Didn't Give Up Trench Coat

Pattern: McCall's 5525 trench coat, jacket with belt.

When I chose the fabric from my stash, I immediately went to Pinterest. input lilac trench and, wa! la! I fell in love with this Lilac Trench #sheer_lilac .

 Stash fabric is a lilac suede polyester with purple polyester lining purchased from Fabric Mart.

Sewing this fabric was a real challenge as it's kind of rubbery, slick on the back, and leaves pinholes. Believe it or not, I had just received these Clover Wander Clips in a package of 10 pieces from sewforless. After I had finished sewing most of this jacket, I was watching The Great British Sewing Bee Episode 2 and someone was sewing the same type of fabric and all I could do was agree with the comments.

Here are some things to remember:
1. Do not use steam as it causes more puckering.
2. Pins leave holes.
3. Ripping out stretches the fabric.
4. It's subject to puckering as it has very little give.

When I purchased this fabric on sale, I purchased two other colors. They will be made in a TNT and sewn very carefully.

As far as alterations, I did have to take the sleeves out and thank goodness, I had enough fabric to cut them larger by one inch. The reason I didn't know this before hand is because this was to be a muslin.

Notice on the first picture how my hands are not totally in the pockets. The pockets are not as deep as I would like for a coat. This is one change I'll make before making another.

There are a lot of steps to this pattern, but it is well worth it because everything came together beautifully. My problems were with inserting the sleeves and puckering from removing stitches which caused stretching. I have never removed stitches on anything as much as this jacket. I'd say more than 10 times, but didn't give up. Another way of not giving up is I'd work on other things in between working on this project.

Notice below that I failed to topstitch 3/8 " and didn't realize it until it was too late.

I highly recommend this pattern and I actually think this fabric is perfect for a jacket because it feels as if it's waterproof.