Return of the Mac.

Hello this is your sometime blogger Madame Tifaine returning with a mac.

I would appreciate your thanks in the UK as I’m pretty sure that I triggered our insane heatwave by making a raincoat. Said heatwave has meant that this yellow wonder has been languishing on the back of a chair for a few weeks.

I’ve been able to give my new mac a thorough test drive this week as our wet weather returned with a vengeance. It has even survived a school trip. To a farm. In the pouring rain. Skills.

Of course, on the morning I decided to finally photograph the coat the sun made an unscheduled appearance and shine away on my yellowness.

So the technical bits because clearly making a fully waterproofed thing is not for the faint hearted. I have had a long love affair with my yellow seasalt jacket. In the Southwest it’s a pretty ubiquitous garment as they are made a hop skip and jump away in marvellous Penzance. My old faithful yellow mac began to fail after only a year of wear and I started to dream about making my own version. I found the Papercut Waver was the most versatile pattern for me, something that wont just make the one coat, I’m hoping to get a winter coat our of this one too. So score on the sustainabale pattern front.

The Waver comes up a little bit big, I cut a small so that in the words of my mother ‘you can fit a nice thick jumper underneath’. Super sensible. I also cut a short length and left out the drawstring…this wasn’t a gathered waist moment.

The yellow fabric is woven PUL which I bought from Stones Fabric in Totnes together with the funky lining…chosen by my best Dutch buddy! Merchant and Mills have got an almost exact match for the seasalt tincloth but I think I might have cried if I’d spent THAT much on fabric and fluffed it! Altogether my new coat has cost about £45 which is under half what I would have spent buying yet another new rain coat! My topstitching is better too…just saying.

I knew that I wanted to go the extra mile with functionality on this one and spent a considerable amount of time waterproofing all the seams with iron on seam tape. It worked! I’ve been nice and dry this week.

I’ve also been flashing people with my blooms all week!

So I’ve finally made a coat and it wasn’t as painful as I thought it was going to be.

and of course…I had to hang around the local docks to model this one properly.

Super class!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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