Making a Batch of Greyhound Coats

This has been a quiet week spent making a batch of greyhound coats. It has been over a year since I made even one coat and while I have a great set of patterns, I do not have written-out instructions. Over the years I’ve perfected some short cuts that made assembling the coats so much easier. I’m going to include a few of those short cuts with pictures so I can capture them for future reference. I’ll file this post with the patterns so I don’t forget!

Here are the four colors of fleece I purchased at Surplus City last week…described in my last post at

https://marykisner.com/finding-fleece-at-surplus-city/

Considering my fabric options, the solid purple went OK with the paisley at the top. Dark navy fleece looked good with the light blue paisley at the bottom. I decided to make 4 coats of each pair of colors…some with the paisley design on the outside and some with the solid color on the outside.

Cutting out the coats

Cutting out the coats is a tedious process and cutting out 8 coats and 8 linings is just about the limit for my hand in one day. Thank goodness my daughter gave me a wonderful pair of scissors for Christmas a few years ago. They are a little larger and very sharp. They cut through the fleece like butter!

After cutting out all the pieces (16 times!) I stacked the pieces for each coat. Here’s a picture of how I lay out the pattern pieces (shown on a different fabric). By folding the fabric selvedges to the center, I can cut out a large and a small coat on each 1 1/2 yard of fabric:

ASSEMBLING THE COATS

(This includes more detailed pictures for my file. Scroll ahead to see the finished coats!)

Making the Straps

I always begin by making the straps. This includes sewing my label and the Velcro hook piece to each strap. These will remind me what color is the outside of a particular coat! The paisley has become the outside of this first coat. (I can’t figure out why the purple fabric photographs as blue sometimes!)

Making the Snood

Working with just the snood pieces, I sew them together at the top, wrong sides together:

Then I turn the snood right side out and sew the bottom edge together. When I trim the seam, I have finally made the commitment to which side is the outside and which is the lining. Trimming the seam is one of my short cuts to make finally assembly much easier.

Making the Body of the Coat

Sewing the body pieces, right sides together and then turning the coat right sides out, the ‘outside’ has not yet been determined. After I sew and trim the neck seam, I have finally committed to which side is the ‘outside.’ Trimming the neck seam is another short cut to make final assembly easier.

Making the Darts

Before I attach the snood to the body of the coat, I need to make the darts that shape the back end of the coat. This is why it matters that I don’t make a mistake and put the darts with the wrong side out!