O + S Secret Agent Trench

I've been promising J. a secret agent trench since the pattern came out but there seemed no point in making it over the winter (which feels neverending this year!).   With some tentative signs of spring in the air, I took her fabric shopping with me.  I had hoped that some bright colour or pattern would win her over but she didn't waver in her request for khaki.  A true secret agent wouldn`t wear a bright colour or a floral print as that would "blow her cover"!  And wouldn't you know it, neither fabric store we went to had khaki coloured twill.  We did find this heavy ponte de roma, though.  Even on sale it was more than I really wanted to spend.  I briefly debated about whether it would work and whether it was worth the cost but because J. was with me and eager to get the project going, I bought 2m.  I was surprisingly easy to work with and I think it makes for a super comfy coat. 

I used a stretch stitch and a size 14 ball point needle and had no problems until it came to the button holes.  My automatic buttonhole foot would not feed the fabric through.  One of the lovely ladies on the O+S forum suggested doing them manually and that worked well.  Except that I made each and every single one of them 1/2 inch too big.  Oops.  When I realized that, I only cut them big enough for the buttons, added another bartack at the right spot and removed the excess stitching.  I have a feeling I will be fixing them again before too long!

J. is super pleased with the coat, even with the fact that it's too big.  She'll be 8 in June but her measurements put her at a size 6 in O+S patterns.  I wanted this jacket to last for a bit so I made size 7 with two inches of extra length (thanks to discussion in the forum, I added one inch at the notches and one inch to the bottom).  I think I also added an inch to the sleeves, which turned out to be not necessary but J. doesn't want them fixed. 

I took a couple of pictures and then asked what a secret agent would do.  She carefully made footprints in the snow and then "tracked" them, stopping along the way to pick up a "clue".  I love this kid's imagination.  She's been playing secret agent games all week.  And we're planning a secret agent party for her next birthday.

Here`s the inside view: I didn't need to finish the seams as the fabric doesn't ravel but the pattern suggests binding them with bias tape and I think that finishes it off nicely.

Pattern: Oliver and S Secret Agent trench ordered from Sew, Mama, Sew $19.31
Fabric: 1.8m heavy ponte de roma from Fabricland $25.18
Bias tape: .25m fabric approx. $1.50
Interfacing: 1m approx $2.00
Buttons: from silver soup bowl at Button Button in Vancouver $2.96

Total: $50.95
eeek, that makes me re-think wanting to keep track of what I spend!  I definitely could have bought this way cheaper.  Oh well, she loves it and that`s all that matters!