Seamwork Francis
About the Seamwork Francis
The Seamwork Francis coat is a lined, belted raincoat that can be sewn in different types of fabric for totally different looks. I decided to make the Seamwork Francis because I wanted a classic statement coat in a bright color to wear during the early fall season. All of my other coats are black or navy. The Francis seemed like a challenging sewing project where I could learn new skills such as lining a coat and working with coating fabric.
I made a muslin first, consisting of the torso (bodice and skirt) without sleeves to check for the fit at the shoulder and the overall coat length. Because the coat is belted, I didn’t worry much about the fit at the waist. I shortened the overall length by a few inches so the coat would end at my knees, as shown in the Seamwork example photos.
Fabric Shopping and Research
When I started thinking about fabric for my coat, I knew that I was looking for a bright color that would work with my wardrobe colors, probably a red or purple. As for the type of fabric, I had to do some research and learn about all of the different options. I read this Seamwork article about selecting fabric for the Francis coat, and also this Closet Core Patterns article about picking fabric for a blazer.
My next phase of research was learning what different types of fabric feel like, so I headed to the Garment District. NY Elegant Fabrics had large swatches of fabrics labeled by fabric content hanging on racks. I ended up getting my firetruck red wool gabardine here. Beckenstein Fabric Czar was crammed floor to ceiling with suiting and coating fabric. The store was not as easy to browse, but the sales associates helped me by cutting a bunch of swatches of wool coating in purple/red colors. It was here that I learned that wool coating comes in a variety of weights, the heaviest of which weren’t appropriate for the coat I wanted to sew. Elliott Berman Textiles had an assortment of boucles and textured wools that would be ideal for a Jill coat. https://www.seamwork.com/catalog/jill
Selecting the lining for my coat was a lot of fun after I had my main coating fabric selected. I decided to line it with a Liberty of London Tana Lawn floral print.
Sewing
The large size pattern pieces were too big to lay out on a table and I spent a long time cutting the fabric out on the floor. This was the most tedious part. However after everything was cut, the sewing process was quick and easy. I had read that fusing the interfacing to gabardine would be difficult, and it was. The twill weave of gabardine makes it more difficult for the glue on the interfacing to stick to the fabric surface. I tried different techniques like using a damp press cloth, using lots of steam, and block fusing fabric to interfacing, but the fabric kept peeling away from the interfacing. I was using a cheap interfacing that I purchased online and I made a note to invest in a higher quality interfacing for my next coat.
The second best part of the coat sewing process is after bagging the lining (you construct the lining separately and then attach it wrong side out to the main coat) , you turn the coat right side out and it transforms into a lined coat. The absolute best part is wearing your finished sewing project for the first time!
Sizing
I made a size 4 coat, graded to 8 at the hips. After cutting out the fabric I realized that there was a lot of fabric left over. This later became a pencil skirt, a blouse, and a bunch of bias tape.
