Earlier this year, our School Days Jacket + Coat sewing pattern went out of print. As always seems to happen, once the style was no longer available we started receiving a large number of requests for it.

So we’re happy to announce that this style is available again as our second digital pattern.

This versatile unisex pattern contains options for both a lined, three-season raincoat and a heavy winter jacket with an optional quilted lining.

As we’re moving into winter here in the northern hemisphere, we’ve heard from many of you who are considering sewing the winter jacket version. Need a little inspiration for what you can do with it? After this style was originally released, Liesl wrote a couple posts here about jackets she’s made with the pattern. Here’s one that focuses on wool fabric options you can use for making the jacket. And here’s another that shows the version that S wore for a couple years (which she, sadly, has now outgrown). And if you have any concerns about sewing a coat at home that will stand up to the worst of what winter can throw at you, here’s a full field testing report on what the jacket can do. (Spoiler alert: it passes with flying colors.)

Like our recently-released Puppet Show digital pattern, the pattern file you’ll download once you complete your purchase provides you with options for either printing and tiling at home using a standard printer or for sending full-sized pattern pieces to a print shop that can handle 36″ wide sheets.

You can purchase the pattern now from our website. We hope you enjoy having it available once again. And be sure to share what you make using it in the Oliver + S Flickr group.

Earlier this year, we took the larger size range of the School Days Jacket and Coat pattern out of print. Now, due to popular request, we’ve brought it back for a limited time.

This unisex pattern contains options for both a heavy winter jacket and a lined, three-season raincoat. We think you’ll be excited to see some of the waterproof, coated fabrics (which are perfect for raincoats) that are coming out next spring from us and from other designers.

This pattern is now available, again, on our website.

For those of us in the northern hemisphere, it still feels too early to start thinking about fall sewing. After all, today the weather is expected to break even more records here in New York, after three solid weeks of mercilessly hot weather. But when I saw this Miu Miu ad in a fashion magazine I was immediately inspired. Wouldn’t that plaid wool make a terrific School Days coat?

This past Thursday morning I went shopping in the garment center and visited one of my favorite stores, Beckenstein Men’s Fabrics (I don’t know what the whole “fabric czar” thing is; I still call them Beckenstein’s but maybe they changed their name?), where they have a fantastic collection of high-quality wool fabric. The shop is loaded with other inspiring fabrics, too: Scottish tweed, Italian suiting, seersucker striped cotton, and melton wool in a wide variety of colors. And it’s all presented in a suitably old-school setting, too. It feels like the shop of a thread-worn gentlemen’s tailor, and when I visit I always wish I could stay to curl up on a chair in the corner with either a needle and thread or a good book.

I was shopping for S’s school uniforms, which I’ll be blogging about soon. But despite the weather, I’m also thinking seriously about winter coats. Maybe this year I’ll do something with a plaid fabric.

Remember that wool-cashmere blend School Days Jacket? We had the chance to do some serious field testing on it yesterday.

It passed all our tests with flying colors. See disdressed for the full visual recap.

A few weeks ago on my personal blog, I posted about going fabric shopping for S’s new winter coat? Well, while at Mood I fell in love with this amazing navy blue wool-cashmere blend. It was $40 a yard, but trust me when I tell you that if you felt it you would understand. Really. It’s incredibly thick and soft and totally worth the price. (And $40 is actually really cheap for quality coating, I think, despite how it may sound if you’re not accustomed to shopping for coat fabrics.) I briefly considered wrapping myself up inside it right there on the third floor of the store, but that would have been weird.

So I took it home and got busy, sewing just a few seams a day. I was almost finished with the outside (why do these projects seem to go so much faster when I’m not writing sewing instructions simultaneously?) when it occurred to me to insulate it!

I was inspired by this coat in our Flickr group, so I started searching around to find the right interlining when I came across Thinsulate. I had to try it, at least for the sake of research, right?

Well, this particular quality of Thinsulate is not so thin. Definitely thicker than I expected. I was a bit stunned when I opened the package. Apparently it comes in different lofts, like quilt batting, but this one is thick, and I started to feel a little intimidated by it.

But never fear; I soldiered on. I had already assembled the coat lining (it’s a Robert Kaufman print I purchased at Treadle Yard Goods in St. Paul, MN last spring), and because I was concerned about the bulk I constructed what equates to a second lining from the Thinsulate. I cut out the lining pieces from Thinsulate and sewed them together in the same way as the lining.

After I sewed the lining to the facing I pinned the Thinsulate behind the lining and edgestitched it to the facing to hold it in place. It was sort of like sewing two linings to one coat, only one of them was about 80 times thicker than the other. When I hemmed the coat and the sleeves I folded the coat fabric over the Thinsulate so it wouldn’t get in the way of the lining. And that’s really the only thing I did differently in making it.

But the happy (and rather surprising) news is that I sewed the entire coat on my little Janome Jem–not exactly a heavy-duty sewing machine, no matter what they say. So if you’re worried about sewing a thick coat on a not-so-heavy-duty machine, it’s totally do-able. The walking foot really made it possible. I highly recommend getting one if you don’t have and use it already. It’s great for thick fabrics as well as laminates (and, of course, quilts).

I think this a really heavy-duty winter coat. It’s definitely keeping her warm, even now that it’s gotten pretty cold here. I was planning to make the removable quilting lining as well, but I’m afraid the bulk of the Thinsulate would make poor Tsia look like the Michelin Man, not to mention preventing her moving. And it appears that she’s going to be plenty warm without it, although I may still make it anyway. I’m wondering if the Thinsulate will live up to its name and actually flatten out a bit after some wearing.

So there’s only one problem with the coat: my kid keeps growing, and I sort of forgot that she’s nearly 5 now. I made a size 4 and added an inch to the sleeves, to be let out next year. Now I’m nervous that she’s going to outgrow her coat before then!

Can you see that mischievous gleam in her eye? She’s scheming to grow another three inches before next year, I can just feel it.

P.S. Just before I posted this, I came across this article about adding a layer of insulation by interlining a garment. This isn’t how I did it (the seams still would have been too bulky, I think), but you might consider this method if you want to try adding lighter insulation to a coat or jacket. At Oliver + S, we frequently use the interlining technique when we’re making samples with really lightweight fabrics. A skirt made of Liberty Tana Lawn benefits greatly from an interlining of lightweight cotton. Just FYI.

As you’re planning your fall sewing, here are a few additional ideas for you.

Many of you have been asking about wool fabrics for the School Days Jacket and Coat. If you don’t have a great neighborhood fabric store (and you should feel very fortunate if you do!), shopping on-line for wool coating fabrics can be difficult. The people at Fabric.com have kindly put together a special page for us, showing some of their offerings. I think the double face wool melton would be an especially nice fabric to use, and it comes in lots of great colors!

If your options locally are more limited in color, you might be concerned about using the darker, traditional colors that tend to be most widely available because they may seem too boring. Never fear!

Here are a few samples we made while developing this pattern so you can see that traditional colors don’t have to be dull.

This coat was made with a medium-weight brown- and rust-colored wool herringbone. The fabric weight is probably closer to what you might use if you were making a tweed jacket, and we made the insulated lining with sleeves so the coat can be worn in cold weather. The lining fabrics are all from the Wonderland by Momo collection for Moda. But we added a pop of color with the turquoise binding for a little surprise inside the jacket. You can also see the button tab option (View B in the pattern) used here.

This next coat was one of the first samples I made using a really luxurious wool/cashmere blend in a camel color. (I wish there had been enough fabric to use for a coat for myself!) The lining fabrics are all from Joelle Hoverson’s Cake Rock Beach collection for Moda (which is still available at Purl–I especially love the coral seaweed print.) This coat is one of my favorites. I think it’s simultaneously fun and sophisticated.

And this chocolate brown wool twill is also lined with fabrics from Joelle’s Cake Rock Beach. We used microfleece on the back of the quilted insulated lining instead of making a more traditional quilt sandwich with cotton batting. And I wanted to show you the red elastic loops for buttoning the insulated lining into the coat. It’s another fun little pop of color that picks up the red in the print of the insulated lining.

So don’t feel limited by your options. You can do all sorts of fun things with even darker wool colors!

Here are a couple other fabrics you might want to consider in your shopping.

Denver Fabrics has a beautiful dark red wool/cashmere blend as well as a nice selection of other wool coating fabrics.

Our friends at Waechter’s have several coating fabrics. I especially like the sky blue wool.

Can anyone else suggest some on-line options? Leave your ideas in comments, please.