For my final project I made a 50s style coat. I was having trouble deciding what to make for this project so I decided to make something where I could learn a new skill: sewing. For my up-cycle project I made a 50s style dress out of paper so this project was a cool way to finish this course.

Why (Inspiration):

I watched The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Amazo and this show is set in the late 1950s. The main character Midge Maisel wears the most incredible dresses and coats all the time. She had one coat in particular that stood out to me:

I wanted to recreate this coat so that I would end up with an awesome 50s style winter coat that I can actually wear.

Here are some other 50s style coats that look like the coat I recreated. The main features are the really long coat with a roll collar.

Research:

Before this project, I had used a sewing machine a few times in my life but those times were no where near this difficulty. This project had a lot more pieces and a lot more room for messing up. In order to make my final product as good as possible I watched some videos and read some articles about how to make a coat. Here are the ones that I used that helped me at the beginning of this process:

 

What Next:

I am very proud of what I made for this project. That said, there is a lot of room for improvement. The main problems for this project are from the sewing pattern. Since I was trying to recreate one coat specifically, I made my own sewing pattern. This was the first time I had done anything like this and because of that there are some problems inherent in the pattern itself. I think that it would be really cool for me to make another piece of clothing (maybe a coat) using a sewing pattern that someone else made that is tried and true. Most of the ‘wonky’ parts of the coat could be avoided this way. The main parts that could be better on this coat are the pockets, the collar, and the back pleat. The pockets are a little too low for my arms which is a little awkward. The collar is bigger on one side and looks very odd most of the time. The back pleat will not stay closed and I don’t know how to fix that. I have one idea that could maybe help the back pleat stay closed which is to put a more rigid material inside the back pleat in order to make it stay. If I end up finding something that makes this work I will also try to put some along the bottom of the coat to make it flare out more because I think that would be cool. The main part that I want to add to this project is a liner. I think all coats have a liner which makes them more comfortable and hides all of the inner seams. I think I will definitely add this because I want it to be completed. That said, I want the liner to be a fun pattern. This completely breaks my 50s aesthetic especially because I want to do maybe a space pattern. This means that I have to wait for this course to be done before I add the liner.   Citations:

1. https://www.etsy.com/listing/491501295/simplicity-4191-misses-vintage-1950s?show_sold_out_detail=1&frs=1
2. https://www.etsy.com/fr/listing/112552850/vintage-sewing-pattern-1951-coat-pattern?show_sold_out_detail=1
3. http://fashion-of-the-60s.tumblr.com/post/162115196132/1958