New to Me: the Schnittchen Coatigan

I decided to take part in The Monthly Stitch’s pattern swap and having dutifully sent off patterns to my nominated swap partners I eagerly waited to see what I would be sent in turn. I received a package containing this lovely card

 

and the Schnittmuster Coatigan Silvia pattern from Schnittchen.

I  would have overlooked this pattern fit I was choosing it for myself just because it looks so pink on the envelope but on further consideration it’s a nice slouchy style, I love the inseam pockets and yes, it is the sort of garment I would wear (if it wasn’t pink..)

Lots of things about this were new to me, I had never made up a Shnittchen pattern before, I had never made a shawl collar before and I had never made an item of outerwear before so lots of challenges to look forward to.

The fabric I chose is a quite heavyweight woolly fabric and, wanting to do my best by my swap partner I rather rashly decided to line the Coatigan as well, for which I chose a lightweight ponte roma jersey which is quite slippery.

I cut out all the pieces and then got down to the pattern instructions which contain NO DIAGRAMS OR PICTURES just writing. The pattern states that there is a video tutorial for the garment but it is certainly not visible on the Schnittchen website. I have discovered during the making of this garment that I don’t do well with just words. I need diagrams to understand what I am doing and even trusty youtube didn’t help much (more later)

I took a lot of time to make sure that I had accurate pattern matching on the front and back pieces. And with the back especially you can hardly see the join.

The Outer shell went together nicely and I was feeling pleased with my progress.Shortly after this point it was possible to finish the garment and just have it unlined but as I was feeling optimistic I ploughed on until I got to instruction 22

This is the main instruction for attaching the lining to the outer, I have never done this before and I struggled to understand this for two whole days . Is it just me or is this an origami instruction ? There is no mention anywhere of sewing anything, just turning and pinning. I watched many youtube videos for lining garments, I read articles about lining garments, but was still not sure whether I was supposed to be doing a free lining or a bag lining. In the end I went for a bag lining but I’m not at all sure I have done it correctly.

Next came attaching the sleeve lining, I ended up with THIS twice. (Don’t laugh, remember this is New to Me !)

 

Before finally realising that I had to do this

and arriving at this

I’m sure a picture would have made it so much easier to understand……I would challenge the assertion that this pattern with no tutorial and no pictures is suitable for a beginner in it’s lined form

Anyway the garment is finished now and once I have got over the trauma of the picture less pattern and the weather gets colder I will enjoy wearing the garment. I have learnt a HUGE amount in the process and am pleased with the outcome although the pockets are pulling down a bit and I’m not sure what to do about that.