I finished my first Pilvi Coat and I think I love it. I’m wearing it, indoors, right now. I like the idea of just throwing it on over a t-shirt and jeans, and feeling “dressed”. A medium weight cotton is great for my lifestyle. Just the right comfort level and the sleeves are short enough that it doesn’t get in the way while I’m doing things.

This isn’t a style of garment I had in my wardrobe previously. I wonder why. I can see having a bunch of these in different fabrics. I knew I had poor Coat Game but I didn’t realise the potential of an informal coat like this.

As usual, I need to live with it in my wardrobe and wear it to see if it is as wonderful as I think it is. But I’m pretty sure there will be more of these in my future.

I’ve already noted the pattern changes I made and the seam binding methods I used. Here are a few more notes to improve cutting and construction of the pattern. This is a quick make and I highly recommend it.

Construction Notes: Notes & Improvements

• I used a short pile velvet with a large pattern repeat. I had 3m and only scraps left over. The nap of the velvet, combined with the large pattern repeat meant that it was important to be careful when cutting it out: I couldn’t turn the pieces upside down (because of the velvet nap) and I had to place them so that the pattern matched at centre front and was adjacent at side seams.
  I would not recommend under 3m if you have a large print repeat.
• Raglan sleeves are  great when you are working with a large pattern, as you don’t have to try to match the pattern to the fronts or backs at the sleeve head. I made sure that the motifs were cut in the same way for each sleeve, so that the sleeves look balanced.

• I used Hong Kong binding for all the seams. This looks very nice inside. I would recommend binding the hems, front & neck facings at the very least. If I were to make it again, I might just overlock the arm and side seams, if I was in a hurray. But binding those important seams, makes it look so much nicer.
• I used 14 metres of binding. I bought pre-folded binding and it cost nearly £10. It would have been much better to make it myself from 3cm wide bias strips.
• The pockets seemed a little low to me. I’ve got short arms, but I still think they would be better for most people if they were 2-3cm higher. I will adjust my pattern.
• As I was redrawing the neckline anyway, I made a new facing, combining the shoulder and the back neck into one piece. Why have another seam allowance when you don’t need it? It just creates extra bulk.
• I used fusible hem tape to stick down the neck facing, front facings, sleeve and bottom hems. I tried top-stitching the neck but I didn’t like the way it looked in the velvet pile. I unpicked it (a bit of a nuisance). The facings are thread tacked at seams and then fused. I haven’t sewn the bottom hem at all. Don’t know if I will need to.