Tuesday, November 29, 2022

Striped Wool Jalie Tania Coatigan

Another family birthday gift, this time a beautiful jacket for my mom. 

She had visited in October and borrowed my Jalie Tania coatigan (you might remember I was a tester for this pattern several years ago) when she forgot her jacket. She loved the crisp, high collar and the cool in-seam pockets, so I promised her I would make her one. 

I cut her Jalie Tania in a size V, which worked out great. 

This time I opted for the Tania coatigan lining add-on, both because I was planning to use a very textured wool fabric as the main fabric and worried it might be itchy. But also because it annoys me how the pockets flap about in my unlined version.


For fabric, as I said, I chose beautiful striped wool from my mom's stash. She probably bought in in the '80s from a wool outlet shop near where I grew up.

It's a loosely woven navy and brown fabric, with these beautiful, fuzzy, pink and red variegated "eyelash" stripes. This fabric was easy to sew, although my sewing area was absolutely covered in fuzzy wool bits afterwards! You can see the texture here:

I lined the wool with a beautiful, coordinating Bemberg rayon lining in the cerise colorway from Stash. I forgot to take a photo when I last saw her, but she sent me this action shot:

The Tania pattern is incredibly easy to sew. The lining certainly takes it up a notch, but it's still a relatively easy project. I further complicated it with my stripe play, though! 

I tried to mirror the angled design lines on the pattern with the fabric's stripes by cutting the front and back lower panels on the bias so the stripes angled up at center front and back. Lots of careful cutting and piecing, trying not to stretch out the bias cut pieces!

I'm pretty pumped about my stripe matching, though, at front and back and across the sleeves. Pats self on back. 


The lining instructions could use a tiny bit more detail. I wish there were more pressing instructions to get a crisp finish before bagging the lining. Honestly, I should have known better and done some more pressing before I bagged it. 

But I made up for it was some aggressive pressing from the exterior to get crisp edges. Topstitching helped, too.


Speaking of the lining, I realized only after my mom opened this gift that I had failed to hand sew the hole in the lining through which I had pulled the coat. Oops! I was so excited about how it turned out that I forgot to go back and finalize that detail. 

I think she likes it! She's already worn it, as you can see, which is a good sign. I'm pretty proud of it- a good use of this beautiful vintage fabric!