Vogue 1060 - Perfect for Fall

In Chicago we are already well into the fall season.  It's sunny, it's rainy and the nights are very cool.  Great sleeping weather and a great time to be inspired to make stylish, colorful fall clothes.

I hope this fall is more productive, sewing wise, than the summer.  I spent little time making summer clothes this year.  The good thing is, I had plenty to wear from the two previous summer seasons.

Vogue 1060
This Sandra Betzina coat has been on my list for a few years.  Last week I was finally able to make it.  My hold up was the alterations.  I didn't really know how to handle the FBA with the dolman sleeves.  In the end, I handled it as always, except I remove the sleeve from the front before making it.  I also thought the bust dart would take away from the waist dart detail and considered dart rotation.  But where could I rotate the bust dart to?  The waist, the collar or shoulder area?  None of those options would work.  To minimize the depth of the dart, I decided to add some width through the under arm area and the side seam.  And do a smaller FBA.

It seem to work okay.  More details are as follows in my review:

Pattern Description: MISSES’ COATS: Unlined coats have shawl collar, dolman sleeves, darts and sleeve facings. A: fabric front ties. B: purchased piping and ribbon ties.

Pattern Sizing: A through J; 32 through 55.  I used D, E, F where necessary.  This pattern comes in a wide range of sizes.  And it is easy to blend several of the sizes to meet your specific sizing requirements.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?  Pretty much,  The boiled wool version has the darts sewn on the wrong side instead of the outside of the coat.  Plus the model looks like she is half my size.  So the coat looks sleeker on her than on me. Lol

Were the instructions easy to follow?   The instructions were a piece of cake.  No problems; no confusion.  Pretty standard and straight forward.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
Likes -

Dolman sleeves
Dart detail
Shape of the sleeves

Dislikes -

None



Fabric Used:  Pea Green Boiled Wool from Mood Fabrics.  Before cutting into the fabric, I tossed it in the dryer with a wet hand towel to preshrink it.  I will dry clean it, but didn't want any issues with shrinkage due to any type of moisture. 

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:  I only made a few alterations.
  - Small FBA, which resulted in a bust dart.
  - I used a blend of the sizes, starting with D at the neck, shoulder, upper sleeve.  Then using sizes E and F along the under arm and side seam.  I didn't want to do a large FBA and I wanted move to wear a jacket or cardigan underneath it on those extra chilly days of fall.
  - I wanted to add a few more inches to the length of the sleeves but the fabric was not wide enough.  I should have order a half yard more.  Good thing is the shaping of the sleeve helps makes it less noticeable.

Construction changes -
  - I finished the seam with my serger, instead of flat felled seams.  I thought the boiled wool was a too bulky. 


Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?  I think I might make it again.  It turned out well and was easy to sew.  The most time consuming part was forming the darts.  Caution tracing paper and wheel don't work well with this fabric.  So I used pins to mark the darts.

I really like this coat.  It's a good transitional coat,  it's easy to make, and you have many fabric options to make it unique.

The color is darker than the suggested charteuse in my personal color palette.  So I made a chocolate brown infinity scarf to complement my eyes and skin color.  It literally took ten minutes to make from start to finish.  My jeans are Simplicity slim pant made last fall. Purse and top from JC Penny's.  Shoes are Bobbi Blu.


Conclusion:   This is an easy, stylish coat to make.  If you have never made a coat, this is a good one to try.  All photos are hear on Flickr.

Happy Sewing!
C