The Cow Hide Trench Coat
There was a cowhide rug in my house that honestly just clashed with the fireplace and it always bothered me. While I was working in the office this week it kept catching my eye and I figured it was finally time to do something about it. As I was thinking of where I could put it the thought came to mind to just put it on myself and make a cool jacket/coat out of it for our trip to England this Christmas. Sadly Last year I lost my favorite coat in the world, and I have been unsuccessful at finding a similar one and I need one for this winter.
We weren’t staying at our house this week because ours has been getting remodeled, hence I was without my iPad which is usually how I do sketches for ideas. So I was left to map it out freely in my mind and straight onto the mannequin. Sometimes this is the best method for me anyways because I just get right to it and ideas come to me more organically, however, I had a bit of a rough start this time around.
First I started off by draping some felt onto the mannequin, this was a mistake in many ways because felt has no grain and was difficult to work with and mark. I regretted it almost immediately but carried on to just get my idea out on “paper”. I have had many spontaneous moments when I felt like I had a brief stroke of genius but this was not one of them. Still, I believe in always going with the flow and acting on sudden ideas.
Anyways I started over and draped a real draft by using muslin and watching a few youtube videos throughout the process. These videos in particular were extremely helpful as coats and jackets are much more constructively complex and certain rules are very critical.
Helpful Videos for draping a Coat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdYMFuN02Aw&t=401s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yy5rrKQCCnQ&t=183s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1ONg6Mdd_o&list=PLdfzJZed5GNNEGWRtsWzClIhZ48w62Scn&index=7
I did my own version of a coat from the mixture of these videos and am really happy with the turnout. It took me an entire day to drape, of course in between feeding and taking care of Oliver, but I think it was well worth it because I plan on making at least one more coat from this pattern, and will be selling it to you all to try for yourselves too.
Please give any feedback on fit and construction for this pattern piece as I have only done fittings on myself and my mannequin and would love to improve the pattern.
I am writing this in the middle of this project as my new sewing machine hasn’t arrived in the mail yet. So I will come back to add any updates to the project.
So far I have the coat front and back and the collar drafted. I am unsure if I want to add a gun flap or a storm shield on the back. I think it will mostly depend on any extra hide I have. It might be cool to make a matching beret, wallet, or something for jack to wear so we can match.
for the gun patch or the storm shield, I think it would be cool to keep the natural shape of the hide on the bottom so it has this curved swoop instead of a straight across line. I will also see if that would look cool for the bottom of the coat, but I also want it to look crisp and modern at the same time and I think it might look too barbaric if I’m not careful.
I am excited to be using the real hair/fur because I feel like you don’t see that very often with leather jackets even though that’s what they all originally had at some point.
How It Turned Out
