I regularly hear people in the store say: "I don't have time"; "with my very busy life, it's impossible to come to the courses"; or "but how do you manage to sew so many pieces".

My answer - as simple as it may seem - is that you have to make an appointment with yourself. 

I made the Namasté coat, a "big" piece like any coat. I wanted to prove that despite a crazy schedule - a "small" work week for me is at least 60 hours - you can find time for what matters to us. It often just takes a mental/psychological trigger to understand that some things or activities matter more to us than others. The covid period, as difficult as it was, taught me a lot about myself and what mattered in my life. 

So follow me in sewing the Namasté coat, step by step. First of all, I present to you this beautiful sewing piece that caught my eye since its release last year!

The Namasté model

Namasté is the pattern of a comfortable and warm coat in which you want to snuggle up in the middle of winter. From its release last year, I had a crush on this beautiful model. It was its large hood that completely seduced me. I also really liked its double-breasted front and its large belt.

It has piped pockets (which I find more than useful in a coat). 

I find it a superb coat to face winter in style! 

Practical information for sewing Namasté

Namasté is a pattern by the designer Coralie Bijasson whose well-cut patterns and complete explanatory guides I particularly appreciate. 

Namasté is available from size 34 to 48. These sizes correspond quite well to commercial sizes. 

The printed pattern is available in our online shop and directly in the store. 

The sewing of this coat is classified as expert level by Coralie Bijasson. So you need good sewing experience to embark on the adventure or be accompanied in your sewing to succeed with the more technical stitches. That is why we offer the evening workshop courses. 

In the seamstress's basket

All wool fabrics will be perfect for this coat. Think of boiled wool, fulled wool, polyester wool fabrics (soft and warm), why not a thick gabardine or jeans, jacquards for a jacket effect? It is important to choose a fabric weighing at least 350g/m2 and at most 600g/m2.  

To sew your coat, you will need: 
- fabric: 3.5m up to size 40 and 3.6m up to size 48 
- lining 1.7m up to size 48
- 20mm buttons (4 for buttoning and 1 spare)

- fusible interfacing suitable for your fabric

My supplies

I was very influenced by the pretty biscuit-colored coat in Coralie Bijasson's photos. Also, I have an autumnal colorimetry... so when my supplier showed me a beautiful wool fabric of this color, I fell for it. 

I would have preferred to sew the coat in 100% wool, but this polyester wool fabric was so soft, warm, and the perfect color that I completely fell for it. 

For coats, a lining that "slides" is always recommended to pass the arms through the sleeves. I didn't really want to use this type of plain lining but to add color and fun to my coat. So I chose a Japanese cotton lawn which has the advantage of being soft, with pretty patterns and that slides (not as much as a lining but enough for the purpose). 

I chose to mark the lining/facing separation by adding a pretty yellow piping that matched the color of the flowers on my lining. It is a small vintage piping from my personal stash; I still had just the right length! 

Finally, I also chose 4 large buttons from my personal stash for the front buttoning. I also used 4 small buttons that I sew behind the first ones; this helps to strengthen the anchoring of my buttons. 

I also used a quick hem tape for heavy fabrics for the hem. 

Technical stitches

Sewing a coat requires a good level of sewing skill. Indeed, not only does the coat include technical stitches that we will see, but these technical stitches must be done on a thick fabric. This also means that you need a good sewing machine with a strong motor that can smoothly handle the different thicknesses. 

The technical stitches of Namasté are:

- the making of welt pockets
- making darts
- making the hood
- attaching the hood to the body
- making the sleeve (body and lining)
- sewing the outer body, facing and lining
- sewing the sleeve lining and sleeves
- buttonholes
- managing hems
- sewing buttons

My sewing experience

I loved sewing this long-term project (my students were able to follow week by week the progress of my coat on Gisèle, my sewing mannequin).

Here is the breakdown of the steps in creating my coat. As you will see, there were many with short working times but as they say "to eat an elephant, you eat it little by little...".  I started working on the coat from Tuesday 5/9 and finished it this Thursday 26/10 just in time to leave for the RTBF interview... phew!

Tuesday 5/9: size selection and tracing the pieces of the pattern (1h30)
Wednesday 6/9: cutting paper pieces (30 minutes)
Thursday 7/9: cutting pieces in the canvas (30 minutes)
Friday 8/9: sashiko call I couldn't resist...
Saturday 9/9: courses all day: no sewing for me
Sunday 10/9: assembling the canvas and fitting (1h45) - I raised the printed by 1cm and enlarged them. 

I worked on other projects Monday and Tuesday but I chose the fabric for the coat on Monday 😊
Wednesday 9/13: piped pocket test on the muslin (30min)
Thursday 9/14: cutting the coat pieces (45min)
Friday 9/15: cutting the lining pieces (30min)
Saturday 9/16: sewing the darts, sewing the body and lining sleeve pieces (30min)

Right after, I caught a cold and didn’t sew besides my already busy work (shop and teacher) for 15 days 🥲 and other ongoing projects: the pretty bag panels we had received, the tutorial is actually here and a jeans to accompany my students during the jeans module... We don’t get discouraged and keep going!

Tuesday 10/10: I resumed! I sewed the belt and the loops (30min)
Thursday 10/12: I started the piped pockets (40min)
Friday 10/13: I finished the pockets (1h)

Tuesday 10/17: I assembled the hood (45min)
Thursday 10/19: I assembled the body, the lining, I put on the piping and assembled the lining with the facing (3h)
Tuesday 10/24: I assembled the body and lining sleeves (1h)
Thursday 10/26: I finished! I assembled the body and the lining. I assembled the sleeve edges, made the hems, and finally I started on the buttonholes (3h)

I put on my coat and ran off to RTBF very proud in my beautiful handmade coat! 

What an adventure!

I love my coat and I loved sewing it. Plus, every week my students boosted me with oh it’s going to be magnificent, oh that’s great... in short, confidence and the desire to move forward were at their peak! A big thank you to everyone by the way 😊

To finish this article, I wanted to tell you - without playing my two-cent psychologist or the moralizer - that we are often capable of much more than we think, despite our busy lives. We must find a balance filling our life with important things that are close to our hearts. 

Sewing feeds me (even literally today) and I think it will nourish me all my life because it brings me a lot of self-confidence, personal satisfaction, sharing, joy... in short, take care of yourself and listen to your needs for fulfillment! 

On these good words,

To your needles!