Maxi Ulysses – Victory Patterns

Maxi Ulysses

The Ulysses coat is a perfect duster coat to wear to a British summer marquee wedding. I lengthened it by a good six inches to wear over an almost ankle length ByHandLondon Anna dress
The Cupro fabric from my stash, bought from Rainbow Fabrics a couple of years ago, proved to be the perfect fabric… although it doesn’t photograph quite so perfectly.. the true colour is much more similar to the blue of the dress.
The way the coat is constructed meant I was committed to the length from the beginning of the make, which was a little nail biting. It came together well, the instructions were pretty thorough although I would have liked a few more illustrations of one or two of the stages. I realised too late that I should also have lengthened the back vent…. not having done that means it will be very tricky to shorten in the future. As it was a relaxed fit I did not alter for my forward and uneven shoulders and I slightly regret this. There are lots of lovely details to the coat and it was an enjoyable sew – the storm flap, epaulettes, bound seams and the way the belt ‘loops’ are formed I left off the buckle for the belt as I knew I would be unlikely to fasten it and thought it would make the belt too heavy. I lost a little of the drapey effect at the front edges as I had to even off the length otherwise the front would have trailed on the floor. Luckily it didn’t spoil the whole look. I would like to make another version at some point, at the recommended length, to experience the full drape of the front edge