Hello Stitchers!
Welcome to my living room jungle, today I'm going to be sharing the adventures of making this Tilly and the Buttons Eden Raincoat with you!
I spotted this raincoat fabric when I started working for Sew Me Sunshine last summer and I was dreaming about turning it into a raincoat for months and after lots of deliberation the Eden seemed like the perfect pick.
It has lots of interesting features and I decided to go all out and make the fancy pleated pockets and storm flaps. I actually cut this project out way back before Christmas and had planned on having it ready before then but life got in the way and delayed everything a bit. This jacket was definitely worth the wait though!
I dusted off my rotary cutter for this project, I really do prefer scissors but for this they were the perfect tool for the job. Everything was cut on a single layer using pattern weights and I really would recommend doing this if you're planning on using this type of fabric. Just remember to cut mirror images of your pattern pieces by flipping them, I definitely forgot to do this for at least one piece and had to go back and check myself!
I bought myself some wonder clips for the actual sewing as I didn't want to pin the fabric and make holes in it where they weren't wanted. I would really recommend using Microtex sharp needles for sewing this fabric and changing the needle often.
This wasn't the easiest project to put together but it was definitely worth the effort, I thought I would share some of the other things that helped when I was sewing this with you to help you out.
Using a longer stitch length for the top-stitching definitely helped, also using a walking foot would also be beneficial. Even with the walking foot I did find at times I did have to help feed it through a bit more than I would normally have to. I found the top-stitching trickiest on the curves so I used a piece of tissue paper between the foot at the fabric and carefully removed it after stitching.
I found I was able to press the fabric on a very low heat with a press cloth, I was given a wooden clapper for Christmas and I found this very useful for pressing the seams flat. You could also use a sleeve ham to press down on the seams if you have one of those.
It might also be worth buying a teflon foot for your machine, you can also get a teflon plate for your feed dogs too. It all depends on how much you're struggling with you machine and how many raincoats you're planning on making. It would also come in handy if you were planning on making a faux leather jacket and that fabric handles pretty much the same as the coated rain coat fabric.
It took a lot of trial and error with scraps to get the right settings for my machine and to get used to how the fabric behaves before I was ready to start sewing. I would strongly advise doing this, it takes a bit of patience but it made putting my jacket together much more enjoyable.
The last extra thing I did was to buy some waterproof sealant to seal the seams with, a quick google will find what your looking for and most outdoor shops stock it if you don't want to use Amazon. I'm so glad I did this when you think about it you're piercing tiny holes in your fabric when you're sewing the seams that can let the water through. I sealed all the seams and the top stitching on the inside of the coat.
I made a straight size 4 with no adjustments, I was in between the 4 and the 5 size wise and I went for the smaller one because it's a lightweight jacket I knew I wouldn't be wearing anything too bulky with it. I would definitely recommend a cotton jersey or a ponte weight as they're more like to behave themselves than something more drapey like a viscose jersey when lining the coat.
I used a white opened ended zip and white anorak snaps that I got from Jaycotts as they bring out the white accents in the print.
The pattern instructions were excellent which you would naturally expect with a patter from Tilly and the Buttons, there's also loads of helpful tips and tricks on their blog if you need more help on your sewing journey.
My new jacket brings me so much joy every time I put in on and I'm very much looking forward to all the adventures we're going to have together. Thank you sew much Harriet for gifting me the fabric to make the raincoat of dreams!
***As a member of the Sew Me Sunshine blogger team, the fabric for this project was sent to me free of charge. I chose which pattern I wanted to make and all opinions expressed in this blog post are my own.***