Making A Quilt Coat: Part One

If you’ve been on Instagram lately you’ve seen that quilted coats and jackets are all the rage among quilters and sewists. When I saw crafters like Vacilando Studios and Brittney Frey create such masterpiece quilts that can be WORN I was hooked. Even celebs like Melissa McCarthy have been rocking quilt coats on magazine covers!

I have been a quilter for years, but my quilts are usually gifts for others or used to snuggle on our couches at home. I rarely get to show off my quilts to everyone by wearing them in public like an item of clothing. This idea made me SO jazzed. My personal wardrobe style is fairly simple, but I cherish unique pieces. I’m also a plus sized lady, so fit is important and can bring challenges. Great-fitting affordable coats are hard to come by. 

After hours of research I decided my ultimate quilt coat pattern needed four main things: size inclusivity; a solid one-piece back panel; a fitted silhouette; a hood.  I was willing to compromise on a lot, but not these things. I set out on my search for a coat pattern first by searching hashtags like: “plus size sewing” and “me made wardrobe” and “slow fashion”.  Along the way I found some great accounts to follow, and I ultimately landed on the Heidi Hooded Cardigan by Syle Arc. 

The pattern ticked all the boxes for me. The price of the pattern was great and bonus: it had the option for pockets! I downloaded the PDF version that included my measurements and started thinking about making a muslin, or a practice garment.

I am NOT usually a garment sewist. I love quilting because they are (usually) simple to construct and they fit anyone! As a woman with curves, fit has always haunted me when I found wardrobe pieces in stores. The last thing I wanted was to spend time and (lots) of money on special fabric for my quilt coat only to have it fit poorly or not at all. SO, my first mission was to make an inexpensive and fairly low-effort muslin. I had an old king sized bed quilt in a drawer in our guest room that was going unused, so I pulled it up to first string and set about printing my pattern. 

Y’all...printing the pattern and taping all the pieces together is not for the minimally committed crafter lol. It was a feat and took some time. But I did I it! I sized up one size because the coat pattern calls for a stretchy knit and I knew I was using a quilt with no stretch and that would be bulkier than knit would have been after it was pieced. I placed my pattern pieces on the quilt  so that the flat cuff line of the sleeve pieces and the top edges of the pockets were on the existing binding of the bed quilt so it was one less step for me to finish. I cut out only the following pieces: a back panel, a pair of sleeves, a pair of pockets, a pair of front panels, and a pair of hood pieces. (Pro tip: if you’re not a garment sewist like me, don’t forget to flip your pattern pieces over so you have mirror images for the front panels, hood pieces, and sleeves lol)

My next step was to at embellishment. I had recently finished two matching Tail Feather Quilts for a friend’s newborn twin boys. I had some leftover scraps and I loved my fabric from those quilts. The twins were boys, so the colors I used went with the muted blue of my king sized bedspread.

I pieced the scraps into a set of flying geese and added some fusible Heat N Bond to the back so I could attach the flying geese block to the back panel of the coat and appliqué it down. I have been learning to free motion quilt over the past two years and I wanted to add my own flair to this quilt coat. If I was going to go through the work of making a muslin, it might as well be special!  I just got a new sewing machine and learned to free motion with a ruler foot. Here’s some of my quilting up close:

Next I followed the pattern directions to start piecing the coat. The pattern instructs you to sew the shoulder edges of the front panels to the back panel first. The pattern called for 1/4” seams too. That was a surprise to me as I generally thought garments use a larger seam allowance. I’ll tell you: when I made the coat muslin I didn’t finish any of my inside seams at first and I went back and did some of that later. Exposed batting and quilting cotton inside the coat will probably wear over time and it does not have a professional look. I don’t have a serger so that was not an option. More on finishing seams later.

Next I attached the sleeves and pockets and sewed the side seams. It was a COAT!! A rudimentary and unfinished coat, but it at least resembled a garment. Moment of truth: the try-on. I rushed downstairs from my finished attic sewing space to my bathroom full length mirror...

IT FIT!!!! I was elated to say the least!! (Messy hair and old Labor and Delivery room socks in my mirror selfie for added fashion effect) I couldn’t wait to finish the rest and wear it outside!

My next step was the hood. I pieced it together and quickly realized I would want to use the liner that was included in the pattern. This is a separate pair of hood/shoulder lining fabric pieces that hides the seam down the middle of the inside of the hood. This was my most challenging part of the muslin. (I ultimately scrapped it for my final pieced coat) My best advice is to follow the instructions carefully and pay close attention to the diagrams in the pattern. I did quite a bit of seam ripping by skimming and rushing (lol typical for me).

Next was binding and finishing the inside seams I wanted to clean up. I estimated I would need 4 strips of binding (2.5” by WOF). I didn’t use bias binding and I did not have an issue. I bound the coat just like I bind a quilt. I started at the back and went around the bottom, turning the corner at the front, up the middle and around the hood, back down the other front panel, turning the other corner at the bottom, and continued around to the back. I used my binding ruler tool to finish the binding and then flipped it around and attached the folded edge to the front. I did attach the binding first to the *inside* of the coat so that I was top stitching it down on the outside. I like that look. As is my usual binding custom, I attached one strip of a contrasting color to one end of the binding strips and started with that strip. In this case it was black to match the hood lining and the rest of the binding was a beautiful teal grid fabric. 

Last, I chose to finish the seam across the seam of the hood that was still exposed after attaching the liner. To do this, I made double folded bias tape and top stitched it down using blue thread that matched the coat. You cannot eve notice the seams on the outside of the coat. 

I may eventually go back and finish the other inside seams because I have absolutely loved wearing this coat. I’m so proud of my results. I have received a lot of compliments when I have worn this coat, and it is a total bonus to reply with, “Thanks! I made it!”

Are you going to make a quilt coat? Let me know in the comments. Please reach out with questions! I would love to help share any wisdom I have gleaned. I will be sharing more about my Warp and Weft quilt coat in Part Two, so stay tuned!!

Until next time, I’ll be crafting more than just legal arguments,

Melissa