winter coat : final muslin

Here we have the (almost ) final plan for my coat.    As I was looking at the pictures I remembered I need to add facings to the zippers, inside and out (important for determining fabric yardage) but you get the general idea.

It is a princess seam coat with center front zip, swoop pockets (anyone know the real name?) pit zips, arm zips, bi-swing back, hood, and when I do the final, a zillion little hidden pockets.

Sorry about the white-on-white.   The final will be a dark navy with electric blue lining which will photograph better.  Plus, I'll be able to go outside even if it is as rainy and gross as it is today.

This is just vanity - but it doesn't really pull as much as the lines and wrinkles suggest.  That is an artifact of having my hands in my pockets rather than letting the coat hang straight.  However, its pretty hot and I don't want to hop into this get-up again, so you'll have to trust me.

I've been enjoying going through my gear and figuring out what features I wanted to include.   Pit-zips allow you to vent heat without having to open up the whole coat, which can be quite handy on absurdly windy, wet or cold days.

I added the sleeve zippers to give me space to get my braces on and deal with all the layers without everything getting caught.    For once I will be able to put on a pair of gloves *after* I put on my coat.   This is huge.









 This is a terrible picture of a bi-swing back - but bear with me for a moment.    Have you ever seen a motorcycle jacket that has a gusset behind the shoulder blade, allowing freedom of movement without adding a lot of bulk to the sleek lines?  Well, that is call a bi-swing back (that took a fair bit of research to dig up)   There are a couple of ways to do them.   David Coffin presents one in his book on shirtmaking (pg. 152)  but I ended up going with one I found described (no pictures) on various sewing  and motorcycle jacket forums.   It is composed of two crescents which are attached to each other along the convex side and to the sleeve and jacket back along the concave sides.   To prevent the fabric from poufing out of the armscye permanently, the gusset is attached to the back (or to the opposing gusset) with elastic.   This way one can stretch without popping seams.