Even though it’s pretty boring to do the same work twice, I’ve learnt the importance of making a muslin first to make sure that the fitting is good. For the muslin, I found a nice (and very cheap) cotton fabric at IKEA. I wouldn’t have minded a heavier fabric but on the other hand, this one was easy to work with.

Overall, I’m quite pleased with the fitting and I’ve only found two issues with the pattern that need correcting.

1. Sleeve length – they’re just too long
2. Hood size – too small for my taste

I’ve decided to shorten the sleeves 2cm and make the hood ~5cm longer. I’m too lazy to attach the cuffs to the sleeves so the 2cm is just a rough estimation. Hopefully it works out.

I made a few alterations to the pattern before making the muslin. To begin with, I wanted a more “clean” front so I removed the outside front plackets. I needed to keep the inner plackets as they were because of the construction around the inner pockets and the fact that it wouldn’t look nice to have the lining go all the way out to the zipper. I adjusted the outside of the collar accordingly and kept the inside as it was.

For some reason unknown to me, there are no pockets to stuff your hands in when it’s cold. Pure madness, I tell you. To fix this problem, I’ve made a pattern for single welt pockets that will be added to the front (you see my sketch on the muslin).

Since the metal zipper can feel very cold against the skin, I will have to add some protection. An extra piece of fabric on the inside should suffice.

I’m going to make another adjustment to the hood. To me, not lining the hood makes no sense at all since I need it for protection against the awful weather.