The button debate

Well! You guys have given me a lot to think about as far as button placement on my double breasted coat.

The majority of you were in favor of the 6-button version; several were in favor of the 8-button version, and a handful of you were on the fence.

Pros of the 6-button coat: Current style/trendy, in-seam buttonhole is a neat feature
Pros of the 8-button coat: Security, warmth

So, it looks like it's style vs. practicality. Isn't that always what it comes down to?

I snooped around the internet to get other examples of button placement, and pretty much anything goes right now.

I did have a minor revelation after all of your different opinions started coming in. The pattern pieces that are sewn together to create that horizontal seam meet as straight, parallel lines. That seam provides no shaping at all, it is purely decorative. Which means I could get rid of it entirely and place the buttons wherever I want, without having to work with or around the seam. But since the in-seam buttonhole is popular and a unique feature of this coat, I am hesitant to do that.

Honestly, I still haven't decided.

Here are the fabric and buttons that I'll use for the coat. The fabric is a wool herringbone that I got last year from Fashion Fabrics Club. I had big plans to use it with a vintage coat pattern. I guess I got distracted by something else before I got that far.

The buttons are 1.25" / 32mm wide, from my local fabric shop. They only had a few in stock so I ordered more.

I harassed the kind people on the Pattern Review message boards with a bunch of questions about lambswool as I was considering interlining with lambswool for added warmth. In the end, I decided to ditch the lambswool idea and just use flannel-backed satin (pictured above) as my lining. This is my first winter coat, and I figure I should get the hang of handling thick fabrics, inserting coat linings, etc, before I dive into lambswool interlining. Besides, I think this will be plenty warm for most of our cold days.

I can't believe that I actually bought shoulder pads! I'm anti-shoulder pad, but I suppose I'll make an exception for thick coats. These are 0.5" / 14 mm thick raglan style shoulder pads. I inserted them into my muslin coat while I was wearing it and actually you can't even tell.

Many of you commented on the fabric that I used for my muslin. It is nice fabric, actually. I got it about 2 years ago at a thrift store. It is a greyish-blue wool tweed, and it has a rainbow assortment of little colored flecks running throughout. It's cute, but I soon realized it's just not something I want to wear. It would be great for a little girl's coat. After 2 years in my stash, I felt it was appropriate to sacrifice as a muslin.

I did, though, make use of some of the tweed yardage to make this little kitty last year. The pattern is from the Denyse Schmidt Quilts book I mentioned a couple of posts back. Check out Tabitha when I try to get her to interact with the tweed kitty. Her face clearly expresses her annoyance. After this photo, she put her head down and pretended like she was asleep, in the hopes that would make me go away.