When planning this last part for my back to school posts, I went down a bit of a rabbit hole. I knew when I signed up that I needed to finally tackle a trench coat. And I was further inspired by the last round of the Sew Alongs and Sewing Contests competition where they encouraged us to make a trench coat. But that was hard for me, because the contest ran during our summer, and trench coat+summer does NOT mix.

The newest contest over at Sew Alongs and Sewing Contests is a "create the decade" theme. It is an opportunity to take elements from different decades, mix match and bring them to life in a form that is wearable. I knew that before I tried this out for me, I needed a mini person to do a run through. Cue my eldest daughter.

Since she's the oldest, I don't have hand me downs for her. And I wanted to tackle a trench coat. So boom, she became my guinea pig volunteer.

As I was trying to narrow down my decade, I noticed that trench coats have a prominent place in every decade. Sure, there were variations in single and double breasted fronts. Collars of varying widths. Hoods and no hoods. Back vents. Different colors and types of fabrics. Welt pockets, flap pockets, no pockets. Princess Seams, vertical pleats, skirts, swing hems. Belted and not. With or without sleeve loops and epaulet. This was a big undertaking.

Given my timeline, available fabrics and patterns at my disposal, I knew that I wanted to use the Jalie Stretch City Coat. A traditional trench coat comes in khaki. I do have Khaki Stretch Twill in the Simply By Ti Shop. But DD1 wanted a blue trench. I figured I could accommodate that too.

If you are going to attempt a project like this, that involves a LOT of top stitching, and you want to do it right AND you have 2 sewing machines, I HIGHLY recommend setting one up to do your straight stitching and the other to sew your seams. That'll allow you to set up your top stitching needle with topstitching thread without having to switch back and forth during the process.

The tour was intended that we complete an entire outfit. So of course, I created a whole outfit.

Also included in our back to school look:
Mouse House Creations Janie
Petit Boo Huckleberry Pants
Gingercake Patterns Love Your Lunchbox

Want more back to school inspiration? You can see me 3 times on the Back to School Tour. And of course, check out all the other stops too!

Tour schedule: