Sewing the Greenstyle Molly Coat

Hey there! I made my first COAT (and second!)! I have always wanted to make a coat, and if you have put it off like I have, may this post be your nudge to stop delaying! If you are a seasoned coat sewist, I hope you find my feedback on the pattern useful and one you want to try out! I also have all the little details I learned along the way, as well as an important discussion on dealing with a sewing machine that refuses to do buttonholes.

Today Greenstyle released the Molly coat, and I got to sew one (well, two!) as a pattern tester. This deep berry colored coat was the first one that I made during testing, and I have another coat that I made from the final pattern to show you as well. Let’s chat about the pattern details first.

The Pattern

The Molly Coat is a pdf coat sewing pattern that has a drop shoulder and plenty of slouchy ease to wear your favorite sweater or puff sleeved top underneath. The pattern includes the option for a collar or a hood.

You also can pick between square patch side pockets or a welt pocket.

The pattern has two lengths included (short or long). I only made the longer length because I love to get as much of my body in a coat as possible. It feels a bit more like wearing a blanket that way!

I removed 1 inch in length from the body of the coat and the arms since I am 5’2″. 

On my berry coat, I chose to use 3 buttons, and I used 2 buttons on my burnt orange coat. 

The Molly pattern fits busts measuring from 30 to 61 inches and hips measuring from 32 to 62 inches. Greenstyle drafts for a C/D cup so if your full bust is more than 4 inches larger than your overbust, you may consider selecting a size down and doing an FBA so that the shoulders fit you correctly. 

The Insides

The coat pattern is fully lined, and I am so happy with how professional the inside looks. The joy of making a coat is that you really get to go wild with your lining!

On my berry coat, I used a flannel lining and quilted batting to the lining to make the coat warmer/thicker. If you have an outer fabric that is not very heavy, I highly recommend doing this (well, unless you live in an area that has warm winters!). You could alternatively use fleece or any other insulating fabric to add warmth to your lining.

To quilt my lining, I took a scrap of batting that I normally use for quilts, and I used quilt basting spray to glue it down to the cut out pieces. Then, I drew lines with a washable fabric marker every few inches where I wanted to sew. Then, I sewed down my lines and cut off the excess.

I did not do this on the sleeves, and I definitely can tell the sleeves aren’t as warm as the body!

I really like the body the quilted lining gives to the coat. On this pattern, you REALLY don’t want coat fabric that has any drape so if your fabric is not as structured or thick, I would suggest adding something to the lining to help it stiffen some. I think having a structured, thick fabric makes the Molly Coat not look “homemade.” It is such a joy when you invest in a project that looks professionally made!! 

For my second coat lining, I used quilting cotton and did not quilt anything to it. The outer main is a very thick melton wool blend so it wasn’t necessary to do anything special to the lining. 

I think my favorite part of taking photos of a coat is taking pics of the lining!

Buttons and Buttonholes

Buttonholes. Ugh. That was the point where I full stop dreaded making a coat. I have such a good relationship with my sewing machine, but when I try to use the automatic buttonhole with the buttonhole foot on fabric with any kind of thickness (especially if said thickness has texture), it flat out refuses. I knew I was going to have to come up with something on this coat, and I really didn’t have the extra space in my day to do bound buttonholes. 

So, I manually did them with my regular presser foot!! To be honest, these were the LEAST stressful buttonholes I have ever performed! So, to do them, I measured my button, which was 1 inch as well as the sides of the button. This gave me a total of 1.25 inches.

Then, I marked a line that was 1.25 inches long on my fabric starting 1 inch from the edge of the coat.  Then, I marked little stops at the end of that 1.25 inch so I didn’t lose track of where to start and stop sewing. 

After marking where I wanted my buttonholes, I sewed my stop with a 5.0 width zigzag at the shortest stitch length. Then, I sewed along the side of my line with a 2.5 width zig zag at a .5 stitch length. Then, I switched back to a wide stitch width for the end stopped, put it in reverse and sewed back down the other side of the line. 

The only change to this method was that on the next coat, I wanted my stops to be wider, so I sewed them with a 6.0 width. 

You can see my line wasn’t entirely straight, but once I cut them open, they looked prefect to me. The best part was that no curse words were said and no tears were shed. I use my seam ripper to open buttonholes, but there also is a specific buttonhole opening tool you can buy if you want to be extra fancy.

Before you even start on your buttonholes, make sure that you tape them down and check yourself out in the mirror. It is really easy to reposition them beforehand, but if you don’t like them later, you can’t really undo them later one they are in. I think they look nice with the center button at your natural waist. Too low, your proportions will be off. If you put them too high, though, your collar will twist the top button. 

More Sewing Notes

Sewing a coat is not a quick project. Surprisingly, though, I would not call it difficult. I think a confident beginner could dive in and surprise themselves. Just be prepared that it is very time consuming. It took me at least 3 days to sew each coat! That does not even include gathering supplies and going round and round on which fabric, lining, buttons, options, etc. to pick for each one. 

I always do better at a project if I can break it up into chunks in my head to work through. To break this pattern down, I saw it like this (1) sew lining, (2) sew main, (3) attach main to lining, and (4) do buttons/buttonholes and hand sew your lining closed. When I set aside time in my sewing room to work on the coat, I felt a lot less overwhelmed if I set the goal to make it through just one of these above steps. It felt overwhelming to try to get it all done at once, and I didn’t want to rush through and miss the little important things like pressing and topstitching. So, take your time, and DO NOT skip pressing and topstitching!

One thing to keep in mind on this pattern is that the seam allowance is only 3/8 inch. If you have a fabric with a looser weave or if you want more room to fit, you may want to add extra seam allowance. 

Fabric and Supplies 

I have slightly touched on fabric when I discussed lining, but let me make a space here to specifically talk about the fabric to choose for your Molly coat. You want to use a woven fabric that has NO stretch for both the main and the lining. 

There are lots of different woven fabrics that work for the main/outer of your coat. Look for heavy weight fabrics. The thicker and more structured, the better. Search terms include coating, twill, melton wool, etc. I love wool blends but also bought the vegan wool from Minerva, and it is so nice! I think it is the softest and my favorite of the coating fabrics I have felt, and I was nervous to cut into it during testing!

The burnt orange I used on my second coat came from Joann Fabrics. I couldn’t find a link for it in their online store, so here is a pic of the end of bolt information. I got it in their 60% off sale so definitely wait for a coupon because it took me 3 yards for my coat! 

I prewashed mine because I really wanted to see how much it would shrink just in case I needed to wash it in the future. Yes, I know, it says Dry Clean Only. Anyways, I washed and dried it on delicate and measured it before and after the wash. It did not lose any inches on the width or length!! Definite score!

For lining, most coat patterns recommend Bemberg rayon lining or something that helps your coat glide and not stick to you. This is the one thing that actually always bothers me about store bought coats. I hate the way a cold lining feels next to me! I was excited to sew my own coat because I knew I didn’t have to use a slick lining. Use whatever makes you feel happy and you like the texture of for your lining. (With one caveat, you still need to use a non-stretch woven. If your lining has stretch, it may hang down below your hem.)

For my lining on this coat, I used an Anna Maria Horner quilting cotton. This one is from her Folk Song collection from many years ago. It is called Minor Chords. I only had one yard, so you see just a tiny bit of selvage poking out of one of the seams. I used every little bit of it and then used a coordinating fabric for the sleeves. 

On my first coat, I used this coating from Minerva. This one has a little bit more drape so it required the thicker lining. I also thought it had a rougher texture when I first received it, but once washed it felt nicer. I washed and dried it on delicate just like my other fabric, and it didn’t shrink either. I would not call this soft. It feels like a more nubby textured wool. It was a great price point for making a practice coat, and I adore the color. It is such a rich berry with lots of dimension. 

The lining is Anna Maria Horner Pretty Potent flannel collection. This one is called Banner Days. I have kept this one for many years, just waiting for the right project. Thankfully, I have a few yards left to go make some pajamas!

The only other supplies I used were midweight Pellon woven fusible interfacing and 1 inch buttons from Joanns. I like to get several of their big bag of buttons and sort through. This is also the reason one coat has 2 buttons and the other 3.

You can find the Molly Coat pattern HERE. It is on sale for a week!

I hope I have inspired you in today’s post!  I would love to stay connected with you. You can find me on Instagram. You can subscribe to my YouTube channel HERE. If you want to take a look into the things that inspire me, you can follow me on Pinterest. You may also follow my blog with Bloglovin.

Disclosures

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I receive a small compensation when you purchase via my link. This does not cost you anything, and I genuinely appreciate the support. Any and all opinions expressed are still my own.

XO 

Sharon