Lovely new coat

Finally! Pictures of my new coat. 
In retrospect, it's silly I hesitated for so long to re-make my favorite coat. Really, it should have been a no-brainer. From the moment that this new version was far enough in its assembly that I could put it on, I've loved it. 

We took these pictures at about a quarter to five in the afternoon so the light was already starting to disappear which gives all the outdoor pictures a blue-ish hue. I've decided not to meddle with it because, in my experience, although you may get the blue out, you won't get a 'normal' coloration if you do. 
Just for the record, the colour of the fabric is much closer to how it looks in the picture on stairs. 

As I've told you before, the first version of this coat was made way back in 2009. It was inspired by Balenciaga's 'barrel' coats from the 1950's. Since then, I've learned a lot more about 1950's fashion and I know now that although there were plenty of loose, wide coats, most of those were long. And short wide coats were usually either straight or flared. I'm still convinced I have seen an example of a tapered coat by Balenciaga somewhere, but I wouldn't know where to look. 

Anyway, I didn't look into the inspiration again when I started on this coat. I've worn and loved the first one for years so I knew how I wanted it. I kept that large signature collar (which wasn't in my inspiration, I think) and the back pleat and the square set-in sleeves. 

I also knew what needed work. A bit more room at the hips so it wouldn't pull there when worn over layers of clothing. I moved the collar notches up by 1.5 cm so they would be further away from the overlap (just for the sake of the look).

The fabric is a not-stretchy wool knit in burnt orange and off-white which I found last year. I backed it with a very lightweight fusible throughout and used horsehair canvas in the collar, lapels, front edge and hem. In a design like this, I would never use a firm interfacing like horsehair canvas on large parts of the front. The bulk of the coat has to stay soft so it can flow around the wearer. 

Finding buttons and a lining was a bit of a challenge. These sort of salmon coloured buttons surprised me by being the best match for the fabric at my favorite haberdashery store (they started out a few years ago as a haberdashery store but have now moved into a bigger space and sell lots of fabric as well) but none of their linings even got close.
   

I finally found this material, a fairly dark burnt orange satin, after looking at all fabrics, which might be used as lining, at all the fabric stalls at the market.
I kind of worried it wouldn't match the buttons but I didn't really have much choice. In the end, the lining and the buttons do match. The lining is a bit darker but they are clearly in the same colour-family.

I've shown you the construction of the collar before and I made the lapels in the same way. I hesitated about stiffening the coat's edges. I wanted to keep the soft shape but prevent it from looking shabby or sagged out or curled any time soon (the main reason why I used horsehair canvas in the collar and lapels as well. The old coat was a bit too soft there). So, I finished the sewing first, so I would be able to judge its interfacing needs. Then I decided to put 4 cm strips of horsehair canvas in hem and the front edges. Of course, I had to tack those it by hand.

Oh, and one more construction thing: On blogs, I often see people sew linings to coat hems by hand. I wonder why. I would only do that if I suspected the two fabrics from behaving so differently that I couldn't possibly predict it. If that is not the case (an usually it isn't), I bag the lining on all sides, including the bottom (where the lining should be about 2 cm shorter than the outside), turn the coat out through a gap in the lining side seam, press the hem up (usually 3 cm to the seam where outside and lining are attached, turn it inside out again and then sew the coat hem by hand. After that, you turn it right side out once more and close the gap in the lining. This gives you a perfectly secure lined hem with only one bit of hand sewing. (I should add that I've always been taught not to bag the hems of wide flared coats. Their skirt-like pieces tend to fall better when the lining is kept separately like in most skirts and dresses)

I'm really glad I made this coat. Once more, I will have to remind myself that I have other coats which deserve to be worn as well because this one promises to be every thing its forbear was: a garment like warm embrace. 

Considering a coat

Way back in January, I already mentioned it: My favorite coat is at the end of its existence. I have other coats, a prettier one even but it's still hard to let go of this one. It's just so practical and comfortable. 
I didn't throw it out back then and on the few chilly days we've had so far, I reached for it again. 

And yet, it's time I made a successor for it. I've decided to use the same pattern, with some small alterations. It was always just a bit too snug at the bottom edge to fit well over all kinds of clothing I raised the notches of the collar by 1.5 cm.

I realized I had a good fabric for this coat in my stash after all: This not-at-all-stretchy thick wool knit which I bought on sale last year. 
It's burnt orange and off-white with a tweed-like effect and the weight is rather similar to that of the fabric of my old coat. 

Although this fabric was cheap, I was a bit nervous to cut into it. I really like it and it would also make a very nice unlined coat (like you see so often in stores now). On the other hand, I've really liked this pattern the first time around, so using it for this fabric might be the best guarantee that it will become a garment I'll love. 
Either way, I felt better about it once I seriously started cutting. I'll start sewing tomorrow. 

An alteration

I've been doing useful stuff...
This weekend, my relatives who live in London will be visiting my parents and we will meet them there. Which means I felt kind of obliged to work on and finish the alterations on the coat belonging to my aunt H.
To be fair, she left it with me on their last visit, in January and mentioned that it was fine if it took me over a year to alter it. She must have heard how long I took to take in my grandmother's skirts.... (which also, was no disaster. Although my grandmother had lost a lot of weight and was happy for me to take in six skirts, she has a lot of other ones so she didn't miss them too much).

Anyway, H is the only relative, apart from my grandmothers, who occasionally asks me to alter things for her. Like most seamstresses, I hate doing alterations but I can be swayed to do them for my loved ones. And I know that H really can't sew, unlike my mother and other aunts. And she accepts my expertise in the matter, which is nice.

In this case, she had brought me a coat which was way too large for her. H caught the running bug a few years ago, and as those things go, has lost a lot of weight since. This coat was bought just before she started running and was now... about... eh, 4 to 6 cm in circumference is the difference for one dress size, so... 3 to 4 sizes too big...
It's a fairly straight , classic design but with the usual nice, tailored details. Which, unfortunately also means that the pocket welts go through the front darts, eliminating any opportunity to take out some excess width there. The front side seams were very close to those pocket welts as well, so no luck there either. As a result of the coat's anatomy, most of the difference had to be taken out at the side back seams. I would have like to distribute it more evenly but there really was no other option.
And it was so large that even the shoulders were too wide. The combination of that with the fact that I had to take in seams which ran up to the armhole ment that I had to alter and re-set the sleeves... 
I wish I could have raised the armscye a bit but of course, I can't add material where there was none.
All in all, it's quite a job.

On the up side, it's a nice coat. Beautiful thick stable wool coating, nice not-too-thin satin lining. The tailoring is nothing special, all fusibles, but it has been neatly done. And I like seeing how exactly they've treated the shoulder and sleeve head. Not that it's news to me but, that's how you get that nice rounded edge at the top of the sleeve. 

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a 'before' picture but I'll try to add one of the finished product tomorrow morning (it's too dark now). 

I'll be curious to see how the coat will fit her now. I don't think I gave any guarantees for this one and indeed, that's how it should be. This was a lot of alteration for a complex garment that doesn't really allow for much change.

For him

Although a lot of my sewing is rather selfish, I have been making shirts, thinner trousers (for jeans, he's a Levi's 501 kind of guy) and coats for E for years.

And I've just finished a new one.

This coat, which I made back in the autumn of 2010, has served as his every-day wintercoat for all that time. And by the end of last winter, it was decidedly worse for wear. I have changed the lining at least once, maybe twice. And I've made some repairs to those nice but not always practical button tabs. But now, the fabric itself had started to pill in some places and shine in others. And the lining needed replacing again. 

To put it quite simply: It was time for a new coat.

The were two fabrics in my stash which I though would qualify for this project: This one and a densely woven beige coating. Either would make a nice change from the plain black we have used for his coats so far. 

E picked this one. It is a peculiar kind of fabric: It's a thick, off-white wool knit with the checks printed on. The printing is not equally dark over the whole fabric. There is only a tiny bit of stretch and only really in the width of the fabric, so I thought it might serve fine for a coat. 

I decided to use the selvedge of the fabric, with the white side facing out, as a piping.

For the pattern, I kept all the functional details which had made the previous coat such a winner: A fairly roomy fit which allows for a range of movement yet is fitted enough to eh... show off his good looks ;), the length which is practical both when driving and cycling, the collar which folds down a bit lower than the standard because that is more comfortable for him, the simple zipper closure.

The design details are new and I adapted them a bit to the nature of this fabric. The slanted welt pockets from the old coat didn't seem like such a good idea now. This fabric, although hardly stretchy, doesn't have the stability of that dense wool coating. And fusible interfacings (used to stabilize the yoke and the zipper edge) didn't really like sticking to it. 

And of course, I wanted to use those selvedges as a design detail. So, where the old coat had raglan sleeves, I went with normal ones this time but made a sort-of cuff to add the piping. I made a shoulder yoke with a point at the back. The collar is edged in the selvedges and so are the openings of the kangaroo pockets.

I tried to match the checks. I even cut out everything in a single layer to do so and it was not easy. It's a knit and the check is printed on... The lines were going everywhere! I think I mostly managed it though.

The zipper is a thick black plastic one. I usually prefer metal zippers but in this case, I didn't want to add another colour in the mix. 

I quite like the way the coat looks on him (even though he didn't really feel like posing when we took these pictures, too many people we passing by... But that's what we get for deciding to take pictures near the climbing hall again) and he got compliments on it from to colleagues. Both other men, who know his girlfriend sews (also for him) and think that's really cool. :D

Light and summery... and a bit late

In earlier posts this week, I already mentioned a finished garment which hadn't made it to the blog yet...
Well, here it is: A light summer coat.

Sometimes, the weather is nice but just not nice enough to go outside with bare arms. This thin linen coat should serve in those situations (and hopefully better than the slightly worn-out linen blazer I've been using so far). Unfortunately, by the time I had finished it, it was decidedly autumn-y outside. 
But maybe I'll still get a chance to wear it this year, the past three days have been a bit warmer again.

Either way, I used fabric from my stash: A sort of coarsely woven, natural coloured linen. It raveled like crazy but I actually really like the feel and the texture of this stuff. And it's the kind of odd non-colour that looks really good on me. All the seams are finished with this satin bias tape, which was also still in my stash.

The original idea was to make a fairly classic kind of trench coat. Just with raglan sleeves. The body of the coat is a very slight A-line, it has a double-breasted closure and those raglan sleeves. I paid particular attention to drafting the collar. I didn't want the lapel on the underlying side to be almost invisible when the coat is closed. 
It worked out pretty well.

In the end, I really liked way the coat softly skims the figure and decided to go without a belt. There are no pockets (yet) either. With an unlined coat like this, patch pockets are the only option and like the lines of the coat as it is now and I'm not so sure how well the fairly open weave would take the pulling caused by a pocket in use...

For the pictures, we picked a different location: E suggested to take the small camera with us when we went to the climbing hall. That's the strangely shaped grey structure in the background: Monte Cervino near Rotterdam. Apperently, it's shaped like the tip of the Matterhorn and it can be climbed inside and out. I normally wouldn't have worn heels to go there ;) 

Requiem for a coat

There is no point in denying it anymore: My favorite coat is dying.
I made it way back in November 2009, in the first year I had this blog. As such, it was one of the earliest projects to receive the full blogging treatment with posts about the plans for it, the muslin, the construction and the final result (weirdly, that construction posts still gets a lot of hits. Probably by people who googled 'sewing secrets'…).
And ever since, it has been my most worn winter coat.

While the fabric is not particularly thick and warm, the shape really makes up for that. The loose body with the deep-set sleeves allows me to wear just about  anything under it. The generous overlap and tapered body and sleeves are great for keeping out the chill and that small V-neck can quite easily and efficiently be closed off with a scarf.
Its length makes it ideal for both cycling and driving.
And it looks great with any trouser shape I ever wear and with slim skirts as well.

Over a year ago, I already noticed the pilling of the fabric (a rather loosely woven herringbone tweed, so it was never going to be the most durable) in some places. However, I ignored it, deciding that it's OK for tweed to look a bit rough.

I also noticed how the points of the collar were getting bent. It's no surprise really, I cycled a lot in this coat and when I stretch my arms forward, I push against those tips of the collar.
And than, the pocket welts started to sag just the tiniest bit, and the bottom edge was really the only mistake I made with the pattern. It should have been a tiny bit wider and have a hidden closure. Now, with more and more wear, it was showing more and more.
And then, at the beginning of this winter, I noticed a big tear in the lining. I've a new lining for E's coat once but that still looked fine on the outside. It seemed like to much trouble for coat which was, if I was honest, already on the way out.
And yet, I kept wearing it.
For all the practical reasons but also because I've just grown very fond of this coat. I was the first wide, loose coat I made and even one of the first loose garments. A real change in silhouette, a diversification really. 
It just suits me. It's a coat like a warm embrace. A hug and a place to hide when I'm feeling low. A protective cocoon and a statement of confidence at the same time.
I guess I'm writing all this to convince myself it really is time to say goodbye. I have coat fabrics in my stash, and some ideas of what to do with them, but it doesn't feel like any of those could replace my great friend of the garment kind...

First winter

Little J's winter suit is finished!
I explained a lot of its details in the previous post: modified Knippie patterns, wool coating and interlining, cotton lining and rib knit.
I have to say I really like the combination of this fairly dull dark blue fabric with the bright red. I have I bit of both left, so I may even use them together again…

I bagged the lining of both garments, catching that rib knit between the layers. At those really small hand leg and arm openings, that was really fiddly.
And of course, I had to make the separating zipper quite a bit shorter. 
The zipper, by the way was also sewn in from the inside so there is no visible stitching there, not even on the flap behind it.
All the jacket still needs is a red lace for the hood. Unfortunately, I went to four different places (three market stalls and a store) which sell notions and none of them were selling laces anymore. I would have expected at least one of them to sell the stuff by the meter, I know they used to. 
And I'm thinking only now that I should buy actual shoe laces instead. On this small size, their length should not be a problem and those will have nicely finished tips… I should have thought of that earlier.

Now, all I have to do is hope that it will fit J and he and his parents will like it.

Pelerine love

Last week, I've been studying my Gracieuse magazines from 1930 (I thought I should work my way through the pile chronologically, but the early '30's ones were just calling out to me. And they were easy to reach because I now have to piles on the shelf: 1920 to 1930 and 1930 to end of Gracieuse with pattern sheets). Judging from this this publication, 1930 was a great year for fashion. The trends of the day show a transition from the loose but intricately decorated styles of the 1920's to the sharp silhouette of the 1930's. Waistlines are back to the natural waistline or just below it and are carefully being shown again, skirts are getting longer but often have uneven hemlines in interesting shapes, (pin)tucks and biais cut sections are used both for decoration and to give shape. 

One thing especially caught my eye. 
It's mostly, but certainly not exclusively, using in coats: the pelerine. These little capes feature on at least half of the coats printed in the issues I have (throughout the year, not just in winter) and are regularly included in dress designs as well. I think the summer dresses in which the pelerine works as both collar and short sleeve are a particularly nice option.
But the coats really got to me.... I want a pelerine coat now! Although it is probably wiser to wait with making one till autumn...

Like all coats from 1930, the ones with pelerines are fairly straight in line with long lapels (which can often be worn closed as well) and high upper collars. The closure is at or just below the waistline and most used style is single breasted with a large overlap which places the button past center front. 

Pelerines can be seperate items, in which case they may be used over a dress as well, as part of a 'complet'.

Others are a hanging free over the coat front (but seem to be attached at the shoulder seam),

or they attach to what looks like a princess seam in the bodice...

or hang from a shoulder yoke (this is actually a dress).

There are even some which exist only on the back of the coat. I guess one would attach those to the shoulder seam an to the sleeve.

Most pelerines hang free at the back,

but it's also not unusual to have them attach to a narrow center back panel (the coat on the right, which is seen on the back. I also love the black coat which does come with a, two sizes too large for me, pattern). If the design is meant for stripes or checks, this panel is usually cut in a different direction from the body of the coat. 

Also, pelerines can be cut as one piece, or with seperate front and back pieces. If with seperate pieces, there's usually no shoulder shaping, these things are meant to be wide.

I especially love the coats in the last two pictures but I have the patterns for numbers 1, 3 and 5 (like so many vintage magazines, Gracieuse doesn't include patterns for all the designs). Of course, there is always the option of drafting one myself, incorporating the design featured I love best...
And I even have a great fabric for a pelerine coat:

It's a light coat fabric and at 4 meters, it should be enough. 
I want to try out a blouse pattern from Gracieuse this week, to get a feel for the shapes, sizing and ease used in these magazines. I really think I should wait with making a coat like this until the end of summer but I am sorely tempted....

Another coat to reveal!

This morning, I finished E's new coat (I guess I could have done it last night, but Downton Abbey was on).

I had sort of planned to do a photoshoot like the one for my blue redingote, but mister wouldn't play along... So, regular indoor pictures to the rescue ;)

I think I've already explained some of my thinking behind this design. I wanted to make this a somewhat classic coat but one which would still work with E's casual dress sense. This is why the back isn't that fitted: he needs to be able to move around in this thing, it's not purely a show-piece.

I think I made three muslins to get the pattern right (self-drafted of course, based on a casual jacket block made years ago), dealing mostly with the width in the lower half and drag lines at the shoulder. 

On the real coat, I used horsehair interfacing in the upper front panel, all facings, the collar and along the black vent (I paid close attention to the vent in the muslin stage: I think it's such a bad look when a vent is permanently gaping). I also used a type of shoulder pads made from layers of thin foam and I put half of a third one on the right shoulder pad. I'm really pleased with how that turned out: no drag lines, even shoulders and no excessively heavy-shouldered look. 

And I made bound buttonholes, as I've shown you before. 

This weekend, I bagged the lining and sewed the hem facings in place, by hand on from the inside, after attaching the lining (I'm just mentioning this because apperently, it's not a standard construction order and it can potentially save quite a bit of hand-sewing). 

Then, I attached the backs of the buttonholes and sewed on the buttons and a snap on the inside.

Here are even some phone pictures of E wearing the coat, walking in a local shopping street:

All in all, I'm rather pleased with this coat. I think it looks quite good on him. 

The outer lower lapel will, despite the padstitching, not lay really flat that easily, but I think that was to be expected with such a heavy material. It may get more obedient with wear... 

And I hope I can discourage E in his unfortunate habit to pull the sides of the coat up to stick his hands into his trouser pockets.

Coat progress

Unexpectedly, I had quite a bit of time yesterday and today to work on E's coat. As a result, significant progress has been made:

This is (about) where it's at. 
I had to do a bit of puzzle-work with the facings to get this coat cut out of what I had left of the black wool coating (which I also used for E's previous coat). It's a good thing the two other people who half-requested black coats in the mean time didn't go through with it...
After cutting fabric and lining, I had to make some decisions about interfacing. And I had to find buttons. I knew I wanted to make bound buttonholes and in those are best done early in construction, so you won't have to deal with a huge slab of already-constructed garment. 
I found plain and simple, but large enough, black buttons on the market last week (a card of 12. I need 6 for this coat but hey, they're black buttons...). And as for interfacing, this lovely, fairly thick, densely woven black wool just screams out for the use of horsehair... Looking back, I can't imagine why I didn't use any on that previous coat. I still had some fusible horsehair (yes, that exists. I bought it some years ago when I was looking for the regular kind. It sticks really well and makes for a very stiff interfacing which is why I haven't used it in a lot of projects. For a fabric like this though, it's pretty ideal) which I used for the facings, collar and pocket flaps. 
Because this coat is a bit more formal and a bit more fitting than the old one, I decided to interface the upper fronts as well. For this, I used normal horsehair interfacing (also because I ran out of the fusible stuff which I originally bought in a closing-down sale) Which I stitched on by hand at regular intervals. I will also do some real padstitching for lower lapels of the collar later.

Then, construction could actually start. I made two bound buttonholes (the third one is in the 'waist' seam) sewed seams and made the pockets which hang from the horizontal seam and have only their flaps showing on the outside. I'm pretty pleased with it so far. The fabric definately helps. Thick-ish wools are the best: this one sews well, presses well and just generally shapes well. And am I the only one who enjoys the smell of pressing wool? Like clean sheep. Not to mention the smell of the horsehair. Largely made of linen, that smells like freshly mown grass. Clean sheep in a clean meadow, like a summer idylle ;)

After taking this picture, I also inserted the sleeves and made the collar so the lining is next. Not my favorite part, lining fabric is always disappointing after the nice stuff used for the outside, but definately worth it. 
I hope I can finish the coat this weekend, so I can take some pictures of E wearing it...

P.S. Just a comment for those of you reading this blog on a mobile phone or use the RSS feed: I've altered the sidebar last week and it now contains a blogroll and a list of links to all my tutorials.

Nothing to show

Hi everyone! I hope you've all had a good time over the Holidays.
I've been putting off this post for a couple of days now. Basically, I have plenty to show you: I tweaked the coat design for E a bit more and am now ready to cut into the real fabric and I made two tops and a skirt, well actually, two skirts.  
However, the weather has been very uncooperative. It isn't cold at all but so very cloudy. All day, every day. I just haven't had enough light for half-way decent pictures. I'll show you all the good stuff as soon as possible, I promise.

About the coat: I had to take it in at waist and hips a bit more and then I discovered a weird fit issue at the shoulder which hadn't bothered me before. In the end, I think that was just proof of my ever more critical eye: the existing coat showed the same drag line from neck to armpit (which is often caused by a too tight back neckline and/or armscye, but not in this case). I finally tried a small shoulder pad and that solved all the remaining fit-issues: those drag lines,  a slightly too tight chest area and the range of movement provided by the sleeves. 
I was really suprised to get that much result from so small and easy a fix. I guess that teaches me... Now, I will only have to do some minor surgery on the right pad to compensate for dear E's uneven shoulders.

Coats again...

Once more, I have coats on my mind...

Not for me this time though. For the man in life.
I made this coat for him in September 2010 and he has only worn it just about all the time in the two winters since then. I replaced the lining last spring but, apart from some hard to remove stains, it's still going strong. 
Nevertheless, I thought it was time to make him another one. Using the same fabric of which I still have a good 3 to 4 meters in stash. 
He said he would wear the old one to work and keep the new one as his 'good' coat.
I started thinking about it last winter and I planned for something very similar in shape to the previous one, just with a rib-knit collar (the first sketch, top left). I just couldn't find an appropriately thick rib knit so I postponed until autumn. 

By now, having recovered from a spell of low sewing mojo, I was looking differently at this coat idea. Then, E requested something which would look right when seen next to my new coat...
So, why not make something a little bit more classic, less casual. Like a double breasted coat, vaguely sailor-y (top right sketch)? 
E sort of approved the sketch but wanted buttons at the sleeve.
Considering the back, I was reminded of the interesting design lines of 19th century menswear. The shoulder seams angled far to the back from a 'normal' starting point at the neck, side seams set far into the back, almost shaped like back princess seams...

Like this example from the book 19th century fashion in detail.
I planned to keep the basic shape I made before but incorporate the details I just mentioned.

Of course, I was going to make a muslin for the bodice. When drafting that, I decided on a whim to make the whole thing 15 cm longer than before and to include a center back slit. 
E and I both liked the new length of the coat, to about mid-thigh. We didn't like just how straight and shapeless it looked. 
I then went one step further with the 19th century influence: A horizontal seam in the front and side panels (last sketch). It will be ideal for making pockets and it allowed me to shape the waist a bit more without making it very obvious nor in any way (at least, I hope and think so) feminine. The front and side back 'skirt' are one piece which is ever so slightly flared. The upper pieces are seperate, so there is a sideseam there, which I took in 1.5 cm at the 'waist'line on each(sloping to nothing at the armscye). 
Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of any of the fitting sessions so far so you will have to rely on my crappy sketches for now. I still have to draft a collar and consider button and pocket placement. I still kind of hope to get it done before the New Year...

The big coat reveal!

Here it is! We managed to make use a short sunny moment on an otherwise very rainy day to try and show off my new coat, my redingote.

For this, I decided to go all the way: styling and make-up!

You may remember how it all started with this image in a 1953 issue of sewing magazine Marion. 

I showed you the proces from trying out the original pattern, dismissing it and drafting and developing my own. I explained how to create ease at the armscye without limiting range of movement, and I showed the sewing work in progress. Now, the coat is finished and I've worn it out for the first time...

As discussed before, it has half raglan sleeves end on mid-shoulder where they meet the bodice princess seams. Those princess seams flare out from below the fitted wiastline to form a full skirt. On the side front pieces, there are stick-out pockets. The collar I finally decided upon creates the same high neckline as the shawl collar in the original design. This allowed me to stick with the original button placement: One at the waistline, one below it and one at the collar. With diagonal bound buttonholes. It's short of a convertible collar (if I add a little button and loop, it could be worn closed) with four little darts at the back.

The fabric is a blue-grey wool which has been in my stash for a while, underlined with grey wool, the bodice is interfaced with horsehair canvas and of course the whole thing is lined. 

Interestingly, according to the stern editrix of 1951's Libelle, blue-grey is an excellent colour for a coat because it can be worn with black and with brown... Although the redingote is always a dressy style which makes it less versitile...

And a dressy coat it is... I accesoirized with black for the photoshoot, mostly because it's the only colour in I have all pieces. 

The hat is vintage and was bought in London (at Portobello market, if I remember correctly), the gloves are vintage and from my local market and the purse comes from the same place but was very tired-looking and missing a strap so I did some DIY on it with bits of leather left over from one of my jacket projects. The shoes are the ones I often wear in pictures for the blog and were bought new.