I've been wanting to make a coat for quite a while. There are a lot of issues to do this, first is how to make it warm enough to actually wear during winter. Since I live in the Northeast US, it will need to be pretty warm in order to be of any use. Then there's the question of what style to make. Since I'll be designing the coat myself, I want something that will be atractive but utilitarian. The materials are no problem - I have a nice stash of Kool Wool, which is a bulky wool/acrylic blend which should be both warm and durable. It's a nice blue/black which will make the coat wearable for business as well as casual.
I decided after some experiments with Tunisian (see previous posting) to use a Tunisian Simple Stitch because it is relatively dense and Tunisian allows the use of short rows for shaping. This is especially important since I decided I wanted a swing coat which would require a large amount of shaping to get the "swing".
I have added a hood for warmth, especially since the northern wind and snow can be quite brutal.
The basic design is complete and I have started on construction. I'll post more as the project progresses.
