This was the final garment I sewed at Sewjourn in May.  That was a highly successful Sewjourn – I sewed less items, but was very happy with nearly all of them!  It’s nice when it all works out that way.

Lekala 4639 is one of Lekala’s more recent offerings. I knew as soon as I saw it that I’d be making it! Their description of it is “coat”. Well, yes. They do suggest cashmere, gaberdine or tweed as the suggested fabrics.

This is actually a fully lined coat, with the lining pattern pieces provided.  I can draft lining pieces if I have to, but the lazy in me much prefers it when somebody else has already done that work for me!  I used some slippery printed fabric that a friend whose husband works in the fashion industry had given me – I think that it was originally intended for scarves.

The main fabric was a remnant from Rathdowne Fabrics. It is a wool blend, and was very pleasant to work with. It sewed easily and pressed well. I did have to keep an eye out for fraying, but otherwise it was terrific. There are quite a lot of different colours in the weave, but overall it reads as fairly browny green.

Being a Lekala pattern, it was drafted to my measurements. And wow, that fit is just great! The lengths and the proportions are just right for me. I really do love that about Lekala! There is not a great deal of structure in this coat – just interfacing through the front panels and back neckline, as well as the in the sleeve facings. I didn’t even include shoulder pads, although it may have benefitted from a small one. You could definitely add them if required.

I chose to use large snaps as the fastenings instead of buttons. I also found that I needed to hand-sew the coat hem and the sleeve facings in place, or else they bagged down, even with the linings. The linings were of course a big larger than the coat to allow for movement, but this also allowed the narrowed hemline to fall down at first. A bit of hand sewing fixed that right up.

There are darts around the hemline that give this jacket its lovely cocoon shape. They aren’t hard to do – in fact, this wasn’t a difficult garment to assemble. Not all that many pieces, and they were all logically assembled. Lekela provide an order of construction rather than hand-holding instructions, but with a garment like this one (and plenty of years or sewing experience behind you, or a few good reference books) that really is all that you need. And a bit of common sense!

Once upon a time I would have laughed at coats with half or three quarter length sleeves, but nowadays I really like them! The shaping in this one is really nice, with the curve up to the underarm seam.  It doesn’t sit quite a perfectly as I’d like on the inside there – maybe I needed a bit more clipping and grading. The back neckline and shoulders fit nicely and there isn’t any obvious fabric pooling due to my short back waist, which is always a win – although with this coat style choice it shouldn’t have really been a problem anyway.

Overall, this coat is a BIG win for me and for Lekala. It’s a very current style, and it fits me so well! If you haven’t taken a look at Lekala or Bootstrap patterns yet (they use the same software) I really recommend that you do. They release new styles regularly, and with a bit of trial and error regarding style ease (there’s generally not much!) you end up with fit that you can rely on. And did I mention the price point? Very reasonable – especially if you buy a pattern bundle.