Simplicity Dear Watson...

Simplicity 1281 to be precise.... Now the weather has taken a turn for the chillier and 'Winter is coming' I thought a Blanket Coat would be a great little wardrobe addition.

There are tons of these in the shops at the moment, and I'm not going to lie it would have been cheaper and easier to buy one, but that's not the point of crafting is it ;-) Plus, this one is way better as it has faux sleeves created by the belt rather than just being a blanket flapping about all over the place.

It took me ages to find a pattern I liked the look of but opted for Simplicity 1281 View C.

Using the sizing charts I fell between Medium and Large but knowing how epically huge these loose fit items can be went with Medium - and that's plenty big enough as you can see!

View C has a particularly appealing feature in so far as it has leather trim all around for a bit of a fancy finish. I bought my wool from Myfabrics.com who have a great range at the moment. Its very thick, soft and blankety and has a lovely speckled texture. I also found leather trim bias binding on the Minerva website - no joke that's not cheap when you need loads of it!! Eeesh. Looks nice though.

The amount of fluff that was produced making this was enough to sink a small ship and I had to give my overlocker and machine some serious TLC and hoovering afterwards. It was a quick-ish project. Cutting and assembling the cape pieces was very straight forward, loved the technique for making the belt loop holes but adding the trim was seriously time consuming as there is metres of it. But you get a nice cape at the end so persevere!

 As you can see its pretty roomy, although I'd say that was a good cosy feature, especially if you have a jumper underneath with long sleeves.

 It's also a pretty good length and keeps you covered, its got a kimono feel about it and nicely cinches in with the belt. My leather bound corners were less than impressive so no close ups there!

Been up to any winter preparations? Feel free to comment and come and say hello on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Bloglovin too :-) xx