and elasticated cuff band. It all worked out hunky dory though!

So having spent aaaaages trying to figure out the first sleeve, I pinned and sewed the second in 10 minutes flat. Typical huh. I’m so happy I persevered because I do think the machine stitching gives a more robust finish to the seam than slip stitching might. And once I’d finally grasped the ‘how’, I’d say it’s probably quicker to machine stitch it too. And, happily, it’s another skill ticked off my check-list!

I’m absolutely happy with my coat, including with my fabric picks; a showerproof navy twill and a quality brown paisley jacquard lining fabric, sent to me as part of this months’ Blogger allowance from Minerva Crafts*.

*You can access the full list of notions I used for this make – including that fab double ended zip and a paper copy of the Pattern – and read my Post which goes into my construction of the whole jacket in more general detail over on their Minerva Crafts Blogger Network HERE.

(Both pairs of jeans I’m wearing in these pics are the Eleanore pull-ons. You can read my recent post on those here if you missed it).

So, glancing down my Skills-Set Checklist (yes, its an actual ‘thing’!) I’ve ticked off ‘Coat’ (my Luzerne trench) and, this, the ‘Lined Coat’. So what would you say naturally follows? Well, I’ve got ‘Tailored Lined Coat’ listed, haha! I have pattern, I have plaid wool and lining. Here goes nothing!

Until next time, whilst your here, can I ask you an important favour…?

The lovely Lucy at SewEssential is running a #sewgift Christmas Raffle in aid of a truly great cause : ‘KidsOut’; supporting some of the most vulnerable children at Christmas. The draw is for a £125 grand prize containing some amazing sewing goodies for one lucky winner – tickets are just £2 each – with all proceeds going to this great charity. I know this is a costly time of year but please join in if you are able, to help them reach their target by 20th December. For more details, see Lucy’s blog post HERE.

You can go straight to their JustGiving page HERE.

*Disclaimer : Post sponsored by Minerva Crafts who supplied the fabric and notions for this make. Links to Minerva Crafts are Affiliate Links. Opinions expressed are always honest and my own.

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