on the gumnut coat

(just a quick aside: thank you so so much for all of your love and support and encouragement on my last post. I am beyond excited, and i can't wait to share this journey with you!! You truly are an amazing group of friends/readers/gorgeous gals!)

If you’ve been following my brand for a while, you have probably stumbled upon the Gumnut coat. It’s one of my favourite designs, and it featured in my 2010 ready to wear collection.

I love it – and evidently a lot of you do too, because i have received many many requests over the years to make a sewing pattern for it. So i started – and got partway through, only to decide to stop.

There were a number of reasons, and i thought i’d explain my thought process a little.

The first reason is that the print plate we were using wasn’t large enough to fit the large pattern pieces, which was kind of a deal breaker. And can you imagine it as a digital PDF download? SHUDDER. Second, there are just so many pattern pieces. It’s a big pattern with lots of pieces, and complexity, i would rate it as requiring a lot of experience – which is a very different thing than the vision i have for my patterns. Let me explain. My goal has always been to make sewing stylish clothing more accessible. Every time i design a pattern i go over it many times stripping it back to be as simple as possible. Everything is assessed, and judged and sometimes changed to make the pattern as accessible as possible. The Crescent blouse is a good example – i spent so much time pouring over the pattern pieces and instructions and refining them to reduce the difficulty as much as possible. And the third reason is wearability. I only believe in making garments that you wear over and over and over. And patterns you make over and over. That’s why i don’t design party dresses. I haven’t worn that coat in years as it was too cold for winter in the USA, and too hot for other times, and well doesn’t even make sense in Australia. Which is unfortunately often the case with stylish outerwear.

And that’s where i get stuck with the coat. I’m not sure it fits with what i want to achieve. I like to be real with you guys, and this coat, a coat i love, doesn’t even fit in with my daily wardrobe, so how can i expect it to fit into yours? I love it, the design is still one of my favourties, but I don’t want to create a pattern that will be too hard for beginners, or not wearable, or even worse only be made once and then packed away in a box.

So thats where i’m at. I hope thats not too disappointing for anyone – but i think that is where my thoughts are on that pattern right now. I may change my mind later – but for now, i don’t think i will be releasing that design as a pattern. BUT> if you really love that coat shape, collar style etc, i’ve found a few coat patterns that are currently available through other companies, and which i think are really gorgeous and quite similar:

• Simplicity 1197 – this one is so similar it’s creepy :) Sub those pockets for rounded ones, round out the hemline and leave off some buttons
• Simplicity 1284 – This one needs a collar, but the shape is really really gold
• Colette Patterns Anise – I know this is a short coat, but make it longer and you have a very similar neckline and sleeve look.
• Etsy – A quick search of Etsy found some amazing vintage coat patterns that are very similar. This one, this, this and this (this is a kids pattern, but it is AMAZING)

© Megan Nielsen for megan nielsen design diary, 2015. | Permalink