It's February and I'm just getting around to this!

 Boy, the last 6 months have been busy!  

I bought 2 chenille bedspreads from a church bazaar last Summer - think it was late June. I knew as soon as I saw these that I wanted a winter coat made out of one. I didn't have a full plan, but I just felt this would be a great coat for the cold New Hampshire winter that was coming. 

Late August, I found the pattern that I thought would be perfect for chenille and I ordered it. 

Then time got away from me. 

For Christmas, I decided to make my guy a new bathrobe from some flannel I purchased along with matching pajama pants. Well, that got me to thinking that I wanted a new bathrobe too - the flannel on mine was wearing quite thin as I'd had it for over 10 years. 

Light bulb moment!  I made a bathrobe from the coat pattern. As you can see, the pattern really is made for either item. This was actually a good idea because the size I thought I would need actually turned out to be much bigger and roomier than I would have liked my coat to be. (As a fleece bathrobe, it is the perfect size...it's very lightweight fleece but wraps around very snuggly.) 

A few days after Christmas, I got the coat pieces cut from the chenille, but had to put it aside for other priorities. (Don't we always do that to ourselves?) 

So this week, being on vacation from my office job, I could devote my whole week to the coat and get it done. Finally. 

The bathrobe only took me an afternoon to sew up, but I knew the coat would take a little longer. 

Day 1

Right after my morning coffee, I started on the jacket...then I got side tracked with an invitation to a pretty good online sale for embroidery designs.  While sipping a cup of coffee, I lost myself in perusing all the awesome designs offered on sale. And then I found it....my holy grail....

The perfect designs for my new coat!  And the colors they advertised it in were so great, I decided that a little extra time it would take to put this on would be worth it. 

Now, the best thing to do when using a new design - especially when you are working with a new type of material - is to run a test copy.  Luckily, I had enough material left after cutting out the pattern so I could do a "test" run. The pictures above and below are test runs. 

These "test runs" will most likely become a bag to match the coat.

Love it!

Back to the coat...

I embroidered the elephant head shown above and another elephant design - one on each front side panel.  And I got the pockets on. 

Once that was done, I could go back to actual coat assembly. But, since the time was getting later, I decided that was it for one day.

Day 2

I won't lie, chenille is not the easiest material to sew with. It's big and bulky and continuously sheds little pills from the cut edges. I might have been able to cut some of the length off the pieces, which would certainly have lighten the weight a bit, but I was still unsure just how long I wanted the coat to be when finished. 

On day 2, I was able to get all the pieces together; now it was starting to resemble a coat - I was thinking that it still looked more like a bathrobe and was a bit worried. But I continued on....

Day 3 

Day three was probably the hardest and at times the most tedious as it required lots of trying on and adjusting.  I also spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out what I wanted for the front closure.

By the end of the day, I had the coat assembled, the length adjusted to my height.

I was also able to configure how I wanted to close the coat. This took a little bit of time as the pattern design is an open coat. No zippers, snaps or buttons at all. This took me a few tries, some curses and walking away a few times before I got something I like. The coat now has an inset zipper placard with button closure over that for really cold days.

Day 4

Finished up the front zipper, added the cord for the hood. 

Update March 2, 2022

I've worn the coat a few times so far and while it's not the warmest without a lining, it certainly has plenty of room to add a heavy sweater underneath. The way it is right now is perfect for Spring and Fall and some warmer winter days. 

I need to put some thought into what I want to use for the lining. I'd like to stick with the purple coloring and I'd like it to be removable. And I have already crocheted the sleeve cuffs - they are also purple and white. 

Thinking back, I only wish I had dyed the chenille before making this. I really do not like white for a coat...it's going to get so dirty!