Waterfalls.

This coat is the garment equivalent to walking around with a guitar; it makes you look instantly cool. Truth be told, I am not cool. I push against the mainstream. I'm a huge nerd. I'm extremely cautious. I get uptight pretty easily.  I'm the antithesis of spontaneity. You catch my drift?  Still, I feel like one of the cool kids in this coat. 

The coat is none other than the Butterick Lisette waterfall coat: B6244. First, I really love that this pattern comes with pieces and instructions to sew both a dress and a coat. It's a nice modernization on a vintage concept, whether it's intentional or not. I love those 1950s/1960s patterns that assume the maker would sew a coordinating coat to cover her cocktail dress. I'm not fancy enough to have different jackets to wear with different dresses, but I like the idea of it.  

The pattern for this coat is three pieces. It goes together relatively quickly. The most time consuming part of construction is flat felling all the seams. It's worth the effort, because the result is polished and professional. My only complaint with this pattern, which is really a matter of preference, is that the instructions don't go far enough with finishing techniques.

It seems silly to put me through the trouble of flat felling my sleeve seams when there's no special technique for setting the sleeve.  And, why bother with beautiful seams if you're going to have me use narrow, machine stitched hems? If we're going to go, let's go all the way. Like I said, this is more an issue of preference. I opted to set my sleeves with French seams and hand-hemmed  both my cuffs and hem using a 1inch double fold hem, because I think a heftier hem on bottoms and outerwear looks higher end. 

Regarding size, I NEVER use the pattern recommendations.  Instead, I measure the flat pattern and compare it to my body measurements. Because there is a lot of ease and drape in this style, I focused on the fit through the shoulder above all else. I cut the size 8 and made no modifications (except increasing the width of my hem). I typically make a narrow shoulder modification, but It wasn't necessary here.

The fabric I used is a 100% wool fabric I bought at Sacre Coupon in Paris. I bought this fabric with the specific intention of making this coat. It's a light-medium weight fabric with a felt-like consistency and beautiful drape. It was a great match for this pattern!  I'm incredibly happy with this coat. If I can manage to work my way through the list of projects I've got queued currently, I'd like to sew a second. I've got an ecru colored wool from an estate sale that would make a great neutral top layer. This coat is perfect for the crisp fall weather we've been having, and it's light enough to wear in and out of buildings without overheating.  I've barely taken this off since I finished it. :-D