I Am Patterns, Merlin

Now I wasn’t really planning on making another winter coat since I made one last year which I’m very happy with, but this fabric presented itself on Sew Me Sunshine’s newsletter and I couldn’t resist! The bright colours and abstract shapes are so eye-catching and unusual in a woolen fabric.

I had already earmarked the I am Merlin coat on my Pinterest board because I have never owned a cocoon style coat and just really loved the shape. I opted to purchase the PDF pattern and send for it to be printed all in one go from The Fold Line because then I wouldn’t have to piece together a million sheets of paper which would probably wind up being inaccurate and I wouldn’t have to trace it off the original pattern sheets either. This way I can cut out my size without tracing but still have the digital files so if I want to make another size or make adjustments, I can reprint it.

I decided not to interface all of the outer shell of the coat as I have done in previous coats I’ve made because the fabric is a heavy weight and the pattern is quite a relaxed fit so I didn’t want it to be too stiff. However, when handling the fabric, I found it does have a slight stretch much like boiled wool so it might have been better to interface it but we’ll see how it wears over time.

If you were watching my stories on Instagram, you would have seen my frustration at having to begin with the welt pockets. They’re my least favourite pocket to create and I’ve had problems with them in the past, so I was quite apprehensive about the instructions. I opted to create a test first and it’s a good job I did because some of the instructions are slightly wrong, such as ironing the welt right sides together, so the interfacing was facing out – that’s obviously wrong. I found a video tutorial on the I am Patterns website which they’d sewn in Calico – the most stable fabric you could probably sew one of these in – but it was helpful, nonetheless.

The coat came together quickly after the pockets since there are not many pieces and it’s not a fitted silhouette so I’d say it would be good for a first-time coat maker. The only change I made to the construction was to use the machine to attach the sleeve lining to the outer because I didn’t feel confident that my hand stitching would hold it in place sufficiently. I’ve done this wrong before because it’s difficult to figure out how to get them right sides together, so I referred to this video on YouTube. You need to do this before you close the hole in the lining. In general, when making coats I would recommend holding off stitching that hole closed until the very last step because once that’s closed you no longer have access to any of the seams.

I really love this coat, it’s quirky and different from anything I’ve ever seen anyone else wearing. It might not go with everything in my wardrobe but this isn’t my only coat 😉 It’s great if you don’t have the energy to put effort into your whole outfit and then you just throw this on and you’re instantly stylish. I thought it was a bit late in the year to make a coat but the weather is still so cold so I’m sure it’ll still get plenty of wear before next autumn/winter.