Today, I’m sharing my review of the Vogue 1669 coat – which is a re-edition of a vintage coat pattern from 1949.

I have a bit of a mixed relationship with coat-making in my sewing practice. On one hand, I love working with wool. I also generally really enjoy the process of sewing coats. I find detail-oriented projects a lot of fun.

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You can see my previous foray into coat sewing above. There’s the Merlin Coat from I am Patterns, the Opium Coat by Deer and Doe, the Ulysses trench by Victory Patterns, the Hemisferic Coat by Pauline Alice Patterns and the Rumana Coat by By Hand London. (BTW, I still love, love, love the Rumana Coat pattern and desperately wish my version still fit me!!!)

Buuuuut, on the other hand, I realised over time that I didn’t tend to wear my me-made coats as much as my RTW ones.

There wasn’t necessary a clear reason for this. Sometimes, I had experimented with a new shape and I just didn’t like the coat as much as I had hoped. Other times it would be because those “imperfections” of the me-made garment – like a wavy hem or an imperfectly attached lining – tended to bother me more and more over time. Perhaps because coats are such a prominent part of our outward-facing wardrobe – it feels that more people see us in our coats than see us in any other garment. So perhaps this leads me to apply higher standards to what I expect from a coat.

I also find that the high-quality wool I like to buy is so expensive that by the time you purchased the 3-4 metres required to sew a coat, you are nearly at the cost of a RTW coat on just materials alone. And when it felt like I wasn’t really achieving the finish that I wanted, I decided that it wasn’t worth it.

So a while ago, I kind of swore that I was DONE with me-made coats.

But I still love coats. I love the process of sewing coats. And I still had this gorgeous pattern in my stash. So, after a few years of keeping my no coat sewing pledge, I couldn’t resist the urge for a nice coat-making project.

My Vogue 1669

I sewed this Vogue 1669 coat using a gorgeous double faced wool coating from the Fabric Store – I believe it is now sold out, so I won’t bore you with the details. It was a pleasure to work with, so soft and squishy and forgiving. There is something magical about the way steam and wool can work together!!

My version of the Vogue 1669 is a size 18 at the bust, graded out to size 20 at the waist and hips. I also added about a cm or so of extra room into the pattern at the upper arm. The version you see here has 2 inches length removed from the end of the skirt, because I didn’t have enough fabric.

When I embark on a coat sewing project, I do tend to take the extra mile to do things well. I used tailor tacks. I cut everything slowly and carefully as a single layer.

Now, another reason I don’t find sewing me-made coats very economical is that you also need additional coat weight wool in order to make a muslin. Even as someone who goes without a muslin as often as possible, I do end up in muslin territory when making something as fancy as a coat.

I had some fabric leftover from my Rya Shacket, so I used this to whip up a muslin. I only had enough fabric to muslin the bodice and about the top 10cm of the skirt. I must say, however, that this time around I didn’t learn a whole lot from the muslin process except this – if you are going to do it, do it properly. I stopped my muslin just above the pockets. Yet, on the finished product, the only part where I feel that the pattern is a bit off is precisely those pockets.

The feature flaps are just too big for me – the proportions seem off. Further, the pocket placement is too low on my body. And, the pockets themselves, on the inside, are so shallow as to be practically useless, I’m too scared to put my phone in there lest it falls out.

So, by trying to save time and fabric by skipping the pocket details on my muslin, I wasn’t able to get any perspective on this key feature.

So I guess I have begrudgingly arrived at the view that if it is worth muslining, it is worth putting the effort to muslin the entire project: details included!

Sewing the Vogue 1669 Coat

I’m not going to lie, on the rare occasions that I am sewing a Big 4 pattern, I go in with pretty low expectations for the instructions.

At first, I was actually pleasantly surprised by the instructions of the Vogue 1669. I did find them a bit inefficient. It was necessary to make sure to read ahead and try to find ways to do the steps more efficiently – things like pre-pressing the hem when your pieces are flat. Or doing the details of the split hem on the sleeve before it is attached to the coat, rather than attaching the sleeve to the coat, as the instructions suggest, and then having a huge heavy coat to manoeuvre around the sewing table as to you try to do the little mitred corner details on the sleeve.

But, apart from strange ordering, I found the instructions for the shell basically fine.

When it came to attaching the lining, however, this is where the instructions seemed to descend into total chaos. Instead of bagging the lining, the sleeve lining is attached to the seam allowance of the sleeve. With all the layers of bulky wool at the sleeve, I found this basically impossible to do.

I also just could not actually understand what the instructions were suggesting that I do to attach the lining to the shell at the hem.

Further, when I tried some different things out, I couldn’t come up with a method that didn’t completely distort the shape of the dramatic pleat at the centre back. So I have actually left my lining separate from the shell at the hem because I just couldn’t figure it out.

So I basically went from: “Big 4 instructions aren’t all that bad” to “Big 4 instructions are the devil’s spawn” over the course of this project.

Channeling my Inner Ice Princess

Soooo, I’m a feminist but…I still have a penchant for garments that make me feel like a Princess?

And this Vogue 1669 coat makes me feel like some kind of Ice Princess.

As an Australian, I never grew up with these kind of heavy wool coats. This is the first full-length coat I have ever worn! And there is definitely something about this coat – its length, the dramatic neckline, the shape, that feels like it belongs in a fairy tale to me.

The end result definitely feels a bit dramatic, a bit over-the-top, a bit Cruella de Vil if she gave up fur, but I still kind of love it.

Does it weigh a ton?

Yes

Do I obsessively stare at my hem as I am cycling in it, trying to ensure that my white wool isn’t getting dirty?

Yes

Does it still have those same imperfections that have bugged me on other coats?

Yes, the sleeves are slightly too long, I haven’t got the sleeve lining attached to the sleeve shell well on one sleeve and haven’t got the hemlines attached at all!

But do I love it?

Well, yes!

I am glad that these coat is now a part of my life. Which I think just goes to show that some sewing projects are about the practical – doing what is most efficient and practical and sensible.

And other projects are just purely about the joy of seeing just what we are capable of creating with our own two hands.

And when someone said “Nice coat” to me the very first time that I wore this coat, it definitely felt like it was all worth it!