The Red Refashion Winter Coat

Finally I finished the refashion of my winter coat. It has taken absolutely forever, mostly due to lots of seamripping and handstitching
Now it was finished, I HAD to wear it today, even though temperatures are still unseasonably high here (about 3-8 C (37-46 F)).
I was boiling even though I only wore a thin shirt underneath. But I suffered gladly for (re)fashion. And winter will probably (hopefully) come at some point.

So. this is the coat before.

The zipper was broken. I started by spending an entire evening removing it.
Then I stitched the new zipper in its place. First I stitched the zipper to the lining fabric and then to the fashion fabric. It took almost as long as removing the old zipper to insert the new one and required large amounts of tea and chocolate.

The new zipper was slightly longer than the original, so I adapted the coat to that. I handstitched the lowermost part. I didn't sew the top part of the zipper just yet.

The coat has always been slightly tight around my hips. I wanted to more comfortably be able to use the coat when cycling in winter, so I decided to make side gussets (or would it be more correct to call them godets?).
I opened the sideseams - again, took forever.

I made gussets  for the lining. I ironed on thin volume vlies on them.
I stitched them to he lining of the coat (part of the coat on the wrong side).

I did the same with the outer gussets. They are made from wool rib. They have a pleat to fit me best.
I hemmed the lining gussets and the fashion fabric gusset individually, so they wouldn't pull at eash other.

I removed the old ribbed edges of the sleeves, and replaced them with red wool ribbing. They are 8 cm (3 1/8").
I don't quite remember how I sandwiched the fabric in order to be able to sew everything together - or maybe I have repressed it...

I removed the ribbed edge by the neck. It had always been tight and stiff. I planned to replace it with the red wool rib, but realised that I liked the coat better without a ribbed neck edge altogether (I maight make a dickey out of the remaining wool rib though).

When I removed the ribbed neck edge, the hood was split from the coat as well. I stiched the fashion fabric of the coat and the hood on the sewing machine and then the linings by hand.

Lastly I handstiched the upper zipper, the vertical edges of the hood and the upper edge of the coat in tiny stiches.
To hide the edge of the top of the zipper (previously it would have been covered by the neck ribbing) i handstitched a narrow light blue ribbon on top of it (the ribbon had been at the hood edge before).

Finished:

Blogpost and more pictures: http://saga-i-farver.blogspot.dk/2016/12/opdateret-vinterfrakke.html