A Coat for Evelyn

In September 2009, my friend Evelyn found herself homeless when a fire ran up the wall of her Upper West Side apartment from the apartment below. The biggest hit was her bedroom. Among the things she lost were clothes she had inherited from her mother, who was quite fashionable throughout her life. She also lost most of the things I’d made for her over the years.

About 15 years ago, one of the first things I sewed for Evelyn was a swing coat. It was before websites, blogging and the like, so I have no documentation, but as I recall it was black tweed wool with a red satin lining. It was lost.

She also lost a coat inherited from her mom.

Last year I received an email asking if I’d make a coat to replace both. She wrote:

Big shawl collar and sleeves that were slightly puffy w/a cuff at the wrist. The crowning glory was actually the lining. It was black velvet w/embroidered red flower clusters that had tiny rhinestones in the middle of each flower. She said that women, back in the day, would let their coats drape over the back of their chairs so everyone could see the linings. Some things I would like to change. I love the big bell sleeve you did on the swing coat. Full in the body but not as full as the swing you made me. A BIG collar but w/the option of a botton or closure of some kind and about 3 or 4 inches below the knee. A dark color, and truly flashy lining is a must.

I agreed and when she found the coat pattern she’d seen in Threads Magazine that was similar to her mother’s coat she sent me the page. It was Marfy 1961.

This was my first attempt to make a Marfy pattern. For the uninitiated, Marfy patterns are made in Italy and include no instructions (I read they are drafted for “professionals) and no seam allowances. That was my first challenge since, although I don’t always follow directions to the letter, they definitely provide a road map for the process.

My next and  favorite challenge was sewing double welt pockets in a princess dart. So I decided that I needed to make a “muslin”  to figure this pocket thing out and make sure I could figure the whole coat out before she invested her hard-earned cash on fabric.  The fabric is a wool blend tweed from fabrics.com and a polyester print from joann.com

The only information I had to go off was the one picture on the Vogue Patterns site and the pattern pieces.

In searching for information on the pattern to try to see if someone had made it and mastered the double welt in a princess dart, I found no one had blogged or written anything but intent to make the coat, so here we are.

The challenge here was to connect the welts when there was no seam allowances at both ends where you would normally anchor the welts. I prepared the front piece by leaving a quarter inch to the dart where the welt end would attach, then I added interfacing reinforcement to the point of the dart and top end of the welt.

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Attaching the welts

I finished the ends of the welts by folding the added seam allowance and basting closed.  The cut edge of the welt seam allowances (the width of the finished welt) was aligned to the cut edges of the dart.

I attached the pocket linings, then turned the welts to the inside so the lips met and the linings aligned.

I stitched the top of the dart to the welt, then folded under the extra fabric at the top of the welt, basted and pressed. Once the welt was pressed, I basted it closed, topstitched around the welt.  I stitched the welt together one-half in from both ends, reinforced the welt edges with narrow zig zag stitching, then whip stitched the top and bottom of the welts to the body.

And I had a double welt pocket inserted into a princess seam dart.

And then I had a coat.

BTW—This is Evelyn’s birthday present and I’ll take it out when I go to visit in October. I’m fairly certain she won’t happen on this blog post on her own. If you know her, please don’t mention it.