Want to sew a fabulous winter coat? Want to sew a fabulous winter coat that is challenging but not likely* to be the death of you? Want to sew a fabulous winter coat and be really, truly snug?

Tessuti Richmond Coat in Fabric Store Wool

You do … Well then, try this:

Sew the Richmond Coat by Tessuti!

Aside from one literal corner I backed myself into, that definitely involved having to walk away, have a glass of wine, go to bed and come back another day (that was in fact three weeks later), I truly enjoyed every minute of making this coat.

I have been manifesting this pattern for a good 4 years.

I found the beautiful Japanese herringbone wool coating at The Fabric Store and it was destined for a vintage Vogue full length, raglan sleeve, funnel neck wrap coat pattern, but never made it. I knew that the fabric needed to be this coat. But there was no pattern for this coat.

But I kept thinking about it. Very, very hard. And then in the middle of last summer on the hottest of New York days a paper copy of this pattern appeared from Melbourne in some kind of sweaty hallucination.

I honestly thought I had imagined it. I clearly got upset about seeing such a perfect winter coat when it was so uncomfortably hot that I put it away somewhere ‘safe’ and then couldn’t find it for weeks. Finally, in November, it reappeared and along with the herringbone and some mighty Kasha lining we created this coat we’re all pretty pleased.

That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, so to clarify; I love Tessuti Fabrics in Australia - they are lovely people and they sell beautiful fabric and design gorgeous patterns. This past NY summer / Australian winter they released this Richmond Coat pattern. It is my dream coat pattern, I commented as such on their Instagram launch post and they sweetly sent me a copy of it. As soon as it was cool enough here to wrangle the 5 yards of wool with which to make it I started work.

I used the above mentioned herringbone, along with a Kasha Satin lining which is a satin-backed flannel that makes a very stylish and really warm lining for wool coats.

Tessuti patterns differ from the majority of independent sewing patterns in that they use photographs instead of drawings in their instructions. This means they don’t always look as pretty as some, but what they give away in aesthetics is more than made up for in function: they are really, really, really clear. And when working on a complex project such as a coat, that is really, really, really helpful. The instructions are so good.

I have made welt pockets in coats a few times and this was by far the easiest method I have used and I am so thrilled with the finish. The way in which the lining is bagged is genius and didn’t get all twisty and confused and the finish is just beautiful. Honestly, I couldn’t quite get over how, by breaking everything down just the right amount, I was done with the difficult parts before I’d realised.

The only time I had a problem was when I didn’t read the steps properly. And that was on the lapel. There’s a bit where it specifically tells you in which direction to sew when creating the notch, which I missed. And it all got messy and annoying and I swore and I might have cried. But it was me, not the pattern. And when I came back three weeks later I solved it in 15 minutes and it looks great. So.

The coat construction has been really cleverly considered to make it accessible to people who don’t know how to, or don’t want to, do a lot of tailoring. The design is also clever in that it is very oversized and has just two buttons above and below the waist meaning it doesn’t need a back vent for movement ease, again making it easier to construct.

The only addition I made to the instructions was to add fusible interfacing across the whole of the upper back and fronts to stablise my fabric as it has a loose weave and I don’t want the weight to stretch it. I also made some fit alterations - mainly adding length to the body and (a bit too much to the) sleeves.

If I was to add to the instructions it would be guidance on exactly where to press the roll of the collar. I originally pressed it in much too shallow which meant that the coat kept falling back off my shoulders. After a few wears I figured out what was going on and increased the depth of the lapel and collar by moving and re-pressing the roll line and now it sits much better. Guidance on that might have prevented me from panicking that I had made a mistake in my forward shoulder adjustments and thinking that the whole coat was a dud …

One of the abiding pains for me of living in New York is the ubiquity - albeit through necessity - of the puffer jacket. When a person goes to so much effort to stand out just a little from the crowd by creating their own closet, covering it all with an invariably ugly, store-bought puffer jacket and thereby looking just like everyone else for six months of the year is a little sad. While I may not be able to wear this on the coldest of cold days, the fact that it comes down to mid calf and is lined with a super warm lining and I can fit layers of cosy sweaters underneath, means that I can still feel like me for a lot of the winter.

If you’re feeling you have a coat in you, try the Richmond Coat, the instructions will hold you up all along the way and you will have the most beautiful coat at the end of it. I certainly believe in you.