Jareth II: Coat

There were more choices when it came for me to select a coat pattern.  I couldn't quite find one that had all the elements I needed, so I pulled a Dr Frankenstein and combined two to get what I needed.  The bulk of the pattern came from Simplicity 2172.

The first problem was that this pattern did not have tails.  This is an easy fix: just don't sew the back seam up all the way.  The second problem was the chiffon cuffs and collar.  It was easy enough to replace the chiffon at the cuffs with satin ones, but for the collar, I used Simplicity 3685 (view A).  This was also my source for the lapels.  And I lengthened the sleeves again.

This coat pattern actually has a corset-type lacing in the back which I quite fancied, but omitted.

I don't care for shoulder pads (which Jareth's coat obviously has), so I left in the flounces to give some additional width. Finding a fabric for this pattern was tough.  Jareth's coat is covered with rhinestones which probably number into the hundreds.  Sewing on that many rhinestones was not something I wanted to tackle.  I was hoping I could find a pre-sequined fabric and go from there, but most of them were either sheer, stretchy, too expensive, or some combination thereof.  I went with glitter satin from the Casa Collection.  It photographs quite poorly; really, you can only see the glitter well in the close-up on the black satin.  This blue wasn't really as dark as I would have liked, but it was the best I was going to get.  I sewed on the sequins by hand.  I actually intended to sew on more than I did, but I got tired of the whole endeavor.  The lining was the same satin I used for the blouse. There isn't anything too quirky about the construction of this coat except that it is quite lengthy, though the instructions are pretty good.  The amount of fabric is nearly overwhelming, so take care when cutting that the fabric doesn't pull and distort the grain.  This satin did not press well, so I ended up edge-stitching it to keep flat.  Due to the lengthiness of construction, I would recommend this for an intermediate or advanced beginner. This coat is fitted around the waist, so double-check your measurements. NB: if you are not using a heavy fabric, you might want to interface the coat.  The only interfaced part is the facings.