When I made the Janzi Coat sewing pattern, I wanted to strike a balance between it looking professional, but using techniques and materials that are accessible to the home sewer.
A traditionally tailored coat, with the horse hair canvas and all the pad stitching can be quite overwhelming, especially if you're just starting out with coat making (or if, like me, you hate hand sewing!)
I think the key to a good looking coat is all about the internal and unseen bits - the interfacing, sleeve head roll, shoulder pads etc. This is what will give your coat body and keep it from looking saggy and wrinkled. It's so important not to skip these parts. We want to build a nice foundation for your coating fabric.
Here's the difference between how a coat looks on the outside vs. how it looks on the inside.
The shoulder pads used below are too thick for my liking - but it's all I had on hand when I was taking photos for the sew along.
Outside : All smooth and neat
Inside: Featuring interfacing, shoulder head roll and shoulder pads
This coat has been designed so the structure and shaping comes from iron on interfacing. Separate pattern pieces have been drafted for the interfacing, for the sections of the coat that require extra stability (around the shoulders, sleeves, hems etc).
If you're not a fan of iron on interfacing, you are very welcome to use other methods to maintain structure. Things like interlining, sew in interfacing and horsehair canvas are good alternatives. For this blog post though, I will be focusing on interfacing as that is what my instructions call for.
INTERFACING:
The instructions recommend weft interfacing.
Weft interfacing is a type of fusible interfacing that has weft threads running through a knit structure. This gives it both flexibility and strength.
I have done up the instructions under the assumption that the coating fabric has enough structure to not need any more stability, aside from the extra pattern pieces for the interfacing around the hems, armholes, shoulders etc.
A coating fabric can be considered heavy weight, but the weave/knit or fibre structure of the fabric may mean that it’s prone to stretching, draping or sagging. For example, a boiled wool. This makes a gorgeous coat, but I’d recommend block fusing all the pattern pieces with a fabric like this.
If you do choose a coating fabric that is a bit drapier/lighter weight than desired, you can block fuse all your coating fabric in weft fusing, then add another layer of interfacing on the reinforced sections.
I have sewn five coat samples up for this pattern and each coat had different variations and layers of interfacing. Even though all the fabrics I used would be considered medium/heavy weight, they had varying levels of structure and this played a big part in how I interfaced them.
The fabrics that were heavy, but drapey, I block fused those with weft interfacing and used a lightweight fusible interfacing on the reinforced sections.
For example: This is a photo of the sleeve pieces used in the coat photographed below. This is the wrong side of the fabric that I have block fused with weft interfacing and then layered a lightweight iron on interfacing at the hems and sleeve head / underarm.
Given that this coat is semi fitted around the bodice and flares out to an A-line skirt, I think it looks great when the fabric has enough structure to maintain the silhouette. A less structured fabric will fold in on itself around the body. But this may be what you want.
NOTIONS:
Sleeve head roll: This is a strip of wadding, fleece or canvas that is sewn into the sleeve head to provide more body and prevent the sleeve collapsing in.
You can buy sleeve head roll in pre-made strips, or you can make your own.
The perks of making your own, is that it will be tailored to fit your sleeve exactly.
To do so, take the upper sleeve pattern and trace around the head of the sleeve, making sure to mark the shoulder notch in.
Draw in a curved line, like the one shown. The height of the sleeve head roll will be dependent on how heavy your fabric is. A lighter weight fabric may only need a thin roll as the fabric won't be dragging it down. But we're working with heavier fabrics for this coat so I usually make my sleeve head roll at least 6cm (2 3/8in) or more.
Use this template to cut out a pair. You can use batting, wadding, felt or similar.
Shoulder pads: These are optional - but I would recommend using them, even it it's the lightest and thinnest shoulder pad you can find. This is more about adding structure to the garment, rather than adding volume. This design doesn't have exaggerated shoulders, so we're looking for a subtle shoulder pad with a thickness less than 1cm (3/8in).
You can make your own shoulder pads - there are plenty of online tutorials for this (and maybe one day I will have time to add my own).
Hope this helps
x Lauren