#VintagePledge - Simplicity 4896 finished!

Finally! I can't believe I began making this in April 2016.

As well as making up the coat body and tackling the pockets, I had attached the facing before the whole thing ground to a halt. However try as I might to press the edge of the collar flat, it just wouldn't do so. Not even 10 months of hanging on Nancy (my dressform), with a row of basting stitches to hold it on place did the trick. As soon as I took the basting out, it sprang out of place. So I admitted defeat, and top-stitched it.

When I last posted about this project, I had decided to bin the lining I'd made, and start again with proper lining fabric. In some ways leaving it for so long turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because when I finally started again a couple of weeks ago, I had to reread the instructions. And that was how I noticed that as well as lining, the instructions also called for interlining. Somehow I had completely missed this before.

I used black cotton for the interlining. For each piece, the lining and interlining had to be basted together, then the piece was treated as a single unit.

Sleeve pieces showing the lining side and the interlining side

Once the coat lining had been made up, the instructions were to attach the lining to the coat by hand sewing through both along all the seams. This was very fiddly to do, especially down the sleeves. Only by wearing the coat will I find out if it was worth the bother. Once that was done, the edges were slip-stitched into place as normal.

Another new thing to me was the addition of "arm straps"; long tubes of lining fabric attached inside the coat fronts at the top and bottom. There was no explanation of what these are for - presumably in 1944 it was obvious. I'm guessing they are a way to hold the coat closed, as it has no fastens. I reinforced mine with cotton tape inside.

One of the arm straps

And here it is at last. A finished 1940s coat. The pattern is from 1944, and I'm wearing it with Vogue 7464, which is a reissue of a 1940s pattern, and Vogue 9546 from 1942. The bag is also 1940s, but I can't now remember where I bought it.

Better late than never

I've just realised that it's November, and this is my first item for this year's Vintage Pledge (we just don't talk about the Dress of Frump). Hopefully I'll get something else made as well before the end of the year.

Showing the full coat

Simplicity 4896, progress and anti-progress

I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted about this - nine months!

I have made some progress since then. Having luckily realized that the fabric had a directional weave before I started cutting out, I ignored the cutting layout and cut everything from a single layer. I was so successful in fitting all the pieces together with minimal waste that I actually ended up with 30cm / 12" fabric left over! Very make-do-and-mend.

I had assumed that the neckline would be very similar to the later Butterick 5716 (now out of print), but in fact it's got three little darts on each side of the undercollar, to give it some shape. It's a really interesting, and unseen, detail - exactly what I love about using vintage patterns.

Shaping the collar

What I don't love so much is the instructions. I think that I may have made welt pockets before, but if so it was over 20 years ago - and I don't remember anything about how to do it. The relevant section of the instruction sheet measures 7½ cm by 9½ cm / 3" by 3¾", and even when I could I see it (I needed a magnifying glass), it made very little sense.

The poor printing didn't help

Eventually I decided just to follow the steps, mystifying though they were. After all, until I reached the point where I had to cut the actual coat front, I could always unpick it.

Basting on the welt

Amazingly the pockets turned out fine, with only minor wrinkles.

The pocket bag on the inside

The finished pocket on the outside

So that was the progress, what about the 'anti-progress'?

I didn't want to use the type of modern lining fabric I use to line skirts, so instead chose a mocha-coloured satin - it's what I also used for the pocket bag above. I wasn't really happy with it though, as it didn't have enough structure.

Then when we went to Shrewsbury for the Story of Wool study day (last May!), it seemed only right to take my sewing friends to visit Watson and Thornton fabric shop. Among other things they stock a good selection of proper, old-fashioned, self-patterned coat lining. So I bought some and abandoned the satin lining, which was made up but not sewn into the coat - and then ground to a halt.

Time to get started again.

Simplicity 4896

I'm making view 3, the short version

This pattern is a bit of a mystery. According to Blueprints of Fashion: Home Sewing Patterns of the 1940s, it was printed in 1944. Unlike Style, Vogue or DuBarry patterns of the same era, there is nothing on it to indicate where it was printed. It is priced in British money, but with a stick-on label rather than directly on the envelope. Also unlike my Style and Vogue patterns from the war years, there are no references on it to clothing coupons or the CC41 regulations. Everything seems to point to it being printed in the US and imported, but would precious shipping space have been used to import dress patterns?

Envelope back

Of course, given its publication date, it may be that it was imported after the war had ended. If anyone who knows more about this period can shed any light – I’d love to hear from you!

Mystery aside, Simplicity 4896 is a fairly straightforward pattern. It’s a loose, edge-to-edge coat with no fastenings and a grown-on collar. In fact, apart from being narrower, and having a two-piece sleeve, it’s remarkably similar to Butterick 5716. This fact may come in handy when I start to sew it, as I can crib from the Butterick instructions. The ones with this pattern are, shall we say, brief.

Side one - cutting layouts and general instructions

Side two - specific instructions, that's your lot!

Not that I’m anywhere near starting sewing yet. First the pattern had to be redrafted to my size. After the near-miss that was Vogue 9546, I decided to do the job properly, and redraft the sleeves as well. This involved extending the armscye and widening the sleeves; time will tell if I’ve done this properly! I also shortened the coat a little.

My fabric is a wool-poly mix, so not period accurate, but I really liked its design. What I’d somehow managed to miss until I came to cut out (and fortunately I spotted this before I put scissors to fabric) is that it’s a design with a nap. The pattern layout however is not. Oops.

I've decided to use the fabric in the direction on the left

I think that I can eke out the fabric, but with a different cutting layout and by cutting every piece from a single layer. I did this with my CC41 dress, and was amazed at how little fabric I wasted. Here goes!