Piped trench

I have made a winter coat for myself! It's a dark charcoal woollen trench with the seaming and edging accented in pale grey/ivory/bone pleather piping. The charcoal wool has a light gauzy check woven throughout; itself with a teensy houndstooth pattern woven in each window. Clever. Seriously, I often wonder how they make these fabrics. Who would have conceived a thin houndstooth gauze, woven tartan-style into wool?

The pattern is McCalls 5525; my third version of this pattern. This is such a great pattern; I completely love it! It's so versatile. Each of mine is quite different from the others; my first version is a smart but pretty-ish thing for winter and early spring, the second one I like for winter evening functions when I want to look glam. I don't know what function this one will fill yet. I would like it to be a just throw on over and go with anything and be instantly warm kind of a coat; but we'll see. The piping is a bit distracting. Hopefully I'll find it good for something :)

I bought the fabric a few years ago from a shop called Wool on Collie, in Freo. At the time it was mostly a knitting and crochet shop, with a very small token offering of fabrics. I bought it on a mad whim. The leatherette is from Spotlight; and was also bought on a mad whim. Me and my bold plans. I have to confess that the leatherette piping tested my patience and sorely depleted my fun-meter once or twice. And I feel like unless you get up really close and have a good nosy squizz; you can't even tell that the damn stuff is leatherette. Should I have gone for some easy-to-manipulate fabric? Well, what is done is done; and I've learnt new things. The plus is that there's quite a bit leftover, and I have some idiotic plans for it.... which may or may not eventuate ;)
The coat is fully lined in black acetate lining fabric from Fabulous Fabrics. The pale grey, slightly streaky buttons from Fabulous Fabrics are a fortuitously perfect match to my leatherette. A lucky find!

I'm pleased that my coat is finished, but I was feeling a little flat about it at first. Y'know when you spend hours and hours meticulously fiddling with something and then aren't sure whether you even like the thing at the end? Yeah. Although I actually like it a bit more after seeing these "another person's view" pictures of it here. It looks a little better here than I thought it did in the mirror. I'll admit to almost hating it in the few days since I finished it, and only hauled myself into it to take pictures out of a sense of duty to my swap.
Maybe it's just that the forecast is 29C today and I feel like a right dork putting on a thick winter coat.

Details:
Coat; McCalls 5525, charcoal wool with leatherette piping, my review of this pattern here
Skirt; Vogue 7303, ivory wool (old)
Camisole; Country Road
Shoes; Vitulli Moda; bought in Melbourne

To the bat cave! Long coats look satisfyingly dramatic in a gust of wind...

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