In Progress (part 1): Simplicity 1254 - Leanne Marshall coat

As I know I mentioned in a previous post, I put aside my other two in-progress projects to jump on the Simplicity Leanne Marshall coat bandwagon. My muslin is well underway, and while I wouldn't normally post a progress post this early in a project, I know that a lot of others are working on this coat right now, and I wanted to share how the fit was going in my muslin, in case it helps anyone else out.

The Fabric

First up, though, here's the fabric and lining that I'm using for my coat. Apologies for the somewhat dark-ish photo, but as blog followers, you've probably picked up on the fact that A) I'm a crappy photographer who just uses an iPhone camera and B) the lighting in my sewing room (outside of the Ott lamp at my sewing desk) is crap.

Fabric for my Leanne Marshall coat...squeee!

The color is hard to see here, but the fabric on the left is a gorgeous wool flannel in a peacock/turquoise-ish blue that I bought from (the now closed) Fashionista Fabrics a few years ago. Melody told me that there's some cashmere blended in there, and I believe it. This fabric is SUPER soft. I've been waiting for the perfect pattern for this coating (and in reality, probably, to finally live in a climate where I wear coats), and I'm both super nervous and super excited to finally have a wearable garment from this.

The fabric on the right, of course, is my lining fabric. It's a poly charmeuse that I purchased during a recent sale at Gorgeous Fabrics. It looks like there's still 3 yards left, if you're interested.

I also purchased interlining (not shown) from Gorgeous Fabrics. It's supposed to be similar to thinsulate, but can be washed, dry-cleaned, etc. I will be underlining the lining with this fabric.

Why is this coat labeled "easy"?

I've seen some comments online wondering why Simplicity chose to mark this coat as "easy", especially since the zipper instructions are not supposed to be good. I've only worked through one side of the zipper so far in my muslin (they split up the process of doing each half), and while they don't produce the most professional-looking zipper as written (there's no facing/shield, as drafted), I didn't find the first half particularly confusing. In any case, I can see why this coat is labeled "easy", compared to other coat patterns:

• There aren't a lot of pattern pieces. It's basically the equivalent of sewing a lined, princess seamed dress.
• Inserting that zipper, even with possibly confusing instructions, is going to be way easier than either trying to do machine buttonholes on wool coating or attempting bound buttonholes.
• The hood/collar is pretty straightforward and is easier to attach than, say, doing a notched lapel collar, like on other coat styles.

Once I get the whole zipper inserted, I'm going to try to figure out how to add a facing and shield so that the zipper tape is nicely sandwiched in my wool in my final coat. Cathy on Pattern Review made this change, and I'll likely do the same for my coat. I think it looks nicer.

Preliminary Fitting Notes

I decided to muslin the whole coat. I've gotten burned in the past by not muslining sleeves, so I will be muslining both of those, too. I've found that you can't truly get a read on your arm mobility until you've got both sleeves in. I'm also going to muslin a single layer version of the hood/collar, just in case it looks horrible on me, in which case I'll scrap this coat and move onto a different pattern. So far, I have the muslin shell sewn up, and the sleeves sewn but not inserted.

Here are my fitting notes, based on my partial muslin:

• I used my own "standard" Big 4 adjustments as a starting point (FBA, broad back, petiting everything by 2 1/2", "just in case" 1" seam allowances on the sleeves).
• I have one half of the zipper inserted, as I've been following the instructions as written. Right now, my fitting observations are based on pinning the coat closed at the CF, but I don't expect them to change much.
• The bodice fits, as expected through the shoulders, bust, waist, and butt. My high bust measurement (43") puts me between a Big 4 20 and 22, so given that this was a coat, I went with the larger size as my base size (22).
• As the first few reviews/posts for this pattern have indicated, there's more room through the hips on this coat than the line drawings/pattern photos indicate. On my muslin, it has almost a fit-and-flare shape. I think kinda like it like this, but I think I'm going to take the hips in a bit on my muslin because although I like the look, it's not what I was going for with this pattern. I'm not sure if I'll be taking in just the front princess seams through the hips, or the side ones, too. I do need the extra room going over my big butt in back, though. The hem is actually hanging completely level, and I don't want to mess with that.
• Pattern length for the coat body runs as expected. My 2.5" petite adjustment will put the coat hem at a similar place on me as it is on the pattern photo for the coat view. Right now, it's just above the knees, but I suspect that with a 1.5" hem, as called for, it'll wind up pretty close to lower-mid thigh, like on the model.
• The sleeve, on the other hand, looks like it's going to run short and snug. Just from eyeballing it, I decided to only shorten it 2", instead of 2.5", and after sliding the muslin sleeve onto my arm, I suspect that I'll be adding most, if not all, of that length back on. My "just in case" extra large seam allowances aren't going to cut it here, either, if I wear this over anything long sleeved or with any bulk. I'll be doing a slash-and-spread full bicep adjustment before I cut my fabric. Unless you have slender arms, I highly recommend muslining the sleeve for this pattern.

If you're working on this coat, I hope that you find my observations useful in figuring out what adjustments you may or may not need. I hope to get my muslin finished/tweaked over the next few days, and will get photos over the weekend (the only time that I'm home when there's actually light outside for photos), so that you can start to get an idea of how this coat looks on a plus sized body.