Yahoo! Tumblr does really awful things to my photographs so I’m moving all my sewing posts over here now. Sorry if you dgaf about sewing or pictures of me wearing clothes. This post is from literally today. I’ll import the rest later. I don’t know what happens with RSS if you add really old posts. Something we can find out together. This will be the third time I’ve moved my sewing project write ups. Originally they lived on Flickr, then they went to Tumblr, now they’re here.
I made the TN31 Parka from Merchant and Mills after seeing Nat’s mustard version and being extremely impressed.
I cut a size 12. It has plenty of ease so still feels quite big.
Fabric and notions
- The outer fabric is dry oilskin in ‘Fern’ from Merchant and Mills
- I lined it with some black brushed cotton from Minerva Crafts
- The neck ribbing is also from M&M, it’s the Jansson Rib
- The buttons are these ones from M&M too
Sewing notes
This was quite a tricky sew. The lined version is basically two coats stuck together (that’s how lining works, duh). Because you can’t iron dry oilskin it’s not so easy to just iron out sloppy sewing (which is my usual trick). Dry oilskin is also very unforgiving to being unpicked as it leaves marks where the stitches were.
Towards the end I began to struggle a lot with the volume of fabric I was trying to move about. It was quite heavy to there are a few wonky bits where I had a bit of a fight with the coat.
The neck was also very difficult to sew. I’m not sure I exactly nailed it, but I really love the ribbing anyway so I can live with it.
What did I like about this pattern? Well, the finished item is lovely and warm. It has four pockets which is ideal for my four hands. The neckline (although I fudged it a bit) is really cute. The hidden buttons are also a really nice touch.
