The quilted coat. Such a trendy, cozy, seductive article of clothing. Who wouldn’t want to literally be wrapped in a blanket all day? I saw so many gorgeous, ethereal quilted coats on Instagram during the winter months during which I was pinned under my sleepy, sweet-smelling dictator of a newborn baby. (Sidenote, since I was mostly scrolling during the middle of the night in good ol’ Minnesota, USA, my feed was full of the most incredible makers from Australia & New Zealand and to this day my algorithm has not recovered. I’m not mad about it.) These snuggly, crafter-cool jackets sucked me right in and I knew I had to make one. Had I ever quilted before? Once. Did it go well? Not a chance. But that wasn’t about to stop me. I had this drool-inducing oversized multi-colored gingham that I spoilt myself with from Stonemountain and Daughter burning a hole in my stash, just waiting for its chance to have the spotlight. This was her chance! So, off I ran to find the perfect pattern to achieve my quilted coatigan (coat-cardigan) dreams. And the Allwell Cardigan Coat pattern was the winner! That pattern is so versatile, with an infinite number of customization options and it ended up being a pretty simple make.
With my Poppy girl still so little, I only had little bits of time—10 minutes here, 20 minutes there—but over the course of a month or so, I did it! I made a lot of mistakes, cried a little (and cursed a lot), but I did it. I made a size B graded to a size C in the sleeves for extra ease so I could wear it over sweaters, which I regret. The sizing of this piece is disappointingly not great. It fits VERY wide and boxy due to the stiff nature of the quilted fabric, since it’s not an old worn-in quilt, but newly-made. BUT! There is hope! I have plans to slice it in half up the back (pray 4 me), trim off a couple of inches in the middle and then piece it back together using a Hong Kong seam. I don’t fault the pattern for the sizing issues—it’s 100% due to my bad size choices/stiff fabric combo. So hopefully my plan to alter the coat will work. I’ll keep you updated!
All-in-all this was such a fun project for me, and honestly, it really saved my postpartum mental health. Having something I was working on just for me, whenever I needed a minute to myself was really a game changer. Long live the quilted coatigan!
