Wool - Tapestry Jacket - Simplicity #1320 - the fabrics

How did I end up using this beautiful tapestry for what I intended to be an everyday coat? Well, it all started with wanting to use up something from my stash ... sound familiar?

I've had this beautiful robin's egg blue wool/cashmere for a really long time, probably 17 or 18 years. But, I didn't have quite enough for a coat. I think I bought it with the idea of making a waist length little jacket, but that's not what I wanted now.  So, I starting looking for a fabric to coordinate with it.

After looking in all my local stores with no luck. I went to my computer and sent away for several small pieces of wools with teal in them. And, well ... all of these were super boring.

I sent away to Vogue Fabrics for a swatches of a couple fabrics they had that looked interesting. Better, but still not quite right.

I then took a trip to the GIANT JOANN'S near me. I don't go there often, because I have two regular sized Joann's that are much closer. (Yes, I am VERY lucky)

Armed with a swatch of my blue wool I walked the aisles a couple times in the fashion fabric area, but then headed on over to their home dec section.  They are one of the few stores left with actual rolls of nice decorator fabrics to see and touch, and there was the beautiful paisley tapestry.  I think I walked past it about seven times before I decided I could deal with such a bright coat. It really wasn't what I had in mind, but the colors looked so perfect with my blue wool.

You all know it is very important to pre-shrink your fabrics. This even applies to fabrics that should be dry cleaned. So, you can take the fabric to be dry cleaned before it's cut. OR, I found instructions how to do it at home in your dryer. This saves money and even more important time!  I didn't want to wait a couple days for the fabric to come back from the dry cleaners before I could start making my coat. 

Click on this to learn how .... How to pre-shrink wool in your dryer

But, also, I recommend serging or zigzagging the raw edges first, so your fabric doesn't fray to pieces.

Here's something else from my stash.  I've had this card of neat old buttons for along time, too. There were only three of them, so it took a while to find the right project. And this was it! The pattern called for 3 buttons!

And for fun, look at the back of the card. I remember buttons being held to the back of a card like this, when I was a kid. Tiny bobby pins thingies.

I based my jacket on view C, but did something a little different. First off, because the tapestry fabric was so thick, I decided to make the inside/facing of the jacket front out of the blue wool instead of a second layer of the thick tapestry. That meant I had less wool and more tapestry for the rest of the coat, so I decided to make the center back panel from the tapestry, similar to the front. (see first photo of this blog) AND, since the pockets are made from a totally different pattern piece on the outside of the jacket, I thought it would be pretty to have the pockets out of the tapestry, too.

And since this is to be a warm coat, I wanted it lined. The pattern does not have instructions or pattern pieces for a lining, so I created them, which I will show you on Monday. But I thought you would like to, at least, see the lining fabric I chose.  Whenever possible I like to make a statement with my linings and this red looked so good with the reds in the tapestry.

Have a great weekend, everyone. My sister, Theresa LaQuey is coming to visit for a couple of days. I'll try to get a nice photo of the two of us to share on Monday, too!