Sapporo coat, the memory coat

May 5, 2022

Almost two years have passed since I started making this quilted coat, when I participated on the 100 Day Project. This was my first attempt in completing an improvisational project and I must admit it was totally liberating.

My process in making this quilt coat, was to create the “fabric” first and then assemble the coat. Big mistake, I have to admit! Managing such a big piece of quilt was a total burden at the actual time of quilting it, and I surely will not attempt it for a second time. Now let’s go into some more details.

The 100 Day project

In covid year 2020, in midst of a quarantine, and specifically on April 1st, started the 100 day project, that is hosted every year by Lindsay Jean Thomson.

In order to participate you have to choose a project to make every day for 100 days, and use the hashtag #The100DayProject on Instagram.

Sounds easy? Well, I didn’t manage to keep up with it for the full 100 days, but I did “gain” two quilt coats!

Materials

I only used fabrics from my scrap bin, and the first fabric I chose was a striped cotton shirt of my late father-in-law, that I wanted to use. And all the rest of the fabrics that I fitted into the design, where chosen to match that first shirt.

In the video you can see, in fast forward, the day to day process of making the whole fabric of the quilt coat. Improvisational quilting was so easy and pleasing to make.

For the lining, I used a burgundy cotton fabric, and of course 100% cotton batting.

The coat pattern

The pattern I used was the Sapporo coat by Papercut patterns, now called Nova coat. You can see a really good collection of different quilted coats on Instagram, using the hashtag #sapporocoat or #novacoat.

And since I am not a seamstress, and really incapable of making a piece of clothing, I asked (and received) the aid of my niece, Katerina Vakalou, to assemble this piece of quilted fabric into an actual quilted coat.