Make a coat, out of a dress? You are crazy... Tutorial

Ok, so when I am getting ready to do a sewing project, I find the best place to start is procrastinating. On this particular project I have been doing this step for a few months now.

What I am going to do is show you how to do, in this post is take McCall’s 4490, dress C, and alter the pattern in to a coat inspired by the character Kahlan Amnell from the show Legend of the Seeker. We are going to take this...

And turn it in to this...

First step: Get distracted by the roomie coming home with catnip toys for your cat.

Next convince the other kitty to move from your workspace.

Now for real, you will need, the pattern, pattern paper, a pen (I find felt tip the best) and a yard/meter stick is best, But any other long straight edge will do if you have a measuring tape. Tools that will help are pattern weights. If you have never used them, the ones I have my sister got for me at Joanne’s, you can make them easily, or anything that has mass can work.

The tricky thing with this pattern, is that a few pieces of the pattern are in two parts, and you must trace one part then the other to the bottom, if we were making the pattern as it is. But all we are going to need is the length of the bottom piece, which is 16”.

Step One: start with flattening out the sheet of pattern that has piece 10, the CENTER BACK. Trace the top part, with all the markings (that are all the little triangles, squares, circles, and lines) and the piece number (which is 10 for this step) the size (I’m using 8) and even the pattern number (4490) if you are feeling very particular. Suggestion! Quilters pattern paper has a grid on it and can make your prosses wicked simple, if you line it up on the grain line.

Step Two: At about the hip, (just below the triple notch mark) draw straight down on each side of the piece, so it runs parallel, down to the line of bubbles.  It should be about 16.5” from where we start to alter, to the bubble line. From the bubble line draw down 16 more inches.

Another way to approach this step, is using the grain line, measure 16.5” up from the bubble line, draw a line perpendicular till it comes to the true pattern lines. Where they intersect, draw straight down to the bubble line, and 16 more inches from the bubble line down.

Step Three: With the math done in the second step, we apply the same steps to the SIDE BACK, and the SIDE FRONT pieces. 16.5” up from the bubble line, 16” down from the bubble line.

Step Four: For the CENTER FRONT, add 16.5” and 16”, to make 32.5”. Trace the top,  and the true center of the pattern (this will have an instruction to “cut on fold”) with all the markings EXEPT the “cut on fold” instruction. Using the line that says “cut on fold”, measure 32.5” from the bottom, draw a line perpendicular till it hits the true pattern line. From there, draw down till it is the same length as the other true pattern line.

Step Five: Trace pieces 12 and 8, with no alterations. What the heck it piece 8?!? You might be wondering.

It’s the armpit. You will need it. Something I learned the hard way, the first time I used this pattern. It was before I knew there was such a thing as pattern paper, and the wonders it was to use. I had to dig through the trash of shredded tissue paper. And the trash of my dignity, when my roommate at the time saw me balls deep in the trashcan…

So you should have a (mostly) finished pattern that looks something like this.

When we put it together, we will be building the hood of the coat. It will take a few tries, and some faith in yourself. But I did it after a few failed attempts, AND SO CAN YOU! *I am giving you a cheesy smile and thumbs up*. I will be explaining the best way I found in detail, but you might have to tweak it yourself.