Mustard-Plaid Car Coat

My top five favorite things about this Mustard-Plaid Car Coat:

1. I made it from yardages donated to me: both the shell fabric (a plaid constructed with a knit backing), and the interlining (a polyester fleece). The only bits I purchased were the thread, interfacing, snaps, and jersey lining. Upcycling BOOM!

2. The quilted lining (pictures below), which make it so soft and cozy!

3. The build of the coat itself: it has a lovely one-piece collar design I’ve not worked with in any other pattern. Just gorgeous!

4. My plaid matching (top notch!) – matching at front, sleeve, and cuff – and also back-collar, yoke, and back. I was wearing a (certain name-brand) plaid shirt today, which sets a retail price for simple plaid shirts at $100 to $200. They’re plaid-matching has nothing on mine!

5. My double-welt pockets. I’ve been working on my own method for these pockets and I am getting it down. Beautiful and sturdy!


Here are some close-up pictures and some sewing geekery:

So yeah. Lining up plaids? I love it! My eye is getting good too – because I made this jacket with everything lining up, and only a very small few ounces of scraps remaining. I love being economical with raw materials!

In the picture above we are looking at the back of the coat – from top left you can see the collar seam, then the back yoke seam. I typically like bias-cut back yokes (for both looks and practicality), but in this case I lined up the plaids. By the way, today I was wearing a $100-retail Pendleton shirt, and the plaids aren’t lined up as well (specifically at the cuffs – my cuffs are lined up for vertical plaid synchronicity).


Looking at the inside of the collar. I love the collar build on this coat – the seam has been rotated to breast-height and hides inside the coat body.

The facing, and a stretch-twill tape finish. I used the same brown twill for the pocket lining.


I am so thrilled with the lining. It is soft – an organic jersey – and it is warm due to the interlining, this horrid polyester fleece. Here is the lining before insertion:

I serge-finished the lining for ease of installation, although it wasn’t a necessary step.


My double-welt pockets. Even with a very fluid grain, these went together well. You can barely see the deep-brown twill lining, at the bottom of the pocket.

My Little Guy! xxx ooo