Ages ago, well two posts ago (which is ages, we’ve been a little slow with blogging around here this winter), I promised to post some photos of the toile I made of this Oval Coat, my favourite winter make. I wanted to show the same pattern in quite a different fabric – mainly because I love it when sewists do that as I helps me to decide on whether I should commit to a pattern. Fabric can make such a difference.

So here’s my quick and dirty toile of the Yuko Takada Play with Patterns Oval Coat. Hastily sewn because I just wanted to get the darn thing tested so I could move on and make my ‘real’ version out of my beautiful fabric. So this coat was a toile very firmly destined for the school fete box.

The fabric is a vintage wool from Crossley Job Lots, which has been waiting patiently buried in my fabric stash for years. It’s densely felted and works really well on an unlined jacket – it sits well and holds its shape. I suspect this fabric was made for a line of men’s dressing gowns in the 1950s, which makes me quietly smile. Old man dressing gown – a good look, right?

I made the largest size and lengthened the sleeves because I always do. Am I a monkey or do patterns have short arms? Don’t answer that.

Regrets? I have a few with this one…. Firstly, why didn’t I hem on the edge of the black check and cut out that little bit of awkward grey that runs along the hem and the sleeves? It bothers me. Secondly: my mid check pocket slash. I so wish I’d positioned those slashes on the edge of a check. However after a little lament on Instagram, lovely Insta-sewists counselled me through that one. So thank you friends – it’s no longer a regret, I’m embracing that slash.

This pattern is such a good one – I wear this old man all the time (when I’m not wearing the other one). Even in the face of sewing regret and school fete guilt.