A year and a half ago I made a reversible quilted jacket. I’d had the fabric quilted on a long-arm quilter, cut out the pieces, sewed up seams, bound them with a complementary fabric. The challenge was to figure out a way of creating a faux pocket on the reverse side to allow access to the real pocket on the outside. I achieved that by improvising with a zipper.

Last spring I bought Sandra Betzina’s coat pattern thinking I could use similar techniques I used for the jacket. I liked the tall collar and the contrasting bands. I thought it wouldn’t be too difficult to accomplish the look.

So I had more fabric quilted. Last week I cut out the pieces with some modifications: I cut set-in sleeves from the jacket pattern instead of raglan used in Sandra’s coat; I cut the body a half inch wider on both fronts and the back at the side seams. I decided not to make the welt pocket in the pattern but to recreate the patch pockets (with zipper on the inside) used in the jacket.

I started, following the instructions, by joining yoke and body (front and back) with a contrasting strip. (This was my first mistake – I should have ignored the pattern instructions and thought the assembly through on my own – I should have bound the front edge in the dark fabric before sewing in the contrast!) I’m going to have to take the contrasting join apart, bind the front edges, then restore the contrast band. I constructed and attached the pockets to the outside. 

I inset a bound zipper on the second side first, however, to allow access to the patch pocket, covering the zipper with the patch pocket on the outside. (That substantially reduces the bulk of the fronts.)
The contrast in the back works fine. No need to redo that.

Setting in the sleeve and binding the armhole, underarm and side seams went without a hitch. Tomorrow I’ll inset the second sleeve.

The collar is ready to be attached – I figured out how to apply the appropriate contrast to each side. I can’t add the collar, however, until the fronts are bound because I want to bind that neckline seam with the appropriate contrasts to each side for the second collar contrast used in the coat pattern!

Buttonhole placement will take some thought – I couldn’t easily include them in the contrast seams like Sandra does. I will have to make bound buttonholes like I did with the jacket (covering the construction with a facing using the side two contrast fabric).

I’ll share more after I finish the garment.