Ah, we're almost at the finish line for our Clare Coats! Today we'll be assembling our linings and later this week we'll put it all together, just in time for the holidays. I'll be showing you View A & B together today; it makes for an epic post but I think it's easier and faster to cover it all in one go.

Let's get our facings ready first. For View A, you'll want to sew your neck facing to the front facing on one side and then press the seam open like so:

For View B, you'll be sewing the neck facing on both sides.

Put your facings aside for the time being. Before we can assemble the lining, we need to sew the bust darts. Do this the same way you did for your coat front.

Rather than sewing darts in the sleeve lining, make a simple pleat instead. Match the notches at the elbow on the back sleeve and pin a pleat into a place with the pleat aiming down.

Baste into place on both sides and press.

Sew your sleeves together and press the seam flat.

The back lining comes in two pieces so that we can create a pleat at center back; this pleat gives you room to move inside the coat and helps prevent the lining from tearing due to strain. Match up the lining pieces right side together and sew 5/8" / 16mm along the center back seam.

Match up the notches along the back neck to create a pleat (the pleat will die into the CB seam). Fold pleat to the side and pin into place.

Baste the pleat into place within the seam allowance.

Press the pleat and CB seam flat. Your back will now look like this:

Once the bust darts have been sewn, pin the front to the back lining along the side seam. On View A, this will mean sewing the front panel to one side only.

Sew this seam and press open.

Sew both front lining panels to the back of View B and press open.

Once the body of the lining has been sewn, it's time to attach the sleeves. This is very similar to the way you attached the sleeves to your coat. Line up the notch at the bottom of the armscye with your sleeve seam and pin into place, right sides together.

Sew the sleeve to the body.

Once again with View A, a portion of the left sleeve will not be sewn to anything. Treat this just like the coat body - snip a notch on the sleeve seam a few inches from the end of the seam. Press this portion towards the body and the rest of the seam towards the sleeve.

Once your sleeves are attched, sew them along the center shoulder seam and press the seam open.

Time to attach the facings!

Pin the facing to the neckline edge of the lining all the way around, matching notches and shoulder seams. Since you're sewing two curved surfaces together around the neck, you may need to ease it into place.

View A:

View B:

Stitch the length but make sure you stop sewing at the circle marks indicated on your pattern near the hem.

Grade the seam to reduce bulk.

Flip the facing right side out and press into place. Topstitch 1/8" away from the facing on the lining to secure the seam into place.

The bottom edge should be loose for a few inches where the facing and lining are attached.

If you would like to add a loop to your coat so it doesn't get distorted from hanging on hooks, sew it into your jacket now. You can use a piece of chain or ribbon, but in this example I made a loop from a piece of fabric I folded, pressed and topstitched. Center the loop on your center backpleat and baste into place along the neck facing within the seam allowance.

Now attach your inner collar to the lining/facing in the exact same way you did for your coat body. Make sure you use stay tape on the seam to stabilize it.

Press the collar seam open and the collar up.

If you've sewn in a coat loop it will be sandwiched in between the neck facing and collar. 

And that's it! In a few days we'll be back to bag the lining and finish our coats.

We're nearing the finish line! Next week we'll be lining our Clare Coats and finishing up, but today we need to finish working on the body of View A.

This may be the trickiest bit of sewing on this project but that just means you should take your time and focus on each step. By this point you should have your separating coat zipper (we discussed sources earlier in the sewalong). We will be sewing it to the right side of the coat first.

We need to make sure our zipper won't intersect with the seam allowance of the collar, so take a ruler or seam gauge and mark the seam allowance. Your zipper teeth should not pass this point.

Pin the zipper face down to the right side of the coat. Keep in mind that you want a 5/8" seam allowance but also want to see a little bit of the zipper tape (it is exposed after all).  The zipper stop should end 2-3" from the notch at the bottom of the coat front. If you need to shorten your zipper, do it from the top. Once you know where the zipper needs to start and end, remove any zipper teeth that pass your seam allowance with pliers.

Zipper tape can get pretty heavy duty. To get a nice smooth corner at the top of the collar, fold the zipper tape down and away from the zipper teeth, under the 5/8" seam allowance. If you sew it right into the seam, the zipper has a tendency to curve at the very top and it doesn't look very good.

With a zipper foot, sew along the length of the zipper, backstitching on either end. Try to sew along the 5/8" seam allowance at an even distance from the zipper teeth. I like to see 1-2mm of zipper tape.

Undo the zipper and match up your front coat and side panel at the hem notch and mark on the side panel where your zipper stop needs to end in order to match up with the front. The blue pin in the picture below is marking the end of the zipper stop.

Pin the left side of the zipper face down on the left side of the coat. Again, make sure the top of your zipper tape is folded down like you did on the left side of the coat. Once you have the top and bottom pinned down, ease the rest of the coat seam along the zipper until it's even. That little loose seam where your sleeve and side panel were attached should be tucked into the zipper so that when it's sewn together you don't see any raw edges.

Make sure that your collar seam stays open and flat when you're pinning it into place. The seam allowance we snipped into along the arm opening should be laying flat.

Sew along the length of the zipper. That little seam I was talking about should be tucked out of the way like so:

Time for the zipper placket! I've laid it out on the coat below so you can see what direction it should be facing once it's installed in the coat. The curved part should aim towards the left side.

Pin the packet into place over the zipper on the right side of the coat. It should start juusst outside the seam allowance along the collar, and match up perfectly with the hem notch towards the bottom.

When you sew the placket to the coat, sew it with the wrong side of the coat body facing you. This way you can sew directly on top of your zipper stitching, ensuring your zipper tape is evenly visible.

Here is the placket sewn in from the wrong side:

And the right side:

Don't worry about pressing it for now, since we still need to install the lining. I would suggest grading the  placket seam since things can get quite bulky. Leave the actual coat seam alone since it is laying against the jacket, and then trim each successive layer down about 1/4" so it looks something like this:

Monday we will be sewing our facings and linings.... the end is so close I can smell it (and it smells like steamed wool).

Now that you've assembled the body of your Clare Coat, it's time to attach the collars. I am going to cover both View A and View B in this post so you can just skip to the part you need.

If you're making View A, it's crucial to stabilize the collar. Since it's meant to sit up and away from your face, the horsehair interfacing I suggested earlier will do the job perfectly. If you couldn't find it, you can get away with using something like a thick sew-in canvas instead. Regardless of whether or not you are using horsehair or canvas, you'll want to stabilize the inner and outer collar with weft fusible; the collar fabric wants that extra body. Please note that the additional horsehair canvas will be applied to the outer collar.

I used sew-in horsehair rather than fusible for my coat. I simply basted it to my collar just inside the seam allowance and then trimmed as close as possible to the stitching to reduce bulk (the horsehair is stiff so it's best to eliminate it at seam lines when possible). If you're using sew-in horsehair and have done pad stitching before, you can certainly do it here, although I didn't bother and the finished result suits me fine. If you're using fusible horsehair, trim 1/2" off the outside edges before fusing it to your fabric.

Disclaimer: I shot this part of the sewalong before I realized the collar piece had been incorrectly mirrored. The following collar pictures for View A should actually go in the opposite direction.

Once your collar is interfaced and ready to go, line up your collar with the coat neckline. Again, the pictures below are not quite correct. The collar as shown below should actually be mirrored, with the curved part attached to the front coat.

Pin collar into place. It's always a little tricky when you're sewing two curved seams to each other so you may have to ease it into place.

Similar to the sleeves, I like sewing in my twill tape as I sew the collar to the coat. You want to sew with the body of the coat facing up so the twill tape is sewn to the coat rather than the collar.

Again, your collar will be mirrored from what you're seeing here once it's sewn in.

The inside of the coat with twill tape along the seam:

Press your collar seam open and the collar up. That's it for View B!

For View B, it's a little simpler. You don't need horsehair interfacing here, so just make sure both inner and outer collar have been stabilized with fusible. Pin the collar to the coat, matching notches.

Sew along the length, sewing the twill tape down as you go to the body side of the coat.

Press your seam open and the collar up.

And that's it for today! Friday we will install the asymmetrical zipper for View A!

Alright Clare makers, today is the day your coat starts to look like an actual coat! We will be attaching the sleeves and doing a little bit of topstitching along the shoulder seams.

To get started, sew the darts on the back arms. Similar to the bust darts, you can cut them open and press them flat if your fabric is thick - the top tip can just be pressed down. Press them again from the outside on your tailor's ham to smooth the dart tip into the fabric.

Once the darts have been sewn, pin the front and back sleeves together and sew the entire length. Press your seam open and repeat for the other sleeve.

Now it's time to sew the sleeve to the coat. For those of you making View A, the next few photos only apply to your right arm.

With right sides together, line up your sleeve with the sleeve opening on your coat. Remember that the dart goes on the back of your arm, so the darted part of your two piece sleeve should be towards the back. Concentrate on getting the notches to match at the top shoulderand along the center sleeve seam. There are two in-between notches that I should have nixed in the final pattern - they match along the sew line, but not along the seam line so it's a little confusing.

Pin the sleeve into place. Sew the sleeve and body together with the body facing up, and feed your twill tape along the seam as you go, catching it with your stitching. You can also sew the twill tape to your coat first and then sew it all together, but I think it's quicker to just do it in one step.

A good habit to get into is trimming down your seam allowances whenever you can  to reduce bulk. Anytime you have seam lines intersecting, trim the seam lines into a point like below.

Press the seam allowance towards the sleeve.

If you're making View B, repeat for the other sleeve and skip down a few images until we get to the topstitching.

If you're making View A, you'll see that because of the asymmetrical zipper, there is nothing to sew the top third of your left sleeve to. Rather than getting caught up in the shoulder seam as on the right side, this portion of the sleeve will actually become the seam allowance. The flat, skinny seam allowance of the side panel should line up with a notch on your sleeve.

Stop sewing about 1" away from the end of the seam. You want the edge to be loose so we can tuck it inside our zipper later.

This is kind of a funny joint, so in order to get the seam allowances in the right place, you need to snip into your seam allowance a few inches past the sleeve center seam. If you look int the photo below, you'll see that by cutting that notch, the seam allowance on the left side can be pressed up, while the seam allowance on the right side can be pressed down. Press your seam accordingly.

Once your sleeves for both views have been attached, it's time to topstitch the shoulder seam. This topstitching gives a nice visual effect and helps stabilize your shoulders. There is a circle marking on your sleeve pattern piece that indicates where this topstitching should end. It's roughly 6-7" down from the shoulder if you forgot to mark it. Just make sure the length is consistent one each sleeve. Use a little chalk to indicate where you need to end your topstitching.

Starting from the top of the shoulder, sew 3/8" / 10mm away from the shoulder seam on the sleeve itself. Make sure you are sewing through the entire shoulder seam allowance as well; you are essentially anchoring it all together right now. As you approach you chalk line, angle your stitching into the seam and backstitch to secure. Repeat this step for front and back sleeves except for the front side of the left sleeve for View A.  This seam will not be topstitched.

Here is what View A will look like after the sleeves have been attached:

Here is what View B will look like:

The final step for today is to press the shoulder seam running the length of your arm flat. Use a tailor's ham, especially around the curved area of the shoulder. The heat and steam will help you press the sleeve into shape. Press from the wrong side first, and then lock the seam with a press from the right side of the coat as well.

And that's it for today. We'll resume Wednesday when we attach our collars.

Earlier this week we assembled our front piece for the Clare Coat by sewing the darts and installing the welt pockets. Today we'll be sewing all the coat panels together.

Line up up the side panels with the back coat and pin into place (the longer seam allowance on the side panel is sewn along the back seam, fyi). Sew along the length of each side panel.

The bottom hem straightens out a bit -make sure your sewing line straightens out a bit as well.

Press open your seam allowances.

Pin your coat front to the right side panel. The flat part of the side panel seam should line up with the corner jutting out of the front coat seam. Line up your notches; note that one of those notches should align with your dart.

Sew along the length of the seam and press it open.

From the outside it will look something like this.

The seam allowances will stick out a little along the armscye - trim them with scissors to create a nice smooth curve.

And that's it for today - sleeves on Monday!

Hey View B-ers! I haven't forgotten about you. Let's start sewing these babies up!

The first step is to sew your bust darts. I covered this in yesterday's post on assembling View A, so go check out those images if you need some help. After your darts are sewn and pressed, you'll want to sew your pocket linings to your coat panels. I didn't include a pattern piece for pocket extension interfacing, but I would consider pressing a rectangle of your fusible along the extension on the wrong side of the front coat piece just to help that area hold its shape (the side panel should already be interfaced entirely). Pin the pockets into place, like so:

Stitch the lining to the fly extensions at 5/8"/16mm. I somehow forgot to take a picture of the next step, but just press the lining flat and topstitch it to the pocket extension so it looks something like this:

Once all four pocket linings have been sewn to the coat pieces and pressed flat, line up the front coat and side panel along the side seam, right sides together. Pin along the entire length.

Sew along the length of the side seam and pocket lining at 5/8"/16mm. Sew around the pocket corner and lining twice for extra strength.

The pocket will lay against the coat front eventually, but first you need to snip a notch at the top and bottom corner of the pocket. Cut right to the stitch line without cutting through it above and below the pocket on each side.

Now it's time to sew your side panels to  the back coat piece. I must have been half asleep when I shot this part because I don't have a picture, but when the side panels have been sewn to the back and the seams have been pressed open, it will looks something like this:

You should be pressing your seams open on the back side first, and then hitting them from the front with some more heat and steam. When pressing wool, the seam will sink down and get beautifully flat. The curved surface of a seam roll will help prevent the seams from showing up on the body of the coat and a clapper will help gorgeous seams.

Once all your seams have been pressed open, it's time to secure the pocket in place. Right now it's just hanging on by a little stitching at the corner, so make sure it's pressed towards the front and mark a little line about 3/8" above and below the pocket opening, about 1/2" long. We are going to make a nice strong bar tack on these lines to secure the seam and pocket lining below to the coat body.

A bar tack is just a really dense zig zag stitch. Set your width to 2mm and your length to .25. Make sure your pocket is lying flat against the coat front while you're stitching through.

And that's it for today! On Monday we'll attach your sleeves and Clare will start to look like an actual coat!