The Hovea Coat
When I saw Megan Nielsen release her latest pattern, the Hovea Coat, I knew I wanted to make it straight away! I have been looking at quilted coat patterns for a long time, and the style of this one really appealed to me.
The Hovea is described as a loose fit, drop shoulder jacket or coat with lovely, deep, angled pockets. It can be made in three different lengths, as a cropped jacket, a hip length jacket or as a full length coat. It can be made unlined, fully lined or it can be made as a quilted jacket or coat. There are different options for finishing the coat, either with a collar band, or with bias binding and an optional tie. I really like the number of different options in this pattern as it makes the Hovea so versatile and I can see myself making this pattern again and again in different lengths, and in different fabrics.
The pattern comes in two size bands. The printed pattern comes in sizes 0 – 20, and the Hovea Curve comes as a pdf pattern in sizes 14 – 34. I have made a few Megan Nielsen patterns before, so I know that I usually fall across several different size bands. My bust is 36”, my waist is 30” and my hips are 42”. This usually puts me into a size 8, 12 and 14 respectively. I looked at the finished measurements for the size 8, which are 47 and 5/8” for the bust, waist and hips. This helped as I knew that making a straight size 8 would fit with plenty of ease at the waist and hips.
When I was considering which view of the coat I wanted to make, I knew that I had some beautiful scrap fabrics that I wanted to use to make the bias binding. I wanted to make either the cropped, or hip length jacket as I thought I would get the most wear out of those over the Autumn. In the end, I decided to make View B, which is the hip length jacket.
I knew I wanted to have a go at a quilted coat, but on this occasion I decided not to quilt my own fabric, although that is something I would love to try in the future! I saw a beautiful denim and shearling quilted fabric on the Fabric Godmother website and knew that I would love to turn that into my autumn jacket. Once it arrived I was so pleased with it! The shearling is so snuggly and warm and the denim is light and soft. I also loved the colour of the denim and decided straight away to pair it with some leftover liberty fabric for the bias binding.
For this coat I made my own bias binding. There are helpful instructions for this in the pattern booklet and it was straightforward, even without a bias binding maker! I managed to squeeze 8m out of my scrap fabric, which was the amount recommended by the pattern instructions, although I only used a little over 6m in the end.
The construction of the jacket was very straightforward, and it came together quickly. My machine was a bit reluctant to sew through the layers of quilted fabric. I put my walking foot onto my machine and increased my stitch length slightly which helped. The seams inside the coat are all finished with bias binding. This is such a lovely finish, and if hand sewn down, means the coat can be fully reversible. I chose to hand sew my binding down in most places as I prefer that finish, although I do not plan on wearing my coat with the shearling fabric on the outside. I enjoy hand sewing, so I found the binding process enjoyable, although it did take a long time!
Overall, I am really pleased with the coat. I am glad I chose the size 8, as there is a good amount of room without it feeling too oversized. I decided to add the ties at the front and I am glad I did that as it allows me to close the coat. This also gives it a little more shape, which I like. I also added a hanging loop and a beautiful leather label from Little Rosy Cheeks which finishes it off perfectly!
While I love the length of the coat, I feel that the cropped length in this boxy shape would probably look better on my particular body shape and I would like to try that in the spring. I know that I will get a lot of wear out of this coat, and I am so glad that I added this to my autumn wardrobe!
Happy sewing!
Amelia x
