Vogue 1128 finished

Last night I went to a sewing group meeting (a member is married to a local pastor so we meet in the church basement, hence the drums in the background - and mainstream churches are wondering why they are losing congregations). While we talked I finished sewing on my giant snaps and snagged one of my cohorts to take a picture. 

So this is the unfinal pressed version but you get the idea:

Side view showing how the pleats out of the yoke and at the hem work. You can see I lightly pressed these to reduce the bulge factor, not sure if I will leave this the way it is or steam the pressing out.

The effect of the pleats on the profile of the coat. Actually fairly practical as this would reduce the draft up the backside factor that is particularly relevant to dressing for my climate. Not sure if the sleeves are as wide as this looks or if it was our camera angle - very clear view of how dropped the shoulders are and how wide the sleeves are when you lengthen them. Personally, since I am anything but and inverted triangle, I have no problem with garments that make me look like one.

Of course it isn't too useful that I have my hands in the pockets, but this is one of those cozy sort of comfy coats that you would do that in. I see this coat and this pose and reflective of how I will really wear this - in front of the diary counter at the Superstore talking to someone I haven't seen in a long time.

In the end I went with just the giant snaps and no buttons. 

This fabric is loosely woven (I fused light weight interfacing to the whole thing - now that was a fascinating exercise - think that's why they invented TV), soft and heavy and I think the big snaps, which I feel have been too heavy and a disaster on everything else I have tried to use them on, are perfect here.

I am going away for 10 days to the US in a few days and have a lot to do before I leave town. I will post later about the challenges of packing for travel if you are me and will try to do a proper Pattern Review of this pattern before too long.

Now to answer some commenters.

Calypso a TNT is a Tried and True pattern. This means if you kill yourself making something fit you should use that pattern again to try and recoup some of that investment and to avoid wasting good sewing time fooling around on the unfun part.

Petunia re this coat and adjusting it. These pictures will probably answer your fit questions. My general sense of it is that because this shape is so distinctive and oversized it is best just accepted as is. Fitting changes would IMO be lost in the volume. Shoulder pads for example would not be helpful given how undefined the shoulder line is, and actually looking at the side view here, the bubble factor is lower hem more than over my rear end so maybe pressing the pleats down was not necessary.

What do you think?