The lovely Shaffer-Sisters invited me to join their sewing series called Sew-a-bration of Womanhood and today is my day to post.  Actually, if I am being honest my day was a couple of weeks ago but life got crazy and I wasn’t able to complete my project on time.  Luckily the Shaffer Sisters are totally awesome and understanding and let me post today instead!  Anyways, if you haven’t been following along with this series it is all about celebrating woman and encouraging each other to sew for ourselves.

As soon as I received the invite for this post I knew I wanted to make a trench coat from the spring issue of Ottobre Design Magazine.  Life got really crazy and I wasn’t able to start my coat when I wanted to and now I have an awesome coat but for totally the wrong season!  I’ll just have to wait for summer to be over and wear it for fall.  I still LOVE my coat though!

This was my first attempt at following a non-pdf pattern and I was a little nervous at first.  When I opened up the pattern pages in Ottobre Magazine I was totally overwhelmed, to say the least!  There were so many lines I couldn’t get my eyes to focus properly on what pattern pieces and in what size I needed to trace!  Finally, after a little convincing from my fellow Sew-a-bration of Womanhood poster today, Olga from Kid Approved I decided to just go for it.  Once I started tracing my eyes stopped bugging out and I was able to get all my pattern pieces ready!

I just love this pattern and I love the instructions as well!  They are short and to the point and I absolutely love that.  I didn’t have any issues and it came together beautifully.  I am definitely over my fear of sewing non-pdf patterns and can’t wait to try another one!  Don’t you just love it when a project comes together better than you expected?  Such a relief!

For this coat, I obviously chose a black and white stripe fabric but the best part is I found it at JoAnn’s!  It was a little pricey but I used one of my coupon’s so that made it much better!  I loved the fabric but the stripe matching scared me a little bit.  I didn’t do a totally perfect job but I got pretty close and I am still super pleased.

For the lining, I decided to use a mustard color so I can coordinate with some of my favorite heels.  I have two pairs of mustard heels so I figured I couldn’t go wrong.

I love the details on this coat as well as the epaulets and the cuff straps.  It just helps make it feel a little more professional and not handmade.

So there you go!  My new coat just in time for summer!  Boo!  I’m still super pumped to wear it in a few months though   If you have been thinking about sewing something for yourself just go for it!  I am so happy I did!  Making this coat actually put me on a sewing for me high and I ended up making myself a chiffon maxi dress that I am in love with!  Stay tuned for a post on that ?

Make sure you check out all of the other bloggers participating in this series as well.  Lot’s of inspiration!  There is also an amazing giveaway you need to enter HERE.  And be sure to link up your sewing projects as well!