Well drafted, shame about the instructions!

My first “semi tailored” coat in a long while, and I’m delighted with it.  I bought the last 2m of Abraham Moon wool melton from Guthrie and Ghani in the autumn and had another pattern in mind, then G&G restocked so, I bought another meter and had sufficient for the Oslo coat. The lining is Lady McElroy oriental vines which I also saw at G&G but again it was the end of the roll and insufficient so sourced it at Sherwood Fabrics.

While I’m very happy with the result and have made Tessuti patterns before, the photographs are very unclear and the instructions rather confused at times.  However, that said, I enjoyed sewing it.  I used a bound button hole so that had to be the first stage after cutting out and adding the interfacing.  I tacked the front and back together to check the break would be ok on me having read it was low. It was fine so used the pattern’s buttton hole placement.  The pockets however were way too low so I moved them up about 5cm.  I shortened the sleeves by 5cm and lengthened the coat by about 8cms and I’m only 5’4” – its now about knee length.  I wanted a coat that I could wear over a jacket or thick jumper and this fits the bill – a little large with only a fine jumper but I’m pleased I made the 16.  I was concerned that the two piece raglan sleeve might be too wide on my narrow shoulders but they are fine.

Having read many reviews of this pattern it seems we’re all saying the same thing, diagrams would be so much better the photos really don’t work even with the additional photos using calico.  I didn’t print the instructions so I was able to enlarge the photos on my iPad but even that didn’t really help. It’s a great pattern and beginners could easily make it, if Tessuti abandoned the photos and used a good illustrator.