Sewing a Fleece 1950’s Swing Coat- Simplicity 8509

Hi everyone! It’s been a long time since I talked about something I sewed this year. (The last few sewing posts are at least two years old) I wanted to start sewing more lately, but I didn’t have the time to do so until this October. The first sewing project I wanted to make is a 1950’s style Halloween themed outfit.

I decided to make a 1950’s style outfit for Halloween because I normally work and doing errands on Halloween and this year would be not exception. Since I would not be going to a Halloween party and didn’t need a costume, I wanted to make myself a Halloween inspired outfit. For the past few years, I found 1950’s reprint patterns I wanted to try but never did. Since I wanted an Halloween themed outfit that I could wear in daily life, I decided to create an outfit using the 1950’s patterns I gathered over the few years.

Although I started the month with the intention of finishing the outfit before Halloween, a lot of things happened so my time and sewing motivation weaned as the month went on. I ended up finishing the coat but not the rest of the outfit.

The pattern I decided to use for the coat is Simplicity pattern number 8509. Simplicity released the pattern a few years ago (Or maybe a year ago? I don’t remember the exact year XD ) and I purchased it. Although I live in Arizona and it’s a warm climate, it can be cooler at night in October. Because of this, I decided to create a coat to go with my outfit. After looking at 1950’s coats online for my outfit, I decided to create a swing coat to go with my outfit. I liked swing coats, but I never liked the idea of wearing them myself. After searching for a coat that goes with my outfit, I warmed up to wearing a swing coat and decided to use the Simplicity pattern to make it.

The pattern suggests sewing the coat out of sateen, wool, and poplin fabrics, but I decided to go with fleece. Fleece is cheeper, warm, and more wildly available than sateen, wool, and poplin, so I settled on it instead of a different kind of fabric.

The pattern itself is far more simple than other coat patterns I’ve worked with. I hate making coats using commercial patterns because I’ve had very bad experiences sewing coats using commercial patterns. For whatever reason, the coats I sew never seem to turn out well. Because of this, sewing this coat made me very nervous.

After cutting out the pattern, I realized the coat is far easier than other coat pattern I’ve ever made. The instructions made sense to me, but following them could be difficult if someone is new to sewing. But if someone is helping, they should be fine.

Since I decided to make the coat out of fleece and fleece does not fray, I originally decided to make the coat without a lining. After sewing the coat, I realized that the coat would look much nicer if I added a lining. So, I decided to add a lining. I had four yards of black poly satin I wanted to use for the dress of my outfit, but I decided to use it for the lining instead.

I had problems adding linings to my coats in the past, and is the main reason why I had problems sewing coats before. Adding the lining to this coat, on the other hand, worked extremely well. Everything lined up well and I was able to sew the lining to the coat very easily.

Even though the lining matched up to the shell of the coat, I wanted to play it safe when it came to sewing the lining to the interior of the coat. I didn’t follow the instructions to add the lining and instead hand sewed the lining to the fashion fabric from the inside of the coat.