Sneak peak: Simplicity 1254 - Leanne Marshall coat

I know that this coat saga has probably seemed like this at times:

However, this morning, I finally finished my coat! And I finished it just in time to fly down to Southern California for a work trip tomorrow morning, where I most certainly won't be wearing it in the 80 degree weather that's forecast for the time that I'm down there.

I've already informed my husband that we're doing photos when I'm back in town on Sunday (and hoping to maybe even get him to bust out the DSLR for this shoot), and I'll do a full write-up on the pattern (including lessons learned, tips, etc,) but until then, here are a couple of very poorly-lit dressform photos from my sewing room. Yes, I had to lighten the hell out of these photos to show ANY detail, but I figured that these were better than nothing. Also, my dress form isn't padded out anywhere near to my current size--the coat fits me much better than it does the dressform:

Poorly lit/overexposed coat on a dressform

And a poorly lit shot of the oversized statement collar/hood:

Poorly lit/overexposed collar/hood

Overall, after a lot of frustration with how long construction took and some confusion over some of the construction steps, I'm very happy with how the coat turned out. Unfortunately, I didn't realize how ridiculously warm interlining the coat would make it, and given that it's a pretty dramatic style, this isn't quite the "everyday" coat that I was hoping for. BUT, I did need a warm coat for the days where we have highs in the 30's (which seemed to happen a lot more frequently last winter than have been happening this winter).

Which leads me to my other sneak preview...since I publish my pattern posts on Fridays, yes, I have seen, fell in love with, and already ordered the Grainline Studios Cascade duffle coat. I think it looks like the perfect everyday coat/jacket for me, and I've seriously planned four different versions (combining the different lengths and hood/collar options) in my head. I really need to take a break from the involvedness of coat sewing for a little bit, but I'm already thinking that I'll be doing one or two versions of the Cascade later in the winter or in early spring.