Let's Talk Construction Order - The Willa Wrap Coat Sew Along

Today's Sew Along post is just a short one, and it's one that gives you permission to tackle the construction of the Willa Wrap Coat however you feel makes the most sense to you. You don't have to follow the order of construction in the instructions (or even in this Sew Along!).

Here's a secret... I may write and illustrate all of my instructions and decide the order each step should go in, but I actually rarely follow my own construction order. When I approach the writing and illustrating of any instructions for a new pattern, I tend to aim them at a complete novice, even though a pattern may be an intermediate or advanced pattern. I write each step in a logical order, building on the last step so that it's easy to visualise where you're going in the next without having to repeat steps  constantly. However,  this isn't always an efficient use of time - it may be logical, but it's not efficient.

When you're sewing up Willa, you're essentially making two coats - the outer coat and the lining coat - before the two are joined. This means that many of the steps for the outer coat are exactly the same for the lining, and for the sake of not repeating the same step twice in the written instructions, I will often say something like 'repeat for lining' throughout. 

For example - instead explaining and illustrating how to set in the sleeve for the outer and the lining, once we've done that step for the outer coat, I've written 'repeat for the lining', because it's exactly the same. This would assume that you're sewing both the outer coat and lining at the same time, which is completely fine if that's what makes sense for you, but personally, I find it most efficient to sew up the entire outer coat first and then the entire lining before joining. That way, I'm not needing to constantly switch up my needle and thread for each step - as these will often be different when sewing up a thick outer coat and then a thin lining (that is maybe in a different colour).

For this Sew Along, I'll be publishing each step in the order the instructions are written BUT, I won't actually be sewing my own coat in that order for the above reasons.

I hope this post gives you permission to tackle your coat making how ever you feel is easiest and most efficient for you. You don't have to follow the order of the instructions, I don't!

You can purchase your Willa Wrap Coat here and check out the full Sew Along schedule here.

xx

J