Verdant

Green boiled wool outer lined with Prussian blue sweater wool. Monster bakelite buttons.

I found this pattern about two years ago and traced it out some time last year. I’d originally meant to make it out of the green suede remnants from the triangle pillow I’d made but I ran short. A few weeks ago I bought some green boiled wool for a long coat and decided to make two short coats out of it instead. This is the first.

The buttons are 4.5 cm in diameter. Too large for my button hole presser foot. So I sewed in the button holes by hand. With ordinary Guttermann sew-all thread. It took half a day and more than half a spool of thread. I used the rest of the spool to top-stitch parallel lines along the collar. I love this coat. I love the weight of it and how it drapes like a cape but with the added benefit of sleeves. I love the massive buttons. I had originally meant to use them on a long coat but their effect is so much more pervasive here.

I love this colour. Wear it and the room lights up. It makes me want to go out on freezing cold, dark, blowsy days and give the sky the finger. It reminds me of my mother’s garden. Of rolling green hillsides with moss on every stone.

It reminds me of quiet suspended thickets of seaweed like inverted forests. Colonies of Nostoc and Marimo. I am proud of this coat.

Skirt, made earlier. Tights Fiore Celestina in Papaya. Buttons from Semler Creek on Etsy. Top, viscose. Made last week using Very easy vogue 8451. I’m planning on stencilling it. In order to alleviate the headlights on high-beam effect.