Making a favourite coat

A lovely lady called Lisa approached me recently with a cashmere/wool mix coat that she wanted a brand new carbon copy of. It had been bought at a charity shop 20 years ago, and despite looking good for it's age, it definitely had seen better days. 

The first challenge was finding exactly the right fabric to make it out of. The cashmere in the original gives a lovely softness that a pure wool just wouldn't give, though we also needed to bear in mind the weight and warmth. There are a huge range of coatings available out there and we went through a lot of swatches before she went for a luxurious navy cashmere/wool/poly mix, with a rich lavender crepe-backed satin lining.

I created a pattern from the original coat without having to take the original part, so she still gets to keep the old one too! I really enjoy how smart a well tailored winter coat looks, and Lisa is thrilled to have a brand new coat in a style she has been enjoying for 20 years already. Here's to another 20 years at least!