Pattern Review: Sapporo Coat by Papercut Patterns

I am so late to the game and I feel like everyone in the sewing community has made the Sapporo Coat except me, but hey, better late than never right?

I fell in love with this jacket so fast, I made two in TWO days! My first one was a wool blend with a cotton silk lining (this gorgeous zebra fabric). My second one was a cotton blend jacquard with a cotton/silk lining. As we're heading into Australian summer I'm definitely going to make more out of summery fabrics such as linen or even silk!

As much as I've enjoyed this pattern, I've also modified it a bit. I'd like to share about that as well as my general thoughts on this pattern.

PACKAGING

This is a beautiful pattern by Papercut Patterns, a New Zealand company that's all about using recyclable packaging for their patterns. The brown paper packaging is certainly beautiful, but I have to say it's also quite tricky to store without ruining the cut-out letters.

INSTRUCTIONS

Instead of being on a separate sheet, the instructions are printed right next to the pattern pieces, and we are supposed to cut it out and assemble an accordion-style booklet by joining the pieces together. This was quite easy to do, but the lazy part of me kind of wish it was just printed on a separate piece of recycled paper to start with. Anyhow, I am going to get over it!

The instructions were fairly straight forward, but bear in mind this was a the construction for this coat was fairly simple. I thought the illustration was good enough for it's purpose and I didn't really get stuck. I did wish the pattern had lengthen/shorten lines, as judging by the size of the pattern pieces and past reviews, I knew it was going to be huge on me. I did figure out how to modify the pattern though, which I'll get to later.

CONSTRUCTION

There were not many pieces in this coat, and I thought the way the seams work is ingenious! I love how the pockets came together in one single seam, and there were no sleeves to insert. The coat is fully lined, but the sleeve cuffs were doubled up with the outer fabric (although I used a lining fabric for the facing in my second coat to reduce bulkiness). The lining pieces were also very easy to insert. My favourite part was sewing the mitred corners at the front! It definitely looked impressive but it was insanely easy to do!

FIT

The Sapporo coat is a very loose-fitting coat and it has such a cool exaggerated cocoon shape to it. With the sleeves being grown on, I didn't really have to worry about getting the shoulders sitting right, unlike traditional jackets. I modified the pattern pieces quite a bit though due to the largeness of it, which I'll talk about now.

MY MODIFICATIONS

Main body: I didn't want to disrupt the seams above the pockets, so I decided to shorten the front and back pieces right below the pockets. Being 153cm tall, I shortened it by a good 12cm so it would end up mid-thigh for me.

Side seams: I measured across the pattern pieces and figured that it would have been way too roomy for me around my waist, so I took 4cm out of the side seams of the front and back pieces and the sleeve cuffs, so taking out 16cm all the way around. I definitely mimicked the final measurement with my measuring tape before altering the pattern pieces!

Sleeve cuffs: I wanted the sleeves to end up just above my wrist, so I shortened the sleeve cuffs by 6cm. I simply hacked 6cm off the bottom of the sleeves and made sure the opening remained the same width.

VERDICT

I definitely recommend this pattern to both beginners and experienced sewers, just because of how satisfying it was to watch it come together so quickly! However, it can be easy to be drowned in this coat if you don't check the measurements of the pattern pieces. I timed myself the second time and I reckon I finished the jacket in 5 hours, including laying and cutting out! I just feel like such a boss when I wear it - it's like being hugged constantly! And...here are more self-absorbed photos of me posing in my second one!