Another clothing post from me this time.

I found this coat in a charity shop. It is a long/mid calf length coat from a UK/British designer, the label has ‘Out of Exile’ on the tag inside the coat. I was not aware of this design label, but on checking with Mr Google, this brand does make desirable items of clothing and, are expensive to buy new. I paid £5. The coat had a good weight, and is probably a viscose mix fabric. Please excuse this photo, it is the only photo showing the coat length that I managed to keep on my phone. I probably need lessons in photographing black fabric!

This coat is destined for No 1 grand daughter – she loves dark/black clothes and loves a ‘Goth’ image. I showed the coat to my daughter and she liked it too, and agreed that grand daughter would love it.

When I inspected the coat, I could see very little damage. There was a little tear at the back, and the buttons were a little loose. The damage looked to be easily fixable. No 1 grand daughter loves a hood, so I did have to think about how to make and attach one, I do have a large hood on my raincoat, so I made a pattern from that.

To repair the tear at the back, I used a piece of ‘grunge’ red cotton fabric. I cut a diamond shape and stitched that to the coat using a blanket stitch also in red embroidery floss. The coat is unlined, so I used a little black interfacing at the back of the tear. I cut two more diamond shapes of the red fabric and attached one to each pocket flap using a blanket stitch. I loved the effect of the three patches on the coat.

The coat has beautiful black shiny oval shaped buttons, and all were intact – no marks or scratches seen. I restitched the buttons using the red embroidery floss, and then restitched the button holes using the same thread. I added some black stabiliser to the rear of the buttons for strength. There was a little weakness there, but no tears were visible.

Fabric for the hood was very troublesome to find. Who knew that there could be so many shades of black? Anyway, I did find some that I was happy with – a dress from the charity shop, that had a lace overlay. I used the lace to make a outer layer of the hood, same pattern as the hood. I am so very happy with the coat and it’s new look, even though the photos don’t do it justice. I managed to salvage enough lace to attach a little frill to the cuffs as a finishing touch.

I am sorry that some of my photos are not of better quality, the model was less than enthusiastic on the day, and occasionally she is just not keen on modelling clothes for her Mum.

I do love mending clothing, and trying to fix a problem area on an item of treasured clothing that has been well made, rather than consigning it to the waste bin. Thank you for reading.