Hello! I’ve made a new raincoat!
So, I’ve been wearing my pale pink Kelly anorak raincoat, made from a shower curtain, for several years now, it was undoubtedly my most worn garment of last year by a fair dinkum mile! and it’s been such a trooper. I love it so much, still! However it is looking a wee bit shabby now… so I’ve been toying with the idea of a new raincoat for little while. Getting nice waterproof fabric is quite a challenge in Perth, you come across it so rarely and I was wondering if I’d have to brave the scary gamble that is Buying Off the Internet. Then I happened to be browsing in Homecraft Textiles during their yearly 50% off sale, and unearthed this gorgeously mustard-coloured waterproof fabric. The colour was particularly exciting. Something that actually suits me? that’s not black, or navy?!!! Take my money!!!
Having said that… it’s not the most wonderful raincoat fabric in the world and I had struggles APLENTY but more on that later.
Patterns!! I loved the Kelly anorak pattern, and it did work really well for me as a raincoat, however I have this maybe erroneous belief that a raglan sleeve is better suited in a raincoat… I think that a rounded armscye seam could lend itself to a higher chance of leakage. I could be totally wrong there though, but I just think it anyway. I’ve been looking out for a good, raglan sleeved jacket pattern that would lend itself to being a good raincoat, but to no avail. So I made my own pattern. My previous, blue, raincoat was a pattern I’d worked out for myself; inspired by a cheapie old RTW one that I’d bought for Tim when he was a young ‘un, and which I’d inherited down the track as he grew out of it. I devised some rather unusual pockets for it, and actually totally loved how they worked out. I dug out the pattern, made the modifications to bring it into line with the shape I wanted for my new raincoat. Everyone’s heard of the famous FBA… well I have no use for a full bust adjustment, but in a raincoat I could definitely use a FPA. What is that? a Full Ponytail Adjustment, of course!! I have pretty much never had a raincoat, rtw or me-made, with a hood that accommodated a ponytail comfortably. The hood is always pulling back off your head and exposing your forehead, which is annoying. I’m happy report that this hood is so far perfect!
I’d originally bought some soft tulle to line the raincoat. I’d managed to get some soft netting to line my first, blue raincoat and it worked a treat, and I wanted something similar for this one. But the tulle was horrible; just not soft enough and too scratchy against my sensitive snowflake skin after all, so I’d ended up ripping it out. The raincoat is actually fine without a lining, because the inside of the mustard shell is a rather nice, soft woven stuff.
the white sports fabric seen in the pic is a ventilation panel, hidden underneath the upper back flap
The outside is laminated, actually the fabric could best be described as a lightweight, thinly laminated, woven cotton. The plastic laminate was obviously downright hideous to sew. For one thing, it had quite a sticky waxy coating on the laminate, which gummed up the needles, and the eye of the needle, making re-threading the needle a freakin’ NIGHTMARE. I wiped the laminated surface with a lightly soapy solution before sewing, which did help a tiny bit, and occasionally wiped down the needle too, but it was still pretty bad. When it came to top-stitching, well there was absolutely no way the laminated side up was going to move underneath the foot at all. I cut strips of tissue paper to stitch over, and tore them away afterwards; fiddly, but not a difficult thing to do (above).
seam sealing, also a view of the fabric’s wrong side
Sealing the seams; I used a no-name seam sealer from BCF, a local boating camping and fishing store. It’s supposed to be used for tents and sails I think, but it works beautifully for raincoats too! I used a cheapie old paintbrush to work it into the stitch-holes, and seal everything thoroughly. Since then, it’s been out in three very heavy downpours, and I’m happy to say has stood up to the task beautifully! All the traumas, and it’s been worth it! It’s early days, but I think I’ve found my new favourite wardrobe item!
Oh, and I made a new little skirt too, but it’s not nearly so exciting. Well, I had a small piece of coffee-coloured, wide-wale cotton corduroy, leftover from when I made this dress, and when I was dyeing the fabric for my Sherlock Holmes jacket I’d also tossed in the coffee-coloured corduroy. And it came out a nice shade of golden-mustard. So I managed to squeeze out this little skirt. It’s not made up to any real pattern really, I basically put an invisible zip at centre back, held the front and back up to myself and pinned the side seams and where I wanted darts. Pretty lazy genius, huh? It was a very small piece of fabric, and the resulting skirt was too short for a hem. I edged the bottom edge with a chocolate linen bias-cut strip to finish, and the skirt is lined with pale golden polyacetate lining fabric, itself also leftover from something else, can’t remember what.
And that’s it… until next time!
Details:
Raincoat; my own pattern, made from thin, plastic-laminated cotton
Skirt; my own design, dyed cotton corduroy
Bobbly top (just above); Burdastyle 04/2014;111, details here
Tights; made by me, details here and my tute for making your own custom-fit tights pattern is here
Boots; Roberto del Carlo, from Zomp boutique
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