A Divine RainCoat!

This awsome raincoat started with the vibrant, painted fabric by a master of the 

painted cloth, Miles Frode. We used using Jacquard Fabric Paints for this coat.

He has created a collection of pieces for raincoats. The black, raincoat fabric used here is water resistant.  Contact Miles for links to what he has, or to commission a personal piece. You may want to join our Fabric Printing class here in Ashland to print your own.

The coat made from the Cloud Coat Pattern. The pattern is available as a download too.

Tips for Successful Designing with Unique Fabrics-

If you have a great fabric,  just waiting to be an awsome next garment, here are some design notes to work with.

• Look at the fabric: what are the elements you are drawn too?

• How might you express, accentuate or highlight those aspects of the fabric design in the garment?

Start on dressform (or yourself) by draping the fabric…this can give a feel for where you want to see the more heavily printed areas and the sections with lighter printing (in this case, the red lines). After deciding to use this fabric design vertically, the red lines on one side of the garment create a more asymmetrical look. On the one sleeve below, To balance the heavier design on the right side,  a piece of the bold painted fabric was added to the left sleeve at the wrist end before the purple facing. The facing was folded and left to show as an accent 'line' at the wrists.

Adjusting the Silhouette-For this garment, I was immediately drawn to the angles of the surface design and began looking for ways to add more angles to the garment silhouette and details. 

The pattern sizes are generous and although this raincoat was cut as a medium, I wanted to bring in the shoulder. For this design, which has a drop shoulder, here is a good way to do that without changing the armhole shape. Since this garment has a cap, which shapes the top of the sleeve, you have some room to shorten or lengthen the shoulder line without changing the sleeve. Just remember, if you change the shoulder line drastically, you would need to change the sleeve shape too. Here is the simple change I made to bring in the shoulder line:

 

1. Determine the amount you want to remove from the front and back pattern pieces at the shoulder and cut or fold pattern.( I took out 2").

2. Overlap the pattern piece that amount. It will create a jog in the shoulder seam.

3. Re-draw the shoulder seamline. Start from the 2 farthest points of the line (indicated by the dots). and draw the new line. *NOTE: you are adding some (+) to one edge, and removing (- ) some from the other edge (as indicted by the red). 

4. Remove the same amount from Front and Back then construct as usual. 

 

Edges of pattern pieces and hems-

On the side panels shown above, the curved edge (as in the pattern), was changed to an angle giving the silhouette a corner. Changing the shape of a seam or hem of a pattern piece can make a dramatic …..

Accent color facings-This raincoat didn’t need a lining. The plum color fabric was used across the back of the shoulder area, for facings down the front and hems on the sleeves. The top edges of the hems were bound with the same purple fabric.

Shaping the shoulders- A light, black batting (Thinsulate) was used across the top of the back and down the front fronts under the facings for structure. Besides adding a bit of warmth across the shoulders, it also creates some shape in the shoulder area and gives more body to the front edges of the coat.

Angling Details- The original jumbo collar was twice this tall- and after cutting it down for a folded bias collar, to front ends were ‘tucked’ in, (creating another angle)

before the collar was sewn in place.

Closures are often a focal aspect of a garment. The surface design here IS the focus and the coat closes with a hidden zipper. On the underneath layer, the separating zipper was sewn into the seam on the left edge, in between the purple facing and the outside fabric. On the lapping right side, the zipper was stitched into a fold in the facing. The facing is held in place with short black stitching lines (visible on the purple facing side), from the front along edges of the painted shapes so they blend in.

…Oh …........I think it is raining! Did you get yours made?!      Diane