Coat Sew-Along: The Design Inspiration

Hello, readers! I am back home from a wonderful time at the American Sewing Expo. And now it's sew-along time! (Reminder: you can join the sew-along by joining this Flickr group.) Today, I wanted to write about my design inspiration for Butterick 5824, as I think it will give a better perspective on the intended fit of the coat.

The whole reason I wanted to do a line of patterns was to recreate vintage silhouettes that are hard to find for the home seamstress. You know that rare and iconic vintage pattern you've always wanted but costs $200 and is only for sale in a bust size 30"? That's what I'm talking about. For me, one of those designs was the 50s Princess Coat.

The Princess Coat is a direct descendent of Dior's 1947 New Look, which was marked by sloping shoulders, a dropped armscye, a nipped waist, and long full skirts.

In the early 50s, this style of coat became known as a Princess Coat. (Designer Lilli Ann made some of the most gorgeous styles, in my opinion.) If you look closely at the examples below, you'll see some of the design details I was most inspired by: very full skirts, dramatic collars, fitted waists, and loose kimono sleeves.

Lilli Ann coat

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I used photographs of coats like these as I was designing Butterick 5824 and also sewing the blue sample coat that you see in the pattern photo. So I'm hoping that these visuals will also help you as you're fitting your coat. As you can see, the sleeve and underarm area is not meant to be fitted at all. You will have folds of fabric in this area, which is intentional. I know that moden fitting techniques have us believe that all drapes of fabric are "drag lines" and therefore bad. But in this case, it's part of the design. Dior even brought back this fit in several recent couture collections!

So there you have it, readers. I hope this was helpful! More sew-along posts coming at you all this month.