Thursday, September 12, 2013

Vogue 8940: Mens Peacoat





I've never sewn for my husband, he's very much a jeans and t-shirts man. However he doesn't have any coats and when I saw the new Vogue patterns I scooped this one up. It's a nice simple peacoat with some cool details.


The fabric is a navy coating I picked up from Spotlight on clearance. It's very soft and sewed up beautifully, the colour is true in the top 4 photos (the detail pics are a bit washed out looking). Lining is Sunsilky from Lincraft and the buttons were from there too.


I followed the instructions all the way through (for once!), they are very similar to the RTW sewalong with interfacing on the front, side, back yoke, collars and facings. The lining is semi-bagged with the hems being hand sewn. I actually enjoyed the control this gave me over how well it all fit together. It has inseam pockets at the front and a welt pocket inside.


I'm still disappointed in the inside welt pocket. I managed to sew the welts on the wrong way around and had already cut the slit in the facing before I realised.......plus I didn't have enough fabric to recut the front facing and of course Spotlight had sold out of it. So it was carefully unpicked and resewn but you can see some pulling in the lining and its a bit uneven so I'm still not showing any close ups, lets look at the nice notched collar instead!


Fit wise I cut a sz42 which matched his measurements. I muslined it up and had to add width in the arms and the upper back. I remuslined all the changes and then cut the main fabric. Once it was sewn up I got him to try it on and it was massive so it was all unpicked and recut smaller. The final product is a sz 42 with a 2" broad back adjustment and a 2" bicep width adjustment. The chest and length are all straight from the pattern and fit him fine (he's 5'11"). If/when I make it again I'll be adding a little to the forearms and to the pocket opening width (I always tell him he has bear paws not hands so the pocket openings are a bit too small)


Each time I do a decent size broad back measurement I usually gather the back shoulder seam and ease it into the front, this tends to make the upper back creep forward at the back of the arms. Because this jacket also has a dropped front shoulder seam it seemed to exaggerate this so I put in a topstitched pleat instead of the gathers which made it sit a lot nicer (pleated is on the left, gathered is on the right)


I did flat piping around the facings. I'd been given a big bag of my hubbies late Grandfathers ties so I used one of them to make bias strips out of for the piping. This worked really well and there was enough fabric in the tie to make the piping and the welts for the inside pocket.


Speaking of the facing, the pattern doesn't include a back facing so I drafted one. It also doesn't include a jump pleat in the back lining. Not sure if this is normal in men's jackets?? I added a 1" jump pleat anyway.


I did notice the pattern asks you to cut 2 inside pocket lining pieces but you only need one (only mistake I found in the pattern).

All in all, I'm really happy with it. I wanted it to look casual but neat and I think it does, best of all it fits him and he likes it!

20 comments:

  1. That looks amazing!!!! Looks professional, your hubby is so lucky!!

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  2. You did a beautiful job! One of these days I'll get brave enough to tackle something like this.

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  3. Suzy. Please don't show your coat to my husband. He will want one for next winter. I can guarantee it. And he'll want as good a quality as you've done.
    You've done an ace job on this coat.

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  4. What a wonderful coat! Great sewing (and your hubby did a great job modelling!)

    Rose in SV

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  5. Gorgeous coat for your husband and you have done an amazing job. Now need to make sure DH doesn't see it!

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  6. That is an awesome coat. Some great details - love the use of the tie there, that is lovely.

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  7. OH yes!!! I bought this one as soon as I saw it - such a great pattern and I'm planning to eventually sew one up for my beau. It's great to see this comes up as you would want it too - looks fabulous!

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  8. You should be pleased its a lovely coat,great job and hubbie looks happy wearing it too.

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  9. Oh this is awesome - I'm trying to convince hubby that maybe I could make something for him. He's yet to be convinced - perhaps all my pretty floral dresses scare him...

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  10. Wow I am so impressed! This looks great on him! It is so hard to get my Mr to approve of any patterns let alone fabrics so I've yet to make him anything. This I shall have to show him - Bravo!

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  11. Your husband's coat is so beautiful! This is the latest men's Vogue pattern, I just got to have it even though prices for Vogue are more expensive over here in the UK, hope to do it justice though :)

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  12. Your husband's coat is so beautiful! This is the latest men's Vogue pattern, I just got to have it even though prices for Vogue are more expensive over here in the UK, hope to do it justice though :)

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  13. I have been so remiss in my comments and late in posting - sorry. This is a fantastic make; the lining, as usual, has your personal touch and what a lucky man! There seems to be a bit of a slant towards 'making for men' recently. I am in the middle of a tailored jacket for mine. Great work, as always!

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  14. Susy, this is just brilliant! And just love the use of the old ties for a splash of colour pop on the inside. Hubby will be asking you to sew more for him now ... J

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  15. Great job on this coat - it really looks wonderful!

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  16. It looks very smart and a nice fit. Wow!

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  17. Wow! That turned out fantastic! I must admit I was so thrilled when I saw this new pattern from Vogue. I had scoured the internet looking for a decent men's peacoat pattern with no luck. I am just getting ready to embark on making this myself. I am a little unsure of one thing and was hoping you wouldn't mind answering a question. How did you sew the corners on the two front parts? Does that make sense? I'm afraid I'll mess it up!

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    1. Hi Jessica, the corner on the two front parts wasn't hard to sew, you stay stitch the corner, clip into it, then sew in the inset panel. Hmmm, not sure how much sense that makes! The instructions are pretty good that come with the pattern though, lots of pictures and easy to understand. The longer coat doesn't have that inset panel though so you could easily use that pattern piece instead if you really didn't want to sew it but it is a lot easier than it looks! Good luck :)

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    2. Thanks for the help, Suzy. I guess that part of the pattern looks more intimidating than it is. We had a minor snafu during the muslining process, pattern was cut to small and had to order another new pattern. Hope to get going again on this soon. Thanks again for sharing your wonderful version and for the advice.

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  18. Thank you so much for your review of this. I know I'm late to the party, but I am currently making this for my husband. I'm not past the fitting muslin yet. He is a size 50, so I had to completely re-draft a lot of it. Even with that, his front midsection required more fabric. The fitting muslin is in good shape now, with the exception of having to raise the armscye. I feel like the flap in the back (proper term escapes me) is a little low. Also, would it be strange to hem the lining separate from the body? I did this in my own coat, and it hangs well. I don't know if it's appropriate for menswear. There isn't a lot out there for sewing menswear. Anyway, I thank you for your review of the pattern and pictures of completed jacket and your husband wearing it.

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