It was love at first sight. The Square Coat is the fourth design I've sewn from Japanese minimalist sewing book Easy Cute Straight Stitch Sewing.
The garment is made up of three big rectangles of fabric for the body, two small rectangles for the sleeves and two tiny square pockets, much like this dress but with a front opening. The book shows the Square Coat made up in a fine woven wool fabric with raw frayed edge front, neck and arm seams (no facings). There is no front fastening, the coat is shown secured with a simple pin.
I used a stiff double sided green/blue felted fleecy synthetic fabric bought for a song from Fabricland, Brighton and added some embroidered floral braid for Tyrolean folk effect.
I turned over a narrow hem to finish the centre front, neckline and sleeves as it looked too accidental (i.e. awful) in this fabric when left as a raw edge, then added bright blue metal poppers for an easy and secure front fastening – essential when living on the windy south coast of England!
My favourite thing about the coat is the contrast between the vast boxy shape of it and these tiny square front pockets. I used a fancy zigzag machine stitch to edge the pockets.
I love the finished coat and can see this design working in many different weight fabrics. It's another simple Japanese pattern that I think I'll make again and again.
