Making a floral Duster Coat
/Hello and Happy Jubilee Weekend. There is nothing quite like a right royal occasion to stir those patriotic feelings up and this is really something to celebrate. A Platinum Jubilee - probably a wholly unique event in the history of this country, or any other for that matter. Her Majesty the Queen deserves all our cheers and flag waving for her unprecedented and exemplary service to this sovereign land. For my part, I rustled up a new and much needed tea cosy, ready for the afternoon teas that I am planning on serving up over the next few days. I’ve been sorting out my fabric stash and came across this remnant of rather regal fabric and it was just the ticket for a quick and fun little project.
With the BBC’s ‘Sewing Bee’ in full flight at the moment, I find myself with twitchy fingers to try a little dressmaking and I had long harboured a dream of making a long floral duster coat. Jubilee Weekend seems like the sort of time you would wear something like this and as much as it is a wistful backwards glance at those Laura Ashley days, it is also quintessentially English in it’s style and as comfortable over jeans today as it has would’ve been a couple of decades ago. Well, at least I thought that was the case. Did you know… the ‘Duster Coat’ was originally worn by Horsemen to protect their clothes from the trial dust! Sounds more like something that Clint Eastwood might wear, never mind Laura Ashley. They were usually made of light canvas or linen with a deep split up the back to allow for riding a horse. Later on in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, they were used by both men and women while riding in the early open type motor cars on what were largely dirt roads in the day. I suppose my ultimate idea of a duster coat is the edwardian lady in her long cream linen coat and wide brimmed hat wrapped up in yards of fine chiffon. While I am not quite going for that look (although I may consider it in future) my inspiration for this project came from a ‘Cabbages and Roses’ duster coat and with a few pattern hacks and a little tweaking here and there, I set out to make one.
The fabric is quilting cotton weight fabric and I know it is not ideal, but this is an experiment after all and I had this piece in my stash and it had the look I wanted, so I thought I would try. It is a ‘Bonnie & Camille fabric from Moda, from their ‘Smitten’ collection from a couple of years ago. The huge floral motif remind me so much of Laura Ashley and well, red is my favourite colour. I decided to maybe add some coloured linen trim on the sleeves too and covered buttons to finish.
The pattern I used is the ‘Hinterland Dress’ by Sew Liberated. I have used this pattern twice before - once to make my Outlander dress (link at the bottom) and once to make a Peplum jacket (also linked at the bottom). I like the 3/4 sleeves, but this time I wanted a higher neckline so I had to draw my own pattern using the pattern piece as a base and just altering the neckline shape at the front.
I thought about lining it but in the end I didn’t probably because it just seems so summery and is meant to be worn over a t-shirt or blouse anyhow. I used french seams throughout to get a professional finish as I don’t have an overlocker and anyway, I love the neatness that french seams give.
It was a pretty straight forward make, with a polka dot neck facing for a pretty little detail.
I inserted a one inch linen trim on the sleeves. I think this takes the blouse/dressing gown look away from it and puts it a bit more in the category of a ‘duster’.
Once the top part was complete, I used just rectangles, pleated on to the bodice to form the rest of the duster coat. With the addition of the buttonhole placket was added on both edges, it gave the garment some structure.
Unfortunately this kind of cotton does crease a lot and if I make another one, I shall look for a fabric that has a better drape, but it is still really very pretty and summery. I was thinking of embroidering the covered buttons, but actually they would have been lost on this, so I just used the red linen and it added a really smart detail to the finished garment. I might next time consider making one that I could embroider though - that would be quite a challenge.
The matt look of the linen sits rather well on the floral cotton.
This is probably one of the best things I have made so far and I just need some lovely sunny days to be able to wear it. I think the real joy of dressmaking is that you can create what you really want and not what is on the high street and especially if you are only 5’2” (on a good day!).
