Bring on the Rain! (The Soho Raincoat)

The Good News:  The Soho Raincoat is DONE!
The Better News:  I'm delighted with the results :)

The back story:  Last winter I made up the Sewing Workshop Soho Coat pattern in a robe, blogged about here.  I already knew that I wanted to make a raincoat out of this luscious deep purple pleated fabric scored from Fabrix,

but I could not get past how to work with all those micro pleats, going in every which direction.  I got Stymied, Stalled... flat out Stopped in my tracks by the Fear of Getting It Right.  (If you don't understand what I'm talking about it, please don't tell me about it!)  ;D  So there it sat.  In the corner, partially cut, a few sample seams on scraps, my traced pattern which nearly got ruined by spilled spray starch, twitching, wilting, taunting me.... for nearly a year.   The copious amounts of rain we're getting this year finally motivated me into action!  And, par for the course when the game is called the Fear of Getting It Right (i.e., Perfection Issues), I finally found the path called Just Have Fun and Finish It Already!   Is it perfect?   Nah.   Is it good enough?  You betcha!

My previous post details a lot of the discoveries I made in working with this fabric, so you can check that out for fabric-specific info; this post will be about making up the Soho pattern.

Which I still love.  Love!  This pattern could be a heavy winter coat, a light Fall coat, a raincoat, even a robe ... the lines are simple but elegant, and whatever fabric you choose can define a variety of uses.   Because of its simplicity, it's easy to make minor, or major, changes for a completely different look.  And I think the lines make it very flattering to a wide range of figure types.

Have I mentioned yet how much I love this pattern?   I have sooooo many coat and jacket patterns, but I already have thoughts about making this up again.

Without further ado....here are some shots of the finished coat:

Some hood/collar variations -
here it's sort of rolled down.

Hood in relaxed position

Hood up

Hood down and flattened out.

Stealth Mode.

Close up of buttons

Some notes about the pattern:

• If you just follow the instructions and don't make any changes, it's SO easy.   A lot of bang for the buck on this one!
• The instructions, for the most part, are very very good.   The only thing that threw me off was the unusual shoulder seams, which are basically a V-shape (dart) cut into the front pieces between the hood & the rest of the front (the hood & front are together in one piece), and how the shoulder seam is attached to the back.   Just read through the instructions for this area carefully, and don't be confused by the fact that some stay-stitching around the dart is shown along with instructions to stitch a seam.   Do not do what I did, and stitch the dart together.   It isn't really a dart.   It's the shoulder seam.   Have I confused you?   Good, now I have company.  };-)
• As with most Sewing Workshop patterns, this one runs large.   My measurements called for a largish Medium, but I cut a Small, and shortened both the sleeves (by about 2") and the length (by about 3").  It's still plenty roomy.
• The first step you do is sew on the pockets, so you need to know where you want them right off the bat.  I had shortened the length above the pocket placement line by 1", but I still raised the pockets by an inch.
• You also need to know where to place the buckle, or closure, if you follow the pattern.   I chose not to use their closure method, so I skipped this step.

Closure Details
I didn't really like the looks of the closure the pattern called for, so I waited until the end to figure out what I wanted to do.   Even then, I kind of made it up as I went along.

The twisty bits are sewn and turned thin strips that I twisted tightly until the strip folded back on itself.   To do this, you simply hold each end of a strip, and twist each end in opposite directions, like you're twisting a rope.   Once it gets almost too tight to twist any more, bring the ends together, hold them together in one hand, and the rest of the strip will automatically twist itself into a rope, as shown above.    Tighten or loosen the twist until you have the size loop you want, then sew the ends together to hold that shape.

Then I free-formed four triangularish shapes, sewed them right sides together & turned them.

I decided where I wanted the buttons, and sewed the twisty bits in place on the outside.

Then I covered the end of the twisty loop with one triangle, matched a second triangle on the inside for stability, and topstitched the two triangles together.   Pic above shows an inside (i.e., unseen) triangle on the left (rather messy looking, but as mentioned above, I was going for "good enough", not perfection!), and the outside triangle, which will be visible.

Other Construction Notes

The edge of the hood was VERY wavy after I was done, so I sewed a running stitch and gathered it up a bit, then top stitched the edge of the hood - just enough to make the edge sort of flat.   These pleats DO relax a bit after fussing with it, i.e., sewing and pressing.

I may still top stitch the side seams, in order to keep them flatter and neater looking.

Bottom Line?   Love the fabric, love the pattern.    Give me some more rain!