Oliver + S School Days Coat – Total Success!

I am so completely satisfied, my kids are guaranteed to be warm this winter. I am finished with all three winter dress coats!

First I’ll show you my boys coat, made from the Oliver + S School Days pattern. Stay tuned for a later post on the girls’ coats.

This was my first ever Oliver + S pattern. I had read so much about how great these patterns are so I was excited to make one myself. I couldn’t be happier! It was so well drafted, the instructions are crystal clear and the finished coat is beautiful. And it went together very quickly. I had the coat done, start to end in two short evenings(not including cutting it out, that was done previously). I say short because both evenings were full of constant interruptions. Not bad for a fully lined, very RTW looking wool coat!

And my son really likes it. He is almost five and is very appreciative when I sew for him. Admittedly , I do sew more for the girls, partly because there are two of them to just one of him, but also because it is a bit easier for me to sew for girls. So when I make something for him, he really is happy. I hope this lasts!!

So without further ado, here it is!

As I wrote about before, it is made of a wool/nylon blend coating, underlined with cotton flannel and lined with satin charmeuse, with the exception of the hood, which is just the wool and flannel. I didn’t think a satin lined hood would be as comfortable nor would it stay on his head.

I had some care labels in my stash which I inherited from my mom’s stash so I added a Dry Clean Only label in the side seam of the lining. However, I think with the pre-treatment of all my materials, I should be able to hand wash this coat in cold water and line dry it without any risk.

These wooden toggles were the only ones I could find locally, and I looked long and hard. At first I was really disappointed about not finding black toggles, but now the contrast of the wood is growing on me. I had looked around online and found a few Etsy seller that had some nice black toggles, but I didn’t want to wait for them to be shipped. My son’s old coat was really too small and he needed this one to be finished!!

I used sew-on snaps for the closures under the front plackets, I always sew these on by machine with a narrow zig-zag set to a short stitch, similar to sewing on a regular button by machine. It makes me feel like I get it on more securely than it would be if I hand stitched them on – especially for something that is going to be snapped and unsnapped by a kid!

I did have some trepidation when it came to choosing a size to cut for him. When I compared his freshly taken measurements to the size chart on the pattern, he was all over the map. He measured at a size 6 for height, 5 for weight, 4 for chest and 12-18 months for waist and hip!! Hum, I always knew he was tall and skinny, but c’mon!! However, with so many gushing reviews of Oliver + S patterns, I still had reason to trust in their sizing. So I pondered it for a while and decided to cut a size 5, with added length of 2”. My goal was for it to come out just a little long and wide enough to be worn over a thick sweater comfortably. And it did! Provided he doesn’t grow 6 inches in a year (which he probably will since I don’t want him to) this coat should definitely last him for this winter as well as next winter.

I cant say enough about how happy I am with this pattern. It will get used over and over again. And I am so happy that Oliver + S has brought it back as a Digital Pattern, available for download. Although I purchased a paper pattern immediately when I found out it was going OOP, it’s nice to know that the digital option will be around should anything ever happen to my copy.

Pattern Review can be found here.

Next up, the girls’ coats.